The valium began to work very quickly, Morris slipped behind a curtain of soft silk, he felt disconnected, he was somewhere else, drifting, the sound of the ambulance, the traffic, the man sitting next to him, the white roof, the straps on his arms, the needle, the voices, the letter, the sparrow hawk, the red bricks, the bus, the red man, the policeman, the old woman, the little girl, it was all here, covered by a transparent blanket, sailing on waves looking for an island.

His body was numb and warm, it was like a feeling he used to have when he woke up at night, a kind of strange horrible perception of being somehow engulfed and feeling like something soft and evil, which he could never explain but feared to it’s utmost. But he wasn’t scared, he felt comfortable, he had been caught in some kind of deep soft valley, both hands engulfed him and were looking after him, carrying him safely to some destination thousands of miles away, away from the town, away from his mum and dad and brother and bedroom and school and teachers and the slaughterhouse and the terrible world he lived in; towards the moon.

He felt the moon waiting for him, it was drifting along at his side, waiting for a moment to take him home, to cradle him, to show him what was missing, maybe it was love the moon offered, maybe something else, it didn’t matter, it didn’t matter now, he heard voices, they were faint.

„Don’t worry, go back to sleep, sleep tight, we’re here if you need us…“
„Is he asleep,“ his mother said.
„Yes, I think so“ replied his father.
„He looks like a little pig, don’t you think?“
„Yes, a piglet, a disgusting little shitty bed pissing piglet“
„Let’s get back to fucking.“ She said.

They both laughed, leaving the room to go back to the sofa, where they had been fucking, that’s what she said, they had been fucking. His mother had been sitting on the sofa with her skirt up and her tights down, his dad had been pushing her somehow, in one hand he had a bottle of brown ale, she was smoking, just laying back on the beige cord, the cushions pushed aside, there was a smell in the room Morris didn’t know, kind of rancid, sharp like when he wet the bed, but more intensive.

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