Swimmer by Graham Masterton Page B

Especially a cat? Just because the Egyptians thought the sun shone out of your litter trays.’
    All the same, he went back into the bedroom and looked at the clock lying on the bed, and it was still reading 13:06:01. He had a cold, helpless feeling, like Ebenezer Scrooge must have felt when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come showed him his own tombstone.
    He went into the kitchen, put on the kettle and made himself a mug of hot chocolate. He had been putting on a little weight lately – not much, but Karen had always told him that he looked underfed, ‘like a refugee from something that the rest of us don’t even want to think about’.
    It was 2.25 a.m. Jim was still sitting at the kitchen table finishing his chocolate when the doorbell chimed, making him start. He shuffled into the hallway and peered through the spyhole. It was Mervyn, his face covered in a livid green mudpack and his bleached-blond hair in curlers. Jim said, ‘Shit,’ under his breath, and reluctantly opened the door.
    â€˜Hey, Jim! I saw your light was still burning and thought you could use some company.’ Mervyn was wrapped in a shiny pink silk kimono with huge black chrysanthemums on it, and he was wearing extraordinary Japanese clogs that made him teeter around the room with all his weight tilted forward, like a huge chicken. ‘If I’m disturbing you, you can throw me out. In
these
shoes, I’ll probably throw
myself
out. What do you think of them? A Japanese businessman gave them to me for singing “Hello, Dolly” in Japanese, or should I say “Herro Dorry”. I was sensational.’
    â€˜You’re always sensational, Mervyn. Come on in, make yourself at home. I couldn’t sleep. Well, I did sleep, but I had one hell of a nightmare.’
    â€˜You know
why
, don’t you?’ said Mervyn, collapsing into one of the kitchen chairs. ‘You’re emotionally disturbed about going to Washington. Leaving LA behind, leaving your Special Class II behind, leaving TT behind. You’re bound to be feeling anxious.’
    Jim said, ‘I’m not stressed at all. Not about leaving West Grove, anyhow. Dr Friendly’s been riding me every day for the past semester. And Special Class II … well, next year there’ll be a new Special Class II, all fresh faces. I won’t miss students I’ve never met. As for TT … Well, she’s decorative for sure, but she’s about as useful as an overstuffed cushion.’
    â€˜Oh, don’t be so negative,’ said Mervyn. ‘You’re going to miss all of us, sorely. Even those students you’ve never met. By the way, I love your necklace. Very New Age.’
    Jim took it off and handed it to him. ‘It’s supposed to possess powers of clairvoyance. Ten bucks, at the psychic fair. It predicts the exact day you’re going to die.’
    â€˜Oh, get out of here. You don’t believe that, do you?’
    â€˜I don’t know. But this is the point. I was wearing it tonight, when I had this nightmare. I dreamed that I was being drowned. Somebody was holding my ankle, a girl, and she was pulling me under the ocean. I woke up, and this is what my clock said.’
    Mervyn stared at the clock, uncomprehendingly. ‘It’s a great little clock, isn’t it? Does it have a snooze facility? I love a clock with a snooze facility. Just the word, “
snooze
”, isn’t that wonderful? You can just lie there, and sort your life out before you have to climb out of bed and sort it out for real. Don’t you think real life is so depressing? I could spend the rest of my life in bed.’
    â€˜Mervyn … look what the clock says.’
    Mervyn squinted at it, and then he said, ‘It’s
wrong
, isn’t it? This is either yesterday or tomorrow. By the way, did you ever hear me singing “Yesterday”? It brings tears to people’s eyes. It brings tears to
my
eyes,