Chapter 7 – The magic garden and Pete
For Danny venturing into the garden was like a trip without the acid. In future times he would become used to encountering numerous strange characters in pairs or singly who obviously felt the same, though they augmented the visit with the aid of additional chemistry.
Mr Rose might have been in his eighties but he had created a psychedelic jungle of the first order. Somehow he had combined the most peculiar set of incongruous objects and with the use of hanging vines and garish paint had contrived to combine them into a mind-expanding fairyland. There were fairground swing boats, plastic ornaments, seats, fountains, concrete sculptures, plastic flowers and overhanging shelters, all lit by enough light bulbs to keep Blackpool going for a season or two. At night the effect was simply amazing.
The effect when anyone first saw it was mesmerising.
Danny sat and looked at the multi-coloured universe of a garden with eyes as big as jelly-bean jars. It knocked him out of the ground.
‘Not bad is it?’ A voice said from within the dazzling lights.
‘It’s fucking incredible,’ Danny replied in a voice steeped in awe, without taking his eyes off the fairyland he was surrounded with.
‘I’m Pete,’ the silhouetted figure said, stepping out of the brightness and taking a seat next to him. Danny noted that the figure was a young man with long, shaggy black hair with long fringe hanging over his eyes, a big droopy moustache, a week’s dark stubble and an incongruous ankle-length grey RAF greatcoat. Pete grinned and pulled a ready-rolled spliff out of his shirt pocket and lit it. ‘I live in the bottom flat.’
‘I’m Danny,’ he said. ‘I’ve moved into the top flat.’
Pete nodded.
Together they sat in the brightness of the magic garden in silence, passed the jay between them like some holy sacrament, and stared at colours around them.
It was a momentous first meeting.
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