INCOMPARABLY TALENTED

‘I have a gecko,’ I said, ‘that can draw things which don’t exist.’

Nobody really reacted to this statement, till Liz lifted her head slightly and looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

‘Yeah? What does it draw?’

I picked a thread from my tights. They laddered. ‘If I recognised the drawings, then surely it wouldn’t be so remarkable.’

Liz nodded at this, slowly. She licked a last drip of Russian Standard from the neck of her bottle.

Edie yawned. ‘It’s not even that remarkable anyway,’ she said, rolling her shoulders and stretching her head back. ‘It can’t be drawing things that don’t exist, that’s not possible. You probably just don’t recognise the drawings.’

‘No, ’cause even something I know nothing about, like, a machine or something, I’d still know vaguely what it was. Or, I’d know the object existed, at least.’

‘Yeah,’ said Liz. ‘If it was drawing stuff that did exist, why wouldn’t she recognise it?’

‘Well,’ said Edie. ‘Maybe because it’s been drawn by a gecko.’

‘Oh... yeah.’

There was a silence. Poppy began to cry. We ignored her.

‘Assuming for the moment,’ Liz said, ‘that this gecko is a really good artist, and you still don’t recognise what it’s drawing...’ She trailed off into silence.

‘You’ve got potential,’ I said. I uncrossed my legs, dangling my heels over the side of my dad’s armchair. ‘You’re basically proposing that nothing the gecko draws actually exists in real life. So...’ I rubbed my temples, massaging away my headache. ‘So the gecko creates things by the act of drawing them?’

Edie nodded emphatically. ‘Either that, or it just represents things that don’t exist, rather than... creating them...’

‘How can you represent things that don’t exist?’

‘Well, like... rats with wings don’t exist—’

‘Thank god,’ interjected Liz, who was scared of rats, and also rabbits.

‘—Yeah. Well, they don’t exist, but I could still draw one.’

‘Point,’ said Liz, coughing.

I threw a pack of chewing gum at her. ‘Quit, Liz.’

‘Shut up. Gum doesn’t work anyway, I tried.’

Edie lay back down on the floor. ‘I’m knackered’ she said, yawning again. Liz yawned too. In the corner, Poppy continued to cry.

‘Poppy,’ I said. ‘Why are you crying?’

Poppy looked up. Her face was screwed up and she had mascara running rivers down her cheeks. She hiccupped, and wiped her eyes. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. Liz carried on coughing.

‘This gecko,’ said Edie. ‘You should sell it.’

I frowned at Edie. ‘But she’s mine.’

‘Well obviously. You can’t sell it if it’s not yours.’

‘You know what I mean, Edie, I don’t wanna sell her, ’cause she’s mine.’

Poppy lifted her head. ‘This gecko really exists, then?’

‘What?’

‘I thought you were like...being weird...’ And she dropped her head again before I could answer the question.

Nobody spoke for a moment. Poppy sniffled.

‘How does it draw?’ said Liz.

‘Hmm?’

‘How does it draw?’

Edie sat up. ‘Yeah, actually... geckos can’t draw...’

I shrugged. ‘She doesn’t draw when I’m in the room, I don’t know how she does it.’

‘How weird must that be,’ said Liz. ‘Just, like, wandering into your room to find some new picture of something that doesn’t exist.’

I shifted in my chair, and accidentally knocked over a bottle with my foot.

‘Shit, your parents…’

I shrugged. ‘They’re cool with whatever.’

‘Shall I fetch a cloth?’

‘S’empty...’

Poppy, no longer sobbing, got up, picked up most of the bottles, and carried them from the room. We watched her go.

‘Was she crying for a reason?’ Liz asked, stubbing out her fag on the carpet.

Edie shrugged. ‘Last night, she was crying because it’s spring.’

There was a silence, and then I heard Poppy enter again and resume her place in the corner, although cross-legged now instead of curled up.

‘Carla?’ she said. ‘Can I see your gecko?’

I considered. ‘Probably best not, Poppy.’

Poppy didn’t move, but she nodded. ‘Okay then.’

Poppy tapped her fingers slowly on the floor, then looked up, grabbed Liz’s fags and lit one. Liz didn’t protest, but watched Poppy as she sat there on the floor, smoking. I waited for someone to speak, but nobody did, so we carried on sitting in silence, and nobody moved.