Charlie Chuckles

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lare ondon  Charlie Chuckles

I’D NEVER been good with anything out of the ordinary. Unexplained happenings, mysteries, Twilight Zone stuff—I didn’t understand them, and I didn’t believe in them. That was the kind of man I was. “Sensible,” my mother described me with a certain pursing of her lips. “Pragmatic” had been the report from my glazed-eyed college tutor. “Boring,” snapped my last boyfriend Shawn, along with a few other choice phrases as, just two months ago, he swept melodramatically out of the apartment with my decent cashmere scarf and a half-dozen borrowed CDs he’d never bothered to return. Today I found myself more thoughtful than usual. I balanced my briefcase on the kitchen table as I carefully packed it with the notes I needed for the emergency early morning meeting at work. The memory of Shawn was disconcerting. He hadn’t welcomed my attempt to talk through and maybe address what he found so lacking in our relationship that he had to go out and pick up one of the dancers at the local bar. Well, three actually. And that was just that month. Needless to say, he’d done the sweeping out before I’d done the talking through. I’d never liked scenes at the best of times, but when emotions were involved…well, I reckoned it was best to keep them in check in future. At least for me. Like I always said, I’d never managed the out-


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lare ondon  of-the-ordinary stuff with particular success. Stuff like jealousy and hurt and disloyalty and… passion. I leaned over one of the chairs to pick up my scarf—a new one, bought in resignation when Shawn never came back, let alone the old scarf—but when I turned back, the papers were out of the briefcase. After I’d put them in. I was sure I had! How could I forget having creased the memo to Head Office in my eagerness to make up the time I’d already lost when the alarm didn’t go off? Which it had never done before; it was the most reliable model on the market. Neither had the kettle ever leaked like that, flooding the whole kitchen counter when I tried to make my usual morning coffee. It had taken me a precious half hour to mop it all up. Nor had my car keys ever gotten lost before, this time somehow slipping off the hook in the lobby and getting lost under the stove, where I eventually found them. Two rooms away. Things were rather odd this morning. It was stress because of the meeting, I was sure. I glanced at my watch. I was going to have to hurry to the station; I couldn’t remember ever being this late. How could so many things go wrong on the very morning it was all meant to go right? Mr. Evans had more or less promised me I could assist on this project. And then he’d hinted at much more, like promotion beyond junior clerk and a pay raise and access to the third-floor Payables tea trolley. I’d heard there were chocolate biscuits on Tuesdays. But whatever the oddness, there was no reason to be thinking of things “out of the ordinary.” No reason at all. Things were tricky today, indeed, but for perfectly natural


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lare ondon  reasons. I’d slept badly because of that strange whistle in the boiler pipes I’d never heard before. Plus I was always slightly tense before my first caffeine of the morning and the reminder of Shawn’s infidelity hadn’t helped to calm my mood. I jammed the briefcase under my arm, walked briskly down the hallway, and opened my front door. Well, tried to. I had to put down the briefcase again and use both hands on the latch. It’d never stuck before. The weather hadn’t been particularly humid, and the door had opened and shut perfectly normally the previous night when I came home after another long day at the office. I muttered something that would have been a loud curse if my mother hadn’t taught me to keep such things always under my breath, and shoved extra hard. It burst open, springing outward, my body following its trajectory and my foot catching the edge of my briefcase, tilting me off balance. I was vaguely aware of someone passing in the corridor, a blur of long legs, brightly colored clothing, and something furry at the heels. I exclaimed aloud and flung my hand out instinctively, afraid of falling. I still fell. And not only that, I crashed straight into the tall, brightly colored someone and brought him down with me. A very startled young man and I tumbled together, limbs flailing, something hot and wet spilling down the front of my shirt and probably his as well, my mouth open in horror, my left foot wrenching out of my shoe and my shoulder twisting painfully as I tried to minimize the collision. And then we both landed on the hallway floor with a heavy thud and matching groans.


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lare ondon  The vague thoughts I’d had this morning about unusual and unfamiliar events happening to me resurfaced with a rather smug “told you so.” I’d never known feelings like it. But then, sitting on my ass on the hallway mat and staring into the wet brown eyes of one of the most disheveled terriers I’d ever seen, I had to admit I’d never heard a dog chuckle, either.

THE young man followed me into the kitchen, dabbing ineffectually at his orange T-shirt. The least I could do was to offer to help him clean up after spilling his tall, hot, extrasugared coffee all over the front of our clothes. I peered at the T-shirt, trying to make out the coffee stains in between the swirls of neon and graffiti-style lettering. “I have a clean shirt you can borrow if you’re on your way to work.” I wasn’t sure if I had anything that’d fit him. On so many levels. His head jerked up. “Huh?” I realized I’d seen him before, outside the building, laughing with friends who all had bright-colored shirts and caps and ill-cut hair. Not that it mattered, of course—the hairstyles, the clothing. In fact, I admired their carefree attitude. He’d looked outgoing, funloving… Shawn would have said “cute” but the casual word always made me wince. “A shirt,” I repeated. And just stared. He had quite astonishing blue eyes, even though his nose looked a little bent and his skin very freckled, obviously from potentially unhealthy exposure to the sun. His mouth was wide for his thin face, but the lips were full and


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lare ondon  moistened, maybe from the spilled coffee, maybe from the way his tongue flickered out and ran itself along the lower rim…. “No problem.” When his mouth smiled, his eyes crinkled up at the corners. “I’m only up the corridor on the north side of the building. I’ll get this off and go change in a minute.” In one smooth, swift movement, he peeled the damp T-shirt up and over his head. There was a flash of strong, fluid muscle, dark hair under his armpits. Bare torso. It seemed the potentially unhealthy sun exposure had lightly tanned all his skin except for a slim band of whiter skin just hinted at around the waist of his jeans. I found I suddenly needed to cough. “Flynn,” he said. He stuck out his hand. “That’s me. Sorry for the crash, you know?” What did I know? I continued to stare at him, though my mother would have rolled her eyes at my rudeness. My hand returned the shake instinctively. His palm was warm and firm. The coffee seemed to have made my face and neck hot as well as my chest. “I think I’m the one should be apologizing.” He shook his head. His hair was quite long, the curls bouncing on his shoulders when he moved like that. “Nah. Damned pooch got under my feet. He’s been doing that all morning.” He looked down at the hairy bundle that also seemed to have made its way into my kitchen. “Charles? What’s up with you, buddy?” “Charles?”


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lare ondon  Flynn grinned. “Some ex of my sister’s left him behind one summer. He’s an adopted family pet.” He must have seen the confusion on my face as I tried to match question with answer. “The ex was a Brit called Charles. The dog was the best thing she got out of that deal, and we named it after him. Charlie on a daily basis, Charles when he pisses me off.” He flopped comfortably down onto one of my kitchen chairs and reached under the table, ruffling the dog’s ears. I saw his expression soften. “I’m her dog-sitter whenever she’s out of town. He’s never been any trouble. Just today.” “Today?” Flynn peered at me. “Sorry, you got a speech problem or something? I mean, it’s no problem to me, I can talk enough for us both—” “I’m fine,” I said sharply. I sat down as well, but rather abruptly and not quite as comfortably. “It’s just… well, I don’t like dogs.” Flynn stared at me. The dog lifted his shaggy head, and large, dark brown eyes stared at me as well. I understood the derivation of the word “limpid.” “I mean….” I felt surprisingly ill-prepared for all of this. “You mean,” Flynn interrupted helpfully, “you didn’t like them before now.” “Yes.” I barely recognized my own voice. “Probably that’s it.” Flynn smiled encouragingly at me. He slung an arm over the back of the chair. It drew attention to the fact his bare torso was… well, still bare. Charles stood up on his four short legs and pattered across my kitchen. His feet made


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lare ondon  tapping noises on the tiles, and the tag on his collar clinked as he moved. He nosed about under my fridge, then snorted as if for the world he was disappointed at the well-swept floor underneath. “Nice place you have,” Flynn said. “Mine… well.” He didn’t seem to want to elucidate. I tore my gaze away from him and caught sight of the digital timer set neatly on the top of the counter. “Oh God, I’m so very late for work.” The meeting was scheduled to start in fifteen minutes. I stood up just as abruptly as I’d sat down, wondering where I’d left the briefcase, trying to remember which clean shirts I could change into. As if I didn’t usually have all that information at my fingertips. “This has never happened to me before. It’s been an astonishing morning.” “For me too.” Flynn nodded. “Except I’ve never been so early.” He grinned at me. “Bar work, you know? I don’t usually start the day until late. But Charlie’s been scratching at the kitchen cupboards since dawn, pretty unusual for him. Then something set off an alarm in the building across the way—that overlooks my kitchen window, you know? Plus a couple of cats chose that time to start a fight in the alley.” He shrugged. “So much damned noise, I just decided to get up anyway and take Charlie for his walk.” He gave a large yawn and stretched up his arms. Belatedly catching my eye, he cupped his hand over his mouth. I was, embarrassingly, more interested in the muscles bunching across his shoulders than his manners. Flynn was looking at me rather curiously. “What a day, eh?” His voice was soft.


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lare ondon  “I’ll call. Work, that is,” I said quickly. I still had five minutes left to ask them to hold the meeting for me. I reached for the handset on the wall at just about the same time Charles barked and his head went up. Perhaps it was something he saw in the hallway. I never had the chance to ask. He went from stationary to ballistic missile in three seconds flat, speeding past me on his way out of the kitchen on the upward thrust. I fell forward over him, the phone still in my hand, and Flynn leaped up from his chair with a cry of alarm. I found myself back on my ass, this time on my own floor, and also this time tangled up with a half-naked Flynn. I realized I was still gripping the phone. Not that it’d do me any good. The end of its wires waved around like Medusa’s hair, ripped from the wall as I fell. “Got to stop meeting like this,” Flynn gasped. His skin was warm under me. “My cell charger is broken,” I blurted out. Flynn, to give him credit, knew exactly what I was saying with this particular non sequitur. He wriggled out from under me with a rueful smile, holding on to my hand, presumably to help me regain my stability. “And I don’t have my cell on me, man. I’m sorry. You thought of taking vacation today?” I was horrified to find I felt like weeping. All over the bare torso, my head buried in the crook of Flynn’s neck. It was shock. Over by the door, Charles stood to attention, staring at us both, now down on his level. He made a strange noise in the back of his throat.


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lare ondon  “If I didn’t know it was totally weird,” Flynn said slowly, frowning, “I’d say that was a chuckle.”

FLYNN came back around to my apartment a week later, about seven in the evening, as we’d arranged. Ten past actually, though I’d been ready since the specific time. I opened the door to him with no trouble this time to find him clutching a bottle of wine, gripping a book under his arm, and smiling at me. I just stood there, smiling back. It seemed to be all I wanted to do at that moment, although I’d had some witty phrases practiced. Charles pattered into the apartment past me, sputtering through his teeth, the dog tag jingling with his swagger. Flynn was fully dressed, unlike last time we’d met, with the same loose jeans and a fairly clean though eyestrainingly bright yellow T-shirt. “Hi, Toby,” he said quite softly. “Hi,” I said. It wasn’t a word I often used, preferring more formal greetings, but it sounded appropriate. “Um… didn’t I mention it’s Tobias, actually?” No one had called me Toby since I’d been in kindergarten. I was sure I’d introduced myself to him with my full name. Flynn nodded. His hand brushed down my arm. “Sure, that’s good too, Toby.” I gave up. It didn’t seem to matter. It felt very easy, anyway. We both walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. On opposite sides. Flynn put his things down, and Charles scuffled about on the floor under the table until he


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lare ondon  seemed content to settle. Flynn cleared his throat. “So how shall we do this?” “I can’t go through with it,” I blurted out. He raised his eyebrows. “Huh? But when I rang to check the time, you said it sounded like a good idea—” I held up a hand. “I know I did. I apologize. I was being polite.” “Polite?” From the look on his face, I might as well have said I was skinning a sheep. I bit my lip. “I’d had a fall—a shock. You had some unusual theories and were very… enthusiastic about them. I thought it would be interesting to discuss them further. But thinking it over during the week….” “Oh, Toby.” “What?” I felt strangely defensive. His tone had been very odd. Resigned. As if he’d expected my rejection. “Flynn, I can’t pretend to believe in things I don’t.” “You reckon last Monday morning was just the same old routine for either of us?” I frowned. “Of course not. But that doesn’t mean it was anything….” “Sinister?” “It was just different,” I said firmly. “I mean, we’re different. Aren’t we?” I peered at him. Compared his healthy skin to my pale flesh, his casual clothes to my pressed pants, and the sparkle in his eye to my cautious discretion. My stomach churned for some strange reason, despite


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lare ondon  having had my normal lunch. “It means we won’t think the same about things.” “Doesn’t mean we can’t,” he replied quickly. “You mean about—” I waved my hand vaguely around the whole room. “This?” He shook his head rather dispiritedly. Even so, I liked the way the curls brushed his ears. All his expressions rested in his eyes. When he put out his hand and rested it on top of mine, I didn’t pull away. Even if it were just for… what? To calm me? To try to persuade me into this madcap scheme? “Toby, I looked it up in the local history book. It all happened in this building, this week, fifty years ago. Tonight. And last Monday? The whole thing about us there at the same time, you too late for work, me too early—something intervened to bring us together. We wouldn’t normally have met there at all, without—” “Coincidence.” Even the back of his hand was warmly tanned. I knew people looked like that, people who didn’t spend fourteen hours of every day in a high-rise office building stuck behind a screen, correcting their boss’s spreadsheets as if they were particularly recalcitrant children. I just hadn’t ever met one. Touched one, I suppose I meant. Warm and tanned. Was Flynn like that as a man, not just as skin? “Toby?” I looked up guiltily. We were very different. I pulled my hand away.


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lare ondon  “I said, don’t you think it was more like….” He had the sense to blush. “Like a set up?” I started to laugh. “Who’d set us up? And why? Flynn, it was just a messy accident.” He went rather quiet. He pulled his hand back as well. “Okay.” I was quiet too. The easy feeling seemed to have… eased away. I glanced over at the pasta, simmering on the stove. It was one of my favorite reliable recipes. I’d been proud of the preparation, everything going well, looking forward to the evening. What on earth had I been thinking? “I’ll understand if you want to cut your visit short.” “Oh, but I don’t!” he said quickly. “I still think it was fate, you know? That we’d be friends.” More of the blushing. It was very… cute was the word. I couldn’t help myself thinking it. “You see, I’ve seen you around the building, Toby, plenty of times. Just didn’t have the nerve to say hi. Until that day’s mess.” I stared back. I suddenly had visions of a pale, sandy beach stretching for miles and the whoosh of waves in the background. Flynn’s hand back in mine. I wondered if I’d suffered some stress disorder after the fall. Delayed reaction. I had been dreaming rather more vividly than usual, all week. That beach, that hand…. “Okay.” Flynn looked away quickly but not before I saw his dismay at my blank face. “I get it. No reason you’d feel the same. No problem.” But the tone of his voice implied it was. He pushed his chair back, away from the table. “In fact, maybe I should leave.”


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lare ondon  The sudden hiss on the stove was a clear sign the pasta was boiling over. I scrambled up out of my own chair, grabbing for the heat control just in time. Luckily, I was also quick enough to stretch out an arm—simultaneously—to catch the plates falling off the counter, heading for destruction on the tiles. And then I swerved to avoid the open door of the wall cupboard from stabbing me in the eye. With an inch to spare. I turned back to face Flynn. I knew I’d turned the heat down to minimum before he arrived. Pushed the plates safely to the back of the counter. Closed all the cupboards. I knew I had. “Let’s eat,” I said. “We’ll talk about it then.”

I

SERVED the pasta, spooning over the sauce with a slightly

shaky hand, and laid out the cutlery. The room warmed up, and Flynn complimented the food. Things started to ease again. I suspected he wasn’t a man who held grudges for long. When I offered him a napkin to wipe a dribble of sauce off his chin, he trailed his fingers across my wrist and smiled. Then he wiped the spill with his finger instead and sucked off the sauce between his lips. I ended up putting too much pepper on my meal. I didn’t seem to be paying enough attention. “So,” I said, as we pushed our empty plates aside. “I still don’t believe….” I couldn’t bring myself to expound on that. “But do you really think there was something else going on?”


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lare ondon  “With our meeting? Yeah. Worth doing a little research, anyway.” He nodded enthusiastically again. “I’m sure we were brought together for a reason, Toby. And it’s something about the kitchens. Most of the disasters that delayed you happened in yours; Charlie was rummaging about in mine when he woke me early. All the other noise happened close by. And Charlie tripped you up right here, didn’t he? When you were trying to call work and leave the apartment again.” I frowned. “It’s ludicrous. Totally circumstantial.” Flynn shrugged. “We’re not talking science here.” He pressed his hand down on the book he’d brought with him. “I can show you the chapter in the book—” “Later, maybe.” I bit my lip. The light in his eyes was fascinating. “And this is the best time to observe? Shouldn’t there be a full moon or something?” Flynn’s eyes darkened. It was like the cloud that comes down suddenly in a summer squall. “Look, Toby, I know you think this is bullshit.” His voice was harsher than I’d heard it before. “You think you’ve bumped into this guy in the corridor—literally!—you spilled some coffee down him, shared an apology, invited him around for a consolation meal. But now he wants to draw pentangles, sacrifice rabbits, and probably dance naked on the couch at midnight.” He stood up clumsily. “I’m out of here.” The howl from under the table made us both jump. I lurched up from my chair and grabbed at Flynn’s arm. The ceiling lights flickered and settled again. Something fell over with a thud in the cupboard under the sink, and the tap spat out several bursts of hot, steaming water.


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lare ondon  Charles made one of his strange noises. “You shouldn’t have given him some of your pasta.” I swallowed heavily and drew Flynn even closer. “I said it’d be too spicy for him.” Flynn kindly didn’t remind me I’d purported to dislike dogs and therefore shouldn’t be concerned with their chances of indigestion. Instead, he slipped an arm around my waist. Things went quiet and still between us. “Shit. I mean, sorry.” His hand started to pull away again. “It’s okay,” I said very quickly, and I tightened my own grip on him. “You don’t mind?” he whispered in my ear. “No.” My stomach was churning again but not in an unpleasant way. “Not at all.” He tensed up as if both surprised and pleased. “You think they’ve possessed him?” “I’m sorry?” Our faces were very close together. He smelled of warm tomato sauce and a citrus soap. It was astonishing how neither of us seemed bothered about the personal space issue. Particularly not me. “What? Who?” “Poltergeists,” he muttered. “Possessing Charlie.” I could feel his heart beating very fast in the pulse at his wrist. “That’s what you think it’s about? Poltergeists?”


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lare ondon  He nodded. He shifted his head back and forth as if he might catch sight of such things darting across the floor of my minimalist yet stylish kitchen like otherworldly mice. “You think there’s some kind of plot?” I grimaced. “Between malicious spirits and… your dog?” Flynn paused in his observations. A smile tugged at the corners of his generous mouth. His gaze returned to my face, sliding down from my eyes to my throat and then back up. “Okay. Sounds ludicrous, right?” “Right,” I replied. But I started to smile too. “I wouldn’t put it past Charlie, though. He’s an independent kind of dog.” “And those strange noises he makes….” “The chuckles?” I nodded. I’d have said more, but Charlie’s teeth seemed to be measuring up my ankle from under the table, and I thought it wise to reserve judgment. “Why are you doing this, Flynn?” He looked startled, glanced down at his arm, and colored. “No,” I said hurriedly, worried suddenly he’d let me go. “I mean, chasing poltergeists. Making contact.” I winced, but I thought I’d got the phrase accurately enough. “Do you want to document it somehow? Exorcise them?” He was still flushed. “Not at all. I want to help. And maybe… thank them. For sending me… your company. You know?” He tightened his hold on me, though his look was wary.


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lare ondon  Did I know? I’d been rather churlish about it all so far, I realized. Plus I was rather fascinated by the mental vision of Flynn dancing naked on my couch at midnight and, more disturbingly, the knowledge I’d considered seeking a B feature of some sort associated with that. Later on. “We ought to set up watch, then.” I pulled away gently. “I’ll wash up. You put on some coffee. There’s extra sugar in the cupboard.”

IT

HAD been a good idea of mine to pull a couple of the

garden loungers into the kitchen. They were far more comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. Even though Flynn and I seemed to have ended up sharing one between us, our bodies were perfectly relaxed and nudging against each other. Charles was curled up in the middle of the other one. He’d found my cashmere scarf from somewhere and was using it as an extra cushion. He’d fallen asleep an hour ago, and I admit I was relieved. I’d never been keen on chaperones, despite what my mother may have tried to tell me. “It’s at the end of Chapter Five,” Flynn muttered though a mouthful of chocolate brownie. He was on his third helping. The recipe for them was something I had welcomed from my mother. “Shall I get the book out? Show you another picture of the building in the old days?” “No need,” I said. “Just tell me again.” I wriggled as surreptitiously as I could to get a bit closer. He flattened his


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lare ondon  hand, the palm resting against my hip, the fingertips stroking my thigh—surely by accident? He gave a small sigh, which I hoped was happiness. It may have been from indigestion, of course. “This building has been haunted since that day, they say. All sort of unexplained accidents, objects moved, gone missing. Especially in this corridor. It always happens around the anniversary of the two old guys who lived at opposite ends of this landing and who died on the same day. Seemed one had terminal cancer, and when he never woke up one morning, the other just lay down and died peacefully beside him. The landlord found all their possessions shared between the two apartments.” “It’s a sad tale.” Flynn nodded. “They’d been secret lovers for years, hiding away from the outside world.” Charlie huffed in his sleep and scratched aimlessly at the scarf underneath his belly. “Did they have a dog?” I asked wryly. “You want me to check?” Flynn asked. He sounded genuinely eager. “No, not now.” Flynn laughed softly. “I’m kind of pleased about that. I think Charlie’s lying on the book as well.” I was kind of pleased too, though my reasons were more to do with the way Flynn had thrown his leg casually over the top of mine on the seat. “Um, Flynn… it’s nearly


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lare ondon  midnight.” We’d been lying there since eight twenty-seven. “You think there’ll be anything to see tonight?” “I don’t know. This was the actual day the guys died, you know? That’s why I suggested we….” “Yes,” I said. “You suggested we went on a poltergeist hunt, though that’s not what you called it at the time.” And I’d agreed, though not because I believed in the afterlife or mischievous spirits. There was more to the sad history, in that the men had suffered appalling discrimination for the mere suspicion of being gay. One had been fired from his promising job in a large insurance firm. The other had been a very talented sportsman who’d been dropped from his professional team. They’d had a hard life, financially, and there’d been very few material possessions when their deaths were investigated. The neighbors at the time had reported they were both very genial, tolerant men. But they’d had to move far away from their home town and remained very discreet in local society. So it had been a hard life emotionally, too, never able to proclaim their relationship, to boast about it or enjoy it in the outside world. It provoked uneasy feelings in me, definitely “out of the ordinary” feelings. “It’s still an old story, Flynn.” I could feel his breath hitch at the nape of my neck. “An unfortunate symptom of its time. I don’t think we can draw any tenable comparisons in the twenty-first century.” “Well… I…. Sure.” There was a small, pregnant silence between us.


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lare ondon  “Nor do I see why we’ve inherited the haunting, if that’s what it is.” “No.” Flynn turned his head away. “Me neither.” He looked dispirited again, and I had a strong, aching desire to bring the smile back to his face. “Tell me some more. You thought they’d brought us together for some reason? Maybe it was to seek brutal revenge against the people who tormented them.” It sounded ridiculous even as I spoke, but no one laughed. “Well, no reason to target us then,” Flynn said thoughtfully. “You know? We’re both happy with however people want to be. Happy with how we are. Out and proud, right?” There was yet another of those still, quiet moments. “Fuck,” Flynn said. “Toby, I’m sorry, I thought….” “No, it’s all right.” And, surprisingly, it was. “Shawn didn’t like us making a thing of it at work, so I never told anyone there. Not specifically. And I told my mother, but she refuses to believe me. It’s not exactly out, but it’s not in either. Is it?” Flynn started to laugh. “You’re so cool.” “Me?” It was a shock. I couldn’t recall ever being called that. “Yeah. Feels like I could talk about anything to you. You’re a clever guy but not too… you know.” And after a moment’s adjustment, I was pleased to find myself laughing along with him.


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lare ondon 

WE

WERE talking about other things, or that’s what we’d

told ourselves to do to pass some more time. “So, Toby. What did they say at work last Monday? Was there a shitload of trouble waiting for you, being so late?” I drew in a deep breath. “It was very odd.” I don’t know why I’d expected anything else, after the start to that day. “Mr. Evans had called in with the flu. The meeting was postponed until Wednesday, so I didn’t miss it after all.” I remembered the atmosphere in the office, as if we’d been given extra vacation—as if the rod of iron with which he ruled the office had melted for the day. Mr. Evans hadn’t ever called in sick in the six years I’d worked there. “And you did okay?” I smiled and flushed. It was a long time since anyone had been interested in my working day. “Yes, I did. I should be up for promotion in the new season.” And chocolate biscuits too. Flynn stretched out beside me with a yawn, his hip rubbing against mine. The biscuits didn’t seem so critical now, though. “Toby. When I first saw you… you know.” No, I thought, but I waited for him to continue. We lay shoulder to shoulder but neither looking at the other. “You that suit again, as control of

always seemed so smart and successful. Cute in of yours.” His gaze darted to my face then away if he thought he’d gone too far. “Like you were in it all.”


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lare ondon  “It all?” “Life.” He laughed softly. “You looked bold. Confident.” Me? “What business are you in?” I swallowed carefully. “Insurance.” Flynn made a coughing noise. “And I’m only a junior.” Not bold at all. “But I think with proper study and a well-organized life, I have the opportunity to progress. I just need to step carefully, Mr. Evans says.” “He does, does he?” I blinked hard. “Yes. That’s his advice.” Flynn shrugged against me. “Isn’t it just. Sounds like he doesn’t want you moving up too fast. Moving over him, like I expect you would.” “I… don’t want to risk upsetting the boss.” My words were small, sticky lumps in my throat. Hadn’t I agreed with Flynn’s impression of my career not so long ago? Shawn had laughed at any ambition I ever had, always told me to keep my head down and play safe. “Don’t mean to be rude, Toby, though you struck me at first as kind of buttoned up, I admit. But now I know you better and….” “What?” “It doesn’t sound like you. You strike me as quite a passionate guy, quite determined. Not afraid of risks, of putting yourself forward. And you’ve got an inquiring mind, like me.”


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lare ondon  “I do?” If I did, it must have been hidden somewhere under that old cashmere scarf for some time. I realized I’d never really liked its color. My new one was bright blue and a much better quality. Something flickered inside me that felt very much like excitement. “Yeah.” Flynn laughed. “If you could see your face! All flushed and eager….” His gaze met mine, and he grimaced, as if his smile was a little too much to maintain. “Hey, I think you’re as excited by this ludicrous ghost-watch as much as I am.” I should have been offended at such personal comments, I really should have. Even though he was assessing me in completely the opposite way to Shawn. Or was that the reason I felt so good? “So what about you, Flynn?” “Me?” “Do you like your bar work?” To my surprise, he flushed very deeply. I felt his body tense up and draw away from me by nothing more than an inch, but it felt much more. “It’s okay. Until I’m fit again.” “Fit?” He sighed. “Guess it’s no secret. I’m a skater, Toby. Skateboarding. Or I was. Sort of going professional, you know? Then I smashed my knee.” He bit his lip. “There you are. My story, short and sweet, end of.” “But your knee’s okay now?” Of course, that accounted for his healthy, outdoorsy look. But I’d never seen him walk with any kind of a limp. “Are you competing again?”


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lare ondon  He stared at me. Then he sat up abruptly, swinging his legs over the side of the seat. His voice sounded tight and pained. “Knew I’d make a fool of myself. I’m not the kind of guy fits in with city types, you know?” “Wait a minute….” “You’re right. Nothing spooky’s going to happen tonight. This has been a complete waste of time. I’ve been an idiot, annoying you like this. I’ll go now.” And he started to stand up. Several things happened at once. I lurched upright as well, trying to catch his arm and stop him. Charles woke abruptly with a loud bark, his head going up, his eyes wide and his damp nose sniffing the air. A wall cupboard door opened, three cups fell out with a smash onto the kitchen floor, and the lid sprang off the coffee jar, spraying dark granules all over the counter. And then two of the legs on the chair gave way very suddenly, crashing it down on the floor on one side. I fell awkwardly with a loud yell as Flynn slid across the chair and thumped down on top of me. “Ouch.” I straightened my leg, reassuring myself the pain in my ankle was only a spasm. Charles was still barking. Flynn lay immobile on the floor, panting, staring at me. I didn’t think he’d been hurt, but his distress was obvious. “It doesn’t matter what you do, what type you are,” I said. The words came out without me thinking—a rare event, if I’d taken time to analyze it. “Of course it doesn’t. That’s not what you are. Do you hear me?”


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lare ondon  “I’ve lost my nerve,” he said, the words tumbling out, slurring a bit. He wasn’t really answering me, and his eyes looked a little wild. “It’s gone. I tell the guys my knee still hurts, but it doesn’t. I just keep imagining the fall. I’ll never skate again.” “For God’s sake,” I snapped. His mouth dropped open. “What did you say to me about risk-taking? About putting myself forward?” Flynn frowned. “Back off, Toby. It’s not the same.” “Yes it is.” I grabbed his chin and pulled his head around so he looked straight at me. “You’re tougher than that. I can tell that about you, like you can tell… those things about me. If you like, I can help you make a training schedule. We can get you match fit again. If you want it.” His mouth opened and then closed, then opened again. “I want it.” I nodded. I liked the way the pleasure spiked in my chest despite my obviously premature intentions to keep my emotions in check. “You won’t do it overnight, but you can start. Step carefully like Mr. Evans told me—” “But with a view to jumping up and over him in the future?” Flynn started to smile again. “Told you, you were a clever guy.” I pulled us both up to our knees, and I kissed him. He tasted of chocolate brownie and shock. Then his tongue slipped into my mouth, and the taste became something much wilder, much more delicious. Much riskier. We didn’t break for quite some time. By the time I pulled reluctantly away, Charlie had stopped barking and had


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lare ondon  settled himself back down on the unbroken chair. Glancing over, I saw the brown canine eyes watching us carefully. “I’ve noticed you, too, Flynn,” I said. “Plenty of times. I should have said. I was just so sure I didn’t believe in all this spirit nonsense, and anyway, I was too boring to interest another guy, and I’d just give up any claims to passion and step more carefully in future—” “Don’t,” Flynn said. “Whatever.” There was more kissing. “Skateboarding,” I said slowly. “You know, I always thought it looked….” “Dangerous?” he whispered. I put my hand very deliberately on his knee and started to slide my fingers up his thigh. “Exciting.” Flynn sucked in a breath and gave a short, sharp laugh. “I’ll take you out some day.” “Yes,” I said. “That’d be good.” His eyes widened as he realized what he’d said. What I’d said. “I need to tell you something first, Toby. That guy you were dating… Shawn?” I sighed. “It’s all right. It’s all over now. I expect you saw him down at the bar, am I right? I expect you have male dancers there. And some with the too-tight shorts and private cell numbers all but tattooed on their asses?” He nodded, looking both relieved and concerned. “I’d never have said anything before. But you deserve better.”


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lare ondon  “I don’t miss Shawn,” I said, realizing it was true. “But I’ve never had much luck with boyfriends in the past.” “Not anymore,” he murmured and pressed his lips back on to mine.

WE BROKE apart again, a rather longer time later. “It’s the leaving thing that seems to cause the trouble.” Flynn nodded, knowing immediately what I meant. “If either of us tries to leave without at least making a date with the other, all hell breaks loose.” I nodded. Charlie snuffled sleepily, but his beady eyes were still watching us. “What are we going to do?” Flynn’s cheeks looked very pink. “Is the possession thing going to last beyond tonight, you think?” “I don’t know,” I said. “Today is the anniversary, you said, but who knows what the rules are? What the poltergeists are up to?” Flynn gazed at me. His eyes were full of laughter. “You thinking the same thing I am?” “You bet,” I said. “Like you said, being different types of man doesn’t mean we can’t.” “So.” He grinned. “We can’t leave each other. At least, not yet.” I nodded again.


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lare ondon  “Have to find some entertainment until the coast is clear.” I ran my hand slowly up his bare, warmly tanned arm, watching the hairs rise up in its wake. “I just can’t afford to lose any more crockery. But it’s too late to start skateboard training.” He snorted. “I’ll assume that’s your idea of a joke.” I kissed him so that he understood more clearly. “But we never found out why this was happening.” He wasn’t exactly complaining, because I was leading him slowly out of the kitchen and he was following quite willingly. “What they want of us.” I shrugged. “And why the hell does it all happen in the kitchen?” “I don’t know,” I said. My voice sounded very husky, and my legs felt shaky with anticipation. I definitely wouldn’t be up for nude dancing on the couch, though I hoped Flynn’s idea of entertainment might be somewhat similar to mine and involve some bare skin. “But do you think it’ll follow us to the bedroom? I’m keen to show you what a passionate guy I can really be.” “I’m sure it won’t.” Flynn’s eyes were shining now. I’d never found so much reward in one person’s facial expressions. “I’m sure if we establish that we’re now dating… will be seen out together on a regular basis…” “…could meet my mother….” I sighed, but I was smiling. “That’ll do it,” Flynn murmured. He ran his lips along the edge of my jaw and pushed at me to encourage me out of


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lare ondon  the door. “And anyway, Charlie knows what’s going on with us. The message will get through.” Charlie barked just the once and then deliberately turned his head away.

WEEKS later, I was still having vivid dreams, though they weren’t always about Flynn. They didn’t all involve chocolate brownies or crashing waves or just the soft, sleepy, sexy smell of his skin and his grin against my mouth or the way he rolled me under him in bed with kind, firm, reverential hands until we became linked together in a deep, sensual way I’d never imagined could happen. No, these dreams were of two other young men. Looking at me, smiling, one behind the other, with his arms around him.

“JUST how dense are the young men of these modern times, William?” The slim, chestnut-haired one in front sighed. “All the work we did to bring them together, and they still took their time in dating. Hasn’t education progressed as we once hoped?” “They do say never to work with either children or animals, Albert.” The darker-haired man behind him was broader and had a very engaging grin.


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lare ondon  Albert drew himself up with an affronted air. “I believe press-ganging the pet Charlie into service was a master stroke.” “Maybe. Though he may have had his own agenda,” William muttered, “with those sinfully good chocolate cakes of Tobias’s.” “And, good Lord. We were after brutal revenge?” Albert shook his head sadly. “Of course not, no reason for that. And no time for it. Not now we’re together. Renewed. Free.” William’s fingers teased under the buttons of Albert’s best waistcoat. Albert chuckled mischievously. “No, indeed. But luckily there’s enough time to help another confused couple find their way to happiness.” William shook his head. “You like to meddle.” Albert shrugged. “You never complained before.” “No.” William’s look was fond. “And it’s good to see them together in these times with a new independence.” Albert caught his lover’s hand. For a moment, his banter ceased. “Do you envy them?” William nuzzled against his ear. “Sometimes. They have the chance of living out their romance with honesty, not horror, and for that I envy them. But we all live the life we have as best we can.” He placed a kiss on Albert’s neck. “We always had honesty between us.” “When we were alone.”


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lare ondon  “Talking of which….” William smiled again, but at something other than Albert. “Remember we stay away from the bedroom. Though I must say, there’s evidence Tobias is proving a very enthusiastic and athletic young gentleman in bed. The pursuit of passion and a certain recklessness is becoming his way of life.” “Flynn has a purpose too,” said Albert, as proudly as if the young man were his own kin. “He’s stronger than ever and proud to work with Tobias. He’ll be very successful one day.” “They both will.” William brushed back a lock of Albert’s hair from his forehead. “But will you answer me the question: What was the issue with the kitchen?” Albert laughed loudly. “I didn’t mean it to start that way! But the room played such a part in our lives that I always feel drawn there. All the packets of sugar I came to borrow from you, all the stews you brought for me when you accidentally cooked too much.” William laughed too. “And the chicken soup and warm milk when I was….” They fell silent for a moment. A shadow of sadness passed over Albert’s face. “Any excuse to come to you, to be with you,” he whispered. He leaned back against William, his eyes half closed. William sucked in a heavy breath. His hand tightened on Albert’s shirt. “Come away now,” he urged. “They need no more help.”


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lare ondon  Albert frowned, but there was mischief back in his soft brown eyes. “Are you sure? I’ve heard Flynn complain that Tobias bites him.” William rolled his eyes. “And Tobias demands many times that Flynn must take what he wants, and harder, and faster—” “And that’s enough, I believe. You’ve convinced me to leave them alone.” Albert turned in the haven of the other man’s arms and peered at him appraisingly. “I much admire the return of our youth. Though I wonder, were you ever really that good-looking in life?” William roared with laughter. “Maybe I was, until you came along and spoiled me with your lascivious behavior.” Albert chuckled again. “I love your laugh,” William murmured. His eyes softened, and his arms enfolded his lover’s body. “I will never tire of it.” “I will never tire of you,” Albert said simply. “That’s why I refused to live without you.”

AND then usually, not before time, Charlie’s barking would wake me up, calling both Flynn and me to get out of bed and take him for a walk. At least, that’s what I assumed he was saying in dog language. Because I was learning to take “out of the ordinary” as routine, nowadays.

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The Dreamspinner Press 2010 Daily Dose package of thirty stories is available at http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

About the Author

CLARE LONDON took her pen name from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fueled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic, and sexy characters. Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter three stage and plenty of other projects in mind… she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fueled family home. Visit Clare’s web site at http://www.clarelondon.co.uk and her blog at http://clarelondon.livejournal.com/.

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DREAMSPINNER PRESS http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Copyright

Charlie Chuckles ©Copyright Clare London, 2010 Published by Dreamspinner Press 4760 Preston Road Suite 244-149 Frisco, TX 75034 http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/ This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover Art by Paul Richmond http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com Cover Design by Mara McKennen This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. This eBook cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this eBook can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the publisher. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press at: 4760 Preston Road, Suite 244-149, Frisco, TX 75034 http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/ Released in the United States of America June 2010 eBook Edition eBook ISBN: 978-1-61581-484-8