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Hours
It took three hours, seven minutes and fifteen seconds for the three of them to show up at his door.
“Hi Emma…where’s the invalid?” Gary smiled softly and Emma smiled back before leading them quietly into the lounge. There he was, his head poking out from inside a bundle of blankets. His hair was dishevelled, falling in his face, and he peered sleepily over at them.
“Visitors,” Emma said gently and Mark sniffled slightly. Emma smiled at them once more before turning away and leaving the four of them alone.
“Evening,” Mark finally croaked at them from behind a blanket.
“So…feeling better or worse than when Mr.Blobby got the top spot?” Gary asked him and Mark laughed, shaking some of his hair out of his eyes.
“Little bit worse…anyway, what are you guys doing here? Don’t you have an award show to be at?” he sniffed, tilting his head. The other three exchanged a glance.
“Those things are a lot less fun without you,” Howard smiled.
“Yeah…you’re always the only one drunk enough to send up to the microphone,” Gary joked and Mark laughed as the others made their way over to the sofa.
“Anyway…when we got your message, we all had a chat, and we thought we’d put on the suits you insisted we wear and come and see just how bad things had to be for you to turn down a night out,” Jason put in, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at Mark with a golden smile as Howard flopped down onto the sofa looking so like he owned the place Mark could only grin.
“We even thought about bringing champagne – you never know, if we win that award we might convince Jay to have a sip…” Howard commented and Jason rolled his eyes as he sat himself down next to him. Mark moved over slightly, squashing himself closer to Jason then looking at Gary expectantly. Gary shook his head with a sigh.
“Are we not paying you enough to be in this band…can you really not afford a bigger sofa?” he asked but he squeezed in anyway. Mark wriggled around in his blankets before settling in his new place, propped up by Jason and Gary’s shoulders.
“I don’t think I could face champagne…” Mark mumbled sadly after a moment.
“We thought you might say that,” Gary said with a thoughtful incline of his head.
“So we brought Lemsip instead,” Howard grinned. Jason produced the packet and Mark’s face split into a grin as he saw the bow they had stuck to the top of it.
Mark didn’t know how many hours it had taken for these three men to reinvade his life, but since they’d found their way back in it rarely took them many hours to make themselves at home. It was something that either hadn’t existed in their friendship before or had passed him by until he was old enough to appreciate it. But now they were completely back in his life, it was something he treasured. The first time he’d really understood just how few hours it took for the band to rally for him had been when Elwood was born. Whilst the band policy that whichever three were not involved in some form of emotional rollercoaster were required to turn up at the side of the one that was must have fallen into place at some point before that, it was the first time Mark had been aware enough to time it. Two hours, thirty-seven minutes and seventeen seconds after Elwood had been born, Gary, Howard and Jason had appeared at Mark’s side. It had actually taken a lot longer for the traditional ‘Congratulations!’ to be said. For a start, a good few minutes had been used in settling the debate over which one of them Mark’s first born ought to be named after. It was Mark who had been forced to settle it; ‘Why should I name him after any of you lot when you haven’t even said congratulations yet?’. He’d realised that they’d known how many miles an hour his mind had been racing at that day and he’d been aware that the entire debate was their way of calming him down a bit. But just because he’d known what they were trying to do didn’t mean it didn’t work. And it certainly didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate it. The opposite in fact. From that day on, whenever there was a crisis, he often found himself timing them and keeping mental note. He wondered if the others did it too or if he was the only one counting the hours.
“You don’t have to stay you know. It’s a bad cold but I’ll live,” Mark sighed at last, his croaky voice lacking the level of conviction required to shift any of the three men from his sofa.
“Are you trying to get rid of us?” Gary said jokingly. Howard pulled a face.
“I knew it, he’s been seeing other bands behind our backs!” he gasped dramatically. The others laughed at him and Mark was secretly very glad that he had such stubborn friends.
“Tell you what Owen, play your cards right and I might even make you some soup later,” Jason smiled, giving him a soft nudge, his eyes sparkling warmly.
“I didn’t know you remembered to bring y’ pinny Jay!” Howard teased. Mark stifled a laugh in his blanket and Gary had to focus on the TV in order not to smirk.
“Do you want the other lung to pop?” Jason asked calmly, but the playful glimmer in his smile betrayed him.
“When it does Jay, I know you’ll be there…with some soup and a pinny,” Howard chuckled confidently, resting his head jokingly against Jason’s shoulder. Jason shook his head and gently shrugged Howard off him, turning to look at Mark and Gary.
“Will you please promise me that when you pension us pair off you will not put me in the same home as him,” he said simply and the two men laughed.
“Sorry, home’s already booked mate. The minute you turn forty…” Gary shrugged teasingly and Jason shook his head as Mark and Howard continued to laugh.
“I had such a nice life before I met you three bastards,” Jason sighed, the smile on his lips removing any cutting edge from his words. Howard and Gary smirked but Mark pouted.
“You’d miss me if you didn’t know me,” he said with a tiny nod and Jason frowned thoughtfully.
“Is it bad that I think you’re right, even though that sentence made no sense?” he asked no one in particular and they all knew what he meant.
Mark didn’t wear a watch, never set his phone and hardly cared if it was day or night – to him, strict timekeeping seemed a strange notion. He mostly relied on other people to care what time of day it was. One of the sure signs something was up with Mark was if he was looking at the clock a lot or asking people for the time. Of course, there was rarely something up with Mark. Mark had an unconditional love of life; he didn’t understand how it worked a lot of the time and he certainly didn’t think it made all that much sense but he was almost always certain that things would work themselves out. And when he wasn’t so certain, he’d count the hours. It had taken a grand total of seven hours, three minutes and fifty seconds for them to appear the day he’d almost been hit by a car. It had later transpired that most of that time had been spent tracking Jason down. A brush with death can scare a person, but it had only taken one and a half hours for them to pick Mark up and push his head straight back into the clouds again. ‘The point is mate; it didn’t hit you’ Jason had said gently. Gary had played the piano that evening and Howard had ruined the beauty of the moment by singing like a woman. Mark hadn’t stopped grinning for hours after they’d gone.
After three hours, two minutes and thirty seconds, Gary and Howard had found popcorn. Mark wasn’t sure where they’d found it but he was grateful that Jason had instead returned from the kitchen with a mug of Lemsip which he handed over wordlessly. Mark clutched the mug in his hands and closed his eyes, letting the steam hit his eyelids as the other three settled back into place around him. Mark ended up nestled in the crook of Gary’s arm, his legs spread across Jason and Howard’s laps, as the popcorn was passed from one end of the sofa to the other.
“Jay, if you don’t eat some, I’m replacing all your Muesli with Coco Pops for the next week,” Gary threatened after a while. Mark smiled at that.
“You really ought to eat more mate…every time you turn sideways I keep thinking you’ve gone somewhere,” Howard put in with a sly grin at Jason and Mark’s smile grew wider.
“Diet issues are something of a minefield in this band aren’t they?” Jason asked. Gary chuckled.
“Only for you and me mate, this pair are as normal as they come,” he replied.
“Not true…I’m the only normal one. We’ve been watering Happy here for years and he still won’t grow,” Howard said with a shake of his head, flashing a grin at Mark. A moment of silence passed, amused smiles resting on their lips. Then, Mark sneezed into his Lemsip.
“Sneezy then,” Howard corrected swiftly exchanging a smirk with Jason.
“Does sneezing in it counteract any good that it was doing or is it still going to cure him if he drinks it?” Gary wondered aloud.
“Least he didn’t sneeze on the bow,” Jason commented and Mark laughed.
“I wouldn’t laugh. Cost 20p that bow did,” Howard teased, only making Mark laugh harder.
Mark hadn’t worked out the average number of hours it took. But he could guess from his mental tallies that the average time had to be getting lower. Of course, sometimes they couldn’t all get there for one reason or another and Howard and Jason would often have to phone in their support. But Mark couldn’t remember a single time when Gary hadn’t been able to be there for them. Perhaps it was guilt over his distance from them first time around, perhaps it was just something about Gary. Mark suspected it was a bit of both. Whenever Howard or Jason were in need of the cavalry, it was always Gary who did the ringing round. Mark guessed it was the same for him. They rarely had to rally for Gary, however. ‘I’d give you some counselling’ Mark had offered once in jest. From then on it had been Mark who did the ringing round for Gary.
They looked smart in the suits he’d picked out for them. He couldn’t help but smile at the fact they’d still worn them. Jason had undone the top three buttons of his shirt, Howard had shed his jacket. Only Gary’s outfit was essentially intact, although the tie had been loosened considerably. And then there was Mark, all tangled up in his blankets, his hair falling across his face and Howard’s jacket draped around him caringly. It wasn’t the look he’d had in mind. But it still worked somehow. They always still worked. Howard and Gary were asleep by midnight and after two more hours on the sofa, a couple more wrinkles in the suits, Gary’s head nodding forwards and Howard’s head flopping sideways …it still worked. Part of Mark wanted the image to end up in the calendar – it’d make a good September, he thought.
“He always disturbed me…” Jason suddenly remarked, eyes not moving from the TV.
“Who did?” Mark frowned.
“Mr.Blobby,” Jason replied, glancing at Mark with a quiet smile and Mark laughed softly.
After nine hours, six minutes and forty-eight seconds, Mark was stretched across all their laps, snoring softly. Gary was doing his back no good but somehow sleeping deeply. Howard was sprawled out as much as he could be, his head on Jason’s shoulder and Jason’s head was tipped sideways slightly as he too slept on soundly. Emma didn’t have the heart to wake them. After all, a few more hours couldn’t hurt.
“Hi Emma…where’s the invalid?” Gary smiled softly and Emma smiled back before leading them quietly into the lounge. There he was, his head poking out from inside a bundle of blankets. His hair was dishevelled, falling in his face, and he peered sleepily over at them.
“Visitors,” Emma said gently and Mark sniffled slightly. Emma smiled at them once more before turning away and leaving the four of them alone.
“Evening,” Mark finally croaked at them from behind a blanket.
“So…feeling better or worse than when Mr.Blobby got the top spot?” Gary asked him and Mark laughed, shaking some of his hair out of his eyes.
“Little bit worse…anyway, what are you guys doing here? Don’t you have an award show to be at?” he sniffed, tilting his head. The other three exchanged a glance.
“Those things are a lot less fun without you,” Howard smiled.
“Yeah…you’re always the only one drunk enough to send up to the microphone,” Gary joked and Mark laughed as the others made their way over to the sofa.
“Anyway…when we got your message, we all had a chat, and we thought we’d put on the suits you insisted we wear and come and see just how bad things had to be for you to turn down a night out,” Jason put in, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at Mark with a golden smile as Howard flopped down onto the sofa looking so like he owned the place Mark could only grin.
“We even thought about bringing champagne – you never know, if we win that award we might convince Jay to have a sip…” Howard commented and Jason rolled his eyes as he sat himself down next to him. Mark moved over slightly, squashing himself closer to Jason then looking at Gary expectantly. Gary shook his head with a sigh.
“Are we not paying you enough to be in this band…can you really not afford a bigger sofa?” he asked but he squeezed in anyway. Mark wriggled around in his blankets before settling in his new place, propped up by Jason and Gary’s shoulders.
“I don’t think I could face champagne…” Mark mumbled sadly after a moment.
“We thought you might say that,” Gary said with a thoughtful incline of his head.
“So we brought Lemsip instead,” Howard grinned. Jason produced the packet and Mark’s face split into a grin as he saw the bow they had stuck to the top of it.
Mark didn’t know how many hours it had taken for these three men to reinvade his life, but since they’d found their way back in it rarely took them many hours to make themselves at home. It was something that either hadn’t existed in their friendship before or had passed him by until he was old enough to appreciate it. But now they were completely back in his life, it was something he treasured. The first time he’d really understood just how few hours it took for the band to rally for him had been when Elwood was born. Whilst the band policy that whichever three were not involved in some form of emotional rollercoaster were required to turn up at the side of the one that was must have fallen into place at some point before that, it was the first time Mark had been aware enough to time it. Two hours, thirty-seven minutes and seventeen seconds after Elwood had been born, Gary, Howard and Jason had appeared at Mark’s side. It had actually taken a lot longer for the traditional ‘Congratulations!’ to be said. For a start, a good few minutes had been used in settling the debate over which one of them Mark’s first born ought to be named after. It was Mark who had been forced to settle it; ‘Why should I name him after any of you lot when you haven’t even said congratulations yet?’. He’d realised that they’d known how many miles an hour his mind had been racing at that day and he’d been aware that the entire debate was their way of calming him down a bit. But just because he’d known what they were trying to do didn’t mean it didn’t work. And it certainly didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate it. The opposite in fact. From that day on, whenever there was a crisis, he often found himself timing them and keeping mental note. He wondered if the others did it too or if he was the only one counting the hours.
“You don’t have to stay you know. It’s a bad cold but I’ll live,” Mark sighed at last, his croaky voice lacking the level of conviction required to shift any of the three men from his sofa.
“Are you trying to get rid of us?” Gary said jokingly. Howard pulled a face.
“I knew it, he’s been seeing other bands behind our backs!” he gasped dramatically. The others laughed at him and Mark was secretly very glad that he had such stubborn friends.
“Tell you what Owen, play your cards right and I might even make you some soup later,” Jason smiled, giving him a soft nudge, his eyes sparkling warmly.
“I didn’t know you remembered to bring y’ pinny Jay!” Howard teased. Mark stifled a laugh in his blanket and Gary had to focus on the TV in order not to smirk.
“Do you want the other lung to pop?” Jason asked calmly, but the playful glimmer in his smile betrayed him.
“When it does Jay, I know you’ll be there…with some soup and a pinny,” Howard chuckled confidently, resting his head jokingly against Jason’s shoulder. Jason shook his head and gently shrugged Howard off him, turning to look at Mark and Gary.
“Will you please promise me that when you pension us pair off you will not put me in the same home as him,” he said simply and the two men laughed.
“Sorry, home’s already booked mate. The minute you turn forty…” Gary shrugged teasingly and Jason shook his head as Mark and Howard continued to laugh.
“I had such a nice life before I met you three bastards,” Jason sighed, the smile on his lips removing any cutting edge from his words. Howard and Gary smirked but Mark pouted.
“You’d miss me if you didn’t know me,” he said with a tiny nod and Jason frowned thoughtfully.
“Is it bad that I think you’re right, even though that sentence made no sense?” he asked no one in particular and they all knew what he meant.
Mark didn’t wear a watch, never set his phone and hardly cared if it was day or night – to him, strict timekeeping seemed a strange notion. He mostly relied on other people to care what time of day it was. One of the sure signs something was up with Mark was if he was looking at the clock a lot or asking people for the time. Of course, there was rarely something up with Mark. Mark had an unconditional love of life; he didn’t understand how it worked a lot of the time and he certainly didn’t think it made all that much sense but he was almost always certain that things would work themselves out. And when he wasn’t so certain, he’d count the hours. It had taken a grand total of seven hours, three minutes and fifty seconds for them to appear the day he’d almost been hit by a car. It had later transpired that most of that time had been spent tracking Jason down. A brush with death can scare a person, but it had only taken one and a half hours for them to pick Mark up and push his head straight back into the clouds again. ‘The point is mate; it didn’t hit you’ Jason had said gently. Gary had played the piano that evening and Howard had ruined the beauty of the moment by singing like a woman. Mark hadn’t stopped grinning for hours after they’d gone.
After three hours, two minutes and thirty seconds, Gary and Howard had found popcorn. Mark wasn’t sure where they’d found it but he was grateful that Jason had instead returned from the kitchen with a mug of Lemsip which he handed over wordlessly. Mark clutched the mug in his hands and closed his eyes, letting the steam hit his eyelids as the other three settled back into place around him. Mark ended up nestled in the crook of Gary’s arm, his legs spread across Jason and Howard’s laps, as the popcorn was passed from one end of the sofa to the other.
“Jay, if you don’t eat some, I’m replacing all your Muesli with Coco Pops for the next week,” Gary threatened after a while. Mark smiled at that.
“You really ought to eat more mate…every time you turn sideways I keep thinking you’ve gone somewhere,” Howard put in with a sly grin at Jason and Mark’s smile grew wider.
“Diet issues are something of a minefield in this band aren’t they?” Jason asked. Gary chuckled.
“Only for you and me mate, this pair are as normal as they come,” he replied.
“Not true…I’m the only normal one. We’ve been watering Happy here for years and he still won’t grow,” Howard said with a shake of his head, flashing a grin at Mark. A moment of silence passed, amused smiles resting on their lips. Then, Mark sneezed into his Lemsip.
“Sneezy then,” Howard corrected swiftly exchanging a smirk with Jason.
“Does sneezing in it counteract any good that it was doing or is it still going to cure him if he drinks it?” Gary wondered aloud.
“Least he didn’t sneeze on the bow,” Jason commented and Mark laughed.
“I wouldn’t laugh. Cost 20p that bow did,” Howard teased, only making Mark laugh harder.
Mark hadn’t worked out the average number of hours it took. But he could guess from his mental tallies that the average time had to be getting lower. Of course, sometimes they couldn’t all get there for one reason or another and Howard and Jason would often have to phone in their support. But Mark couldn’t remember a single time when Gary hadn’t been able to be there for them. Perhaps it was guilt over his distance from them first time around, perhaps it was just something about Gary. Mark suspected it was a bit of both. Whenever Howard or Jason were in need of the cavalry, it was always Gary who did the ringing round. Mark guessed it was the same for him. They rarely had to rally for Gary, however. ‘I’d give you some counselling’ Mark had offered once in jest. From then on it had been Mark who did the ringing round for Gary.
They looked smart in the suits he’d picked out for them. He couldn’t help but smile at the fact they’d still worn them. Jason had undone the top three buttons of his shirt, Howard had shed his jacket. Only Gary’s outfit was essentially intact, although the tie had been loosened considerably. And then there was Mark, all tangled up in his blankets, his hair falling across his face and Howard’s jacket draped around him caringly. It wasn’t the look he’d had in mind. But it still worked somehow. They always still worked. Howard and Gary were asleep by midnight and after two more hours on the sofa, a couple more wrinkles in the suits, Gary’s head nodding forwards and Howard’s head flopping sideways …it still worked. Part of Mark wanted the image to end up in the calendar – it’d make a good September, he thought.
“He always disturbed me…” Jason suddenly remarked, eyes not moving from the TV.
“Who did?” Mark frowned.
“Mr.Blobby,” Jason replied, glancing at Mark with a quiet smile and Mark laughed softly.
After nine hours, six minutes and forty-eight seconds, Mark was stretched across all their laps, snoring softly. Gary was doing his back no good but somehow sleeping deeply. Howard was sprawled out as much as he could be, his head on Jason’s shoulder and Jason’s head was tipped sideways slightly as he too slept on soundly. Emma didn’t have the heart to wake them. After all, a few more hours couldn’t hurt.