Soul Fire

be absolutely calm, but seeing the distance J fell, it made me angrier than I’ve ever felt in my life.’
    ‘No one could blame you for feeling that way, Gabe.’
    ‘I punched him, Alice. Hard. I mean, I never punch anyone but I did this time. There was a crunch. His nose going, I think. And then he started fighting back. For a drunk, he was
doing pretty well. At that moment, I don’t think I cared if I fell, so long as I made sure I took him with me.
    ‘That’s when I heard my name. You were calling me from down here. I think it’s probably all that stopped me killing him.’ He sounds ashamed of himself.
    ‘No. You didn’t kill him because you’re a good person.’
    He sighs. ‘Maybe. But it brought me to my senses enough to do what I’d planned. I told him I knew how Javier died. He mumbled something back about not knowing a Javier. And when I
said, “Your son, remember?” he shook his head. “I don’t have a son,” he kept saying, “I have daughters. And a slut of a wife, but no son”.
    ‘It was so hard to stay calm but I knew J would have wanted me to put his sisters and mum first. So I spelled it out, in words a drunk can understand. Described J. How he looked. What he
loved. His dreams.
    ‘I saw the change in the guy’s face. He knew I knew. And then I repeated the story J told you: about exactly how he died, and why.
    ‘Finally, he got it. I told him that he had to pack. Tonight. Leave for good. Be gone before the family were back. That if he didn’t, I’d be watching and waiting, and that if
he was very lucky it would be the police that came after him. And if he wasn’t, then it’d be me.’
    ‘And he believed you?’
    ‘Hell, Alice, I believed me. I reckon he realised that I was willing to die myself, to avenge J. And when you started banging on the door, I said that next time it would be the Mossos . The police. Told him he had ten minutes to get his things and go.’
    ‘Ten minutes.’ I check the time on my phone. Lewis has texted me, asking where I am. ‘So J’s father should be leaving about now.’
    ‘You don’t have to wait with me.’
    ‘I think I do.’
    A minute passes. Two. Will he go – or will Gabe have to carry out his threat?
    Then the door to J’s building opens. We both hold our breath.
    ‘It’s him,’ Gabe whispers, and reaches for my hand.
    The man is dressed in jeans and a hooded top. He has a black holdall on his shoulder, and carries a couple of large carrier bags in his other hand.
    Maybe it’s because I know what he’s done, but there is something ugly about him, the way he scuttles out of the door like a cockroach.
    He looks around him but doesn’t notice us. With his head covered, I can’t see any likeness to J. He pulls the door shut with a violent slam, and the noise seems to reverberate around
the deserted neighbourhood, louder than any firecracker I’ve heard.
    Finally the man looks up at the building, and the roof. I wonder if there’s any regret about what he’s done.
    But then he lifts his head and I see the rage in his face before he spits against his own front door, and then swaggers down the street towards the city.
    I realise I’ve been holding my breath the whole time. Gabe lets go of my hand.
    ‘Do you think he’ll come back?’ he whispers, once the figure has disappeared.
    ‘He’s a coward, isn’t he? And it doesn’t sound like he was there because he loved them. More because it was an easy life. Hopefully you’ve scared him enough to make
him realise staying away is his only option.’
    Gabe nods. ‘Thanks. For believing me. And for stopping me from doing something I would have regretted. I hate the fact I came so close.’
    ‘The most important thing is that you didn’t give in to that darkness. You were only trying to protect the people J loved, remember. But what will you do now?’
    ‘Stay in town for a while, I guess. Check that he really has left for good. But after that, I think it’s over for me and Barcelona. It’s now my ex-favourite place in the
world.’ He looks up at the sky. ‘Drop dead gorgeous, still, but time for me to go.’
    I wonder if it’s time for Javier to leave Soul Beach, too? This must be enough now. Justice has been done.
    Even though the explosions have started up again, the street feels calm. As though J’s father going has made everything lighter.
    Of course, it means J will leave tonight. I feel a catch in my throat: the idea of the Beach without Javier’s edgy