The Boy Who Hit Play Read online

  It doesn’t feel dreamy. And loving. And right.

  It feels awkward.

  And odd.

  She puts her hand over her mouth and shakes her head like I’m not real.

  ‘Hello,’ I say.

  ‘Hello,’ she says and long wet trails run down both our faces.

  Jessie Garon Presley

  Elvis (Aaron) Presley had a twin who died before he was born.

  Jessie (Garon) Presley.

  Maybe that gave Elvis a hole

  that he could never fill.

  Maybe he tried to cram it with stuff

  to make the pain go away.

  Or maybe he felt like a shadow,

  like part of him was always missing.

  I feel really sad for him

  ’cos Graceland mansion doesn’t really mean anything

  if you rattle around hollow inside.

  I think about Dad.

  Maybe if Elvis had one person to hold on to

  he wouldn’t have needed to be important to millions.

  And that might have been enough

  to stop him from dying on the toilet.

  Alone.

  Maybe.

  I’m lucky.

  I’ve got Lene.

  And Dad.

  And Lloyd and Aunty Ima and Bjorn and Mulki and Steinar and Jean.

  We’ve got our invisible strings around us.

  And my insides feel puffed up like a Jaffa Cake.

  What If …

  What if it is the 25th of June 2018?

  And in Brymont On Sea down Minton Street next to the Happy Shopper there is a shop. A new shop. And what if this shop is a community music shop – with a recording studio and free classes and posh coffee and guitar racks – called Beats of the Streets.

  And what if there is a man with a trumpet (the new manager) and a boy with a triple-decker peanut-butter cake (the new owner) about to cut the opening ribbon, and a room full of people cheering and waving harmonicas and violins and bringing a bit of joy and possibility to the grey Brymont streets.

  And what if there is a woman on an island with a pig that’s just given birth to piglets, and rows of vegetables just sprouting, and lambs and strawberries that are being picked by Gunter from Germany and Brian from Brazil, because she feels up for a new start.

  And what if there’s a girl and a boy and two men who are gonna be there that summer. And what if they spend all their summers there and learn how to sail. And Bjorn comes over and they all camp in the woods and make their own videos and don’t care if people like them or not, ’cos who actually cares.

  And what if George’s great-great-grandad’s ghost is proud.

  And Boyd’s ghost settles.

  And Nina sells her story to the papers – FLOYD PARTINGTON TRIES TO DISINHERIT FAMILY – and Floyd loses his job and his power.

  And Aunty Ima marries Mr Singh and his bees and moves down the road (now she doesn’t have to help out with the rent).

  And Lloyd builds an Uncle’s cabin for Uncley times.

  And Elvis sees his mum twice a year. Once in England. Once in Norway.

  And they write emails, ’cos that feels easier.

  And Lene comes over whenever she wants.

  And has her own room.

  And she can stay for as long as she likes …

  What if?

  What if?

  What if?

  Acknowledgements

  This book happened thanks to a great many brilliant and beautiful people who I am very grateful to.

  Firstly thanks to the wonderful Julia Darling Travel Fellowship award that enabled me to travel all over Norway meeting fantastic places and people and discovering all kinds of delicious things that this stunning country has to offer.

  Julia Darling was a wonderful author, playwright and poet and very much loved and dearly missed. It was an honour to travel in her name. I tried to do it in as friendly and all encompassing way as possible to make the most of every last penny. THANK YOU! It was an unforgettable experience.

  Thanks to the fab Faber team for their patience, support and loveliness and especially to my sage and broad-shouldered editor Alice Swan whose ever-calm and insightful brilliance was incredibly appreciated. You are truly a birth doula of books!

  Thanks to the incredibly supportive and genuine kinship of children’s writers. I’m very chuffed to be part of you and our meet-ups make me very happy.

  Thanks to all the writers who have gone before whose work inspires, delights and challenges me and to my friends and family and everyone out there I love, without whom I’d have been sunk many, many times.

  In particular:

  Chris, Tom, Wilf, Bob, Iorek and Twinks – Katie Darby-Villis, Pam Matthews, Penny Lee, Rachel Embleton and Debbie Lane – David Almond, Liz Flanagan, Brian Conaghan, Emma Carroll and Tove Jansson – Bev Robinson and Julia’s family and friends – Claire Malcolm and New Writing North – the Hexham writing gang! – my big-hearted big sis Em, Mads and M&D.

  Thanks for being there. I hope this crazy journey of a book makes you smile!

  And lastly but very importantly ENORMOUS thanks to YOU the reader. Without you this story would never get the chance to come alive, which would make it very sad.

  Thank YOU!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Fish Boy was Chloe Daykin’s first novel, which she wrote while studying for her MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. It won a Northern Writers’ Award, was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards, shortlisted for the Branford Boase and garnered critical acclaim. An artist, designer, playwright and teacher, Chloe is always up for an unusual adventure and lives in Northumberland with her family. The Boy Who Hit Play is her second novel.

  BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  Fish Boy

  Copyright

  First published in the UK in 2018

  by Faber & Faber Limited

  Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street

  London, WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2018

  All rights reserved

  Text © Chloe Daykin, 2018

  Cover illustration © David Dean, 2018

  The right of Chloe Daykin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  ISBN 978–0–571–32679–2

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly