The Grey Man

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London. 2024.

 

Jonothan Smith sat outside of Sotheby's in the rain. He was a small man, not tall to begin with and shrunken with the years. His black hair, greying, plain face lined with years and care, scarred around the jaw and left temple.

London had only got greyer over the years, the weather bleaching everything, fading colours, dirtying whites, permeating everything. It stained skin, given long enough.

Jonothan looked down at his hands, pale in the greylight. Keeping the grey off his skin had been difficult. He had washed them so many times there was no trace of pink. Not even under his nails. But people looked at you funny if you were grey. Too many associations with the mutants. Too many associations with the show trials and the mass executions. Too many too's.

He felt grey, though. Had been grey for more than a decade. He didn't know exactly how long. Every time he tried to count his head spun and he ended up back in that hangar, watching the plasma-scarred Avenger touch down in a steaming wash of rain, the huge grey bulk still hot from re-entry, its boxy shape dented like a poorly-used toy.

That grey feeling had descended with the Avenger's ramp, colouring his thoughts and emotions. Washing around back there in his brain like stagnant water in a forgotten sink. Sometimes he looked in the mirror and thought he saw his pale blue eyes bleaching to grey. Then he would vomit, heave into the sink that sick grey feeling, until he was left empty. Nothing ever replaced it. Not anger, not despair, not love, not fear.

The grey just filled him back up, usually before he could go back to bed.

 

He came back to himself, sitting in the rain, dripping wet. He sighed, checked his watch, tucked his hand back into his pocket. Hurry up and wait.

Memories brought a smile to his face for a change. Stuck in the ready room, standing to like good little toy soldiers, playing cards, watching films. Juarez presenting a porn flick, to enthusiastic cheers. Keiko staring him down while a particularly enthusiastic scene unfolded on the widescreen.

"I could do that for you." Jonothan flicked his eyes at the screen and saw her flush.

"Oh?" She tried her best to keep up that inscrutable facade and failed, her cheeks bright pink.

Jonothan nodded. He'd never even spoken to her before, had always been too intimidated by her ice queen persona.

"Alright."