Jeff Noon

PIXEL JUICE
stories from the avant pulp

DEDICATION

some stories for MICHELLE and BILL;

and some for STEVE and BARBARA;

Super-Easy-No-Tag-Special for GORDON;

Xtrovurt and The Perfumed Machine for THE BULLETS OF AUTUMN - www.bulletsofautumn.co.uk;

Shed Weapons for JIMMY;

Orgmentations for MATTHEW;

Bug Compass for POLLY and VANA;

Hands of the DJ for DOUG;

Homo Karaoke for MICHAEL;

and the rest for PAT and JACK

the whole, and everything for JULIE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

to the following publications for the original mixes:

THE BIG ISSUE for Call of the Weird and Solace;

CITY LIFE for Homo Karaoke;

the GUARDIAN for Tweedles;

RAISE for Before it Disappears;

RANDOM FACTOR for Blurbs;

WATERSTONE'S DIARY 1997 for The Shoppers


with thanks

PROLOGUE - WATCH

When I was a young kid in junior school, perhaps seven or eight years old, one day this lad called Colin Bradshaw comes up to me in the playground.

'What time is it, Noony?' he asks.

'I don't know,' I reply.

'You mean you haven't got a wristwatch?'

'No.'

'I've got one. It's a special watch, like spies use. It's invisible.'

Now this Colin Bradshaw was the toughest kid in the class, and he was always hanging around with his gang, and playing tricks on the other kids.

'Wow! Invisible!' says I. 'Can I see it?'

'It's invisible, stupid! Anyway, I haven't got it on me today. It's at home. You can have it if you want. We can do swaps.'



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