by Kim Curran
“Oh, right.” She certainly didn’t look it. I had been trying to be nice when I said she looked fourteen. I’d had her placed at thirteen tops. “But why does that matter?”
“I suppose I’m not as much use to her now.”
“Oh, cause the little kids do better with the donors?”
“I guess.” Ella wrapped her arms tighter around herself and in the pale light I could see the hairs on her arms were standing up.
Reluctantly, because I knew I should rather than because I wanted to, I slipped off my jacket and handed it to her. “Here. You look cold.”
She looked at the jacket for the longest time as if it were a puzzle she was trying to work out. Then looked up at me and smiled. The first smile I’d seen from her. She had really tiny teeth and too much gum. But it was a nice smile anyway.
“Thank you,” she said.
“No problem,” I said, regretting the decision instantly. It was really cold out here. I even thought about Shifting and taking it back. But she looked so happy as she slipped her arms into the sleeves that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “I’d better get back inside,” I said, feeling worried that if I stayed out any longer she might actually open up and then where would I be?
“Oh, OK,” she said, looking genuinely upset. She went to take the jacket off.
“Nah! You can give it back to me later. Just don’t get any ideas that you’re a Bluecoat though.” I laughed. And then felt like a fool.
“A Bluecoat?”
“An officer at ARES.” She still looked blank. “Never mind,” I said. “Just give it back when you’re ready.”
I returned to the dining hall, but Aubrey wasn’t back yet. I hoped she wouldn’t be much longer. I didn’t want to spend any more time with that creepy girl and her dark, penetrating eyes.
I sat back down, rubbing my cold fingers between my knees. Ella returned a few minutes later, still wearing my jacket, and gave me a small smile. I tried to return it. As long as she stayed in the hall where I could keep an eye on her that would be fine.
Finally, after what seemed like an age, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“What took you so long?” I said, probably too loudly.
Aubrey slung one leg then the other over onto the bench, kicking me in the shins. Whether it was on purpose or not, I didn’t know. “I found Frankie’s office,” she whispered, leaning into me.
“And?”
“And nothing. Just piles of paper on the charity.”
“What were you expecting, Nancy Drew?” I asked. “Her broomstick?”
“Ha, ha,” Aubrey said, not amused. “I don’t know. Something that might lead me…” Her voice trailed off.
I reached under the table and took her hands in mine. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK,” she said, but her hitched smile relayed her obvious disappointment. Then her eyes fell on Ella, still wearing my jacket. She lowered her head and raised an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “You said keep her busy.”
The hall was mostly empty now as the children went off to play or do homework or whatever it was they got up to here.
The kids from our table hadn’t moved and were busy clearing all the plates by passing them all to Kushi, who stacked them up on the end.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Cards,” Hamid said. “You wanna play?”
“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
“You got money?” Hazid said.
“You know what Frankie said about betting for money,” Kushi said, wagging a finger at him.
“OK, then. No money. We play for honour!” Hamid said.
“Honour and cheesy puffs,” his brother said, and the other kids laughed.
I accepted the cards I was dealt with a little trepidation. Because I knew when Shifters played cards all rules were off.
The game was a weird version of poker, with rules of the kids’ own making. Aces were low and high, depending on your hand and you could pull one card from your neighbour, just to overcome the Shifting advantage. We were using cheesy crisp puffs as betting chips.
I looked at the hand I was dealt. Threw away three cards and pulled three more. I’d just thrown away the card I needed to make a half-decent hand. So I Shifted and only threw away two cards. Looking around the table it looked as if the rest of the players were all going through similar choices: Shifting and Shifting again, till they were happy with their cards.
“So, why didn’t you go with Frankie tonight, Ella?” Hazid asked, pulling a card from Ella’s hand and scowling at it.
“Like she said. She wanted Kia to go instead,” Ella said.
“Do you normally go with her?” Aubrey asked, taking a card from my hand. She’d just taken a king, messing up the flush I was going for. Only she Shifted and this time took a jack. She smiled.
“She always takes at least one of us,” Hazid said, picking up a card and holding it to his chest.
“She took me to London this week,” Kushi said, throwing down a card. “It was fun!” She held her cards up to me so I could choose one. I went for the card on the end and got a nine of hearts.
The dealing and deciding was over. Now it was time to show our hands.
In turn, each of the kids lay down their cards. I was to go last. Unsurprisingly, there were some pretty amazing hands. So far Kushi was winning.
“Well, you got me,” I said, throwing down my cards without turning them up. I had a royal flush. More than enough to beat Kushi’s hand. But I couldn’t do it. “I’m out.”
Kushi squealed in happiness and dragged all the cheesy crisps towards her. She picked up a handful and squashed them into her mouth.
“No fair,” Hamid said. “Now we can’t win them back.”
“You were never going to win them back,” Ella said. “Not till you learn to stop fighting among yourselves. You’re brothers. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Hamid and Hazid looked at each other for a moment, then back to Ella. “No,” they said in unison. And returned to the game.
Ella looked up to the ceiling and shook her head. “Why me?” she said.
“Stop looking at my cards!” Hazid shouted at his brother.
“If you didn’t wave them about so much, it wouldn’t be so easy.”
Hazid stared at his brother’s cards and suddenly instead of having five, he had three. Hamid then threw them at his brother and the two started to fight again, before being pulled apart by Ella. Kushi took advantage of the distraction to steal another handful of crisps from the middle of the table.
It looked as if the game was over.
I checked my watch. It was 9pm.
“God, I’d better call home. Tell them I won’t be back,” I said. “Um, Ella, can I have my phone? It’s in the inside of my jacket.”
“Oh,” she said, reaching inside the coat. “Is this it?”
I’d kind of hoped she’d give back the jacket too. But the phone would have to do for now.
I took it off her then stood up and walked into the other room for a bit of privacy. Only there were a few girls in here, doing each other’s hair. They giggled as I walked in.
I kept going, through the room with the huge mirror and back out into the entrance hall. I pulled open the large front door and went outside. It was totally dark now, the only light coming from the glowing screen of my phone.
I pulled up the menu and hit the button for “home”. It took a while for anyone to answer.
“Hello,” Katie said.
“Hey, sis. It’s me.”
“Scott,” she said, sounding genuinely pleased to hear from me. “Where are you?”
“I’m in the middle of bloody nowhere,” I said, looking out at the blackness ahead. “Some great big stately home in Sussex.”
“No fair, you get to have all the fun, while I’m stuck at home with Them.”
As if on cue, I heard Mum scream something at Dad.
“I’ll be home tomorrow, and we’ll do something
, just you and me, OK? Anything you want,” I said.
“Anything?” she said, sounding mischievous, and I was already regretting it.
“Within reason.”
“There’s this new ride–”
I cut her off with a groan. I hated roller coasters, but Katie loved them.
“You said anything I wanted.”
“OK,” I said. “But I’m not going on it with you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to. You’d only end up throwing up on me.”
I went to protest, but there was no point. She was right. “Listen, Katie, I won’t be coming home tonight. It’s a work thing.”
“Oh, yeah, a work thing. Say ‘hi’ to your work thing for me.”
I heard another crash from the other end of the phone.
“Katie, go into my room, and on my desk are my new headphones. The noise cancelling ones.”
“The really expensive ones?”
“Yeah. Well, you can have them. For tonight.”
“Can I have your iPod too?”
“I guess.”
“Good, cause I’ve already loaded it up with all my songs. You have sucky taste in music.”
“Night, Katie.”
“Night, Scott.”
I looked down at the screen of my phone as I hung up. I really should do something to try and help her. Something to try and help my parents. Maybe there was a Shift I could make. But every time I thought of one, I just saw Katie’s broken body under the truck. Better leave things as they were.
“I was coming to check on you,” Aubrey said, as I walked back in the front door. “Everything OK?”
“Yeah, probably didn’t even need to bother though.”
“Must be nice. Having someone to worry about you,” she said, crossing the hallway.
“I worry about you,” I said, taking hold of either side of her jacket and pulling her towards me. “Besides, Katie is the only one who worries.”
“That’s enough.”
I stifled a yawn.
“Still tired?” Aubrey asked.
“Always. Where do you think we’re going to sleep?”
“You can sleep in my room. We can have a slumber party!” Kushi said, suddenly appearing from behind Aubrey’s legs.
“Um, I think we need to get some sleep, but thanks. Another time,” Aubrey said, patting her head.
“There’s a spare room across the hall from me. I’ll show you. Come on.”
Kushi grabbed Aubrey’s hand and dragged her up the stairs. I followed her. She ran as fast as her little legs would carry her and we had to walk quickly to keep up. She led us all the way up the spiralling staircase to the very top of the house.
“This is Hamid and Hazid’s bedroom,” Kushi said, throwing open a door to a largish room. I peered in and saw that the room had been split in two using a large sheet of wood. One single bed was pushed up against the right hand of the divider, while another bed was pushed up against the left hand side. I imagined the boys sleeping, their heads separated now by an inch of plywood.
“Kia sleeps in there.” She pointed at a third, small room, which was covered in posters of what I guessed were Asian pop stars, and cartoon kittens.
“Cute,” Aubrey said and turned to leave.
As I went to follow, the room changed as wherever she was, Kia changed back to Pia. The pop stars were replaced with pictures of flashy cars and even flashier footballers. One of the players grinned down at me, all muscles rippling and slicked back blonde hair. None other than my old nemesis, Zac Black. He’d used his official Shifting license to become lead striker for Chelsea Football Club. The git. Quite the change from his alternative life in the cells at ARES, waiting till entropy set him free. Now it felt as if he was watching me everywhere I went; staring up at me from newspapers and down from aftershave ads. I hated him more than ever.
I quickly closed the door before Aubrey could see the poster. It was weird, but she’d been happier when Zac had stayed on the wrong side of ARES. Now he was using his power to become rich and famous, she couldn’t even bear to say his name.
Kushi then showed us her room. It was an explosion of pink. Pink walls, pink duvet covers and pink curtains. She didn’t have many belongings from what I could see. But those that she did have were mostly pink.
“And you can stay in there.” She pointed at last to a door at the far end of the hall. “If you need a dolly to sleep with you can have one of mine.”
“We’ll be fine,” Aubrey said. “And you should go to sleep too. It’s past your bedtime.”
“Will you read me a story?” Kushi asked, her wide eyes getting even wider still. Who could say no to a face like that?
“OK. Just one,” Aubrey said.
We walked into the room and Kushi bounced into the bed, kicked off her little red shoes and pulled the duvet over her, not bothering to change out of her dress.
“Do you have any books?” Aubrey said, looking around.
“Um… no,” Kushi said.
“Then how can we read you a story?” I asked.
“Make one up!” Kushi said.
“I’m not very good at that,” Aubrey said, looking at me for help.
“Oh,” Kushi said, her little face looking crestfallen. Then she perked up. “That’s OK. I am. I’ll tell you a story.”
“That’s a great idea,” Aubrey said, sitting on the floor in front of Kushi’s bed. I followed her example.
“There once was a princess who lived in a faraway land,” Kushi began. “Only she didn’t know she was a princess. Her parents both died when she was really little, and she was left wandering the dark forests on her own. At night, she would sleep in tunnels under the ground to stay away from the monsters that came out at night. But sometimes, the monsters would find their way into her tunnels and she would have to fight them off. And that made her very scared. She was very tired and very hungry. Then one day, a queen from another land found her curled up under a tree and she picked her up and carried her home. And told her that she could be her princess as she didn’t have any of her own. And the little girl lived happily ever after. The end.”
“That’s a lovely story. Thank you, Kushi,” Aubrey said.
Kushi smiled, happy with herself. She rubbed at her eyes and lay down on the bed.
“Where are you from, Kushi?” I asked.
“Frankie says she found me in a place called Ulaan-baa-tar.” She stretched each syllable out, making each a last for ages. “Sounds funny doesn’t it? Like a name from a story. I can’t remember it,” Kushi said, her voice now slurring with sleep. “I remember the tunnels where I used to sleep. They were warm but they smelt funny.” She yawned and pulled her dolly up under her chin and closed her eyes.
Aubrey stood up and pulled the duvet to cover her. We tiptoed out, quietly, turning the light off as we left.
“She slept in tunnels?” I said.
“And had to fight off monsters.”
I looked back at the sleeping girl and wondered if she had nightmares too.
“So, do you want to do any more exploring?” I said, as Aubrey closed Kushi’s door.
“No,” she said, leaning back against the doorframe, knee bent, boot resting against the wood. “I’m done. You were right. Frankie doesn’t have anything to hide. I don’t know why I thought I’d find answers here.” She pushed off and walked away. “No, the sooner we’re out of here the better.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Then I turned to look at the door to our bedroom.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The room was tiny, maybe six foot by ten, with only a small, single bed pushed up against the far wall. It had a bright patchwork quilt thrown over it. So small and snug. Hardly enough space for one person, let alone two.
I coughed. “I can sleep on the floor.”
Aubrey tilted her head and fixed me with a smile that made my knees go instantly weak.
I watched her slide off her jacket and her boots, kicking them both off without
bothering to undo the laces. I copied her, throwing my hoodie over a chair in the corner and struggling to undo my trainers. I had to bend over and undo a knot that was refusing to release, and by the time I’d stood up again, Aubrey was standing bare legged, only her ARES T-shirt on.
I stared at her legs, my eyes running from her ankles, up her knees and to her thighs.
“It’s freezing!” she said, jumping onto the bed and diving under the covers.
“Is it?” I just about managed to croak. I didn’t know about freezing. My face was burning so red I thought it would be enough to heat the room.
Aubrey popped her head out from under the covers and blew her tousled hair out of her eyes. “Are you going to stand there all night?” She patted the bed next to her.
It took an extra effort to struggle out of my trousers and I hesitated for a moment over whether I should keep my T-shirt on or off. I decided to keep it on. Then I sat down on the bed. Aubrey shuffled over towards the wall, giving me space and I climbed in next to her.
We lay there, staring up at the ceiling, and I was intensely aware of the presence of her leg next to mine. Its softness and smoothness. It seemed to radiate heat.
The cracks in the ceiling looked like faces grinning down on us. One of them looked disturbingly like Hugo.
Aubrey rolled over onto her side and pulled my arm up and over her shoulder, so she could tuck herself under it.
It’s going to happen, I thought. It’s actually going to happen.
Don’t be stupid, Scott, I thought straight after. It’s never going to happen.
I felt Aubrey’s leg glide over my calf and she shuffled up the bed slightly so that our faces were just inches apart. She rested her hand on my chest.
I twisted my head around, careful not to make any movements that might dislodge her leg from where it was currently resting so perfectly, and looked into her eyes. She smiled.
It was going to happen.
I brushed her hair out of her eyes and stroked my thumb down the side of her cheek. She nestled her face into the palm of my hand before copying my action: stroking my face with a single finger. It stopped on my lips. I opened my mouth the tiniest fraction to kiss her fingertip.
I lowered my head and we kissed, gently at first and then steadily more deeply. I could feel her heart pounding against my chest. Or was it my heart pounding against hers? It didn’t matter.