Lifted

by Hilary Freeman

  ‘Let’s go,’ Noah whispered to Ruby. ‘Now!’

  They walked briskly to the exit, side by side, neither talking nor looking at one other. Once outside, Ruby grabbed Noah’s arm. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘God, that was close.’ She seemed stronger now, exhilarated even. Unselfconsciously, she put her hand to her chest as if she was checking her heart. It must have been racing. Had she enjoyed nearly getting caught, he wondered?

  ‘It was close,’ he said, flatly. He wasn’t excited at all, just relieved it was over and she was safe. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Yes, I think so. And hey, thank you. I think you just saved my life.’

  Noah blushed. ‘Nah, it was nothing.’ He grinned awkwardly. ‘Don’t mention it.’ He took a deep breath. It was now or never. ‘Fancy a milkshake?’ he asked.

  Chapter 8

  Ruby didn’t really want a milkshake but she didn’t have the energy to refuse, or, she realised, the inclination. If Noah was her guardian angel, she owed him. Probably a lot more than letting him buy her a milkshake, but it was a start.

  She let him take her to the burger bar at the other end of the high street. There was one directly opposite the department store, but she figured he was worried that the security guard might see them in there and have second thoughts about letting Ruby go. He was thoughtful like that, always had been. He found them a table and told Ruby to sit down while he went to fetch the milkshakes. He seemed surprised when she asked for vanilla; maybe it was because when she was little she always used to drink strawberry. Or was it chocolate? She could barely remember. Her insides were still churned up and she knew that whatever flavour she chose, it would be too sweet and too cold. She was starting to get a headache, and the brain freeze from the ice wouldn’t help, but she didn’t want to seem ungrateful. While she waited for Noah to come back, she went back over everything that had happened, retracing her steps in her head. She’d been certain nobody had seen her take the scarf. How could she have come so close to getting caught without realising it? Thank God Noah had been there. But why was he there? How did he know she was in the shop? Had he been following her? Was he really stalking her? The idea made her shiver.

  Best to come straight out with it. ‘Thanks,’ she said, when he arrived back with the milkshakes. ‘Look, I don’t mean to be a bitch, but I need to ask you something. How did you know I was in Kelly’s? Were you following me?

  ‘Not exactly,’ he said, unfazed, as if he’d been expecting her to ask. ‘I was on the high street buying a computer game and I saw you go into Kelly’s. I was going to come in and say hello, but then I twigged what you were going to do, so I stood there for a few minutes and kept a look-out for you, and then I saw the security guard and I thought I should warn you.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, relieved. ‘That’s OK. I mean, that’s nice of you. I don’t get how I didn’t notice you standing there at all.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I guess you were concentrating pretty hard.’

  ‘How come you said you knew what I was going to do?’ she asked, as it occurred to her. ‘Have you followed me before?’

  ‘Not exactly. Not like you think. I’ve not actually followed you in real life. But I have been reading your blog.’

  Ruby flushed. ‘Really? You’ve been reading it?’ She felt embarrassed and then annoyed and finally foolish, when she remembered that blogs were designed to be read by other people, even people who knew you. ‘How did you know it was mine?’

  ‘I helped set it up for you, remember?’

  ‘Oh yeah.’ She giggled. ‘But I said it was for a friend. How did you know it was me?’

  ‘I could just tell,’ he said. ‘It sounded like you. It’s a good blog. I’ve looked at thousands and most are pretty boring. At least you’ve got something to write about.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘My stupid, pathetic life.’

  ‘Don’t say that.’

  She shrugged.

  ‘I wanted to tell you the other day, but I wasn’t sure how to. Didn’t you notice you had a follower? At the end of your blog page there’s a bit for comments and followers. You’ve got just one: me.’

  Ruby hadn’t noticed. Once she’d written a blog entry she didn’t go back and look at it again. She didn’t like reading her own words. ‘No, I didn’t realise.’ She hesitated. ‘God, Noah, you won’t tell anyone, will you? You won’t tell my mum?’

  ‘Of course not. Why would I?’

  ‘I don’t know. You must think I’m a terrible person.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not terrible. You’re … normal … nice. And we all have secrets, even me.’

  He was probably only saying that to make her feel better, she decided. She couldn’t imagine what secrets he could possibly have, and she didn’t presume to ask him. ‘Thanks,’ she said. She tried to smile.

  ‘Actually, I think you’re a bit like Robin Hood.’

  Ruby burst out laughing. ‘Robin Hood! I think I’d rather be Maid Marian.’

  ‘No, seriously. You’re stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, in your own way. It’s not like you’re keeping what you nick.’

  She imagined herself dressed in green, with a bow and an arrow and a pointy hat. She smiled. ‘I guess I kind of am,’ she said. She liked thinking of herself as a hero, instead of a villain.

  ‘You’ve got to be careful, Ruby,’ he said. ‘I’m not always going to be there to watch your back. Maybe … Just be careful, OK.’

  ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I might not do it again, anyway.’ She knew that was a lie before she’d finished the sentence. She looked out of the window at the darkening sky and wondered if any of her friends had gone past and seen her sitting in the burger bar with Noah. She couldn’t quite decide whether or not she cared.

  Robyn Hood’s Blog

  I steal from expensive stores and give to charity shops

  February 24

  If you’re observant, you might have noticed that my blog now has a name. I’ve christened it … at last. Calling it ‘My Blog’ was getting a bit tired, don’t you think? Robyn Hood, that’s me. Do you like it? I think it describes me pretty well. Robyn, not Robin, because I’m a girl, if you hadn’t already figured that out. While there aren’t too many forests or glens or sheriffs, or friars around here, in my own way I’m stealing from the rich and giving the poor, aren’t I? (And, for the Robin Hood film-lovers among you, don’t forget the first thing I stole was tights!) I’m just updating it, bringing it into the twenty-first century. I’d like to take all the credit for the name, but it was actually someone else’s idea, the only other person who knows I’m writing this blog. Of course, if he tells anyone, I’ll have to kill him. Slowly.

  I like the idea of being a modern-day outlaw, a female bandit. They had them in the Wild West, didn’t they? Maybe I should adopt a uniform, or a costume, like Zorro. I could wear a mask and tie my hair up under a hat, so nobody would know I was a girl. And then I could ride around the high street on my horse, spreading fear and panic wherever I went. When I chose a shop to target, I would hold out my gun and say, ‘Stand and deliver! Your charity shop donations or your life!’ and the shop assistants would quake with fear and give me whatever I wanted. I’d put my loot in a big sack, which I’d swing over my shoulder, and then I’d trot down the street, handing out goodies to the charity volunteers. They’d all stand outside their shops and cheer and clap. And little children would run after me …

  I know I’m getting a bit carried away here, but let me have my little fantasy. It sure beats school and coursework and exams. It just seems a real shame that I’ll never be able to tell my friends or my family what I’m up to.

  Posted by Robyn Hood at 8:05 PM

  Comments: 1

  the investig8tor: Your secret is safe with me.

  Followers: 1

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  Chapter 9

  Noah watched Ruby from his bedroom window, just as he had done many times before. She was sitting on the w
all outside her house again, waiting for her dad to pick her up. He knew this for certain because she’d told him the day before, when they had bumped into each other in the street. Since he’d rescued her from the security guard, a couple of weeks before, she always acted as if she was pleased to see him and happy to talk to him, treating him more like a friend and less like an annoyance, although that wasn’t always the case when they were at school – there she still gave the impression that she was slightly embarrassed to know him. Much as it hurt him, he pretended not to notice. After all, school was school and nobody was really themselves there.

  Perhaps she was thinking about him too, because she glanced upwards for a moment and waved, which made his tummy do little somersaults. He waved back, but she had already turned away, and she was now doing something with her mobile phone. Texting someone, probably.

  He liked being the inspiration for the title of Ruby’s blog, and he felt privileged to be the only person in the world to share her secret, but he couldn’t help feeling that he was encouraging her shoplifting habit, which he hadn’t meant to do. Whenever she saw him now she would tell him what she’d stolen, and which charity shop she’d taken it to, sometimes even before she blogged about it. It made him feel special and important, and he was aware that he responded with enthusiasm and excitement, rather than disapproval. Did that make him a bad person? It wasn’t as though he was asking her to steal, or congratulating her on it. And he knew she wasn’t a bad person either, just a bit mixed up.

  Quite why Ruby stole still made little sense to him, despite his conversations with her, and the fact that he had read her blogs over and over again in an attempt to find some explanation. It was like trying to decipher an invisible code, and Noah, usually good at cracking codes, found his inability to solve this one immensely frustrating. To tell the truth, he found Ruby immensely frustrating. Frustrating and captivating and irritating and amazing, all at once. He wasn’t used to having so many conflicting and confusing feelings at the same time, and it scared him. Sometimes he wondered if he’d rather go back to the way things were before he knew the truth, when life was simple, but then he and Ruby would be practically strangers again, and he was certain he didn’t want that either.

  He heard a car pull up outside. Ruby’s dad must have arrived. When he looked out of the window again, she was climbing into the front seat and closing the car door beside her. The car sped off down the street, and he sighed and wondered what time she’d be back. She’d told him she wouldn’t be staying over; she rarely did these days. Her dad had a new girlfriend, and Ruby didn’t like her much. ‘The evil stepmother-to-be’, she called her, even though, as far as Noah knew, she’d only been on the scene for a few weeks. Noah was glad his parents were still together and that at least he didn’t have to worry about things like that. The thought of his dad or his mum – especially his mum – kissing someone else made him cringe. Mind you, the sight of his parents kissing each other was bad enough. He turned back to his computer, but he wasn’t in the mood for working on his project. It was reaching the point where it was almost complete and he’d have to tell someone about it, and he wasn’t sure who to tell, or who he could trust. Instead, he decided to play a computer game, a Second World War game with hyper-realistic graphics that someone had copied for him, and once he’d mastered that (killing twenty-seven Nazis in record time), he chatted to a couple of friends online. It was so easy to waste a Saturday afternoon.

  The next time he saw Ruby, it was dark and after dinner. The rest of his family were watching The X Factor together, and because it wasn’t his thing he’d excused himself and gone up to his bedroom. He hadn’t remembered to close the curtains earlier, so when he sat down at his desk he could still see out on to the street. Ruby was sitting on top of one of the giant dustbins in her front garden, swinging her legs backwards and forwards. He wondered how long she’d been there. She looked more beautiful than ever, he thought, her silhouette illuminated by the street lamp, and a halo of light around her hair. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but it seemed as if she’d been waiting for him, because the moment she noticed him at the window she jumped down from her perch and walked out into the road towards him. Then she leaned backwards, so that she was staring directly into his window, and she waved. At least, it looked like a wave, at first. On second thoughts, Noah realised that she wasn’t saying hello, she was drawing her hand in towards her body, motioning to him. Could she be asking him to come out to her? He opened the window and leaned out. ‘Hey, Ruby, do you want me to come down?’ he shouted.

  She put her finger to her lips to silence him, and nodded, beckoning him again.

  He nodded back at her and closed the window, aware that his heart had started beating very fast. ‘Just popping out,’ he shouted, as he ran downstairs, knowing that nobody would hear him over the noise of the television. Without stopping to grab a jacket, he ran through the hall and straight out of the front door. It was only after he’d closed it behind him that he realised he didn’t have his keys.

  He’d thought Ruby might be waiting for him outside his house, but she had returned to her dustbin seat in her garden, where he’d first spotted her.

  She smiled when she saw him approach. ‘Take a pew,’ she said, pointing to the other dustbin. ‘Thanks loads for coming out. I wasn’t sure if you’d see me.’

  He sat down next to her. It was surprisingly comfortable. ‘You’re lucky I did,’ he said. ‘How long have you been out here for?’

  ‘I dunno. A while. Mum thinks I’m still at Dad’s. That’s why I’m at the bins. You can’t see them from the window. If she comes out, I’ll say I just came back and bumped into you outside.’

  ‘Right,’ he said, nervously. There was a silence and he felt he had to fill it. ‘Hey, remember when we were small and we used to play hide and seek in these bins all the time, and then there was that day in the summer holidays that your mum couldn’t find you, and the bin men came, and she got into a huge panic thinking you’d got mangled up in the lorry?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Ruby, giggling. ‘I think she even called the council. My dad was frantic too. And I was at your house all the time, thinking I was so clever hiding in the cupboard under the stairs. I couldn’t understand why everyone was so angry with me when I finally came out. I’d just got bored waiting to be found.’

  ‘I got into loads of trouble for that too, you know?’

  ‘I didn’t realise. Sorry.’

  ‘It’s OK, I forgave you. Eventually.’

  She smiled. ‘Good. Hey, Noah, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why are you always sitting there, looking out of your window?’

  ‘I’m not watching out for you, if that’s what you think,’ he said, not entirely truthfully. She blushed. ‘It’s just because my desk is by the window. So whenever I’m on my PC you can see me, that’s all. And waiting for stuff to download or to render can take forever. It gets really boring, so while I’m waiting I look out the window to see what’s going on.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘But what exactly do you do on your computer all the time? It can’t all be schoolwork.’

  ‘Just stuff,’ he said. He didn’t know whether he should tell her, whether she’d really be interested, or whether she’d understand. So he played it down. ‘You know, just games and programming systems and finding data, things like that.’ He saw that she was nodding blankly. ‘It’s pretty boring, really. Maybe one day I’ll tell you about it properly.’

  ‘Oh, right, yeah, thanks.’

  ‘I talk to my mates a lot online too,’ he said, worried that he’d made himself sound like a nerd again.

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ she said. She paused. ‘So, I guess you’re probably wondering why I called you down here. There’s a reason.’

  Noah’s pulse quickened. ‘Yeah?’ What he really wanted her to say was, ‘Because I missed you so much and I really needed to be with you’ but he knew that was a silly fantasy. Whatever her reason, it wasn’t to declare her undying love.

&n
bsp; ‘It’s about you know what.’

  His heart sank. Of course it was. ‘Right.’

  ‘My dad took me to this shop this afternoon. It sold jewellery and scarves and bags and stuff like that. He wanted to get a present for Evil Stepmother and he dragged me there to help him. Because I’m a girl, so supposedly I’ll know what she’d like. Like all women are the same. Anyway, that’s not important. The thing is, I took something while we were in there. It just sort of happened.’

  Noah widened his eyes. ‘Ruby! When you were with your dad? What if he’d seen you? What if you’d got caught?’

  ‘Yeah, I know, it was stupid. But all the shop assistants were fussing around him because he looks like he has loads of cash, and nobody was taking any notice of me, and there was no security or anything that I could see, and, I don’t know, I just did it. To see if I could.’

  He nodded. ‘So what did you take?’

  She reached into her pocket. ‘These. Earrings.’ She held them out to him, as if she was asking for his approval. They were delicate-looking, with different-shaped coloured stones hanging down like grapes.

  ‘Nice,’ he said. He knew that wasn’t the right thing to say. ‘I mean, um, I see.’

  ‘The thing is, when he brought me home I got him to drop me off on the high street and I tried three different charity shops, but none of them will take earrings for pierced ears. They said it’s not hygienic because of hepatitis or HIV or something, and they can’t sell them. They’re not allowed. So I’m stuck with these brand new earrings that I can’t give away, and there’s no way I can wear them, obviously, and I don’t know what to do with them.’

  It dawned on him that she wanted him to help her. ‘Right … Are you asking me to take them off you?’