Hannah in the Spotlight

by Natasha Mac a'Bháird

  ‘Hannah …’ Bobby said, tugging at my sleeve urgently.

  ‘I said not now!’ I repeated in a fierce whisper.

  I wondered how much the book would cost to replace. It was a big encyclopaedia so it was probably pretty expensive. Even if Tyler was going to have to pay half of it, I wasn’t sure I had enough money for Zach’s share.

  Mr Jenkins was still muttering away. ‘Disgraceful behaviour … completely careless … think they’d been brought up in a zoo … not like in my day …’

  ‘But Hannah!’ Bobby said loudly.

  ‘SHUSH!’ said Mr Jenkins. ‘No shouting in the library!’

  Bobby ignored him. ‘Hannah, I can’t find Maisie.’

  Chapter Seven

  With a jump I realised how long it was since I’d seen Maisie. I had been so caught up in the book, and then in the row, that I hadn’t even glanced over to the table where she’d been colouring.

  Tracey sniggered. ‘You really shouldn’t be allowed out. Those children need a proper babysitter. You know, one who doesn’t let them tear up books, and generally knows where they are?’

  I ignored her. ‘Stay here,’ I ordered Zach and Bobby.

  ‘Hey!’ shouted Mr Jenkins, forgetting his own rule about not shouting in the library. ‘Where do you think you’re going – I haven’t finished!’

  I ignored him too. I rushed over to the children’s section. No Maisie at the colouring table, no Maisie at the comfy chairs along the window. No Maisie in any of the book aisles. No Maisie in front of the audiobooks and DVDs.

  I checked the toilets, even though I didn’t really think Maisie would have gone in there on her own – she’s scared of the noisy handdryers. No one there either.

  I was starting to panic now. Where could she have got to? Surely she wouldn’t have left the library all on her own – would she? Maisie was a daydreamer – what if she got it into her head that we’d gone home without her, and decided to follow us?

  I rushed to the window and looked out onto the road. The first thing that caught my eye was the church hall where Mum had taken Emma to Tiny Tunes. Could Maisie have tried to go there to find Mum? It was on the other side of the road, across four lanes of traffic.

  I felt sick with fear. Maisie was only five – there was no way she should be out on her own, never mind trying to cross a busy street. Desperate, I ran back over to the desk.

  ‘Now look here …’ Mr Jenkins began once again.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’ve lost another one!’ Tracey could hardly keep the glee out of her voice.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  I could have cried with relief. Rebecca, the nice young red-haired librarian, was standing behind Mr Jenkins, a look of true concern on her face.

  ‘I’ve lost Maisie,’ I told her, trying to hold back the tears. ‘I’ve searched the children’s section, and I can’t find her anywhere.’

  Zach had pretty much stopped crying about the book, but looked like he was on the verge of crying about Maisie instead, and even Bobby wasn’t far behind him.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure she hasn’t gone far,’ Rebecca said. Her voice was so calm and kind that I felt reassured at once. ‘Now, why don’t you two boys come and sit down over here with your books, and I’ll help Hannah look for Maisie.’

  Taking absolutely no notice of grumpy old Mr Jenkins, Rebecca steered the two boys over to a couch in a central spot where we’d be able to keep an eye on them. She turned back to me. ‘Now, she’s definitely not in the children’s section?’

  ‘No. I looked everywhere,’ I told her, my voice trembling.

  ‘And she’s not in the toilet?’

  ‘No, I looked there too.’

  ‘Then let’s try the adult section. She may have wandered over there looking for you.’

  Rebecca led the way, calm and efficient. I was so glad to have someone else take charge. I followed behind her, my eyes darting all over, hoping Maisie would just suddenly appear.

  Rebecca walked along one side of the rows of shelves and I walked down the other. I even looked under the shelves, just in case Maisie was hiding under there for some reason. I spotted discarded books, an empty water bottle, and lots and lots of dust – but absolutely no sign of a cute little five-year-old with blonde plaits and a blue dress.

  I was just beginning to feel a bit frantic when I heard Rebecca calling. ‘Hannah!’ I knew from her voice that it was good news. ‘Over here!’

  I found Rebecca standing in the doorway to a room at the back of the library. It was a big bright room, normally used for book clubs and meetings and talks.

  Rebecca turned to me with a big smile. ‘Looks like your little bookworm just wanted a quiet place to read!’

  I looked where she was pointing. At the back of the room, curled up underneath a table, was Maisie! She had a book in her hand and was completely oblivious to her surroundings. She didn’t even look up when Rebecca and I went into the room, and I had to bend right down under the table and say her name before she noticed me.

  ‘Maisie! What are you doing here?’

  Maisie looked up, wide-eyed and perfectly calm. ‘Those boys were being so noisy. I needed somewhere quiet to read.’

  I was too relieved to be cross, and I gave her a big hug. ‘I’m glad you’re all right. I think it’s about time we headed home, don’t you? You can find somewhere quiet to read there. Oh …’ I remembered about the books.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Rebecca asked.

  ‘It’s just we were all hoping to take out some books, but I don’t have enough money to pay the fine first,’ I said, blushing. ‘For the book that got torn, you know – it wasn’t Zach’s fault …’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ Rebecca said. ‘I know you’ll pay it the next time you’re in. Come with me and I’ll check those books out for you.’

  She led the way to the desk, completely ignoring Mr Jenkins, who was still grumbling, and checked out all our books. Bobby and Zach brought theirs over and Rebecca put those in the pile too. She handed them to me with a big smile. ‘Now you’re good to go – that should give you enough reading material for a few days!’

  ‘Thanks so much,’ I said. ‘I’ll have the money next time, I promise.’

  I rounded the children up and headed for the door. I’d never felt so glad to be leaving the library before. But it had all ended a lot better than it could have. I shivered as I saw cars flying along the main road at top speed, and clutched Maisie’s hand tightly. I was never letting her out of my sight again!

  The library drama seemed to have had quite an effect on both the boys, who went off to their room to read their books without me even suggesting it. Maisie curled up on one end of the couch with hers, and I sat down with mine too. There was just time to read a bit more before I needed to start thinking about getting some lunch ready. Soon I was lost in the Fossils’ world again, standing in the wings with Pauline feverishly going over Tyltyl’s lines from The Bluebird, waiting for the cue to step onto the stage.

  I made cheese and salad sandwiches for lunch, and cut up enough apples for everyone (Maisie and Bobby won’t eat apples unless they’re chopped up). I had just finished when Mum and Emma came through the door. Emma was cranky – she always gets like that when she’s been out all morning and is late having her lunch.

  ‘I’ll take her, Mum,’ I said, reaching out for my little sister.

  ‘Thanks, Hannah.’ Mum put her into my arms and went to call to the others.

  I sang to Emma as I brought her over to her highchair, swaying her over and back in time to the song. She was smiling again by the time I handed her her own bread and cheese cut into easy-to-hold fingers.

  Mum came back into the kitchen and planted a kiss on top of my head. ‘Oh, Hannah, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re such a great big sister.’

  Apart from losing Maisie, and letting Zach get into a row with Tyler, I thought to myself, feeling a bit guilty. But there was no point in worrying Mum now that i
t was all over so I just mumbled, ‘Thanks’ as I went to put the sandwiches on the table. I was glad to be finished with big sister duties for the day – and I’d definitely do a much better job the next time.

  Chapter Eight

  I squeezed through the gap in the hedge at exactly two minutes to three, the library copy of Ballet Shoes tucked under my arm. I found Meg spreading a picnic blanket on the lawn. ‘I hope this is OK,’ she said anxiously. ‘We don’t have any garden furniture yet.’

  ‘Of course it is,’ I said quickly. ‘Although you should know that Ruby will probably turn it into an exercise mat and start doing her stretches on it.’

  Meg laughed. ‘She sure is obsessed with ballet, isn’t she?’

  There it was again – something in her voice that didn’t sound Irish. Was it American maybe? I was about to comment, but Meg said, ‘I think I hear the doorbell.’

  She returned a minute later with Laura and Ruby.

  ‘Hi, guys,’ I said. ‘Ready for another meeting of Star Club?’

  ‘Definitely!’ Ruby did a series of ballet leaps and landed on the rug beside me. ‘Look, that was me being Posy showing her sisters a pas de chat. Oh.’ She stopped and looked around. ‘I’m not, like, assuming that I’m Posy or anything. If anyone else wants to be her that’s fine.’ She lowered her eyes and started playing with the fringe on the rug.

  ‘Yes, I was thinking I’d like to be Posy, actually,’ Laura said, winking at me.

  ‘Oh,’ Ruby said, still not looking up.

  ‘Yes, because I like joking around, just like Posy,’ Laura said. ‘Plus the fact that I’m so graceful, and so good at ballet, of the two-left-feet variety.’ She couldn’t keep it up any longer and suddenly burst out laughing. ‘Ruby, you should see the look on your face!’

  Ruby blushed. ‘OK, you had me there! So I can be Posy then?’ She looked from me to Meg, still a bit anxious.

  ‘Of course you can,’ I reassured her.

  ‘You’re perfect for it,’ Meg added.

  It was my turn to suddenly become very interested in Meg’s rug instead of my friends’ faces. ‘Who does everyone else want to be?’

  ‘I really don’t mind,’ Laura said. ‘It depends what scenes we’re going to do, really.’

  ‘I’d quite like to be Petrova,’ Meg said shyly. ‘I really like her character. But I don’t mind if you want to be her, Hannah.’

  ‘I was hoping to be Pauline, actually,’ I admitted.

  ‘Looks like we’re sorted, so!’ Laura said. ‘I’m happy to be whatever extra character is needed. I can do all sorts of parts – look.’ She suddenly pulled a series of faces, from grumpy to miserable to over the moon with excitement, which had us all giggling once again.

  We had all brought our copies of the book so we flicked through to scenes we thought we might do. We started reading bits out to each other, trying to get a feel for the characters we were playing.

  We were just starting to get somewhere when I realised we had an audience. Maisie was watching us over the hedge.

  ‘Maisie, what are you doing?’ I demanded.

  ‘Just watching,’ Maisie said. ‘Can I be in it? I could be the cousin who comes to visit.’

  ‘There isn’t a cousin,’ I told her.

  ‘Can I be the dog then? I’m really good at being a dog.’ Maisie’s head disappeared as she got down on all fours and started making barking noises through the hedge. Ruby collapsed into giggles.

  ‘There isn’t a dog either!’ I told her, marching over to the hedge. ‘Go away please, you’re distracting us.’

  Maisie stood up again. ‘I don’t have to go away. I’m only watching. It’s a free country, isn’t it?’ I know she’d heard Zach saying the same thing to Bobby the day before and she’d obviously saved the remark to use later.

  ‘Maisie!’ I hissed at her. ‘I mean it. Go away or I’m telling Mum.’

  ‘Fine!’ Maisie stomped off, shouting over her shoulder, ‘It was pretty boring anyway, if you want to know!’

  I went back over to my friends, feeling embarrassed. ‘Sorry, guys. She can be a real pain sometimes.’

  ‘She does make a pretty good dog,’ Ruby giggled.

  ‘We know where to turn if the plot takes an unexpected twist!’ Meg said.

  ‘Where were we?’ I asked, wanting to drop the subject of Maisie. ‘Laura, it was your turn I think.’

  Laura was struggling a bit with the Russian accent for Madame Fidolia, the head of the theatre school the children were attending.

  ‘Try watching videos of Russian people speaking on YouTube,’ Meg suggested. ‘It’s a really handy way of practising accents.’

  ‘That’s a great idea, thanks,’ Laura said.

  ‘No problem. I used to do it all the time when …’ Meg stopped. ‘When I was in a school play before. I had to play this French woman, and I just couldn’t get the accent right. I ended up watching loads of clips of French actors speaking English until I was practically talking that way inside my head!’

  She started demonstrating her French accent, accompanied by lots of dramatic hand gestures. I wondered what it was she had been about to say. One thing was for sure, it wasn’t what she ended up saying.

  My train of thought was interrupted by yelling from next door as Bobby came charging into the garden swinging his lightsaber. Zach followed close behind him, wearing a Jedi knight mask and pointing a toy gun at him.

  ‘You’ll never get me!’ Bobby shouted at him.

  ‘Yes I will!’ Zach shouted back. ‘I’ve got supersonic blaster rays!’

  I groaned. ‘Sorry, guys.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Laura said. ‘We’ll shut them up if they get too noisy. Let’s go on with the next scene – I’ll practise my Russian accent later.’

  Meg and I started reading out some bits of dialogue between Pauline and Petrova, but I kept finding myself distracted by the Star Wars battle going on next door, especially when Zach apparently killed Bobby and he had to die with the loudest yells and groans you can imagine. Eventually though I managed to tune them out, and we had a fun afternoon, working out which scenes we’d do, and what parts we needed Laura to play.

  I didn’t even notice how much time had gone by until the doorbell started ringing. It was Ruby’s brother coming to call her home for dinner. Ruby rushed off, promising to work out Posy’s dance routine for next time.

  Laura and I helped Meg to tidy up, then Laura said, ‘I’d better be going too. Hannah, do you want to walk home with me?’

  ‘I would but we’re not exactly going in the same direction!’ I pointed out.

  ‘You’re not in a hurry home though, are you?’ Laura persisted.

  ‘That’s true.’ Having listened to the boys’ shouting coming over the hedge all afternoon, I definitely wasn’t in a hurry to be back in the middle of that.

  ‘Thanks for everything, Meg,’ Laura said. ‘We can go to my house next time.’

  ‘See you then – and I’ll definitely know my first set of lines,’ Meg said with a smile as she opened the front door for us.

  Laura waited until we were a little way down the road, then glanced back to check Meg had closed the door behind us. ‘So, what do you think Meg’s story is?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘There’s something strange going on,’ Laura said. ‘She keeps starting to tell us things, and then clamming up. What’s that about?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ I knew exactly what Laura meant – I’d been thinking the same thing.

  ‘I was asking her about her dad the other day, too, and she just changed the subject,’ Laura went on.

  ‘Oh, I don’t really think you should have asked her that,’ I said. ‘She would tell us if she wanted to.’

  I felt a bit protective of Meg. Even though she seemed pretty confident and outgoing, there was something a bit vulnerable about her, a sort of fragility that I couldn’t quite explain.

  Laura shrugged. ‘I just don’t see what the big deal is. If h
er parents have just split up then why not just tell us – I’ve been there, I could talk to her about it. Even if they split up ages ago and he’s just not involved in her life, why not just say so – it doesn’t have to be this deep dark secret.’

  ‘Oh my God.’ I stopped still. ‘Laura – what if he’s dead?’

  Laura stopped too and looked at me in horror.

  ‘What if he just died and they moved here for a fresh start? And she doesn’t feel up to talking about him yet?’

  Laura groaned. ‘Oh God, I hope it’s not that. Poor Meg, that would be just awful!’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And not exactly helped by me asking her stupid questions.’

  ‘I know! That’s what I’m trying to say to you!’

  Laura was looking so distraught that I tried to reassure her. ‘It’s probably not that. He’s probably walking around somewhere, completely fine, and planning to visit any day now. It could be anything, really. I just think it’s up to Meg how much she wants to tell us.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Laura admitted. ‘I’m just being nosey. Plus I’m convinced there’s a good story there, and if you want to be a writer you have to always be on the lookout for stories!’

  We’d reached the crossroads which is as far as I’m supposed to go. Laura was about to cross, but then she remembered. ‘Oh, right. You’re not allowed to come any further.’

  I blushed. Even with my closest friend, who knows exactly what my mum is like, it was embarrassing. ‘It’s probably time to head home anyway, dinner will be ready.’

  ‘What are you going to do for the meeting in my house?’ Laura wanted to know.

  ‘I’ll think of something,’ I muttered. Maybe Meg’s mum could give us a lift – as long as Meg didn’t mention Star Club. Or one of Ruby’s parents. I’d figure something out.

  As usual it took us about ten minutes to say goodbye. As I trudged off home, I thought again about what Laura had said. There was a mystery there all right, and the clues were pretty strange ones. And it wasn’t all to do with her missing dad, either. Why didn’t she talk about where they had lived before, and why did she have a slight accent that came out every now and again? What could be going on with Meg?