A Little Bird Told Me

by Marianne Holmes

  ‘Is she back?’ I ask. He nods, and my stomach turns over.

  ‘Don’t go in,’ Kit looks towards the kitchen from where we can hear shouting. I sit down beside him.

  ‘I saw her in the garden last night. She went and got Mr Jonson’s cockerel and she killed it with her bare hands and ate the head.’

  ‘She did not,’ Kit frowns at me. ‘You had a bad dream again.’

  ‘Did the cockerel wake you?’ I ask him. He frowns and holds up his hand as Mum’s voice rises above the others in the kitchen.

  ‘Sergeant C’s come to arrest her. She shouldn’t be shouting at him.’

  ‘They’re not talking about the cockerel,’ Kit waves at me to be quiet.

  ‘Do they know you’re here?’

  He shakes his head. ‘Shush.’ I lean against him and try to listen. Mum is saying something about not being able to make him stop, and I think she is explaining about the cockerel waking us up all the time, but the rest doesn’t make any sense.

  ‘How can you be sure he plans to take them?’ Sergeant Cadogan’s using that tone he uses when Neil and Kit are bothering him.

  ‘Because he said so!’ Mum’s voice is high pitched. ‘I’ve told you what he did, you do see we can’t let that happen, don’t you?’

  ‘That’s an incredible allegation. If you have no proof, how can you expect to be taken seriously when you lied about Mace?’

  ‘What are they talking about then?’ Kit flaps his hand at me, and Mum says something about knowing where the bodies are buried.

  ‘I dream about it all the time, you know,’ says Kit.

  ‘About what?’ I nudge Kit, but he just stares right ahead and says nothing. I don’t want to go into the kitchen because I am thinking about what the body of the cockerel would look like and whether it’s a skeleton already or just like a chicken from the butcher. I wonder how easy it would be to get it out of the bin.

  ‘If we go into the garden through the dining room I can show you the dead body,’ I say.

  Kit’s face goes white. ‘What do you mean?’ he asks and grabs my hand so that the knuckles are all mashed together.

  ‘The cockerel,’ I say, ‘it’s in the bin.’ He lets go and doesn’t answer. I look at him for a moment and can see little gobs of tears in the corners of his eyes. I didn’t think he even liked the cockerel. I expect Matthew’s the same. He wanted someone to deal with it, but, now that Mum has, he’s not happy because he’s a pacifist and he says killing things is not a good ethical position. I wonder if you have to go to gaol for cockerel murder.

  Sergeant C sounds tired and sad.

  ‘Look, you’ll have to come down and make a statement.’

  ‘We’re just wasting time; I’ll take you to the farm,’ says Mum, bursting out of the kitchen and practically leaping over us as she heads upstairs. I notice that the soles of her bare feet are still dusty and grass-stained.

  Matthew comes out of the kitchen red in the face. ‘How can he take them, Jemima? We won’t let that happen.’

  I look at Kit, but he seems to be in his own world, so I stand up and wait for Matthew to say something to me. He doesn’t. He just steps over us on the way upstairs too.

  Sergeant C hovers in the doorway to the kitchen with his notepad in hand. ‘Are you okay, Christopher? Do you think I could ask you a few questions?’ Kit looks up at him and then at me. I don’t think he actually sees me though. They never see me. I jump off the step, slip on my flip flops and pick up my bag.

  ‘I’m getting out of here,’ I say, and no one stops me.

  No one came looking for me even though Mrs Walker said she had to phone to say where I was in case Mum decided to accuse her of something bad too. I’ve spent most of the day at the Lido with Debbie, and now we are wandering along the High Street. I can feel my flip flops getting heavier as little sticky lumps of tar cling on to them. Debbie popped in quickly to say hello to her dad, and we are sharing the packet of Spangles he gave her. Debbie says I probably shouldn’t go into the newsagents because her dad is not in a good mood at the moment. I waited outside by the big notice saying that charges against William Mace have been dropped and that Danny is going home.

  I don’t want to go home yet because I know I’ll be in some kind of trouble, so we sit on the bench at the bus stop and watch to see if anyone we know goes past. Debbie is talking about Mr Mace. Her mum says lots of people are really cross with my Mum for lying and that it would be a good idea if she kept out of everyone’s way. So, I didn’t feel like telling her about Ray being my dad and how Mum is frightened of him, in case she didn’t think it was true.

  I’m about to ask Debbie if she wants to walk up to the park to see if Kit and Neil are there, when something hits me on the back of my head. I put my hand up and pull it away covered with strings of pink bubble gum.

  ‘Hey!’ I shout, ‘watch what you’re doing!’ But Debbie is nudging me hard, and the WendyCarols step around to the front of the bench.

  They are both laughing, and then Carol says, ‘Poor little Pig Girl. Hey Wendy, you still got that penknife? We could try cutting it out for her.’

  I hold the piece of hair in front of my face and try and scrape the gum off with my nails, but it just gets under them and sticks to my fingers and as much as I manage to pull off it just seems to get worse. Wendy pulls a Swiss army knife out of her pocket and unfolds the blade.

  ‘Get that in a Christmas cracker, did you?’ I say because right now I don’t care about Carol or Wendy or what they might do.

  Debbie shakes her head at me. She grabs my hand and says, ‘Come on, remember Dad said we should pop in and see him now. See you around, girls.’ She stands up, but as she does, Wendy sits down on one side of me and Carol on the other.

  ‘Aw, don’t both of you go,’ says Carol putting her arm around my shoulders,

  ‘Pity that brother of yours isn’t around today,’ says Wendy. ‘Mickey really wanted to say hi to him after what he did at the Lido.’ She waves across to where a tall boy wearing denim flares is smoking a roll-up. His right foot is lifted against the wall holding the tight fitting patterned shirt away from the window of the laundrette and his metal lighter flashes in and out of the fingers of his left hand. When he sees Wendy wave, he pushes himself off the wall shoving the lighter hand into his pocket and heads off up the High Street towards the park where Neil and Kit probably are.

  ‘He’s at the Lido!’ I shout.

  Debbie stands on the balls of her feet looking at the knife in Wendy’s hand. It’s not one of the proper big ones, and there’s some rust on the blade. Kit has one that Matthew gave him for getting some scout badge. Matthew was more excited about it than Kit because he kept pulling out all the different bits and asking Kit if he knew what they were. Kit sometimes takes it down to the park where he and Neil are trying to dam the stream, but I don’t think it’s that useful for them.

  ‘Your turn in a minute,’ says Carol to Debbie who turns around and starts running towards the newsagents. Carol laughs and leans across and takes the piece of hair out of my hand while Wendy holds up the blade.

  ‘Best sit still for this,’ says Carol, but I don’t because I see Mr Walker come out of the newsagents.

  ‘Oi,’ he shouts, ‘what’s going on?’ as he walks down towards us. Debbie is standing in the shop doorway behind him with her head down.

  ‘Just trying to get this dratted bit of chewing gum out of her hair, Mr Walker,’ says Carol in her best voice.

  ‘It’s really awful stuff,’ says Wendy, ‘my Mum says it’s the work of the devil.’

  ‘I reckon it’s time you were getting home for your teas,’ says Mr Walker, but when I start heading towards the shop door where Debbie is, he steps into my way with his arms folded across his round belly. ‘All of you,’ he says, ‘that’s quite enough for one day.’

  I don’t know what he means, but I see Debbie’s head drop even lower, and she steps back into the newsagents. As Mr Walker reaches the shop, he pushes her ri
ght inside and shuts the door firmly.

  I turn around and see the WendyCarols waiting.

  ‘Let’s walk together,’ says Carol and puts her right hand on her hip so that her arm makes a triangle I can put my own through. I take a deep breath and run, straight across the road and take a turn down a street I don’t know. The road falls away in front of me, but, although the large houses are set back from the pavement, it feels cool in the shade of the branches spread over my head. I hear Wendy and Carol shout, and the sound of their sandals slamming into the pavement as they follow. I can’t see another turn off the street, and I know I’ll be trapped if I duck into one of the front gardens.

  My chest is bursting, and I turn around to see how far away they are because I don’t think I can keep going much longer. I stop dead when I see the figure behind them. He’s not running, but, with each silent stride, the distance between him and the two girls shortens. I don’t need to see his face in the shadow of his hat to know those eyes are glittering.

  Wendy and Carol slow down when they see me stop, but the smiles slip off their faces as Ray grabs them. Wendy tries to lift the hand with the penknife but, in a move I don’t really see, Ray takes it off her and slips it into his own pocket.

  ‘Dangerous toys for little girls, those,’ he says. ‘Hey, kid,’ he says to me ‘I’m not sure you should be hanging around with trash like this.’ The WendyCarols start to shout as he lifts them both off the ground so that their feet kick in the air and one of Carol’s sandals flies off.

  ‘Quiet,’ he says, ‘or things are going to get a lot worse for you.’ The girls’ cries turn into sobs.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I ask.

  ‘Just keeping an eye on things. What would you like me to do with these two?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I say, ‘I can handle them.’

  He laughs and says, ‘Doesn’t look like it, kid. This place is making you soft.’ He leans toward me, a writhing child trapped under each arm, and his eyes flash as a ray of sunlight breaks through the leaves. I step back and hit a wall that holds me just in front of him. I can feel the oval shape of the plaque for the house name against my back.

  ‘Are you really my dad?’ I say. ‘Where have you been?’

  The girls are sobbing now and saying ‘sorry’ over and over.

  ‘Waiting for the right time,’ says Ray, ‘but I’m back now and ready for us to be together.’

  ‘Mum doesn’t want us to see you. She’s taking Sergeant C to your farm. She said she knows where the bodies are or something.’

  ‘Did she now?’ His voice sounds tight, and, as he steps back, he lets each girl down, ‘Do you know what she meant?’ He looks me hard in the eye and I shake my head. ‘Okay, you better scram, this is my business now, and I’m in a hurry.’ Ray has pushed the WendyCarols down on to the tangle of roots in the pavement and they are blubbing and shaking.

  ‘You should watch out,’ I say, ‘she murdered a cockerel last night.’

  ‘Jemima’s a murderer?’ He smiles. ‘Now there’s a thought.’ Then he kneels down by the girls, and I can see a flash of metal in his hand.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I take my flip flops off and run back up through the shadows to the High Street. At the top, I turn and look back, but I can’t see Ray or Wendy or Carol. I start to walk towards the newsagents to tell Debbie but remember the look on Mr Walker’s face and the door shutting firmly behind him.

  I think Mum might like Ray better now for helping me, but then I think about the burn in his eyes when I said she was taking Sergeant C to the farm. I keep running all the way to the park staying near the curb and away from the side roads as much as possible, but I don’t see Mickey anywhere. Kit and Neil aren’t visible behind the willow tree, but when I do find them, I curl up real small under the hanging branches and close my eyes waiting until they’re ready to go home. They have already built a latticework structure of twigs and string across the stream just under the water and are beginning to fill it in.

  When they finish, we walk back. Neil pokes me as we reach the park gate and asks me why I haven’t got anything to say.

  ‘Yeah, where did you go?’ says Kit. ‘Mum was frantic until Mrs Walker rang.’

  ‘They don’t care if I’m there or not. Why do you keep having to talk to his dad?’ I ask, nodding at Neil. Kit’s face starts to crumple up again and Neil steps between us. He can always calm Kit down.

  ‘What have you been doing anyway?’

  I tell them about the WendyCarols, and Neil looks at my hair and says to Kit, ‘Actually, they’re right. It will have to be cut out. Why do they keep picking on you?’

  I shrug, ‘I dunno.’

  ‘Well,’ says Kit, ‘maybe they’ll leave you alone now. What did he actually do to them?’

  ‘I didn’t see. I just ran straight here.’ Kit puts his arm around me, and Neil starts telling me what his dad says about dealing with bullies, but I don’t listen. There’s no one in sight, but, as we walk through the gates, I can smell smoke.

  When we get home, Sergeant Cadogan is in the lounge with Mum as if he actually lives with us now.

  ‘Robyn, I need to talk to you about Carol and Wendy,’ he says standing up. ‘Mr Walker says you were with them on the High Street.’

  ‘Yeah, Dad, look what they put in her hair! She needs to stand up to them, doesn’t she, like you’re always saying?’

  ‘Neil, you’d better head home,’ says Sergeant C. ‘Why don’t you go with him, Kit, and see if his mother has got any cake?’

  Kit looks at Mum and then Sergeant C and says, ‘I’m staying.’ Kit folds his arms and, when Sergeant C doesn’t answer, we go and sit down beside Mum who starts trying to pull the gum out of my hair. Neil looks pretty annoyed, but he leaves anyway.

  ‘OK, Robyn, the girls say they accidentally threw gum in your hair and you attacked them with a penknife. Mr Walker says he saw you with them outside the newsagent and he told you all to go home. He says he didn’t see anything else until the ambulance passed by.’

  ‘I didn’t touch them, they’re lying! It wasn’t even my penknife.’ I look at Kit and Mum. ‘And they chased me!’

  Mum squeezes my hand hard, and I look at Sergeant C’s face and know Ray is in big trouble.

  ‘Did you see someone else with them, Robyn?’ Sergeant C asks.

  ‘Dunno,’ I say.

  ‘Some man grabbed them, and they ran away,’ says Kit, ‘that’s what she told us.’

  ‘Can you tell me what he looks like, Robyn?’

  I shake my head. ‘He had a hat. I couldn’t see.’

  ‘Was it Ray?’ Mum asks, giving Sergeant C a long look. She is wearing make-up and has piled her hair on top of her head. She is pretending not to be the sort of Mum who kills cockerels, I think. Or lies about fathers. I shake my head.

  ‘It’s really important that you tell the truth. You don’t need to be scared of him, Sergeant Cadogan will make sure he can’t do anything to you.’ Sergeant C watches me.

  ‘I’m not scared of him,’ I tell him. Sergeant C pulls out a couple of Polaroid photographs from his notebook.

  ‘Can I show her?’ he asks Mum, and she nods.

  ‘Wendy and Carol say you did this.’ He passes me the pictures. It’s hard to see which is which because both of them only have a few patches of hair left, and it is matted and sticks out at strange angles. There are dressings and those little plaster strips used to hold cuts together and Wendy has a gash that runs down from the top of her forehead to her eyebrow. I feel a bit sick.

  ‘I didn’t do that! I didn’t!’

  Sergeant C sighs. ‘I didn’t think so, Robyn, but I could really use your help to find out who did. We don’t want it to happen to anyone else, do we?’

  ‘It won’t,’ I say, ‘no one else tries to hurt me.’ He holds my stare for a minute and then stands up straight and turns to Mum.

  ‘I’ll see if there was anyone nearby who saw what happened, but I’d keep her in f
or now. Wendy has an older brother who’s on the warpath.’

  ‘You don’t mean Mickey?’ Kit sounds worried. Sergeant C nods at him.

  ‘You have to tell them, Robyn!’ shouts Kit, but I ignore him and go up to my room.

  When Matthew got home, he came up to talk to me.

  ‘You know, Kit is pretty scared of Mickey.’ I don’t say anything. He sat down on my bed and pulled out the photographs of Wendy and Carol. I try not to look, but he puts them down beside me.

  ‘But he’s even more frightened of the man who did this.’

  ‘But he was just protecting me!’ I say. ‘They’ve been picking on me for ages, and I couldn’t make them stop.’

  Matthew is quiet for a while. ‘I didn’t know that, Robyn, I’m sorry,’ He makes a noise that’s a little bit like a laugh. ‘It’s been a bit crazy round here lately, hasn’t it?’ I can feel the tears squeezing out, and I lean against him and sob when he puts his arm around me.

  ‘You’ve all been lying to me. I’m not stupid.’ I say, sniffing and juddering.

  Matthew gives me a proper big hug. ‘Yes, you’re right, and it’s time you heard the full story.’ He reaches for a tissue from the table by my bed and wipes my eyes. ‘First, though, you need to tell Derek the truth. Because lying, even for good reasons, is always worse than the truth, however bad it is.’ I nod.

  I’m glad I warned Ray that Mum had proof about something because he saved me, and one good turn deserves another. I don’t want my dad to be in trouble for protecting me, but I’m not sure why he needed to hurt Wendy and Carol so much. He’s so much bigger than they are. I think about someone trying to cut my hair with Kit’s penknife, doing it so roughly that I get cuts and I find myself holding on to my hair and twisting it like a rope in my hands.

  Finding my dad isn’t how I thought it would be.

  Sergeant C is nice to me when I tell him, but Mum can’t stop pacing around however much Matthew tries to get her to sit down.

  ‘You have to go and get him now,’ she says.