‘Are you Connie?’ asks Linda.
‘Yes, that’s me. And you are?’
‘Linda.’
Linda tries to stretch out a hand, but the hairdressing cape gets in the way.
‘Right. And the two of you are travelling?’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I’ve lived here for years, and one thing’s certain, you’re not from these parts,’ says Connie, loosening Linda’s ponytail and beginning to comb her hair.
‘Can you see into the future?’
‘I can see what might happen. But then again, everybody has free will. So even if I see, for example, that you’ve got some kind of big love in store, then you’ll be free to ruin the chance or even to turn your back on that special person who’s waiting for you.’
‘Do you see a big love like that for me?’
‘I can see that there’s lots of love and romance in store for you.’
‘It doesn’t feel that way,’ says Linda, watching Connie stirring the dye in a plastic bowl. It’s a vibrant blue. Her mother is going to get a real shock.
‘You just need to open your eyes, my girl,’ says Connie, spreading the dye on Linda’s hair. She has put gloves on and is massaging the blue right into her scalp. ‘Now you’ll have to sit with it in your hair for a bit, and then I’ll rinse it, and cut it, and blow-dry it and style it.’
‘It’s got to look really cool. We’re going to a rock concert later.’
‘That’ll be a great experience.’
‘Do you know who’s playing, then?’
‘It’s always an experience to go to concert. Would you like a cup of tea?’
‘A coffee, please. If you’ve got some,’ says Linda.
‘Aren’t you a bit young for coffee?’ says Connie, looking at her doubtfully in the mirror.
‘Maybe . . . but when you have as little time as I do, you have to hurry up and try as many things as possible.’
‘You’re very young, you’ve got all the time you need.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Everybody has the time they need,’ says Connie, going out.
‘Weirdo,’ says Zak, when she’s left the room.
‘Shh. What if she hears you?’
‘I don’t give a damn if she does,’ says Zak.
‘Perhaps she can tell your fortune too?’
‘I don’t want my fortune told. And I can’t be bothered to hang around here any longer either. I’m going for a walk. I’ll meet you afterwards, when you’re finished,’ he says, getting up from the sofa.
One of the cats has crept back into the salon. It hisses. Zak looks down and hisses back at it. Linda swings round on her chair, just in time to see the cat, with its stomach almost flat on the floor, streaking past her and out through the door it came in.
Connie blow-dries Linda’s hair and then she puts some wax on her hands and makes it stand up in spikes.
‘That’s awesome,’ says Linda, sighing with relief. She has to admit she was a bit nervous when Connie started cutting it. She’s always had long hair, and has never dared to cut it in case she regretted it.
‘There, you’re ready for your concert now,’ says Connie, holding up a mirror so Linda can admire her new hair-do from every angle.
‘Brilliant!’ says Linda, nodding.
Connie takes off the cape, and Linda bounds out into the centre of the room. The new haircut has made her feel somehow lighter, as though her hair had weighed a hundred kilos. She goes out into the hall and gets her purse from her jacket hanging on the coat stand.
‘No, I don’t want anything for it,’ says Connie.
Linda looks at Connie and bites her lip. What’s going on? Nobody gives things away for free, do they?
‘Are you sure?’ asks Linda.
‘Yes, it was jolly good fun. It’s not often someone comes in wanting blue hair.’
‘Well, thank you,’ says Linda hesitantly. She takes her jacket and goes back out into the hall. Zak’s right, this hairdresser does seem a bit bonkers.
‘Everything will be just fine. Just believe in love. And don’t forget: it can be right under your nose!’ Connie shouts after her, as she waves goodbye.
It’s very cold out, but Linda doesn’t put her woolly hat back on. She doesn’t want to spoil her hair. And now she thinks about it, that was all she got out of her visit – a haircut. Connie hadn’t said anything that made her any the wiser. In that sense she was a bit like Zak. Strange that they should take such an instant dislike to each other. Or perhaps they disliked each other because they were so alike?
Chapter 36
The cold weather has finally triumphed over vanity, and Linda is wearing her woolly hat pulled down over her ears. And in her ears she has music. She’s warming up for the concert with the Pet Monsters’ biggest hit: ‘Deep Pain’. I never really cared for pleasure, so I smile when your words cut me like a razor. Zak was nowhere to be seen when she left the hairdresser’s, and it was too cold to wait, so she started to walk. He knows where the concert is, so they’ll probably meet there, Linda thinks, humming along with the track. All Pet Monsters’ tracks have piles of energy. It puts a spring in her step.
She always thinks of Axel when she listens to the Pet Monsters. Linda remembers seeing him bending over something he’s writing at the desk in his room. His tanned neck against the bright-yellow football shirt that announces he’s a Brazil fan. She creeps up behind him and puts her hands over his eyes.
‘Linda?’ he asks.
‘No, it’s Father Christmas,’ she answers. Then she feels him taking away her hands before swinging round on his chair.
She asks what he’s doing.
‘Nothing,’ he answers, and closes his notebook behind him, before opening a drawer and hiding it away.
‘Nothing? Are you writing a diary? That’s nothing to be embarrassed about,’ says Linda.
‘It’s not a diary,’ says Axel, getting up.
‘Well, if it’s not a diary then I should be allowed to look. Have you written something about me, perhaps?’ Linda leans forward to open the drawer.
Axel grabs her wrist.
‘It’s just some song lyrics I’m trying to work out.’
Linda twists out of his grasp.
‘Let me see, then!’ she says, trying to open the drawer.
This time Axel grabs both her wrists and holds her tight.
‘No. Go away!’ he says.
‘Alright,’ she says.
He lets her go.
She sees Axel’s old guitar lying on the bed, and picks it up. She strums the strings and clears her throat. She tells him she’s been writing songs too, and that she’s not frightened of sharing them.
‘Listen to this: “When I count up to three, I think Axel, Axel, Axel. He’s brought me to my knee. And he’s called Axel, Axel, Axel!” ’ she squawks, using the only two guitar chords she knows.
Axel smiles, tilting his head sideways as he looks at her. When he smiles she can see how his canines stick out a bit, making him look like a cartoon character. If he was an animal he’d be a fox. She thinks she can see a hint of red in his face. Is he blushing?
‘Yes, very nice,’ he says, taking the guitar back and hanging it up on the wall where it belongs. Everything in Axel’s room has a place of its own. His room looks like the perfect boy’s room in a furniture catalogue.
‘I’m off to the kiosk. I expect Mia will want to come too,’ he says, heading for the door.
Linda is brought back to the present when her pocket vibrates. She takes off a mitten with her teeth and it dangles from her mouth as she fishes out her mobile and reads the text. She’s not surprised to see it’s from her mother: Good to hear you got to the cottage safely. Call you tonight. Love Mum and Dad xx. Linda doesn’t quite know what to write without telling too many lies, so she doesn’t answer. She scrolls back to the last text she got from Axel, on the night before her birthday. He hasn’t written to her since, and there wasn’t a parcel in the post
either. He often used to text her several times a day. Not that she’s answered his birthday message, but that was only to make him start wondering and imagining things.
‘What are you doing, Axel? Are you thinking about me at all?’ she asks the telephone before starting to write a text: Hi Axel, are you ready for a surprise? She giggles to herself, then deletes the message and puts the phone back in her pocket.
Chapter 37
There’s a crowd outside the concert hall. Loud and happy mouths talking and laughing at once, breath hanging like clouds in the frosty air. Linda takes her hat off and with one hand tries to fix her hair. She hasn’t got a mirror, so she doesn’t actually know whether it looks better or worse, but it feels kind of spiky.
She gets a knot in her stomach when her phone goes off again. Her first thought is that it might be Axel, but it’s Maria: Are you OK, babes? xxx
Great! I’m going to a Pet Monsters concert!!! xxx
Maria reacts with lightening speed. What? Pet Monsters?! Awesome! Text me photos of the concert.
Linda laughs as she reads the message. Maria’s almost as big a fan as Axel and her.
Will do. Enjoy playing Ludo at the cottage! ;-) love you, babes xx
‘Hello, punk girl,’ says Zak.
He’s got frost in his hair now, but the cold still doesn’t seem to bother him.
‘Hi,’ says Linda. ‘Where were you, Zak? I waited outside the hairdressers, but you didn’t show up.’
‘No. Shall we go in or what?’ he answers, nodding towards the queue that’s begun to form at the entrance.
‘Sure, but why didn’t you come?’
‘I lost track of time,’ he says with a shrug. ‘But I’m here now.’
Luckily the queue is moving quite quickly. Linda tries to puff herself up as much as possible. You have to be sixteen to get in. She glances up at Zak, who looks totally calm, as though he’s always sneaking into concerts. Or perhaps he is sixteen. She’s about to ask him, when one of the doormen addresses her.
‘ID?’
He grabs her by the sleeve of her jacket to make sure she can’t slip past him. Actually it’s tempting to make a break for it, he’s not the scariest-looking doorman in history. He’s quite short, with a tiny moustache, and the only thing making him look even vaguely muscular is his down jacket. Which is probably what gives her the courage to brazenly tell him that she’s forgotten her ID at home in Trondheim, and that he surely can’t stop them at the door when they’ve come so far?
‘You have to be sixteen to get in. And that’s that!’ says the doorman.
‘But I am sixteen,’ says Linda.
‘Hmm, and the Queen is my mother,’ snorts the doorman.
‘Is she really?’
‘As much as you’re sixteen, so just beat it, you snotty-nosed kid.’
‘Hey . . . there was no need for that last comment,’ says Zak, grabbing the doorman’s collar.
‘Let go!’ the doorman growls from under his moustache.
‘I’m sorry, but Linda has travelled all the way from Trondheim. She’s a big fan, and besides, she’s with me. So I’ll take responsibility for her in there.’
‘Yeah, cos you’re sixteen, eh?’
‘As it happens, I am!’ says Zak, without letting the doorman go.
The doorman shakes himself free. And now he clearly wants to prove he has some muscle too, because he shoves Zak so he lands on his bum on the hard snow. Linda runs to help Zak to his feet. He rubs his leg and looks far from pleased.
‘Oy, you! That was unnecessary!’ shouts Zak, brushing off the snow. ‘That was totally unnecessary!’
‘Go home and watch kids’ telly,’ the doorman shouts back.
‘We’re not going to give up, are we?’ asks Linda.
‘Never!’ says Zak, scowling at the queue.
Linda and Zak wait until the doorman is concentrating on the queue again before darting round the corner to the back. They sneak along the wall where the band’s tour bus is parked. There’s a group of young men standing around the door smoking. Linda recognizes them instantly. It’s the Pet Monsters! Oh my God! What should she do? She feels like she’s frozen to the spot. But she knows it’s now or never.
‘Hi!’ she shouts, waving at them.
The whole band turn to look at her. One of them looks as though he’s about to tell her to shove off, and his body language as he walks towards her is very unfriendly too. It’s the vocalist.
‘Please, can I have an autograph?’ Linda asks. ‘I’m a big fan and I’ve come all the way down from Trondheim.’
Linda smiles as broadly as she can, hoping that she might manage to look cute for once. Right now she wishes she had Maria with her; there’s not a soul who can resist her velvet brown eyes and silky voice. The vocalist, who she knows is called Chris, smiles uncertainly and glances back at the others, who nod faintly.
‘I suppose so,’ he says. ‘Have you got anything to write on?’
Linda unzips her jacket, takes her arm out, and rolls up the sleeve of her jumper.
‘Here,’ she says. ‘It’s as white as paper, at least.’
‘Okay. Have you got something to write with too?’
The vocalist takes her arm. Chris, from the Pet Monsters, is touching Linda’s arm! She’s got goosebumps all over. She clears her throat to answer him. But her mouth is so dry she can’t get a word out. So she just shakes her head, and looks over at Zak, who shakes his head too.
‘God, it’s freezing out here!’ says the drummer. ‘Why don’t you two come back stage, and we’ll see if we can find a pen or something in there?’
‘Great!’ says Linda, able to talk again.
‘So, you sit here when you’re waiting to go on stage, do you?’ says Linda, instantly wishing she hadn’t. It’s the kind of stupid thing her mother would say.
‘Yes, we sit here and drink, er, lemonade or whatever, and eat peanuts and chat,’ says the drummer, Tommy, who seems like the friendliest band member. He always wears dark glasses and looks moody in all the pictures and when he’s on stage. But he seems completely different now. Linda decides that he’ll be her favourite from now on. After hunting around a bit he eventually finds a permanent marker.
‘Wouldn’t you prefer to have our autographs on some paper?’ he asks.
‘No, just go ahead!’ says Linda, folding back her other sleeve too, and holding out both arms. When they’ve finished they turn to Zak, who shakes his head and says he’ll give it a miss this time.
‘Take a picture of us,’ says Linda, taking out her mobile and passing it to Zak.
He looks at her phone.
‘You’ve got five missed calls,’ he says, handing it back.
‘Oh, it’s just Mum. I’ll ring her later. Come on. Take a picture now, please!’ Linda begs, putting the mobile in camera mode and handing it back to Zak.
‘Okay. Smile!’ says Zak. ‘Or look tough.’
‘Take two,’ says Linda.
Zak snaps again, and then looks at the picture. Linda goes over to see it too. It’s amazing.
‘Well, it was great to meet you guys,’ says Chris. ‘But we’d better get ready for the concert now.’
Linda is determined not to go yet. She has got to find a way of staying a bit longer. Perhaps they can see the concert from backstage or something?
‘I’ve run away!’ she says. It just pops out. ‘Only for a little while,’ she adds.
‘Right,’ says Tommy, with an uncertain expression on his face.
The others in the band turn away, and Linda realizes she’s got to come up with something else. Something better.
‘And I’m a really huge fan of the Pet Monsters,’ she says.
‘Linda, I think they’ve realized that,’ says Zak.
He takes her gently by the arm, but Linda doesn’t want to give up. She scans the room desperately, and when she sees the bass lying on a chair, she gets an idea. Not the best idea ever, perhaps. But sometimes you have to make do with a slightly b
ad idea.
Chapter 38
‘I know all your lyrics by heart,’ says Linda, pulling down the arms of her pullover.
‘Right,’ says Chris hesitantly.
‘Yes, and in the summer my boyfriend taught me to play the bass line of “Deep Pain”.’
She catches a glimpse of Zak, who raises his eyebrows as soon as she says the words my boyfriend. She realizes, of course, that Axel isn’t exactly her boyfriend. Or, rather, she knows that he is. It’s just that she hasn’t told him yet. But she will soon. And then it’ll be perfect and very romantic.
‘Perhaps we should go?’ suggests Zak.
‘I can show you,’ says Linda, determined not to give up yet.
Chris smiles, and Tommy goes and picks up the bass. He glances at the bass player, who nods and gestures to Linda. The bass is heavy, and the strap is too long for her, so she pushes her hips forward and bows right over it to get a proper grip. She stands with her legs apart and hopes she looks just a bit cool. Then she plays the bass line, and hums the melody.
‘Wow, that was good. You’ve got a great sense of rhythm,’ Tommy exclaims, when Linda is finished.
He looks at her and Linda looks back at him. And she sees that he has the bluest eyes in the world, even bluer than Axel’s.
‘Not too bad,’ says Chris, nodding excitedly. ‘Can you do any of our other songs?’
‘No,’ says Linda, shaking her head.
She’s about to slip the strap back over her head, but the guitarist stops her.
‘Play it again, and I’ll sing. Tommy, can you give us a bit of percussion?’
Tommy pulls his drumsticks out of his back pocket and sits on his haunches in front of the table. Then he counts them in. Linda counts like mad and manages to come in on time.
‘Cool,’ says Chris, when the song is finished. ‘Do you play in a band or something?’
‘No, I’m more of a sports girl,’ says Linda. ‘Or was . . .’ she adds, quietly to herself.
‘Wow, that’s even more impressive,’ says Tommy.
‘Don’t suppose you’d like to have a go in the band, eh? What would you say to being our guest artist for that song?’ asks the vocalist.
Minus Me Page 13