Secret of The Red Planet

by Chris Hawley

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  A PROMISE

  I heard my mother calling me from the bottom of the stairs. I was in my bedroom, pacing up and down, wondering what I was to do about Sonia’s father’s threat. It was 6.30 in the afternoon and since coming home from the meeting I had not left my room.

  ‘Bill!’ my mother called again.

  I went to the door and shouted that I had heard her.

  ‘Bill, there’s a young lady at the door and she says she has to talk to you urgently.’

  ‘Who is it Mum?’

  After a pause she called out, ‘she says her name is Sonia.’

  ‘Tell her I don’t want to see her.’

  Another pause, then, ‘she seems to be upset. I think you should come down and talk to her.’

  I was debating what to do when Mum called up again.

  ‘Bill! Did you hear?’

  ‘I heard. I’ll come down. Tell her to go into the sitting room and wait for me there.’

  What could she want? I was still angry with her for telling her father about me. I decided there was no point in delaying. I would have to go and face her and tell her she was the biggest rat in the whole wide world.

  I went downstairs and into the sitting room. She was sitting in the armchair where my Martian visitor had sat the day before. When she saw me she got up and came towards me. I noticed she was not wearing her glasses. She was crying.

  ‘Bill, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know!’ she said between sobs.

  I put up my hands and backed away from her. She stopped in the middle of the room. She held a small handkerchief to her face and dabbed her tears.

  ‘Bill, don’t be angry with me, it wasn’t my fault.’

  ‘Whose fault was it then?’ I said, crossly. Sonia, you’re a rat! How could you do this to me?’

  This brought on a new fit of sobbing. She looked so desperate, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. The girl was in a very bad state.

  ‘Sit down in the chair, Sonia,’ I said quietly. She obeyed.

  I sat in the other chair and we were quiet for a couple of minutes. Then she recovered her composure a little.

  ‘Bill, please forgive me!’

  ‘I’m not sure I can ever do that, Sonia, after what you have done.’

  ‘Then I will have to kill myself!’

  ‘Sonia, don’t be so melodramatic! Calm down and let’s talk sensibly.

  ‘Say you’ll forgive me, please! I can’t go on living with the shame!’

  Women, I thought. Why do they always have to make you feel sorry for them?

  ‘Sonia, what did you tell your father?’

  She sniffed and then blew her nose noisily.

  ‘I told him I’d met this nice boy who came to the library to read about the planets, especially Mars and the ice-age and all that. I told him you showed me the photo of your girlfriend. I only said she looked like someone from one of the planets you were reading about. I told him you had offered to take me to Mars with you. He laughed and we joked about it. I didn’t think for a moment he would take it seriously.’

  ‘Silly, silly girl!’ I said.

  ‘I know, Bill. I’ve been so foolish and naïve and I will understand if you say you can’t forgive me and never want to see me again.’ She looked at me with those big, blue eyes and I knew then that I would have to forgive her. Women!

  ‘Sonia,’ I said. ‘What did you tell him about our lunch on Saturday?’

  ‘Not much. I only said we had lunch at Mac’s and you got upset because Tim made some rude comments about your girlfriend. I was angry at him. That’s why I left.’

  ‘I know. My pride and my love for Michu got the better of me. I should have ignored it and now I wouldn’t be in this situation.’

  ‘No, it’s my fault and I am so, so sorry!’

  I could tell she was genuinely sorry and I decided to forgive her.

  ‘Sonia, if I forgive you, will you help me?’

  She brightened up and smiled for the first time.

  ‘I’ll do anything for you, Bill! Anything you want.’

  ‘Now, now, steady on girl!’

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ she said, wiping another set of tears from her eyes.

  ‘First, Sonia, I want to know what your father has told you.’

  ‘He said he had met you this morning. I can tell you, I was surprised. He showed me a printout of a letter he said you had written to your girlfriend. He also said he had a suit that belonged to her and that he was going to prove that it came from Mars. He never told me how he had got those things.’

  ‘He stole them from my room.’

  ‘What?’ She looked shocked and the blood drained from her face.

  ‘Yes, your father is a thief.’

  She sat for a moment and then burst into tears. I went across to her and put my arm round her shoulders. I stayed like that for a minute or so until she had composed herself again.

  ‘I told you my father was an ambitious man, but a thief! It’s too horrible! He told me our troubles were over, that we were going to be rich. He said he had the ultimate news story that was going to make him famous. Bill, I was so sad at that moment. I have always thought my father a good man and when my mother left, saying she couldn’t live another moment with him, I took his side. When he was telling me all this I knew that I had made a mistake. I know I said too much and I came straight here to say how sorry I am.’

  ‘Sonia, I pity you. It must be so disappointing to learn that your father is not what you have always thought. Now listen. This is what you must do. He has given me until Wednesday to decide if I want to tell him my story. If I don’t he threatens to splash my letter all over the front page. You must get back the letter and the tunic and if you can the flash drive.’

  ‘I will do my best,’ she replied. ‘Of course he may already have copied the letter onto another hard drive.’

  ‘Yes, it’s likely, but the tunic is proof, according to him. This we must get back. Oh! I almost forgot. He took a photo of me this morning with his mobile. He may put that on the front page too. You must get hold of his phone and delete the photo. Will you do it?’

  ‘Of course Bill. I will do all I can to help you.’

  ‘I know you will, Sonia. And…I do forgive you. I know you didn’t mean any harm.’

  ‘I thought for a moment. If Sonia was going to help me I would have to take her into my confidence. I would tell her everything.

  ‘Sonia, before I begin, I want you to make a solemn promise.’

  ‘I will swear anything you like, Bill,’ she said, smiling faintly.

  ‘I am going to tell you everything and I want you to promise you’ll never tell a soul what I have told you. Now promise.’

  ‘I promise that I’ll never tell a soul what you are going to tell me.’

  She sat spellbound as I recounted my adventures on Mars. It took a full hour and she hardly moved a muscle the whole time I was speaking. At one point my father came home. He put his head through the door of the sitting room, said hello and went out again. I went on with the story.

  ‘Well, Sonia, that’s all of it, everything,’ I said as soon as I had finished.

  ‘Thank you. It’s a wonderful story and I’m so honoured that you have shared it with me. I will never tell anyone as long as I live, cross my heart.’ She placed her arms across her chest. Then she stretched out her arms and yawned.

  ‘I’d better go. My father will wonder where I am.’

  ‘I’ll see you in the library tomorrow.’

  I saw her to the door. She waved as she went out of the gate and turned in the direction of the town.

  ‘Has she gone?’ asked Mum from the kitchen door. ‘What did the girl want? She was in a right state. You haven’t put her in the family way, have you?

  I didn’t even answer. I went up to my room to figure out the next move.