“I’m off,” says Lindy, and she’s gone before I get a chance to say . . . Well, what could I say? Thank you? How come we’re best friends suddenly? Kim’s never going to believe what just happened.
Then my phone bleeps. It’s a message from Kim, she must be psychic. S in hsptal. Nt srious. Seen Steven?
I almost go weak with relief. Samir is safe and I let out a bit of a whoop. I text her back to meet Steven off the bus with Mohammed. Then I scramble back through the bushes, out of the Nature Reserve and around the back of the Lifeboat Station, scanning the beaches.
I can’t see anyone except Barney and Mad Murphy running over the beach. They almost look like a pair of dolphins rising and falling with the swell out at sea.
My head still feels very sore as I stumble back home. There’s no sign of the bus or the police. With any luck Steven and Mohammed will be in town in about twenty minutes while the cops are distracted chasing Terrence Bellows around the Island.
The next bus isn’t due for an hour. I need to go home and get some cash. I didn’t wait for change from the taxi driver, which was stupid. I’m just wondering how much money I’ve got, less than a pound I think, when my phone goes.
It’s Mum. She absolutely never rings my cell phone except in a dire emergency and the last time was when Grandpa died and all she did was ask me to come home really quickly. Why is she ringing me now? Maybe she’s had another fall and she can’t get up. I press the answer button.
“Alix, darling, where are you? Are you in town? You must come home immediately, or no, perhaps it’s better to go home with Kim, stay together whatever you do and I’ll get Kevin to bring you home . . .”
“Whoa, slow down, Mum. What’s up?” I say, but I think I can guess.
“There’s been a stabbing in town. Some sort of gang trouble. I thought that only went on in London. Anyway, Mrs. Saddler’s here, she heard it from Bert’s divorced son. His friend rang . . .”
“Okay, okay, don’t worry. I’ll be home in about one minute.”
I walk slowly to give myself time to think. The neighbors must have seen all the activity around here this morning. They don’t miss much. God knows how much longer we could have kept everything secret from them anyhow. Mrs. Saddler was already getting suspicious, wasn’t she?
Both Mum and Trudy fall on me when I get in the house. I don’t know who needs me more! Trudy is desperate for a wee so I let her out in the back garden. Mum’s totally emotional, blubbering all over her crutches as she stomps around after me.
“Thank God you’re home, you must have missed the gang, oh, Alix darling, I was so scared. What a day to shut the school. If you were all in class this would never have happened,” Mum rattles on.
I decide to keep quiet, the less I say the better. But the doorbell goes and would you believe it’s Mad Murphy with Barney. Mum has a soft spot for Murphy so she calls him in and it’s weird to see him in our hallway, looming over us like some sort of benevolent scarecrow.
“Make everyone a pot of tea, Alix,” says Mum.
Everyone? I put my head around the living room door and I swear half the street are there. What do they think this is? New Year’s Eve? Mrs. Saddler is sitting in the best armchair and Bert and his divorced son and the neighbor from the other side, with the twins, are all crammed on the sofa, and Barney is already sniffing around. Trudy’s come back in and she starts wuffing at him to play all over our tiny living room.
I come back a few minutes later with the tea tray and they’re all talking at once. “The police came and asked me if I’d seen any unusual boats dropping illegal immigrants, like, around Sandy Point,” Bert’s saying in his slow, ponderous voice. “We would have noticed that, wouldn’t we, lad?” and his son nods his head.
“Have you seen anything?” the twins’ mum asks Mrs. Saddler.
“Nothing,” says Mrs. Saddler, shaking her head firmly. But she’s eyeing me closely and I feel as though she can see right into my brain.
“Illegal immigrants on Hayling Island, how daft is that,” says Bert scornfully.
“No, it isn’t.” And everyone stops dead and looks at Mad Murphy. “Barney and me see all sorts no one else sees.”
I’m holding my breath as he pauses, and he’s looking at me in a really strange way. The room’s gone silent and I think, When he gives me away shall I run? Or just sit here until the police come?
“Like what, Murphy, love?” says Mum softly. I’ve practically died from lack of air.
Then Murphy gives Mum a huge smile and says, “A mermaid, Sheila. Coming out of the sea, with beautiful black hair. You’ve seen one, Alix, haven’t you?”
Everyone looks at me curiously and for a second I don’t know what to do. And then I say, “Sure, Murphy, I’ve seen loads of them carrying seashells and stuff.”
That does it. They all start laughing and saying stuff like, “Pass the sugar before the mermaid takes it all,” and “Does she have a sister, maybe your son could ask her out, Bert” and Bert laughs his sort of hyena-choking laugh while his son sits there with his usual blank look on his face.
Murphy has morphed back into the village idiot and he practically swipes Mrs. Saddler’s teacup from her, so Mum gently eases him out the door. I’m just about to escape to my bedroom and ring Kim to find out if Steven and Mohammed have arrived in town when the doorbell goes again. It’s Chaz. I can’t believe it.
“Alix,” he cries out as if we’re old friends. In your dreams, I think.
“I heard everyone was here,” he says in an excited voice. Typical, I think, news travels so fast on the Island. “You’ll never believe what’s happened,” and he pushes past me into the living room.
Mum’s face goes quite dark when she sees him but Chaz doesn’t seem to notice. “Have you heard about all them illegal immigrants?” he says to everyone. “Hiding out somewhere near the beach. You can’t trust them, you know, that’s why I moved down here.”
Trust Chaz to get his facts wrong. Just like the rubbish newspapers he reads. But what about the neighbors? What do they think? I look around the room at the people I have grown up with on Hayling Island and I think of all the times I could have asked them what they believed in and how I had never bothered. Well, I’m going to find out now, aren’t I?
Everyone shifts uncomfortably. It’s Mrs. Saddler who speaks out first in her booming voice, “What do you mean, ‘them’?”
“You know, asylum seekers and immigrants and all that. Come to take our benefits, that’s all they’re here for.”
Bert says, “Well, you can’t lump people together like that, right, lad? Got to give people a chance, like. Can’t just assume all foreigners are up to no good. Some people come from terrible places, right, lad?”
“Right, Dad,” says his son in a really loud voice.
There’s a bit of a silence and then I say nervously, “Everyone’s allowed to ask for asylum, we did it in school.” Chaz’s eyebrows shoot upward until they look like they’re going to fly off his face but a wave of shuffling and mutters of agreement wash around the room.
Yess! I think in relief and almost yell it out loud.
“Well, it’s all right down here,” says Chaz, “that’s why I love it here. But it ain’t like this in London, it’s like there’s no one white left . . .”
“Color’s only skin deep,” booms Mrs. Saddler, cutting Chaz off.
The twins’ mother mutters in agreement. “Bert’s right, you have to give people a chance.”
Bert beams and his son gives him a nod.
“We Islanders have always welcomed visitors,” Mrs. Saddler points out proudly. “Just like you, Chaz. We made you welcome, didn’t we?”
“Oh, I give them all a chance, me,” says Chaz quickly, and he’s looking a bit embarrassed. After all, these are all his customers. “I serve anyone in my shop, you tell them, Alix.” He turns around and fixes his eyes on me.
I feel myself go all red and hot. I don’t know what to say to that but Chaz doesn’t wait for an answer. He steams on, “I ain’t racist, me, just want to live among me own kind for a change.”
There’s a general muttering around the room and then Mum says, “We all know how hard you’ve worked in the business since you took over.” Here we go, I think, she’s giving in to him. “But,” she goes on, “I think everyone here agrees with Mrs. Saddler that Hayling Island has always welcomed visitors. We expect you to do the same.”
Way to go, Mom! I think in American.
Chaz stands there for a moment and I can almost hear him thinking and then he says, “Fair enough.”
“Good,” says Mrs. Saddler in a tone that makes it clear that his views are not shared by the other people here.
Chaz rattles his keys in his pocket and shuffles his feet. Then he says, “Well, got customers waiting,” and I see him to the door.
As he starts down the path he hesitates and turns back to me. “Your job’s still open, Alix,” he says, and his eyes are sort of puzzled looking.
I think for a few seconds and then I say, “Okay, I’ll give it another go.”
His face relaxes into a slight smile and says, “Good, see yer in the morning, seven sharp?”
I nod and he goes off.
When I go back in the living room everyone’s talking at once. I’m really anxious to find out how Samir is. How much longer are they all going to stay? Mum’s even muttering about making another pot of tea!
“What did Chaz want?” she asks me.
“Oh, just to make sure I wasn’t late for my paper route tomorrow,” I say, holding open the living room door as a sort of hint to the neighbors.
Mum stares at me for a minute and then she says, “Hmm, well, see how it goes.”
She turns to Mrs. Saddler and says, “Did you know, Margaret, that Alix has been watching all about refugees on the news? She keeps asking such interesting questions.”
“I’ve always said she’s a clever girl,” says Mrs. Saddler with a smug grin.
Has she? That’s news to me.
Finally everyone starts to leave, piling their cups onto the tea tray and saying loud good-byes and to look out for mermaids, until it’s only Mum, me and Mrs. Saddler left.
“My Jeremy is very good at sniffing out anything strange,” says Mrs. Saddler mysteriously.
Then she says to Mum, “She’s a good girl, your Alix. Knows right from wrong. You’ve done a good job, Sheila Miller, and no husband to help you.”
Mum goes a bit red and I bend down to give Trudy a good cuddle so that they can’t see me looking embarrassed.
As I watch Mrs. Saddler go down the path, I think, You should never judge someone until you get to know them. Everyone deserves a chance. Even Lindy, I decide grudgingly.
Then Mum says, “Alexandra,” and I’m about to say, It’s Alix with an i, when she grins and says, “How about takeout?”
And then I tell her it was Samir who was stabbed.