At THREE THIRTY PM exactly, having survived being PHYSICALLY EDUCATED ASSAULTED, I was waiting for Lukas at the school gates. I was beginning to get SLIGHTLY RESTLESS when he finally showed up at THREE THIRTY-TWO PM.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked, sensing my GROWING IMPATIENCE. ‘What’s happened? Did you find out where your mum is?’
Lukas is from Poland. He is quite short and a bit self-conscious about his glasses which he doesn’t like but I think make him look VERY INTELLIGENT.
Usually he is a boy of few words, and quite serious but you get used to that. And I can talk enough for both of us. And sometimes the silence is quite peaceful really. It helps to calm the WHIRRING SOUND I have in my brain when I start to get OVERLY ANXIOUS.
‘I haven’t heard anything,’ I replied. ‘I think we should check if she’s at yours, visiting your mum.’
‘I’m really sorry, I can’t tonight,’ Lukas replied.
‘What? Why not?’ I said, trying my best not to show that I was COMPLETELY ASTOUNDED that my best friend would LET ME DOWN at a time like this.
What could POSSIBLY BE MORE IMPORTANT than helping me FIND MY MUM? Perhaps he had already made plans to hang out with nerdy Nora and he no longer wanted to spend time with me.
‘But you said—’ I stuttered.
‘Sorry, I’m not walking home. I forgot I have to help Mum with something. I promised I’d meet her straight after school. She’ll be really annoyed if I’m late.’
‘But—’
‘I’m sure your mum’s fine,’ Lukas offered conclusively. To Lukas everything was BLACK AND WHITE, sometimes he completely failed to comprehend the COMPLEXITIES OF MODERN LIFE.
I was still struggling to speak, to get the words out that I was actually getting VERY WORRIED. That I couldn’t quite explain it, but I JUST KNEW that something wasn’t QUITE RIGHT.
‘Look,’ Lukas’s voice softened as he spoke. ‘Why don’t you go home and check if she’s there? If not, you can call me, and I’ll ask my mum if she’s seen her. OK? I’m sure she’ll have turned up by now. She was probably just busy and had to go out early this morning for some reason. If not, we can come up with a plan tomorrow, OK? I promise I’ll help you find her.’
I nodded, still not one hundred per cent sure what to say. Why did NO ONE ELSE seem to be taking the situation seriously? Who knew what could potentially happen if we waited until tomorrow to come up with a plan. The following day felt like AEONS (ages) away to me. SURELY ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN BEFORE THEN.
So much for finding a sidekick. Looked like I was ON MY OWN with this one. My visions of us solving THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MUM together vanished in a puff of smoke as quickly as they had first appeared. I’d have to find my mum by myself.
‘O-K,’ I managed to stutter, stumbling over and spitting out each letter like they were physically lodged in my throat.
‘Great. Well, give me a call later, OK? And try not to worry. I’m sure there’s just been a misunderstanding and she’s probably waiting for you at home.’ Lukas smiled sympathetically.
Without waiting to hear my reply Lukas was off, and I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things, but he seemed PRETTY RELIEVED to get out of there. I had no idea what was going on as Lukas always had my back, you’d think especially when it came to SUCH AN IMPORTANT MATTER AS THIS.
——————
Just as quickly as Lukas disappeared through the school gates, Rose suddenly appeared beside me. It was unusual for her to be out of school so early and usually I was long gone by now. But my BEST FRIEND had DESERTED ME so it looked as though I would have to make do with walking home with my big sister instead.
At least there was no chance of bumping into Neil on the way home, he was still inside the building terrorising Tiny Tim. And if there was one thing Rose was good at, it was being EVEN MORE INTIMIDATING than the resident school bully. Sometimes it’s VERY HANDY to have a sister in year eleven.
‘What are you still doing here?’ Rose enquired in her usual direct fashion. ‘Where’s Lukas?’
Rose didn’t often pay much attention to me but if there was one thing she did know it was that I ALWAYS walked home with Lukas.
‘He had to go. But it’s OK, I can walk home with you instead.’
‘Not so fast little bro, I’ve got tennis tonight,’ Rose replied, brandishing her racket in quite an ALARMING MANNER.
‘Alright, no need to knock me out with that thing.’
‘You’ll be fine getting home on your own, won’t you?’
And with one, final, somewhat OVERLY ENTHUSIASTIC FLOURISH of her racket, Rose was off, leaving me for dust, a DOUBLE DESERTEE. Even my own sister had left me.
I didn’t know precisely how I was meant to discover Mum’s whereabouts all on my own, but I was determined that I could do it even if it meant having to BREAK SOME OF THE RULES.
Perhaps when I got home, I would tell Grandma I wasn’t feeling very well, so I could take tomorrow off school and fully concentrate on the mystery at hand. That was if Mum hadn’t turned up by now. Detective work was proving to be a FULL-TIME JOB after all.