Lottie
At home time, Jax walked out with us, looking very pleased with himself, but I was distracted from being annoyed by another big scene at the crossing.
The lollipop man was standing in the middle of the road, facing a group of secondary school kids who were all laughing and shouting rude things at him.
He planted his feet shoulder-width apart and banged the end of his stick down on the ground. ‘You shall not pass.’
‘You’re not the crossing police, we can go across whenever we like,’ one of the teenagers sniggered at him, while another threw a bit of his sausage roll. Luckily, because Hector’s coat was made of yellow plasticky stuff, it just bounced off without leaving a mark. But it obviously peed him off.
‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!’
‘Is he trying to be Gandalf?’ Mo said, smiling. I think he actually thought it was cool.
‘He’s absolutely mental,’ I said.
‘He’s nuts,’ Jax agreed.
‘I like him,’ said Mo. ‘He’s funny.’
‘Come on, let’s just cross or we’ll be here all night,’ I said, and we walked quickly over the crossing with a big group of other kids, leaving Hector to his bonkers stand-off.
It was late October and starting to get colder but, for some reason, I really wanted ice cream. I knew it was weird, but once the idea had popped into my head, I was powerless to stop it.
‘Shall we walk the long way around and look for Mr Gideon?’ I said.
‘We’ve got stuff to do, remember?’ Mo gave me a cross look.
‘It will only take a few extra minutes, and then Jax can have an ice cream, too.’
‘It would be good to have an ice cream, I suppose,’ Mo said, turning to take the long cut home.
‘To be honest, I really need to pee.’ Jax stopped walking. ‘Can we go straight to yours? I’m desperate.’
How disappointing. Anyone would have thought he didn’t want an ice cream. He really didn’t know what he was missing.
‘If we must,’ I said, feeling extremely annoyed.
I listened out for ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’ all the way home, but there was no sign of Mr Gideon.
When we got home, Emma seemed thrilled. ‘How lovely to see you again, Jax! How are you?’
‘I’m OK, thank you,’ he smiled and his cheeks turned pink.
‘Can I get you something to drink? Some snacks, too? What would you like?’
‘Yes please, erm, Mrs…’
‘Just call me Emma, sweetheart.’
‘OK, thanks, Emma.’
Emma went into the kitchen and made up a big tray of juice and snacks. ‘Are you lot going upstairs to work?’
‘Actually, I could do with a break,’ I said. ‘Let’s play in the garden.’
Mo opened the back door and we took the tray outside. While Mo and Jax started eating, I ran into the house to get Sadie.
‘Sadie, we need your expertise,’ I said. ‘You know the thing we discussed?’
She nodded.
She cracked her knuckles and followed me to the garden.
We played until dinner, and then we sat and watched TV. Jax was being different from usual. He was quiet and shy, but didn’t seem in a rush to go home. I couldn’t tell if it was an act or not.
At seven-thirty, he got a text, which must have been from his mum, because he jumped up saying he had to go.
‘Let me take you home, Jax,’ Emma said. ‘Where do you live?’
‘No, thank you – my mum’s outside.’
‘Are you sure? I don’t like you leaving on your own when it’s dark.’
‘Yes, I’m sure.’ He grabbed his jacket and bag and ran for the door. ‘Thanks for dinner, Emma!’ he yelled, and closed the front door behind him.
‘I’m just going upstairs to do some homework,’ I said, winking at Mo.
‘That’s good,’ he said and kept watching TV.
‘I might need your help, though,’ I said, in the most subtly obvious voice I could.
‘Do it here, then, and I’ll help you while I’m watching.’
‘Mew,’ Sadie looked at Mo and shook her head.
‘Mo, darling,’ Emma looked up from her book. ‘I think Lottie wants to talk to you in private.’
‘Meowt,’ said Sadie.
‘And Sadie does, too.’
Emma was such a cool mum, I was getting very attached to her. I might even be sad to leave her when Mum came back for us.
‘Oh, right,’ said Mo. ‘Thanks, Mum.’ He gave her a hug and she ruffled his hair. It made me feel a bit funny – sort of sad and happy at the same time. But I had more important things to worry about.
‘We really need some kind of secret code – a password or hand gesture or something.’
‘Why?’ said Mo.
‘So we can communicate without other people knowing what we’re saying. For example, if I want you to come for an emergency Junker meeting upstairs.’
‘Mum didn’t care anyway,’ Mo said.
‘As always, Mo, you are completely missing the point.’
When we were safely in Mo’s room with the door closed, I turned to Sadie.
‘Did you find the metal arm thing?’ I said.
While we’d been playing, Sadie had searched Jax’s bag, jacket and trouser pockets for the bracelet he stole, and anything else that might help us to get one step ahead of the Junkers.
‘Purow,’ Sadie shook her head.
‘Oh, fluff, I forgot about that,’ Mo said.
‘How could you have forgotten? That was the whole reason we invited him over!’
‘I know, but it was kind of fun, and it slipped my mind.’
‘You need to focus, Mo! This is life or death stuff, remember?’
‘You’re right. I just find the pretending thing hard. I’m sorry.’
‘Jax didn’t have the armband on him.’ I said. ‘Was there anything else, Sades?’
Sadie reached down the back of her pants and pulled out a scrap of paper that looked like it had been ripped out of a St Pippins creative-writing journal. Take a look at Exhibit X:
There is a place I see in my nightmares. It is an island, surounded by the angry seas whose depths are full of lurking shadows. There are no boats. There is only one way to leave.
The island is in ruins. Most of it burnt and crumbling like charcoal, the few bildings still standing are relics from another time. It is frozen in the past and the future.
The only things that grow there are brown grasses and tough, scratchy vines which creep over evrything. They look like tentacles trying to pull the ruins down into the earth.
The sky is always grey and full of thunder. There are storms so loud they make me shake. Creetures prowl, especialy at night. They aren’t like the animals we know. They began that way – as gorillas and tigers and crocodiles in the zoo. But then the walls fell down and the animals escaped. Over years they have evolved. They had to or they wouldn’t have survived. Now they are terrible beasts who growl and stalk and hunt. They are always hungry.
Near the center of the island is a prison. Missing people are taken there – children who dissapeared on there way home from school, men and women who went for a walk one day and never made it home. Most of them are good. And they are kept locked up in the darkness. There is no escape.
‘All those years of school haven’t made him a good speller,’ I said. ‘And the Junkyard sounds like a lovely place.’
‘How can you say that, Lottie? It sounds awful!’
‘It’s called sarcasm, Mo.’
‘Oh. Do you think it’s about the real Junkyard?’ Mo said.
‘It seems unlikely that it’s just a coincidence.’
‘Right,’ said Mo.
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘What are we going to do now?’
‘We’ll just have to move to the next stage of our plan,’ Mo said. ‘We’ll have to get into the house, somehow.’
‘Well neither of us is going to fit through the cat flap, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
‘Perow mewl prrr,’ said Sadie, and she pulled something out of her pocket.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ Mo said.
‘Jax’s keys.’ I grinned.
‘Sadie, you are the most talented four-year-old I’ve ever met,’ Mo said. ‘You’re going to be a master criminal one day.’
Sadie giggled and kissed Mo’s arm.
Thanks to Sadie, getting into the Junker house wasn’t going to be as difficult as we thought. We just needed to get them out of the way…