It was nearly teatime when we parted at the forest gates. Johnny J and I cycled together, only getting off our bikes at the top of our road. We always got off our bikes there and walked the last stretch of the journey.
‘Do you think we can pull it off?’ Johnny J asked.
‘We pulled off robbing Rolands’,’ I said.
‘Yeah, but this is big stuff – we’re robbing a security van! “SECURITY” being the important word in that sentence.’
‘But we have a code and a key and an evil genius in our friend Walker,’ I said.
‘Do you think I can drive that van if I have to?’ Johnny J looked worried.
I’d thought a lot about that since Walker had suggested it, and I believed he could, because Johnny J could do whatever he put his mind to. ‘Yeah, you can do it. Besides, it won’t happen like that. We’ll just grab the first bag that comes through the slot and jump out as soon as the van stops at a light. Easy,’ I said.
‘How do we get home?’ he said.
‘We’ll catch the bus.’
‘With a bag of stolen money?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It’s a gym bag – people will think it’s smelly gym gear. Who’d want to take that?’
He laughed. ‘You’re my best friend in the world,’ he said.
‘You too,’ I said.
We didn’t look at one another. It was embarrassing. He just nodded and I nodded and then he punched me in the arm and then I punched him. We had just reached his house when a big black taxicab drove onto our road, passed us and stopped right in front of Johnny J’s. My heart squeezed in my chest as the blonde woman dressed head to toe in black stepped out. I knew who it was even before she turned around. I heard Johnny J gulp and I felt a searing pain in my chest as my heart broke in two.
‘Auntie Alison,’ he said. She didn’t hear him – she was too far away and busy wrestling her large suitcase from the taxi man’s hands. We both stopped walking and just stood together, frozen.
She stood in front of the house, staring up at it before looking around the street, and that’s when she saw us. She broke into a smile and waved. ‘Johnny.’
Johnny J just stood there, petrified to the spot. She dropped her case and walked over to him as quickly as her really high heels would allow. She hugged him tightly and then she ruffled his bouncy hair. Johnny J stood still, with his hands by his side, not moving, not speaking. I looked on in horror.
‘There you are, my poor, poor boy,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry – I’m here now. Auntie Alison will take care of everything.’
She looked around at me. ‘You’re the friend,’ she said.
‘My name is Jeremy,’ I said. ‘Jeremy Finn.’
‘Do you know what I do for a living, Jeremy Finn?’ she asked. I did know. Auntie Alison had a string of hairdressers’ across the UK. She was very successful. She was very wealthy. She was used to living in a better place than our little street and being around more successful, richer and no doubt smarter people than us, at least that’s how she made us feel.
‘I know what you do,’ I said.
‘Well then, I’d be happy to give you two boys a free haircut,’ she said.
I really didn’t like Auntie Alison at all.
She looked back at the front door of the house again. ‘I should go in,’ she said.
Johnny J didn’t move.
I nodded. ‘Yes,’ I said.
She walked back and picked up her case. ‘Right then, in I go,’ she said, but she didn’t move. It was like being surrounded by living statues. I waited. She just stood there, her suitcase in hand. Then the front door opened. It was Uncle Ted. He stood still, holding on to the door and looking at Auntie Alison. For the longest time nobody moved or spoke. It was freaky. Finally Uncle Ted nodded and Auntie Alison started to move toward him. When she reached the door, she handed him her suitcase. She walked past him and he closed the door. It was a big relief.
‘Are you OK?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Johnny J said, shaking his head.
‘Me neither.’
He didn’t want to go inside, so we sat on the wall. I think he was in shock. Auntie Alison’s arrival was news to him. I hadn’t told him I’d overheard my mam talking to Rachel about it. I regretted that. Maybe if I’d warned him, he wouldn’t be shaking. I offered him my coat. He shook his head again.
‘I think it’s over,’ he said, but just as he said it a bird swooped down right in front of our faces. It flew up, then down, then backwards and upside down, its pretty, colourful feathers and long, tapered bill mesmerising us. I could hear the humming coming from its flapping wings. Unmistakable.fn1 There was a hummingbird hovering right in front of our faces and I swear it was looking us straight in the eye. It was remarkable.
‘I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with h,’ I said.
‘Hummingbird,’ Johnny J said, and his eyes lit up and a smile crept across his face.
‘What did that book say about spotting a hummingbird?’ I asked, pretending to forget.
‘It said that when a hummingbird hovers nearby, it means you are capable of achieving the impossible,’ he said.
‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ I said, and he nodded, because h is for hummingbird but it’s also for hope.