Lady behind the counter:
Maroon and gold sari (her sister’s)
Fluffy pink slippers (eBay)
Cashmere cardi (M&S)
Total est. cost: £85
‘I’m not sure… I was watching Strictly Come Dancing.’
Annie ran through the rain. She ran without stopping all the way to the corner shop. There, she established that a boy had been in about half an hour ago and bought a packet of dog chews.
‘Did he say anything, anything else at all… did he look upset?’ she asked wildly.
But the lady behind the counter couldn’t add anything to her recollection: ‘I’m not sure… I was watching Strictly Come Dancing.’
Annie ran back out into the rain. She ran along both sides of all the obvious streets, looking up and down any side streets or narrow alleys. She called Owen’s name out in the dark and asked every passer-by if they’d seen a boy with a dog. People couldn’t remember. Or they could sort of remember. They might have… but they weren’t sure where or when or which direction he might have been headed. Annie continued her hunt of the wet, dark streets. She wondered what she had done to turn today into the worst day for a very long time. If she could just have Owen and Lauren safely back at home, she’d do anything, give anything…
It was raining and Owen would want to keep Dave dry. This was the only idea in Annie’s mind. Where would he go to keep a dog dry?
A café? Would he have had enough money to go to a café?
She was on the main road now, looking frantically left and right. A big double-decker bus was hurtling down the hill on the other side of the road. Annie glanced over at the bus stop. She stopped and stared, opening her eyes wide with the effort of looking clearly.
There was a boy in an anorak with the hood pulled tightly round his face. And a dog? Yes, she thought she could see a dog.
‘OWEN!’ she yelled across the street. But the bus whizzed down towards the stop and blocked the bus shelter, the boy and the dog from her view.
She ran out into the road but had to wait halfway across to let two speeding cars past. To her horror, the bus pulled off and she uselessly shouted: ‘Stop!’ in its wake, frightened that Owen was on board. Running across the last part of the road, she reached the bus stop and through the rain-soaked glass she saw that Owen, his anorak and his dog, were still there.
‘Owen!’ she cried out, running towards him, ‘Owen! I’m sorry!’ She felt a rush of mixed feelings as she sped round the glass and threw her arms round his shoulders. ‘I’m so sorry!’ she repeated, feeling a wave of relief wash over her, ‘Please, please tell me you weren’t going to go anywhere? You weren’t going to go away?’
‘Nah!’ he answered, almost cheerfully, ‘they won’t let Dave on the bus.’
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, trying to keep any note of anger from her voice.
Owen shrugged. ‘Staying dry.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated and hugged him once again. ‘You’ve got to come home now. I’ve been so worried.’
‘Can Dave stay with me?’ Owen asked, hoping that his cold, damp protest hadn’t been in vain.
‘What?! So that every time you don’t like what I tell you, you can disappear off down the road, have me running round the whole of Highgate like a lunatic, then give in when I’ve found you? NO,’ she said firmly, ‘Dave’s coming to live with us 365 days a year. I’m putting up with that, even though I don’t like it. So, for two tiny little days, you’ll have to let him out of your sight and put up with it, even though you don’t like it.’
‘Aw!’ Owen began to make a half-hearted attempt at protest.
‘If you’re going to argue or pull another stunt like that, then it’s straight back to the bloomin’ dog home he goes,’ she threatened.
When Owen remained silent, Annie told him: ’You know that I love you really.’
‘Yeah.’ A shrug of the shoulders.
Annie heard her phone beep. Desperate for news from Ed, she pulled it out and read:
Have Lauren, taking E to Svets.