Trilogy Collection. Julie Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ she dared to asked again. ‘Was he fighting? Did he get into trouble? What?’

      ‘I mean it, Josie,’ she said, pressing her lips together and swivelling the lipstick back down. I’m really not in the mood for 20 questions right now.’

      ‘But I’ve been waiting,’ Josie said, feeling her own anger rising and her voice with it. ‘Waiting all day for you! What’s he done? And when’s he coming home? That’s all I want to know!’

      June swivelled as she was popping the lippy back into her handbag. ‘Don’t you raise your voice to me, madam, you hear me? You best get out of my sight, cos I’m this close,’ she squeezed her thumb and her forefinger together and glared at Josie, ‘this close to throwing a fit. I’m fuming, Titch, so don’t push me any further, okay? Now, I say again, piss off out of my sight before you get a belt!’

      Josie had no idea why her mum was in such a filthy mood but she also knew better than to push it when she was like this. She hesitated for a moment more – should she try, even so? But she knew it would be pointless; she’d get no answers, just a clip round the ear. But she wasn’t staying home alone either. Grabbing her jacket from the back of the couch, and with tears springing in her eyes, she fled into the hall and yanked the front door open, shouting out ‘Bleeding cow!’ as she ran off down the street.

      She was so upset with her mother that she forgot her most important new rule. She happened to glance across the street and her eyes were instantly drawn to a brightly illuminated upstairs window. Mucky Melvin! He had his grubby makeshift curtain held back and was watching her as she ran by.

      Josie yelped and changed direction, feeling a wave of nausea rise in her stomach, running back past her own house and further down the street. She was almost blinded by her tears now but she didn’t care who saw her. She ran for five full minutes, fast enough to make the air rasp in her throat, then, finally spent, she slowed first to a jog and then to a walk, sweat beading on her forehead and hair damp against her neck as she drew up outside the local youth club.

      The lights were on. It was one of the club nights and there would be loads of kids in there. She didn’t want to go in though. She never did. She didn’t like a lot of the older kids who went to play pool, but she knew of somewhere else to go in any case.

      There was a secret den just down from the back of the youthy; a den that her, Vinnie and a few others had made a couple of years back, deep inside a stand of overgrown shrubs and scraggy trees. They’d sometimes stash stolen stuff there and congregate for meetings. She’d go there, she decided. Yes, it was dark, but she felt safe inside. Hardly anyone knew about it and because there was only one way in and out, no one could sneak up on her there. It was as good a place as any, she decided, setting off towards the building, and definitely better than going back to her shitty home.

      Having crossed the grass, Josie slipped through the gap in the perimeter fence and slid down the slippery, muddy grass bank to the bottom of the hill. She was at the back of the building now, and sat and waited for a few moments, but once satisfied that the only sounds were coming from inside the building above her, she began making her way across the area of wasteland in front of her.

      Littered with old car tyres, cans, empty boxes and discarded chip wrappers, to anyone looking, it just seemed like a rubbish tip. But behind that, and known only to a very select few, there’d been a major excavation. The apparent wall of impenetrable brambles actually hid a sizeable retreat; space enough for half a dozen kids, at a pinch, to sit together, the scrubby ground buried under a damp and smelly carpet off-cut and light provided by stubs of candles in old jam jars.

      Josie carefully parted the curtain of branches, fought her way through the scratchy bushes and pushed her way finally into the little space. Then almost jumped out of her skin when she first heard a sniffle and then, as her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, saw a figure crouched down in the corner.

      Her fear was only momentary, though. The sniffle sounded female, and the figure tiny. ‘Who’s that?’ she asked in a whisper.

      ‘Oh it’s you, Titch. Thank fuck for that, I almost shit myself then!’

      ‘Caz?’ Titch asked, peering at her. ‘That you?’ She shuffled a bit closer then sat back on her heels. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’

      Carol sniffed again and Josie could see the white of a tissue or bit of bog roll. ‘What’s up, mate? You’re crying. Has someone battered you?’

      Carol wiped the tissue across her face and shook her head. ‘No. No, it’s not that. I’m fine. I’ll be alright, mate. I just needed to get away from the house for a bit.’

      Her as well, then. ‘Why’s that?’

      ‘It’s nothing. Just the usual. Mam, an’ that. I’m much better now you’re here.’ Her eyes adjusted now, Josie could make out her friend’s smile. ‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Carol asked her.

      ‘Never mind that,’ said Josie. ‘What d’you mean – ‘Mam, an’ that’? What’s happened? Has your mam started on you or something?’

      For a few moments Carol said nothing. She just sat there, scrunching and unscrunching the tissue. Then she sobbed again, all at once, and reached her arms out to Josie, who pulled her in for a hug and held her tightly. ‘Oh, Josie,’ she said finally, ‘it’s not my mam. I wish it was. It’s that bastard that she’s with. Him. That black bastard!’

      Crying out loud now, so much so that Josie felt compelled to try and shush her, she pressed her face into Josie’s chest, her shoulders heaving. ‘He’s been doing stuff to me, Titch …’

      ‘Doing stuff? What stuff?’

      ‘That kind of stuff. An’ I’m sick of it …’

      Josie pushed Carol away slightly and stared at her. ‘Doing stuff like what? What do you mean, Caz? You mean Black Bobby has, right?’

      Carol nodded and sobbed again and raked the tissue across her face again. ‘Please swear down that you won’t tell, Titch. You must swear, okay?’

      ‘I will swear,’ she said, understanding dawning. Carol too? ‘I do swear – but what’s he done to you?’

      ‘Been coming into my bedroom,’ Caz said haltingly. ‘You know, when me mam’s at the bingo and … touching me down there and stuff.’ She paused to sniff. ‘I mean he gives me cigs and sweets and that afterwards, an’ I thought I could kind of cope with it, but it’s horrible, Titch – horrible, and he’s just getting worse and worse. Tonight he …’ she paused and gulped. ‘Tried to … you know … put his thing in me, and … and I managed to fight him off – and thank fuck for Blue – but …’

      ‘Did Blue attack him?’ Josie asked, wide-eyed. Blue was Caz’s dog and she was a big alsation bitch. Josie knew she’d defend Caz with her life.

      ‘Almost,’ Caz said. ‘Got between us. Scared the shit out of him at least … but …’

      She stopped then, her face crumpling, and started wailing all over again. ‘I don’t know what to do, Titch,’ she mumbled, burrowing her face into Josie’s neck. ‘I can’t tell me mam, can I? She’ll kill me. She’ll say I led him on. An’ he’ll just lie, won’t he? So you mustn’t tell. You won’t tell, will you? I’ve just gotta think what’s the best thing to do. So just forget I told you, okay? СКАЧАТЬ