Down to Earth. Melanie Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ parachuted out of that plane back in April 2002, you simply vanished without trace. You really have been missing all this time: it was as if you’d been completely wiped off the face of the earth.’

      ‘Stop it!’ I got to my feet again, and began pacing up and down, my jump-boots clattering across the quarry-tiled flooring. Eventually I stopped and turned to face him. ‘How can you expect me to believe that?’

      He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. But whether you believe it or not your disappearance changed a lot of lives, includ -ing mine. I was the last one to see you; I was the one who told you when and where to jump. The mystery of your disappearance has haunted me ever since. At one point the police even had me down as a suspect for your possible murder.’

      ‘But I didn’t vanish,’ I protested faintly, the anger ebbing away as quickly as it had come. ‘I’ve been here all along.’

      He went to the counter and spooned instant coffee into mugs. I watched as he poured the hot water into the mugs and added milk.

      ‘When you didn’t land on the airfield we scoured the surrounding fields and woods for you.’ He brought the mugs over to the breakfast bar and took a seat. Somewhat begrudg-ingly I took one of the steaming mugs as he went on. ‘We assumed you’d somehow gone off course and landed outside the airfield, but there was no sign of you anywhere. After several hours of fruitless searching we called the police who widened the hunt to farmland, people’s back gardens, sheds and outhouses but you were nowhere to be found. The search went on for months with door-to-door questioning and television appeals, but there were no leads. It was if you’d just vanished into thin air. Your parents refused to give up on you long after the police had put your case on the back burner. They had leaflets made and circulated them in the area. That was six long years ago, Michaela. After a year or so everyone except your parents – and Kevin and I – believed you would never be seen again.’

      I tried lifting the coffee mug to my lips but my hands were shaking so much I could barely hold it. Resting it back down on the counter I gripped my head in my hands and closed my eyes.

      ‘You must remember something about where you’ve been?’ he pressed again.

      ‘I told you,’ my voice came out muffled between my elbows and from under my long hair. ‘I remember everything very clearly. Today is 15th April. It’s 2002 …’

      He reached over to the back of the counter and pulled a folded newspaper towards me. Scanning the date in the top corner I closed my eyes again and groaned.

      ‘It can’t be … it just can’t.’

      Because this newspaper also proclaimed that today was Monday 20th October, and it was definitely 2008.

Chapter Six

      ‘Wait here.’ Matt left the room, returning a moment later with a large envelope filled with piles of posters, leaflets and newspaper cuttings. Tilting my head to one side, I watched as he sifted through them.

      The first reports had apparently made front-page headlines; ‘Girl vanishes in parachute jump’, and ‘Missing girl in charity jump mystery’, then, ‘Missing jump-girl’s parents in TV plea’, ‘Police quiz instructor in parachute puzzle’, and finally, ‘Michaela – abducted by aliens?’

      I read each article with a growing sense of unease. My fingers lingered on a black and white picture of my parents in which they looked haggard and distressed. What must they have been through if what Matt was saying was true?

      ‘I’ve got to try ringing Calum and my parents again.’ I struggled to my feet and stood swaying dangerously. My ears were ringing with a horrible high-pitched buzzing sound and I felt nauseous again.

      The floor, which had seemed so solid only a moment before, tipped towards me and I would have gone down hard if Matt hadn’t grabbed me and helped me down gently onto the cold floor. My hand hurt where the small cut had grazed against the kitchen tiles.

      Matt crouched down so his head was only inches from mine. ‘What have you done to your hand?’

      ‘I caught it on the door of the plane as we were climbing in before the jump,’ I told him.

      He fell very still. ‘I remember you doing that,’ he murmured, so quietly that I thought he was talking to himself. ‘But it can’t be the same injury … not after all this time.’

      ‘What’s happened to me?’ I asked faintly as I stared down at the laces of my boots.

      ‘That,’ he said firmly, ‘is what I intend to find out.’

      I decided not to try ringing anyone again that evening. If even half of what Matt had told me was true, then after six and a half years, one more night wasn’t going to hurt. I asked him about driving me home to Calum or even to Ingrid’s house, but he repeated that it would probably be more sensible if I were to tackle picking up the threads of my life in the morning.

      ‘Think of the shock you are going to give everyone when you return from the dead,’ he reminded me. ‘If you don’t want to go to the authorities or tell the world you’re back just yet then I suggest you get a good night’s sleep and we’ll go first thing tomorrow. No one is going to believe this you know, not until you’re standing right in front of them in person.’

      After following Matt upstairs I stood back as he held open the door to a good-sized guest room, pleasantly decorated in navy blue and white, with a queen-sized bed in the centre. Crossing to a chest of drawers, he rummaged about and returned with a couple of neatly folded white T-shirts, one with a panda on the front, the other with the picture of a leaping dolphin.

      ‘Here, you can sleep in one of these if you like.’

      I took the T-shirts and trailed after him to the bathroom where he produced a clean towel and a brand new toothbrush.

      ‘I’ll let you get sorted out then,’ he said.

      When the door closed behind him, I unfolded the T-shirts and held one against me. It was just long enough to cover my bottom and I decided it would make a decent enough nightdress. Holding the fabric to my face I inhaled the scent, expecting to detect the scent of perfume or some other residual hint of the person this had belonged to, because they certainly weren’t Matt’s. As I contemplated my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I couldn’t help but wonder how many women had passed through his life since he’d invited me for a drink that morning.

      It was a relief to get out of the jumpsuit however, and I looked down at the jeans and T-shirt I had on underneath, glad to see something familiar that belonged to me and which hadn’t miraculously vanished during the day. After brushing my teeth I emerged onto the landing holding the hem of the T-shirt self-consciously down round my thighs. Matt was waiting outside the bathroom door.

      ‘Have you got everything you need?’

      I nodded but as he turned and walked away from me I felt a moment of panic.

      What if I closed my eyes and disappeared again? What if I awoke to find another six years had gone by? One of the newspaper articles swam before my eyes; what if I really had been abducted by aliens and they came for me again in the night?

      Matt was already halfway along the СКАЧАТЬ