Lily Alone Read online

  We had to ask a middle-aged couple in matching green-and-purple sweatshirts how to get out. They pointed us in the right way, but looked at us uneasily.

  ‘Aren’t you a bit young to be playing in the park by yourselves?’ the woman asked.

  ‘We’re not. We wandered off and lost our mum,’ I said.

  ‘What? For goodness’ sake, she’ll be frantic!’

  ‘No, no – I phoned her on my mobile,’ I said, patting my empty jeans pocket. ‘She just said to come straight to the park gates and she’ll meet us there.’

  ‘Well, we’d better come with you, to make sure you get there,’ said the woman.

  ‘No, please don’t. Mum will get even crosser then. It’s all my fault, I was meant to be looking after them,’ I said, and I screwed my face up as if I was trying not to cry.

  I thought she’d feel sorry for me and let me go, but she looked more worried than ever.

  ‘No, we absolutely insist. You might get lost again. It’s a good fifteen-minute walk, maybe longer. Come along, it’s this way,’ she said, while we stared at her, horrified.

  Pixie started crying for real and the woman looked concerned.

  ‘Oh dear, is she hungry?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, yes!’ Pixie wailed, as if she hadn’t eaten for days.

  ‘Poor little pet. What do you want, darling?’

  ‘Ice cream!’ said Pixie.

  Oh, I saw what she was up to. She’d heard the word gate and remembered the whippy van.

  ‘We haven’t got any ice cream, dear, but we’ve maybe got a nice peppermint,’ said the woman. ‘Arnie, you’ve got the Polos in your pocket, haven’t you?’

  Arnie didn’t look as if he wanted to share his Polo mints but he got them out and offered the packet nervously in the direction of Pixie, as if she was a snappy dog and might bite. She grabbed at the packet and then turned up her nose at the smell.

  ‘It’s toothpaste!’ she said, looking accusingly at Arnie as if he’d played a dirty trick on her.

  ‘I like Polos,’ said Baxter.

  Arnie handed them round to all of us.

  ‘Say thank you,’ I hissed.

  But Baxter wouldn’t and Bliss was too shy and Pixie too intent on whining for ice cream. I could have shaken all of them. I didn’t know what to do. Arnie’s wife was trying to make conversation all along the way: what were our names, where exactly did we live, which school did we go to? I started telling her a whole load of lies to stop her tracking us down.

  ‘I’m Rose, and this is my brother Mikey and my sister Bluebell and my littlest sister Bunny,’ I said, picking names I knew the kids would like so they’d go along with this charade. I said we lived on a different estate the other end of town, and I had us all going to a different school too. Then she twittered on and on about it, asking us what we liked best at school.

  ‘I like art,’ I said truthfully.

  ‘I do too,’ said Bluebell, in a tiny whispery voice.

  ‘Is art painting? We do finger painting at nursery and I love getting in a mess,’ said Bunny.

  ‘I like fighting,’ said Mikey, punching the air.

  It turned out Arnie and his wife, Elizabeth, had been schoolteachers once upon a time, but they’d both retired now.

  ‘Though we’re so busy I don’t know how we ever had time to work,’ said Elizabeth.

  Yes, they were busy busy busy poking their sharp teachers’ noses into our affairs. I didn’t have a clue how we were going to get rid of them. I kept wondering if I should simply yell, Run! and grab Bunny and yank Mikey and Bluebell into action – but I still wasn’t very sure how far the gate was. Although old Arnie walked in a tottery kind of way, his wife bounced along in her trainers. Perhaps she’d been a PE teacher – I could imagine a whistle bouncing on her big chest. I didn’t want her blowing the whistle on us.

  I tried to think of some way we could successfully escape, nibbling at the skin on my lip as we walked.

  ‘You’re looking really worried, Rose,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Do you think your mother will get very cross?’

  I didn’t know what to say for the best.

  ‘Yes, she’ll get really mad and start whacking us ever so hard,’ said Mikey, thinking he was helping me out.

  Elizabeth looked shocked.

  ‘Your mother hits you?’ she asked.

  ‘No, of course she doesn’t,’ I said quickly.

  ‘Yes, she does, she goes whack whack whack,’ said Mikey, gesturing. ‘But it’s OK because I go kerpow kerpow kerpow and I always beat her and get to be the winner because I’m the best at fighting.’

  ‘I think you’re the best at story-telling,’ said Elizabeth, relaxing.

  We got to the top of the hill – and then started on the downward slope, me holding Bunny by her wrist to stop her tumbling. I saw the car park and the gate. Bunny started clamouring, ‘Ice cream!’ until I thought my head would burst.

  ‘Nearly there,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Can you see any sign of your mum?’

  But then – oh glory! – some couple got out of their car, with a daft spaniel leaping up and down. They started calling and waving. ‘Elizabeth! Arnie! Oh my goodness, fancy seeing you here!’

  ‘Good Lord! Are these your grandchildren?’

  ‘There’s Mum!’ I shouted, while they were distracted. ‘Thank-you-very-much-goodbye!’

  Then we ran for it. I started waving wildly at a woman by the gate, a fat, silly-looking woman nothing like our mum – and she waved back, startled, obviously feeling she knew us. Bliss and Baxter ran beside me, and I managed to clutch Pixie. We could hear Elizabeth and Arnie calling as the dog barked but we just ran faster. When we got to the gate I threw my arms round this complete stranger, practically knocking her over.

  ‘Hello? What’s all this about?’ she said, laughing nervously.

  ‘Oh! I thought – I thought you were someone I know,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve go to go now. Come on, kids.’

  We ran again, dodging up the first side street so we’d not be visible from the gate. When we were round a corner I let us slow down. We leaned against a garden wall, all of us utterly out of breath.

  ‘Phew!’ said Pixie.

  It was such a strangely old-fashioned thing for her to say that we all burst out laughing.

  ‘Phew, phew, phew!’ Pixie repeated delightedly.

  We trudged on up the road, all of us phewing like anything.

  ‘My feet hurt, right on their underneaths,’ said Baxter, limping a little.

  ‘My everything hurts,’ Bliss mumbled.

  ‘Never mind, we’ll be home soon, and we’ll all have a nice hot bath and a special treat for supper,’ I promised. ‘You’ll get your ice cream, Pixie. I know Mum put some in the freezer.’

  ‘I want whippy,’ she moaned.

  ‘Yes, well, I’ll squish it around and make it whippy. And we’ll put cream on the top.’

  ‘Can I have cream too?’ asked Bliss.

  ‘We’ll all have cream.’

  ‘Am I still Bluebell?’

  ‘If you want to be.’

  ‘No, I think I want to be me now.’

  ‘Then that’s who you are, who we all are, Lily and Baxter and Bliss and Pixie, and we’re nearly home.’

  We got back to our estate safely without going all round the moon. I started worrying now about the unlocked door. Maybe we’d get back and find the whole flat ransacked, mess everywhere. I’d seen what some of the boys could do if they wanted to teach you a lesson. My chest felt tight and I could scarcely breathe as we crept along the balcony, trying to avoid alerting Old Kath. But when I peeped round the door everything was just as usual, certainly not neat and tidy, but it was only our own mess. There was a little beeping noise in the hallway. It was a message flashing on the telephone.

  I pressed the button on the phone and Mum’s voice spoke into the hall.

  ‘Mum! Mum! Mum! Mum!’ We all called her name. Baxter jumped up and down. Bliss doubled over, clasping her tummy. Pi