Authors: Cathy MacPhail
‘She’s got wee Nazeem in there, and we’re goin’ to get her. In fact … we’re goin’ to get the two o’ you.’
She lunged. Katie swung open the door and jumped. One great leap. Zan had told her, and she would avoid the hole in the floor. The one the homeless who had slept here had warned each other about. The one Zan knew about, and the Posse didn’t. Katie landed on solid
floor. The Posse didn’t. They threw themselves inside and disappeared, landing in an untidy heap on the rubble below. ‘They won’t get hurt,’ Zan had promised. ‘It’s only a couple of feet. But they will be confused, and that’s how we want them. They won’t know what’s happening.’ And they didn’t.
‘Mary, where are we?’
‘Somethin’ touched me there.’
‘Hey, where is she?’
‘I’m here,’ Katie said, and although the room was almost pitch black, there was enough light to see their frightened, apprehensive faces. Little Nazeem’s had looked just like that when Katie had first seen her.
‘What are you goin’ to do to us?’ one of them asked, trying to sound defiant.
‘Me? Nothing,’ Katie answered truthfully. She stepped back, and a moment later it was Zan’s face they saw, just dimly.
‘But I am,’ she said, and she pushed the door closed and pitch blackness slammed into the room.
‘Over here, Mr Cassidy. I’m sure I hear something.’
Katie’s father and some of his campaign helpers stood at the edge of the close. The cries were faint but they
could still hear them.
‘Yes. There’s someone in there,’ Katie’s father said. They began running into the close. ‘Probably one of the old drunks, living in here. Could be suffering from hypothermia.’
‘Hypothermia?’ At the sound of the word the man with the camera began pushing his way forward. ‘Come on, Eddie.’ He shouted to the reporter behind him. ‘We might get a good picture out of this.’
When Katie’s father flung open the door, the photographer was right behind him. ‘There’s something down there …’ He swung the torch into the basement and a gasp went up from the group gathered round him. The photographer’s camera flashed with excitement.
He had managed to get his good picture at last.
It was front page news in the local paper next day. Not a story about the tramps or the homeless, but a picture of the Posse, tied up, sitting back to back in the basement, looking slightly ridiculous, with a placard placed around their necks: ‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BULLIES’.
Her father looked up from his paper. ‘Did you have anything to do with this, Katie?’ She blushed and looked
away. ‘They said you did,’ he continued. ‘They said, “Katie Cassidy did this.” Did you?’
‘No.’ And this time she wasn’t lying, so she could say it boldly.
‘These girls could have you charged, you know.’
‘Have you spoken to Nazeem Parikh, Dad? Those three have been making her life a misery for months. She asked me to help her. All I did was walk home with her. Those three chased us all the way. They chased us into those derelict buildings and fell into a hole. How can I be to blame for that?’
‘Who tied them up? Who put that placard round their necks?’
‘Maybe someone who wanted to help Nazeem too. And what did they do to them anyway, Dad? They tied them up to stop them following us. They put a placard round their necks to say they were bullies and they are!’
‘It made them look foolish.’
‘Good!’ Katie knew she was angry and couldn’t help it. ‘Maybe now they won’t bully anyone else. If that story and that picture means they won’t make anyone else afraid – good!’ she repeated. ‘What do you think they would have done to Nazeem and me if they’d caught us? Have you thought about that?’ She felt the tears spring
to her eyes. ‘Why should I have to say all this, Dad? Why weren’t you so concerned when it was happening to me? You told me to stand up for myself. Now I have. Remember, Ivy Toner almost pushed me off a wall. She could have killed me. They shoved my head down a toilet. How foolish do you think I looked then?’
Her dad wasn’t saying a word. His face was ashen, his mouth hanging open.
‘It didn’t seem to worry you so much when it was just me, did it? But we can’t have the bad guys looking foolish, can we? We can’t turn the tables on them. They weren’t hurt. We made sure of that. I don’t think they would have been so thoughtful to us. Do you?’ She stood up, the tears streaming from her eyes. Her mother came running down the stairs wrapped in a pink towel.
‘Douglas … Katie … what on earth’s going on?’
‘Why didn’t you start a campaign to help me!’ The thought had been eating into her for a long time. ‘There’s probably more children being bullied in this town than there are homeless anyway!’
She ran from the house to the school, and when she went in through the school gates her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. There was an admiring crowd waiting for her.
‘I don’t know why you’re looking so sad,’ one of them said. ‘You’re a heroine. Everybody’s talking about you.’
That didn’t make her feel good at all. Miss Withers would have something to say about that. Ivy Toner too. Even more reason to go after Zan. She had to protect Zan from that. She understood that now, more than ever. Problems seemed to be piling up for Katie.
There were even more at three thirty as she came out of the school gates. Nazeem was waiting for her.
She beamed a smile. ‘Katie!’ She grabbed at her hand and held it. ‘I’m so proud that you are my very best friend.’
‘I am?’
‘Of course. And now, everyone wants to talk to me, because I know you … and Zan, of course.’
‘Zan?’
‘I know. She doesn’t really exist. She’s you. You’re magic, Katie.’ Nazeem sighed. ‘I’ve never known anyone magic before.’
‘I’m not magic, Nazeem.’
‘You are to me,’ Nazeem said. And nothing would convince her otherwise.
‘Anyway, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m going home with you. My mother and my father
are coming to your house when my father finishes surgery. By the way, if you ever need anything doing to your teeth he’ll do it for nothing. He hasn’t actually said that yet, but I’m going to speak to him about it.’
‘They’re coming to my house?’ Katie managed to squeeze in.
‘To thank you, Katie. You’re the only one who helped me. And I don’t think the Posse will bother anyone in our school again. Everyone’s been laughing and laughing at them. That photo was stuck up everywhere.’
For a moment that made her feel good. She was glad for Nazeem’s sake, and for all the others. But to have Nazeem as a lifelong friend? Was this the price she had to pay? If she would just stop talking for five minutes. But it was hopeless. By the time they reached home, Katie knew every stick of furniture in Nazeem’s house, the whole family’s birthdays and every meal they’d eaten in the past three months.
Yet it was good Nazeem was there when they did get home. Her mother was delighted to meet her, and took to Nazeem at once. Probably she saw in her a kindred spirit. And it broke the ice between her father and herself. Nazeem’s animated chatter exhausted and relaxed everyone at the same time. Yet Katie knew what had
been said that morning would hang between them for a long time.
The phone rang just as her mother had organized them all in the living-room for some tea. It was her mother who answered it.
‘It’s for you, Katie. A girl.’
She had a deep sense of foreboding as she lifted the receiver. Not another girl in trouble. She couldn’t handle all that again.
But this time, it was Zan.
‘You didn’t tell me your dad had the press with him.’
Katie was puzzled. ‘I’m sorry. I forgot. Does it matter? I thought that the picture …’
Zan didn’t let her finish. ‘I told you. I didn’t want any publicity. I was mentioned in that article.’
‘Only as the homeless girl on the dump who inspired my dad’s campaign.’
‘That just might be enough.’
‘It’s only the local paper, Zan. No one outside the town ever reads it.’
She heard her sigh. ‘I hope so, Katie. I really hope so.’
Katie stood by the phone for a long time before she rejoined the others. What could Zan’s secret be? What was it that made her, who was afraid of nothing, so afraid?
‘I think Nazeem is absolutely sweet,’ Katie’s mother said. They had just waved the family off that night.
‘You think everyone’s absolutely sweet, Katherine,’ her father said. There was so much tenderness in the way he said it. So much love in the smile her mother flashed back at him.
‘She never seems to take a breath. She talks non-stop.’ Katie had spent most of the evening in her bedroom with Nazeem, and she was exhausted.
‘Doesn’t she,’ her mother agreed, as if it was another of her absolutely sweet bits. ‘She just chatters on like a little bird.’
Her father yawned. ‘I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m exhausted.’
‘Me too.’ Katie didn’t quite meet her father’s eyes, though she knew he was looking at her. She wasn’t ready
to smile at him, not yet.
‘Right, I’ll make us all a nightcap, shall I?’
Katie and her father groaned at the same time. One of her mother’s nightcaps was usually some herbal concoction guaranteed to put hairs on your chest.
They were sitting round the fire gingerly sipping their ‘nightcap’, when the doorbell rang.
‘At this time of night?’ Katie’s mother jumped up and peeked through the curtains of the bay window. Katie and her father took the opportunity to deposit the remains of the ‘nightcap’ in adjacent plant pots. Usually this operation was accompanied by winks and giggles. This time they did it quite stiffly, not looking at each other.
‘Oh my heavens, it’s two policemen!’
Her father didn’t waste a minute hurrying to the door, and moments later he was leading the two officers into the living-room.
‘It’s actually you they want to see, Katie.’ Her father’s voice was stern.
Katie sat bolt upright. ‘Me!’
‘I’m afraid we’ve had a complaint, young lady,’ the first policeman said. She noticed he had ginger hair growing out of his nose.
‘Those three girls who were assaulted last night—’ the second began, but Katie interrupted him.
‘Assaulted! They chased us all the way home from school.’
‘Nevertheless they were tied up against their will. That is assault.’
Katie shook her head. ‘I don’t believe this.’
‘Neither do I,’ said her mother. ‘What exactly are you here for?’
‘We had the parents of those girls at the station today. They wanted to charge your daughter.’
‘With what?’ her father asked.
‘These girls say your daughter was the one who assaulted them and tied them up.’
But it wasn’t me …! The words almost tumbled from her. She held her breath. She couldn’t deny it. She had to protect Zan.
The younger policeman had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. Now they looked embarrassed. ‘These girls don’t actually say it was you … They had some nonsensical story about how you turned into someone else, but their parents believe it had to be you.’
‘That’s the only reason you’re not being charged. Because they do stick to that ridiculous story.’
‘Charged with what, Constable?’ Katie could almost see the anger rising in her mother. ‘My daughter and her friend were chased by these girls, intent on doing them harm. And you are telling me … my Katie … could be charged!’
Blue-eyes looked embarrassed again. ‘The point is, Mrs Cassidy …’ he could obviously see her mother was ready to explode ‘… we know these girls. We’ve had trouble with them before. But our hands are tied. If they make a complaint, we have to follow it up.’
The other policeman, Ginger, smiled at Katie. ‘Just stay away from them, Katie. Well away.’
Exactly what she had been told when she had complained in school about Ivy. ‘Stay away from her, Katie.’ ‘Go a different road home from school, Katie.’ ‘Avoid her, Katie.’ ‘Don’t give her any trouble, Katie.’
‘And what about little Nazeem? They’re in her school. They’ve been making her life miserable for months.’
‘I dare say, Katie,’ her mother said archly, ‘little Nazeem’s also been told not to annoy them any more.’
Ginger’s smile disappeared. ‘We’re only doing our job, Mrs Cassidy. If Katie or this other little girl have any more trouble, they can let us know immediately. We’ll deal with it.’
Her mother slipped an arm around Katie’s shoulders and pulled her close. ‘You don’t have to worry about Katie going anywhere near the likes of them. But I think it’s absolutely shameful that after everything she’s been through, it’s my daughter who gets a warning from the police.’
So did Katie. As her parents saw the policemen out she couldn’t stop thinking about the unfairness of it all.
‘It makes me so angry!’ her mother said as she came back into the room.
Her father stood at the door. He had been quieter than Katie had expected all the time the police were in the house.
Finally, he spoke. ‘OK, Katie. What’s going on? I want to know the truth.’
‘Leave her be, Douglas.’
‘The truth about what, Dad?’
‘Who is this other girl who keeps popping up when you’re around?’
Katie’s mouth went dry. ‘What other girl?’
‘The other girl all these fools seem to think is you. And don’t say she doesn’t exist, or she is you. Because I don’t believe either of those.’ He waited a moment for an answer, but for the life of her Katie couldn’t think of a thing to say.
‘Is she the girl in the cardboard box? The one you first told us about?’ Again he only waited for a moment for an answer. ‘Tell me, Katie. I only want to help her.’
And Katie knew he did. She knew that if she admitted Zan’s existence, he would do everything in his power to find her, to track her down. To help her, to put her back where she didn’t want to go. And Katie knew too that she could never allow that. Even if it meant lying to her father. ‘I … told you before. There is no other girl. I made her up.’
Her father’s face froze. Even her mother’s gentle expression hardened a little. ‘We know that isn’t true,’ her father said. ‘Why are you lying?’
The best form of defence is attack. Katie had read that somewhere. She decided to test the truth of it right now. ‘You always said I was to stand up for myself. Face up to my problems. Well, I did. And now it seems I’m the bad one. I’ve just had the police here ready to charge me, for helping wee Nazeem! And do you care? Any of you? What kind of parents are you?’ And she fled from the room in tears.