DEAD GOOD (12 page)

‘I did,’ he says. Telling me absolutely nothing. The pig.

‘So… um… correct me if I got it wrong, but you must have been to Amber’s house…’ I refuse to say “in Amber’s bedroom”. ‘Before to be able to go back now… then….is that right?’ I walk on.

‘Yeah I’ve been there before.’ He says.

Seriously, he’s either making this really difficult for me or it just feels really difficult talking about it. It’s still raining a bit and so I’m trying to rush from tree to tree to keep from getting too wet. Needless to say the raindrops have no effect whatsoever on Leo apart from shimmering prettily as they fall through his fuzzy figure and down onto the pavement.

‘Okay, okay, I’ll come clean,’ he starts to laugh, sensing my unease. He bounces a few paces ahead of me and then turns so that he’s facing me and walking backwards with me. What, so he wants to see my face when he reveals to me that he and Amber secretly dated three years ago and that this is the reason he’s stuck here in limbo and can’t move on because he can’t rest until he’s said something or done something or left her something behind? What? What?!

He stops suddenly but I don’t bang into him, I end up stopping inside him and so I freakishly leap out the other side. I spin round and shiver dramatically like I’ve just eaten a worm or something equally hideous. Of course he is in stitches – again.

‘You should see your face!’ he laughs on. ‘You look like you’ve just eaten a whole can of worms!’ he slaps his blurry thighs with both hands and bends over with laughter. I’m glad he’s finding this all so hilarious. No really.

‘Really?’ He tries to stop himself.

‘Yeah, really!’ I snap back and stomp on without him.

Maddie!’ he calls from behind me. I walk on. ‘Maddie?’ I ignore him again. ‘Mads?’ He’s certainly a trier, I’ll give him that. I’m almost tempted to turn round but I don’t have to. He’s back in front of me quick enough and smiling that broad smile of his, both eyes lit up with amusement. I manage to stop this time before I walk straight back into him and he tilts his head to one side.

‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘I was only teasing. I’ll tell you all about me and Amber then shall I?’

At the sound of those words, my belly and my heart do a small flip-flop, smack into each other and end up in the wrong places. I feel slightly sick at what I expect I might hear. I brace myself.

‘My dad does a bit of building work,’ he explains. ‘He was the carpenter who helped put in the skirting and doors and stuff when Amber’s parents had their extension done a few years ago. I was only about six or so I think. Mum took me there a few times on my way to school when he’d forgotten to take his lunch box with him.’

My whole body relaxes and I feel absolutely ridiculous for thinking that Amber and he might have…

‘Yeah, well, what else could you have thought, eh?’ he smiles down at me, damp hair sticking to my face. ‘I mean with girls it’s never straightforward, is it? There’s always that Eastenders element to take into consideration isn’t there? Or the Coronation Street conundrum, or are you more a Desperate Housewives girl? Honestly, the amount of total nonsense you females watch to the point of believing is … well…it’s…’

‘Un-believable?’ I help, forcing a smile even though it is at my own expense.

‘Pretty much, yeah.’ he nods, trying and failing to stamp in a particularly deep-looking puddle. ‘I like that you were jealous, though,’ he grins.

‘Come on - can’t you manage it this time?’ I goad, ignoring his comment and staring at the puddle. ‘If you managed to knock on my bedroom door then I’m sure a puddle is easy-peasy for somebody as dead clever as you!’ I dare a glance at his face.

His smile broadens, then his face contorts with concentration. He pounds and pounds in earnest until, with one almighty leap, he finally manages to hit the pool of water dead centre with both feet and covers me with the entire contents. As I stand stunned and soaked to the skin after all my earlier efforts to remain as dry as possible, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. So I do neither.

We walk back ‘home’ in silence. Unless you count the pains that Leo goes to in trying to explain that it had, after all, been my idea in the first place.

fifteen

After the events of this weekend, getting ready for school and the whole usual awfulness of it all is actually a pleasure this morning. I slept like a baby (whoever made that saying up never heard Davey from birth – he hardly ever slept. Consequently neither did all four of us – much. I still remember how shell-shocked mum used to look all the time. That’s put me off having kids for life. No, seriously). And I didn’t even realise my iPod had run out of battery until I woke up. I say a silent “thanks” to Leo for having the decency not to wake me up or sit chatting to me all night. I guess he could have if he’d really wanted to.

I frown even deeper now and sit down very cautiously at the table with him, pouring out a bowl of frosted flakes. ‘You mean you want to walk me to school?’ I try to determine. ‘To school. As in to the gates and wave me in – in front of all my friends? Are you serious?’

My mum says nothing. She rubs something off Davey’s top and pats him on the head. ‘Teeth,’ she says and he bounds off.

‘Er…. yeah, serious.’ He smiles again, sipping his coffee. ‘Oh… well… y’know, I don’t know, Dad, I mean… haven’t you got stuff here you need to do.. like… I don’t know, shelves to put up and boxes of things we haven’t unpacked yet and I’m sure Mum probably needs you here to…um…’ I trail off and turn round, hoping that Mum will actually help me out here but she’s already left the kitchen and is heading upstairs after Davey.

‘Look, Madeline,’ my dad says. ‘If you don’t want your sad old loser of an unemployed father walking to school with you then you only have to say so.’ He raises his eyebrows expectantly.

And just to make sure he can’t ask me any more stupid damned questions so early in the morning, I stuff my mouth full of cereal so that I can’t speak for crunching.

‘That was harsh,’ Leo says as he catches up with me at the end of the road. ‘Back there. What you said to your dad. It was a bit mean of you if you ask me.’

I wasn’t asking him, though, was I? I am tempted to stand still and poke him in his ghostly ribs and tell him to sod off and mind his own bloody business. Gah, and this morning felt like it was starting really well too!

‘Back off ghost-boy!’ I snarl as quietly as possible, making sure there’s no-one within earshot. ‘I am not five years old. Kids get walked to school – I do not!’

He doesn’t say anything, just keeps pace with me until I get to Amber’s house and then he’s gone again. Good. Just who the hell does he think he is, Jiminy bloody Cricket all of a sudden or what?

‘Ah, Madeline… Amber’s just on her way down… Am-BER!’ Mrs Ellis shrieks up the stairs as I wait on the outside doormat. And then I have another lightbulb moment - I can’t help myself.

‘Um… Mrs Ellis…’ I rock back on my heels as we wait together. ‘Do you remember your extension… um… y’know… that time you had it done?’ I realise this sounds a particularly ridiculous question let alone a clumsy way of phrasing it but I wasn’t prepared. I took myself by surprise, ‘well, really, I was wondering if you remembered the name of the carpenter … the one who did the doors and the woodwork and … stuff…’ I am rambling and focussing on her doormat so decide I’d better look up to check she’s still there. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d left me here to be honest.

‘Ah... now let me think Madeline,’ she taps her mouth in thought, ‘goodness, that was years ago now… it must have been nearly twelve…no.. thirt….um…. Ah - come on now Amber,’ she turns as her daughter appears as usual flushed and rushed, ‘get a move on, Madeline’s waiting here… they’re in there, in there…IN THERE!’ she stabs a finger towards a drawer in their hallway and I watch Amber as she fishes about inside for something. ‘D’you know what,’ she says turning back to me. ‘It’s on the tip of my tongue, it really is… Roger?’ she shouts towards the kitchen.

‘It doesn’t matter, Mrs Ellis,’ I mutter as Amber walks up to me with keys hanging from her mouth. ‘It’s not important… anyway.. thanks.’

‘What’s not important?’ Amber frowns as she steps out of the house and onto the mat with me.

‘ROGER!’ she bellows so loudly that I have to step back off the mat now. ‘Roger!’

Amber’s dad appears from the kitchen doorway and when he sees me he does a limp little wave to which I smile graciously back and mirror his wave. ‘Janet?’ he slides his glasses down his nose with one hand and in the other is a hurriedly scrunched up newspaper.

‘That carpenter we used for the extension. You remember…’ she says, waving her finger like it’s a wand. ‘He did the doors and the skirting – oh and those what do you call them? Those huge planks of wood that go on the roof – those….um… now who was he again… Alison and Philip need his name – must be planning some kind of work on the new place, eh…?’ she smiles kindly at me and I want to slap her presumptuous face for assuming we could afford to even think about having any work done let alone actually do it.

‘Gardella,’ Mr Ellis says simply and makes to return from whence he came. ‘Tony Gardella…don’t think he’s around here anymore… nice man. Very pleasant. Shame…’ I vaguely hear him finish as he disappears back into the kitchen with his paper.

I smile and nod my thanks as Amber tugs at my bag and pulls me down the path with her.

‘C’mon… you have to tell me what you’re talking about!’

But I don’t even need to evade any of Amber’s questions because just as we leave her gate, we spot Ed Loake and Justin Blathe across the road and they’re walking slightly ahead of us.

‘How was that for perfect timing?’ Amber beams excitedly. Seriously, this girl will get a thrill from almost anything. ‘I was watching for them from my bedroom window and calculated that we’d have approximately three minutes before we needed to leave to make them slightly ahead of us for the walk to school. Did you see how I managed to drag it out by pretending to not know where my locker keys were?!’ She jangles them at me like she expects me to hand her a badge of honour for this amazing feat of daring and I smile pleasantly back at her. Good. At least this will stop her questioning me about what I was asking her mother. But then an altogether different line of questioning suddenly appears in the fuzzy form of my friendly neighbourhood ghost.

‘You didn’t believe me, did you?’ he says more as a statement than a query so I don’t reply. I mean, how can I reply anyway? Amber’s right on my other side, trying to keep an unnoticeable pace with the boys on the opposite side of the road.

‘Why did you have to check with Amber’s mum? What is it with girls?! They ask for the truth but they never believe you. God, it’s enough to make a guy want to give up before he even starts.’

Still I can say nothing. I just busy myself keeping up with Amber.

‘There – you can see he’s done something to his hair… see?’ she whispers trying not to point in Justin’s direction.

‘Look! It doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s just confirmation that’s all!’ I snap – more to Leo than Amber but she takes this as my reaction to Justin’s weekend root touch-up job.

‘Well, alright then,’ she slows, a little shocked at my outburst, ‘no I don’t suppose it does really matter – I was just pointing it out to you – god, Maddie, are you pre-menstrual or something?’ her beautifully plucked eyebrows knit together. ‘Because I don’t want to get on the wrong side of you today if you are, that’s all!’