The Writer (15 page)

“Where did he go?” Jerry
asked his brother as they made their way off the train, to the
platform filled with a mass of people doing the same. Their height
made it impossible to see where he was.

“He’s with the crowds, so we
follow the crowds,” Kerry reasoned.

“You don’t know where
they’re going. We can’t go too far into the city.”

“As long as we’re following
our target, we’ll be okay.”

“Only if he stays with the
crowds. We can’t see if he will. We can’t get lost in the city,
Jerry. We need to get back to Gendry tonight. It isn’t safe here.
What do you think mother’s going to do to us for this?”

“If anything happens, we
know where Sophie lives. We can go there, stay with
her.”

“Dummy, she’s in
Gendry!”

Kerry looked at his brother
with growing fear. “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

“And we don’t even know
where she lives!”

“Sure we do. I remember it
from last time we visited. It’s not that far from here. We’ll just
break into her house if we have to. That’s what spies do, when it
gets difficult and dangerous. They go by their senses, and skills,
and instinct.”

“You do know we’re not
really spies, don’t you?”

“Since when did you become a
girl?”

“Since I think we might be
lost. And you’re the girl.”

“We’re not lost. I told you,
we keep following the target, and we’ll be okay. I think he went
this way. Come on.”

They stopped walking when
the crowds thinned, leaving a space for them to look around, There
was no sign of Craigfield.

“Let’s go back home right
now,” pleaded Jerry.

“I’m following the target. I
don’t know what you want to do. You can go home if you want to.
What did you think we were doing when we got on that train? We must
be committed to this.”

Jerry answered by giving his
brother a shove, to which Kerry shoved back with equal strength. No
one knew they regularly fought when they were in private, and there
had not once been an outright victor between them. Their mother
would have been shocked to see them now; not only in the city
alone, but fighting. Then Jerry started hitting his brother with
his little fists, and the blows were returned without hesitation.
They roughly grabbed at each other’s clothing and came close to
falling over. In their anger they barged into several people. A
small group of travellers then formed to watch them as they battled
away, edging towards the train tracks. A few people told them to
stop, drowned out by those who were laughing and cheering them on.
People came rushing to see what was happening.

Then they each felt a strong
hand taking hold of an arm, pulling them apart with such surprising
force that their anger vanished. They both looked up at the same
time, to see the concerned and yet familiar face of Craigfield. But
he was furious with them, and his wild eyes made them both feel
weak with fear.

When Max heard the key
unlocking the door he did not know what to think. He had been
sitting in the quiet apartment just waiting for the day to end.
Morning turned to noon to afternoon, the evening to night. At times
the clock seemed to stop and remain unchanged, and at other times
the hours passed quickly. However the clock was moving, he could
remain in the same position without feeling any reason to do
anything else.

It had come as a surprise to
him that after two days of such living he began to feel the
motivation to continue with his writing. It was understandable that
his story became darker and uncertain. Since returning from
Craigfield’s house, in the middle of the previous night, he felt
like a weight had been lifted. He now accepted where he was and who
he was. Just some guy who thought he could write, and who thought
he could act a bit like Elvis, and who had a failed marriage with
nothing to show for it.

His writing was all he had
left. His three books seemed frivolous now. He knew he would never
want to sit down and read any of them. They were experiments, to
see how far he could go, to see if he could complete a story and be
proud of it. What he wanted to produce was a book he would enjoy to
give to people, and one that he would also enjoy. He knew, deep
inside, that he could do better. Everything in his life was either
distraction or an obstacle to realise his ambition. Such as the
person about to enter his apartment.

Jill came inside, carrying
two heavy suitcases that she dumped down as soon as she could. Her
face was flush and her eyes were red. She only gave Max a quick
glance as she dragged one of the bags to the bedroom. Max watched
her in silence.

“Don’t say it,” she said,
her voice broken.

“Hello?” he asked without
emotion, not understanding what she was doing. “Did you not want me
to greet you?”

Jill stopped and looked like
she didn’t know what to do. Then she turned for Max and rushed to
him, saying that she was sorry, over and over.

“What happened?” Max asked
her, still without emotion as he returned her embrace with a
fraction of her effort.

“It’s over, that’s all. We
don’t need to think about it, or say anything.”

“You’re back? To
stay?”

“If you want me.”

He stood back from her,
unconvinced. “You’ll need to tell me what happened. You can’t just
go and walk out and then come back without telling me what’s going
on.”

She tried to wipe back
tears. “You don’t have to put me through that, do you? Is it not
enough that I’m back now?”

Max thought about that and
was not happy with it. He wanted more. “No, it’s not enough. What
happened? You need to talk to me here, Jill.”

“He threw me out, ok?” she
said angrily. Then couldn’t stop the tears and the two tissues she
had at hand did little to help. “You’re happy now? Said I was too
much trouble for him to deal with. Said he wanted to be
alone.”

Max let her go into the
bedroom with her bag. He did not help and she opened the drawers.
He said nothing as she went to get the other bag. She acted like
she thought he was going to do it but he made no move. What
interested him more, as he saw her wanting to live with him again,
was the realisation that not only was he prepared to offer no help,
neither was Craigfield. He walked away and she responded by closing
herself in the bedroom, clearly unhappy with his
reaction.

She was home, and that must
be a good thing, he tried to tell himself. As far as he could tell,
except for being sorry and crying, she was just the same as when
she left. It wasn’t that she wanted to come back to him. She just
had no other choice. He wondered if she saw him as someone to live
with when she couldn’t find a Craigfield. He wondered if she found
another Craigfield then she would be gone again. This Craigfield
rejected her, so she was back. When was the next Craigfield going
to come along and take her away? Tomorrow? Next week? Should he
help her find one, just to get it over with, to save themselves the
long wait when they would have to pretend everything was normal?
They could get it over with so they can admit there was no real
love between them and maybe there never was. Such admissions were
easier when you actually had someone else to be with, someone
waiting in the wings. Not so much when there was nowhere else to
go.

He went to the bedroom door
and called through it, his voice devoid of emotion. “My novel’s
going well, in case you were wondering. I should be getting it
finished soon. The twins are lost and scared in the big city. I
never meant to hurt them. They were the victims, caught up in other
people’s misguided urges. But it’s going to be okay for them.
Everything’s going to be okay now. For everyone. It’s funny how
things can change once we’re honest with ourselves.”

Susan was pacing back and
forth at Sal’s, ignoring the free coffee that was provided for her,
ignoring everyone telling her it would be all right. Sal herself
had spent the last hour trying to calm Susan by reminding her of
all the times the twins had caused concern with their games. Susan
told her that this was not the same, that they had never been gone
for such a long time. Sophie knew she couldn’t leave her side, and
she had already been through four cups of coffee of her
own.

“I should have known this
town isn’t safe anymore,” Susan said to anyone who cared to listen,
knowing she was repeating herself but not caring. Elbow and
Two-Tooth were seated as far from her as they could get, but she
still looked at them when she spoke. “That poor Longbottom man,
being killed by some crazed driver. Then we went and let that
detective from the city leave. Did he find the killer? I don’t
think so. Decided it was some accident and left us to it, to live
with a murderer. This town isn’t safe for anyone, let alone
children. What is Handisides doing, besides eating and
drinking?”

“I don’t think that’s fair,”
said Sophie. “There are many nice people here. Sheriff Handisides
was sure the driver was from out of town. The same for the city
detective who came up here. Didn’t everyone agree that the speeding
drivers were a nuisance and someone would be hit sooner or
later?”

She had told no one about
her close call a few nights back, but she was tempted to, just to
reassure her grandmother. The same thought nagged at her, however,
that the driver and car were not from out of town, or a city driver
in a hurry. The car seemed to be trying to hit her, to scare and
intimidate her.

“That doesn’t change
anything about my boys,” said Susan. “No, it’s not safe here, I’m
sure of that, regardless of what two fat cops have to offer. What
evidence did they have, anyway? The word of Kenny
Coffins?”

“I’m sure it wasn’t anyone
in town,” said Sophie.

“You’re always so nice, my
dear, trying to see the nice side of people, and every
situation.”

“I’m not as nice as you
might think,” she confessed. “The fact is, I’m afraid I might have
contributed to the boys’ disappearance. I encouraged them to follow
Craigfield.”

Susan was horrified. “Why
didn’t you say so earlier? Craigfield’s gone back into the city for
a day or two, I think he said.”

“I hardly think they’d
follow him to the city …”

“No, that’s all right, you
don’t need to say that,” Susan said with a sense of relief. “I can
see now, he must have taken them with him, to do some sightseeing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they talked him into it. Such a nice
young man, that Craigfield, how could he have not wanted to help
them? Sophie, you should have told me earlier.”

“I wouldn’t say he was that
nice …” Sophie started, not wanting to say what she wanted about
him, since her grandmother was beginning to smile again.

“Of course he is. There are
bad people in this world but he would not be one of them. Yes, I
can see what’s happened. He’s taken the boys on a sightseeing trip.
Those two probably told him how they’ve never been to the big city,
and that I told them they could go. They make for very convincing
liars, those two.”

“I don’t trust him and I
don’t think you should either.”

“Why do you say that? He’s a
nice man.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“What do you know, you’re
not telling me?”

Loud tooting of a car horn
made them look outside. Andy Handisides’ police car was cruising
slowly down the street, trying to attract onlookers. The back
window was down and two pairs of arms were waving. The car stopped
in front of Sal’s and Craigfield was the first to get out, from the
front passenger’s side. He quickly opened up a back door and the
twins sprang out, both with big smiles. Susan stumbled out of Sal’s
and put her hand to her mouth in disbelief. Andy took his time
getting out, and when he did he rolled his eyes at the
scene.

“Look what I found!”
announced Craigfield.

“Kerry and Jerry!” Susan
gushed.

“They wondered a bit far
from home,” he explained to the small group that was gathering
around.

“You took them to the city?”
Susan asked him and she hugged them both at the same
time.

“It’s not for me to go
telling tales,” Craigfield said with a sly grin. “I best leave that
to your boys.”

“I don’t want to hear a
story about how sorry you are,” she told them with a stern voice.
“You wouldn’t scare your mother by going to the city alone, I know.
Do you know how worried we’ve been? We’ve been searching for you,
turning Gendry inside out. Sheriff Handisides himself was handling
the investigation.”

“Handisides? Wow!” the twins
said together.

Craigfield smiled at Sophie
as she stood in the doorway, and then walked up to her like he
thought she should be impressed with him

“Exactly how did you find
them?” Sophie asked him, not hiding her accusing tone.

“It’s not hard to miss two
fighting boys in the middle of the train station. Made quite a
spectacle of themselves. I thought they looked familiar, and I was
right. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I pulled
them apart. Very strong for their size, they are too. They had the
strangest story to tell. Apparently someone had given them a
top-secret assignment to follow after me and report anything
illegal I may be doing. You wouldn’t know anything about that,
would you?”