Looking after Mum: Part II : Chapter 21

Chapter 21
Once we were outside, I panted, “Where are we going?”
Ruby stopped for a minute to catch her breath, leaning against a bollard. “London. I’ve got...plans. Don’t worry, Amelia. We’ll be fine. We just need to get to the coach place.”
“You have money?”
“I have enough.”
We walked for about fifteen minutes in the high street until we came to the stop.
And Kirsty was walking straight towards us.
“She hasn’t seen us yet,” I said, pointing at her. “We can’t let her see us, in case she dobs.”
But it was too late to duck behind anyone. She approached me, looking wary of Ruby.
“Well, well, well,” she sneered, but I could hear the faint tremble in her voice. “If it isn’t the freak show! I was hoping so much to see you again.” She frowned. “Why are you waiting for a coach?” Her eyes glittered. “Doing a runner?” She eyed Ruby. “I can see why, in your case…”
Ruby stepped forward and stuck out a finger at her. “Up yours, Brightman.”
Kirsty swore at Ruby, and I had to intervene, or we’d be in trouble.
“Please, Kirsty,” I said. “You can’t tell any-one you’ve seen us. Please.”
“Oh really? Says who?” A smile began to form on her face. “What’s in it for me?”
“You not being done for, that’s what’s in it for you,” spat Ruby.
“Oh yeah,” Kirsty rolled her eyes. “How could you do me in if you weren’t here?”
She began to walk away, and then turned around and said, “I don’t snitch on anyone, not even muck. You can stop worrying now. Don’t wet yourself, Rendall.”
I stopped Ruby going after her, because the coach for London pulled up.
The coach driver frowned at us suspiciously, looking at us underneath his glasses.
“Hmm…aren’t you two a bit too young to be going all the way to London?”
We looked at him as innocently as we could.
“Are you sure you’re not just looking for a bus?”
“No…we’re meeting our dad…our parents are divorced,” said Ruby, making herself seem smaller than ever, her eyes watering and her lip wobbling. I could never act but I tried to follow her lead. It wasn’t that hard trying to seem miserable.
“Sisters are you?” said the driver, looking at us incredulously. “Oh, go on then. Hop in.”
Ruby paid for the tickets and we chose seats at the back of the coach to avoid other prying eyes. After a long, tiring journey, we finally arrived at our stop. We got off, and stood around, bewildered. It was really dark, and the moonlight was blacked out, all we could see was traffic and the vague outline of some shops. We could think of nothing but food, so we walked into a chippy. Ruby dealt with everything, I was so tired I could only sit at a table and crumple. My decision had started to seem ridiculous. What had I been thinking? I didn’t know what was going to happen now.
The hot aroma of fish and chips wafted pleasingly to my nostrils.
“Food!” said Ruby. And then we just dug in, cramming salty, crumbly chips and flaky hot cod into our mouths. No meal had ever tasted so wonderful. But I had no idea what the next step would be.
“Come on,” said Ruby. “We’re going to find my uncle. He’ll give us some help.”
All that happened next was a hazy blur – the bus ride, the strangers, getting lost and wandering around in circles. There was no sign of her uncle’s residence and she couldn’t decipher the directions she had obtained off Google Earth. We just blundered along lengths and lengths of grimy chippys, charred pubs and broken down telephone boxes, the scenery never changing.
When we thought there was no hope left and that everything had been in vain, we finally saw what Ruby remembered as being her uncle’s block of flats, looming in the distance. We hurried towards it with weary legs and rushed into it as soon as we could, breathing sighs of relief to be in and out of the cold darkness. To make sure we were in the right place, Ruby knocked on an apartment door in the ground floor to ask about the address. A woman answered it and Ruby did her inquiring.
“Yeah, that’s right,” the woman said. She had badly cut salt and pepper hair, a big flat nose with a huge mole at the corner, and shiny black shoes. She looked at us, her forehead creasing with concentration. “Say! Aren’t you those missing girls off the telly? You’d better come in! The cops are out there lookin’ for you, an’ all!”

“Run!” Ruby hissed in my ear.
And we went up the spiralling staircase, taking the steps by two, and suddenly I felt a really sharp pain in my knee.
“Ruby,” I groaned, “The muscle’s stretched.” I shuddered. “It kills…I’d hurt it a day ago, falling down the stairs when the…oh shit…”
“Well look at me, Melia, I have a flaming cast on my arm! Look, come on, you wuss! We need to go! That old hag’s right, you know those p’lice cars we saw outside? They’re onto us, ok? I didn’t say anything, but they’re coming after us this damn minute!”
We finally came to her uncle’s flat. We banged on the door, shouting.
And then I felt a pinch on my shoulder. I whirled round, and found myself looking into Kirsty’s face. I thought I was imagining things, and then knew this was reality. She’d told them.
“Kirsty!” I gasped. “You bitch!”
Ruby hurled herself at Kirsty, who dug her nails into Ruby’s arm. She let out a cry of anguish, hitting out and Kirsty fell back against the wall, using it as support. “You tell Amelia,” she gasped, “You tell fatso why you’ve come here!”
“Shut your face, you cow!” screamed Ruby.
“Yeah, shut it!” I echoed, but with less conviction than I had shouted with before.
“You tell her!” shrieked Kirsty manically. “Tell her now! Or I will!”
Ruby clawed one of Kirsty’s eyes. “Do you know?” Kirsty yelled at me. “Do you know her father’s a lunatic? Do you know he gives her the boot when he comes home from the pub?”
Ruby lashed out, kicking her in the gut. Kirsty recoiled, clutching her stomach.
“Don’t listen to her, Amelia,” said Ruby between clenched teeth. “She’s trying to ruin everything.”
I looked from one to another, my head in my hands.
Kirsty snatched Ruby’s broken arm. “What’s she told you about this then, eh? Cycling accident, perhaps! Not this! Her old man did this to her, didn’t he, Ruby? She’s probably spun you a whole load of crap – walking in to a refrigerator, Amelia, heard of that one?”
Kirsty leant back against the banister.
“What about my mother, Ruby? He nearly killed her that night, Ruby, he nearly killed her! Fifteen stitches in the head and two broken fingers. Proud of your dad, are you, Ruby?”
“You could have given him up to the cops,” sobbed Ruby, collapsing into tears. “You and your mum. Why didn’t you! He couldn’t have done anything.”
“He threatened us, Ruby. My mum was terrified. And do you think I wanted you to be happy? I hoped he’d never get caught, just so that you’d be punished. You – and him but especially you made my life hell, every day, every night. And for what?”
“Don’t you understand! When you were around, he was even more awful! I wanted you to go. Your mother didn’t want him, that was why he got worse! Where had he picked her up? Some bar? They didn’t even know each other! She wanted to leave. So he was angry, and when he was angry, he got drunk, and when he got drunk, you know what he was like! I had to go through all of it! And I still do! Because your mother’s a coward and you’re a – a…” Ruby brushed away my restraining arm and continued. “How could you just sit there and not say anything? It was your mother’s health at stake, too. How could you?”
Kirsty sneered. “Oh I could, I promise you I could. And…” she smiled sweetly, “Why couldn’t you?”
Ruby sank down cradling her arm, a helpless look on her face. “You know why. Criminal records, you know? The stealing, the...”
“And what would you have done if I had given him in?” Kirsty interrupted. “You’d still have gone under lock and key.”
“No…I could have got away. Once he was locked up, the cops couldn’t find me. I could go and live with my uncle…that’s what I came here for, see? I was going to take the chance, try and start again. And you do this to me. It’s been a year. I’m not my father’s daughter , Kirsty.” As Ruby said this she looked up at Kirsty, her eyes red-rimmed and swimming with tears.
Kirsty looked back at Ruby, biting her lip. The police were coming nearer each second, I could hear their boots tapping on the stone steps and Kirsty must have heard them too. In any minute they would have reached us and everything would be alright.
“I’m sorry,” Kirsty whispered, but it was too late, because Ruby had made a bolt for the ladder leading for the roof. She clambered up into the skylight, her feet darting up the rusting rungs, and brought the ladder up, slamming the window down.
The police reached us. There were three men and one woman; one of the policemen approached Kirsty.
“Thank you, Miss Brightman,” he said, smiling. “You’ve been a great help.”
The policewoman saw me looking at the skylight anxiously, and she snatched my arm. “You’re not going anywhere, young lady.” She made me sit down with her on the step, still clutching my elbow with a firm grip.
The policeman who had addressed Kirsty opened the skylight, and managed to hoist himself up onto the roof. He gestured for the two other men to follow him and they did so quickly. Peering back down at us, he glanced at me and said to the policewoman, “Bring her up, Jones. She might be able to help.”
“Wait!” I said, trying to remember what I had just heard from the two girls’ argument. “Don’t…don’t let her go back to her dad,” I said. “He…”
“Don’t worry,” said PC Jones. “We know…your friend over there told us.” She gestured at Kirsty, who was waiting by the stairwell, looking at us nervously. The policewoman continued. “See, he rang Kirsty up, all angry, yelling over the phone, and made her tell where Ruby was. But she rang us up after that, see? And your mum had got in touch just before that; reporting that you’d gone missing. Apparently your house keeper had seen you with someone fitting the description of Ruby. We put two and two together and...”
“So…Kirsty…helped us?” I asked, my voice getting croakier and softer with each word.
PC Jones gave me a strange look. “Yes.” She gave me a nudge, and leant in confidentially, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Between you and me though, I think she did it to get Ruby into trouble with us. You know…because of their history, and...well, I’m not the one to be telling you all this. You’ll find out soon enough.”
I nodded, without really understanding at all. Nothing was making sense, there was a whole string of words and facts and people, jigsaw pieces that I couldn’t fit together, try as I might. My mind was buzzing with all this newly found information and I was so bewildered I wanted to sit down on my quiet dream sill and think it over.
“Now I want you to be very truthful,” said PC Jones. “Is there anything…anything that hasn’t already been said that we need to know about this…Ruby?”
I thought. I winced. I swallowed. “Well…she...she...” I couldn’t betray her, I couldn’t tell them about the stealing. They would find out soon enough, wouldn’t they? Overcome by everything, I broke off into silent tears.
“We won’t arrest her,” said the policewoman calmly, her even tone reminding me of Susannah. “We just need to give her help…like I said – honestly, don’t you teenagers ever listen?” PC Jones broke off and shook her head. The policeman was peering through the skylight at us, impatiently tapping his fingers against the frame.
“Ready?” said PC Jones. She nimbly climbed up onto to roof, using her arms as levers, and then the men hoisted up first Kirsty and then me.
Once assembled, we formed a semi circle up on the rooftop. It was so dark that if you put your hand up in front of your face, you could barely see it.
Ruby was at the edge, her eyes lit up in an unhealthy sort of way, darting from face to face. She looked like a frightened animal in a trap.
“Listen now,” said the police-lady gently. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help. You’re obviously tired and overcome, you can’t do anything in this state. Now come on, Ruby.”
Ruby’s head spun to look at me, and I read betrayal, disbelief, anger in her eyes. She was looking at me as if I was just as bad as the policemen, or... or Kirsty, somebody come to trap her and ruin all her chances. “You!” she said. “You and...and them!”
“But…it’s for your own good,” I pleaded hoarsely. “Please…if you’d gone to live with your uncle, it...it would have been the same. Please Ruby, don’t be angry with me.”
PC Jones patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, dear. No need to get upset.”
“You don’t understand,” I wept. “You never will.”
The policeman took a step towards Ruby. Glancing around wildly, from me to them, she grabbed the railing around the edge of the roof with her good hand and hoisted herself astride it.
“Don’t come any closer,” she gasped. “I’ll jump.” She looked at me, and my heart withered. “Nothing to keep me from it now.”
Kirsty stifled a sob. “Ruby, don’t be such a bloody idiot. Come back over, for God’s sake,” she said in a croaky voice.
“Idiot, am I?” muttered Ruby in a dangerous voice. Unsteadily, she grabbed the railing again and put her other leg over so she was on the other side, balancing precariously as the chilling breeze blew through her red hair. She clung to the metal bars with her good hand, her feet hooked over the skinny steel ledge that was the only thing stopping her from swinging in mid-air.
PC Jones raised her eyebrows at me. I understood this was my cue to do something, anything, that would bring Ruby back to safety. But what if I said the wrong thing? It would mean saying goodbye to her forever...
No. I wasn’t going to let a third person slip out of my life. I...I shouldn’t have been here. I should have been at home with Mum, facing my problems, and maybe breaking down and crying but staying. Now I was here, I couldn’t run away from this too. I breathed in deeply. Third time lucky, as they say.
“Ruby,” I started. “What are you doing, Ruby? Come on, come back over...” I struggled for words. “We can talk about it...figure things out...nobody’s going to lock you up, Ruby.”
“Please, Ruby.”
The night was getting colder and a passing gust of wind sent a chilling shock through my body. Kirsty tightened the sash of her black designer coat tighter around her slim waist, shivering. Ruby...for what it’s worth,” she started, “I told the cops to spite you. I admit that, but at least...at least I didn’t leave it so as your dad would come after you and Amelia. You know...I told him where you were. He phoned me up...it’s been a year since I’ve seen him, I was so scared and blurted it all out. I suppose at first I did it to get you locked up with your old man...but now...now I’m glad they’re not going to put you in prison because...because...”
I took over. Kirsty was going nowhere with her senseless gabble, it was doing nothing but making the situation worse. I’d have to do better than that if I was to get Ruby back over safely.
“Listen,” I said, trying to sound brave and firm. “I know you want to do this, but think about me.” I hesitated, and then continued. “It’s all very well for you to go leaping over roofs but what would happen to poor old me? Where’d I be? You’re...you’re the only real, true friend I’ve got in this world, Ruby. You...you made me feel special...just to be with you, to know you’d chosen me for your friend and no-one else. Nothing can make me change my mind. Ruby, come back over.”
Ruby’s head had been hung before, her eyes fixated on the black canvas of darkness beneath. When I said that she looked up at me, her eyes flickering, betraying mingled feelings and puzzlement.
For a moment, it looked like she was going to sit up and hop back over, right as rain, grinning, to tell me it was all a big joke.
She gripped the railing tighter with trembling white hands, pressing herself against the cold rusting metal, and uncertainly raised a shaking leg.
But then another brutal gust of wind knocked her off her feet, her thin body and she was falling, plummeting through the cruel black starless night.