Noughts and Crosses (20 page)

What would Lynny have made of all this fuss? She’d probably have been as bewildered by it as I was. And what would Mum and Dad and Jude say if they found out that Lynny’s ‘accident’ was anything but? Stupid question. I knew what they’d say, how they’d feel. So they would never know. I’d burnt the torn-up bits of Lynny’s letter. No-one but me knew what had really happened. And I vowed that it would stay that way. I owed Mum and Dad that much. Especially Mum.

The noise around me was relentless. I rubbed my already throbbing temples. Had Mum and Dad really invited all these people? Where was Dad anyway? I hadn’t seen him for a while. Nor Mum for that matter. I moved around the room as best I could, shaking hands and nodding my thanks at all the ‘I’m so sorry’s bombarding me from every direction. Just when I thought I’d have to duck out of there or burst, I finally saw Dad. He was huddled in a corner with two other men. One had untidy, wavy-blond hair tied back in a pony-tail and he wore a trim moustache. The other had dark chestnut-brown hair and the kind of tan that must’ve been paid for. He looked almost mixed race – lucky beggar. How I wished I could afford the treatment to make my skin permanently darker.

I started to walk towards them but the intense, solemn look on all their faces halted my steps. I watched, concentrating hard on trying to read their lips. Even though I’d never done it before, it was as if I’d somehow convinced myself that all I had to do was focus, to be the best lip-reader in the world. Well, the best nought lip-reader at any rate.

Dad wasn’t saying much. He nodded, then nodded again. A word here, a nod there, that’s all he did. It seemed to be enough for the two men though because as the conversation went on they began to smile and pat Dad on the back. Then one of them pressed something into Dad’s hand. Dad didn’t look at it, but immediately stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mum enter the room. She looked around for Dad. She saw him and immediately starting making her way through the crowd in Dad’s direction. Then
she stopped. She’d noticed who Dad was with. Fury flashed across her face. She pushed towards them even more vigorously then. I was so busy watching Mum watching Dad that I wasn’t aware of the silence sweeping through the room until it had reached and passed me. Looking around, I saw that every eye was on something going on behind me. No-one spoke. No-one moved. I turned, wondering what could’ve happened to cause such a reaction.

Seeing her was like a boxer’s punch to my stomach. I was actually winded and breathless.

Sephy . . .

What was she doing here? Was she mad? Stillness rippled out from her, like the ripples when a stone is thrown into a pond. Sephy walked towards me, looking straight at me, but she didn’t say a word. Then her gaze swept past me, her face set as she walked on by. I turned as did everyone else to see what she was going to do. She walked up to my mum who was only a couple of steps away from my dad by now.

‘Mr and Mrs McGregor, I just wanted to come and see you to say how sorry I am about Lynette. I know what you’re going through. My mother . . . I know . . .’ Sephy’s voice trailed off. She would’ve had to have the hide of a rhino not to pick up on the atmosphere in the room. ‘I hope I’m not intruding or anything . . . I just wanted to say . . . I’m sorry . . .’

Mum was the first to recover. ‘You’re not intruding, Miss Hadley.’ She stepped forward. ‘Thank you for coming. Can I get you a drink?’

Sephy looked around at all the people staring at her,
most of the faces now suspicious and hostile. ‘No, I don’t think I should stay.’

‘Nonsense. You’ve come this far, you can’t leave without a drink. Can she, Ryan?’ Mum spoke directly to Dad.

Dad was alone in the corner of the room. The two men he’d been talking to had vanished – seemingly into thin air. But it didn’t matter. Sephy had all of Dad’s attention. He was glaring at her like she was some kind of disgusting fungus he’d found growing in his navel. It was exactly like the look Mrs Hadley shot at me when I went to see Sephy after she’d been beaten up.
Exactly
like it.

‘Ryan?’ Mum’s stern voice had Dad raising his head to look at her.

‘Hello, Miss Hadley,’ Dad managed to spit out.

‘I’ll go.’

‘Sephy . . .’ I stepped forward but Jude got in first.

‘Yes, go!’ he said furiously. ‘Who told you to come here in the first place? You and your false sympathy aren’t wanted.’

‘Jude, that’s enough,’ Mum told him firmly.

‘If she cares so much, where was she for the last three years when Lynette was out of her head and we didn’t have two beans to rub together, never mind the money to get Lynny the help she needed? Where was this dagger when you got fired, Mum, and I had to drop out of school? Where was she when Harry over there got the boot?’ Jude pointed to a man by the door. ‘And all because she wanted to behave like a brat even though she knew it would get him into trouble.’

Sephy was staring at this guy, Harry, who was glaring right back at her. I’d never seen him before in my life. What did he have to do with Sephy?

‘Our new chauffeur told me you’d decided to quit.’ Sephy’s voice was little more than a whisper but in the stillness of the room it was enough for everyone to hear.

‘I got fired because you were left alone to face the riot at your school,’ Harry called bitterly across the room. ‘I begged you to stay in the car but you didn’t want to – remember? When your face was plastered all over the TV screen and I was nowhere to be seen, your mother kicked me out so fast I’ll have the imprint of her foot on my backside ’til the day I die.’

Whispered comments full of anger and antagonism swept around the room.

Sephy shook her head, shocked. ‘I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.’

‘Didn’t take the trouble to find out either.’ Harry turned away in disgust.

‘You and others like you have brought us nothing but grief.’ Jude pushed Sephy hard against her shoulder. Some of the others in the room gasped at his audacity. Shoving a Cross like that was just asking for trouble, but Jude was way past caring. ‘And then you have the nerve to come over here . . .’

‘Mrs McGregor, Mr McGregor . . .’ Sephy appealed to them for help.

‘Persephone, I think it’s best you should leave,’ Dad told her directly.

‘But I haven’t done anything . . .’ said Sephy, bewildered.

‘That’s right, you haven’t,’ Dad agreed, pointedly. ‘You come here in your fancy dress which cost more than I make in a year and we’re supposed to smile and
cheer? Is that how it’s meant to work?’

‘No . . .’ Sephy whispered.

‘Just go away,’ Jude hissed at her. ‘Go on, get lost before I do something I’ll regret.’

Sephy looked around. Her eyes met mine. I tried to step forward but some woman behind me grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

‘Let her go. Noughts and Crosses don’t mix, boy,’ the woman whispered to me.

Sephy shook her head and darted from the room. I could see only too well the shimmer in her eyes as she ran past me. Even though the room was full to capacity, a pathway opened up for her like Angel Shaka’s parting of the Sea.

‘You had no right to do that, Jude.’ Mum waited until Sephy had gone before rounding on my brother.

‘Oh yes he did,’ Dad answered before Jude could open his mouth. ‘She wasn’t wanted here. Jude only told her the truth.’

Mum wasn’t the only one to stare at Dad. Where had all that come from? I’d thought Dad’s motto was to live and let live. When had that changed? When Lynny died . .? Or maybe it was there all the time and I’d just chosen not to see it.

‘Ryan . .?’ Mum said.

Around us, people started talking again – nervous, embarrassed chatter. I reached Mum’s side at the same time as Dad.

He stopped and looked straight at Mum, a cold, hard expression on his face I’d never seen before. ‘Meggie,’ he said. ‘My ineffectual days are over.’

Then he moved past her. Mum turned to stare after him. I watched Dad’s retreating back. There was something about him, the way he walked, the way he talked . . . Something in his voice scared me. Scared the living daylights out of me.

It’d only been three years since Callum’s mum had worked for mine. Three short years. Three years had passed like three minutes to me, but walking into Callum’s house had been like walking into a room full of strangers. I remembered Callum’s mum and dad so clearly but my memory of them was nothing like the reality. They hadn’t wanted me there. Not one of them had. With everything that’d happened to my mother, I wanted to show them that I really did care, that I understood. Minnie and I could’ve so easily been in the same boat as Callum, no matter what Juno said.

Each move I made in Callum’s direction just seemed to pave my way faster to hell.

I went and sat down beside Sephy on the beach. Neither of us spoke. I was getting sand on my one good suit but I didn’t care. I was past caring.

‘I didn’t mean any harm, Callum,’ Sephy said at last.

‘I know but . . .’

‘But it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had in my life,’ Sephy sighed.

‘Not as such – no,’ I said.

‘I can’t seem to do anything right at the moment,’ Sephy said at last. There wasn’t a trace of self-pity in her voice, just the merest hint of sadness. ‘I am sorry about your sister, Callum. I just wanted to show how much. I thought sending a card would be a bit . . . a bit . . .’

‘Impersonal?’

‘Exactly,’ Sephy sighed again. ‘It was just a spur of the moment thing to walk over to your house. I thought it’d make a difference somehow.’

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing.

‘This is growing up, isn’t it?’ Sephy asked.

‘I think it is,’ I nodded.

‘Would you put your arm round me please?’

I hesitated.

Sephy sighed. ‘If you’d rather not.’

‘No, it’s not that.’

Sephy gave me one of her looks.

‘I just . . . never mind.’ I put my arm around her. She put her head on my shoulder. And we both sat and watched the waves foam up on the beach and the shadows lengthen.

Minnie and I walked along the corridor towards Mother’s private room. It’d been two weeks since Mother’s accident. Karl, our chauffeur, brought us to see Mother each evening and although Mother was physically better, her behaviour was really making me worry. The mother I’d got used to over the last few years had disappeared, and in her place . . .