Boys Beware (22 page)

The answer is no; I didn’t bother asking. I would only have got my head snapped off again, or been told that it was none of my business. She has made it quite plain she thinks we are being nosy. All she would have said was that she had “things to do” or “somewhere to go”, so we wouldn’t have been any the wiser.

Tash has just come bursting back into the room. She has been downstairs to check the book. Ali hasn’t signed out, but she is definitely not in her cupboard. Where on earth can she be? Tash is now ringing Auntie Jay, to see if she is downstairs.

She isn’t; Auntie Jay hasn’t seen her all evening. Tash says she is coming up, right away. I’m worried, now! Really worried. Ali is
so
absent-minded. And not in the least bit streetwise. She is not safe to be let out! She is too naïve. She’ll talk to just anybody. People in doorways, total strangers. It never occurs to her that she might be putting herself in danger.

Oh, God, please let her be all right! Wherever she is, please take care of her. Make her come back! I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Ali!

The Ending

I am not keeping a diary any more; I feel that I’ve had enough. All this writing, writing, writing. Maybe one day I’ll start again, but for the moment I am totally
written out.
This is the last entry I shall make.

Two weeks have passed since the night Ali went missing. I don’t think I have ever been so frightened in my life as I was that night. I remember how Auntie Jay came tearing up the stairs. I could tell, immediately, that she was as scared as we were. By then it was gone half-past eleven. Ali had
never
stayed out that late before. She might occasionally have lost track of time, she might have forgotten where she was supposed to be, she had even rung home once to say that she was lost, and could Dad go and get her. But now it seemed like she had just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Auntie Jay wanted to know when we had last seen her. We said that we had left her in the flat when we went off to the party. Auntie Jay said, “And what was she going to do? What were her plans?” We had to explain that we didn’t know because we hadn’t asked.

Tash said, “We’ve given up asking, it’s useless, she never tells us anything.”

I added that we had tried. I didn’t want Auntie Jay thinking we had neglected her, or not shown any interest. “She just won’t communicate.”

Auntie Jay then said something which gave us a bit
of a jolt. She said, “Well, I’m not altogether surprised … you do rather tend to patronise her, don’t you?”

I said,
“Us?”
Tash said, “
Patronise?”
Auntie Jay said, “Oh, now, come on, you know you do! The only reason the poor girl doesn’t tell you things is that she’s scared you’ll start having a go at her.”

I thought, well! So that’s all the thanks we get. I was really shaken, though. Tash, very earnestly, said, “It’s for her own good. We’re only trying to help!”

Auntie Jay said that she wasn’t sure Ali needed our help. She said, “Your sister has a mind of her own. She’s a very interesting young woman, never underestimate her! We’ve had some extremely illuminating conversations, she and I. Now, where do you think she can have gone? You must have some idea!”

Considerably chastened, we said that she was probably with Louise. Auntie Jay said, “Then let’s find Louise’s number and ring her.” We had to look it up in the telephone book. While Auntie Jay was dialling the number, me and Tash exchanged glances. I think we were both a bit taken aback by the things Auntie Jay had said. Plus, even though I was by now approaching a
state of panic, with my stomach tying itself in knots, I couldn’t help feeling just the teeniest tiniest tidge of jealousy at the thought of Ali having all those “illuminating conversations” and Auntie Jay thinking so highly of her.

I was hoping that when she got off the phone she would say that Ali was round at Lou’s and had simply forgotten to tell us that she was sleeping over; but she didn’t. Instead, very quietly, she said, “The Wagstaffes aren’t at that number any more. They moved up to Manchester six weeks ago.” I was, like, dumbfounded. Louise had moved and Ali hadn’t even bothered to mention it? I said this to Auntie Jay.

I said, “Louise was her best friend! She was her
only
friend! How could she not have told us?”

Auntie Jay said, “That’s the question you have to ask yourself. Did you not notice she wasn’t in school any more?”

Tash muttered that we weren’t in the same class. “She was Year 9.”

Auntie Jay said, “Yes, of course, and there are just
so many
of you!”

I think she was being sarcastic as there are only three hundred people in the whole school. And now that she had mentioned it, I realised that somewhere at the back of my mind I
had
been aware Louise wasn’t around. We always used to see her and Ali sitting together at lunch,
and hanging out together during break. These last few weeks, Ali had mostly been on her own. It wasn’t that we hadn’t noticed; we just hadn’t bothered to think what it meant.

Tash wailed, “Where can she be if she’s not with Louise?” Auntie Jay said that was what we had to find out. She told us to “Come along!” and set off downstairs, with me and Tash trailing after her.

My heart was now beginning to thump quite alarmingly. I had these terrible visions of Ali running away because we had been so mean to her. Patronising her, and being impatient with her. Finding fault with the way she looked, the way she dressed. The way she just
was.
I thought, “Please let her come back safely and I will never criticise her again!”

Downstairs, in Auntie Jay’s basement, Mr O’Shaugnessy was slumped on the sofa, gazing bleary-eyed at the television. We were quite surprised to see him there. We were even more surprised when Auntie Jay, very sharply, said, “Andrew, wake up! Get your act together. Where’s Gus?”

Gus’s dad is a very woolly sort of man. He was
wearing his baggy cardigan again. He struggled to sit up, saying, “Gus?” Like he couldn’t quite place who Gus was. He probably has his mind on higher things, being an educational person.

Auntie Jay snapped, “Yes, Gus! Where is he?”

Mr O’Shaugnessy said he supposed he was still upstairs. He said, “He was when I left him.”

Auntie Jay said, “By himself? Ali wasn’t with him?”

Mr O’Shaugnessy said, “Not as far as I can remember … no, I’m sure she wasn’t.”

Auntie Jay is not someone who believes in wasting time. She was whizzing back up the basement steps, with me and Tash whizzing behind her, almost before Mr O’Shaugnessy had managed to peel himself off the sofa. I wanted to tell her that it was no use asking Gus where Ali might be as they never had anything to do with each other, and in any
case Gus wasn’t into girls; but by now his dad had caught up with us, so I didn’t quite like to.

It was Tash who said, “Why should Gus know where Ali’s gone?” For some reason Auntie Jay seemed to think he might, but when his dad opened the door and we all trooped inside, the flat was empty.

Auntie Jay said, “Right! Where is he? Come on, Andrew! Where could he have gone?”

Mr O’Shaugnessy scratched his head and said he didn’t know. “He didn’t mention anything about going anywhere. He would have told me if he were.”

Auntie Jay didn’t seem to think that was good enough. She said, “Oh, really, Andrew! Where is he
likely
to have gone? You must know some of the places he goes to.
Think!”

While Mr O’Shaugnessy was thinking, I drifted back out on to the landing. I was sort of half expecting, and half praying, that I would see the front door open and Ali come through it. I don’t quite know what it was that made me glance upstairs, to our own landing. I think maybe it must have been Fat Man, chirruping to get my
attention, because when I looked up I saw him, perched on top of a stepladder. I couldn’t remember the stepladder being there before, though they must have been there when we came back from the party. But they were pushed to one side, in the shadows, so that I still might not have noticed them if Fat Man hadn’t chirruped. I tugged at Auntie Jay’s arm and said, “Look! What are they doing there?”

Auntie Jay cried, “The roof!” and went charging up the stairs, two at a time.

Me and Tash had never realised that you could get on to the roof. Just above the steps was a skylight, which Auntie
Jay pushed open. We saw her head disappear, while the rest of her stayed where it was; then a second later she came back down the steps, with this big goofy smile on her face and said, “Sh … go and have a look!” For once I got in ahead of Tash. I was up those steps
so fast.
I don’t know what I expected to see, but I would never have guessed, not in a thousand million years, the sight that greeted me: Ali and Gus, fast asleep in each other’s arms, tucked away in the angle of a chimney stack …