Run, Zan, Run (14 page)
Authors: Cathy MacPhail
Zan’s aunt. Katie glanced at Zan guiltily. Zan couldn’t stay with them. How hurt and angry Katie had been when she’d first heard. She’d dreamed of them both together for ever … like sisters. She saw, too, in Zan’s bright eyes, apprehension. She didn’t know this aunt. Coming all the way from Australia to claim her, care for her. An aunt who hadn’t even known of Zan’s existence till a couple of weeks ago. So far, all she had been to Zan was a sympathetic letter, a tearful voice on the phone.
Zan’s mother’s youngest sister, who had tried to escape the family’s violence, just as Zan had. A kindred spirit? Katie hoped she was.
‘Oh well,’ Zan had said when she knew there was no alternative. ‘It’ll be an adventure.’
Life with Zan, Katie thought, always would be.
Zan wanted to stay here too. Katie knew that. But it was not to be. Except for this Christmas. And here she was spoiling it, all for the sake of some silly mousse. Zan looked up at her, the same thoughts in her mind. She shrugged. ‘Have the top,’ she said.
Katie smiled back.
Her father sighed. ‘Ah, they’re smiling, Katherine. Thank heaven for that. I thought for a minute they weren’t going to eat this turkey. They were going to throw it at each other.’
Zan began to laugh, and so did Katie. And soon they were all laughing.
‘I’d like to propose a toast,’ her father said, and he held his glass high. ‘To Katie and Zan …’ He smiled at each of them. ‘Friends for ever.’
Who knew what the future held for both of them? All Katie knew now was that they would always be friends. An adventure behind them. Who was to say how many
more in front of them? They would be together again. She just knew it. They’d never be far apart.
They clinked their glasses across the table. They didn’t have to say a word. Each knew what the other was thinking.
Friends for ever.
Loved
Run Zan Run?
Then turn the page to find out about Cathy MacPhail and her inspiration for this gripping story
Run Zan Run
is the book that changed my life. I had no intention of ever writing young teenage fiction. I thought I was going to be a comedy scriptwriter – I had two series on the radio and was having scripts developed for television. Then one night when my daughter, Katie, was on the way to the school youth club she was attacked by a gang of boys and girls, a lot older than her, a gang who had a bad reputation both in and out of school.
It was after that the real bullying started. Katie couldn’t walk along the school corridors or go beyond the school gates without them waiting for her. She hated going to school and so I wanted her to move to another school, but Katie wanted to stay where she was. What happened to Katie made me see how often teachers’ hands are tied when dealing with bullies. I was growing angrier and feeling more and more useless. Finally, I decided I was going to write a book about it. But I knew right then that I didn’t just want to write a book about bullying, I wanted to write the kind of book
I like to read – a mystery and a thriller. I wanted it to have cliffhangers and build to an exciting climax. Most of all, I wanted someone in the book to help Katie because no one was helping her in real life. And that was how Zan was born. Do you know what Zan is short for? I do tell you in the book. We never do find out her real name. I love putting unsolved mysteries in my books – they make you think. The original title for
Run Zan Run
was ‘The Girl in the Cardboard Box’. Do you think ‘Run Zan Run’ is better? My editor told me that to have an active verb in the title gives the book a sense of pace. I have never forgotten that advice.
I have now written over thirty books and I don’t think I would have written any of them if that awful thing hadn’t happened to Katie. Isn’t it amazing how one thing can change your life. I have told Katie that it might have been the worst thing that ever happened to her but it was the best thing that ever happened to me … and she just shakes her head and says ‘Mum, you’re a sick woman.’
Cathy MacPhail was born and brought up in Greenock, Scotland, where she still lives. Before becoming a children’s author, she wrote short stories for magazines and comedy programmes for radio. Cathy was inspired to write her first children’s book after her daughter was bullied at school.
Cathy writes spooky thrillers for younger readers as well as teen novels. She has won the Royal Mail Book Award twice, along with lots of other awards. She loves to give her readers a ‘rattling good read’ and has been called the Scottish Jacqueline Wilson.
One of Cathy’s greatest fears would be to meet another version of herself, similar to the young girl in her bestselling novel
Another Me
. She is a big fan of
Doctor Who
and would love to write a scary monster episode for the series.
Cathy loves to hear from her fans, so visit
www.cathymacphail.com
and email her your thoughts.
Q&A with Cathy MacPhail
What are your favourite things to do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing, I’m usually reading or visiting family – I love spending time with my children, turning up on their doorsteps when they least expect me! I enjoy going on cruises too because it’s the perfect way for me to visit new places. Like most people, I also love going to the cinema. I always have done.
What are your favourite films?
Oh, there are so many films I love.
It’s a Wonderful Life
is one of them. The hero is an ordinary man with just a few problems that are getting him down. Then he is visited by an angel who shows him how life would have been if he had never been born and he realises that his life is worthwhile after all.
Another fantastic film is
The Searchers
. A story set in America in the mid nineteenth-century about a man’s struggle to find his niece who has been kidnapped by the Sioux. It explores issues of racism that were common at the time.
But at the top of my list is
Some Like It Hot
. Two men pretend to be female musicians to escape gangsters and one of them falls in love with Marilyn Monroe! It’s so funny and it has the best last line of any film I’ve ever seen, ‘Oh well, nobody’s perfect.’
If you could be a character from a book, who would you be?
I have thought and thought about this because most books I’ve read have at least one wonderful character that I’d like to be, but I think Elizabeth Bennet has to be my first pick. She is so bright. Then there’s Cathy from
Wuthering Heights
. I like her passionate nature, and we share a first name! Also, both of them are admired by fantastic men! When I’m really old, I want to be Miss Marple. I will go around annoying people and solving murders.
Did I ever write stories at school?
I wrote stories all the time. I loved it when the teacher said we were going to write a story. Mine were always about beautiful Scottish girls, usually with long, red hair, who travelled the world and had adventures with handsome cowboys, Arab sheiks or titled English noblemen.
I wasn’t interested in gritty reality and who, I thought, would want to read a story about a wee girl who lived with her mother and three sisters in a tenement flat in Greenock, Scotland. It took me a long time to appreciate the stories that you can find in real life.
Cathy’s Choice
My Three Favourite Books as a Child
Little Women
, by Lousia May Alcott, is about four sisters and one of them wants to be a writer. I was one of four sisters and I dreamed of one day being a writer.
, by Jane Austen, has to be one of my top three books. This book is about sisters and their relationships with each other. Every time I read it I find something else I enjoy about it, whether it is the witty dialogue, the humour or the wonderful characters – and there are so many besides Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
(No, honestly!). I got this as a gift for my tenth birthday and it contained so much information about everything that I was always reading it. I still find things in it that help me with my writing.
Missing
Bad Company
Dark Waters
Fighting Back
Another Me
Underworld
Roxy’s Baby
Worse Than Boys
Grass
Out of The Depths
The Nemesis Series
Into the Shadows
The Beast Within
Sinister Intent
Ride of Death
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney
Published in Great Britain in November 2001
by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published by Blackie in October 1994
Published by Puffin Books in January 1996
This edition published in 2011
Copyright © Catherine MacPhail 1994
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4088 1733 9
