Soul Love (19 page)

‘Jenna. Stop being a bread-head. They were only material goods. In the grand scheme of things they don’t matter. I’m going through major life changes at the moment.’

There was the sound of a van pulling up outside.

Kai looked away. ‘That’ll be Emma. I believe you two have met.’

‘When you sent her into the shop to check on your record collection,’ I said. I thought of Sarah and how much of her life she had sacrificed for him. ‘How could you?’ I
said.

‘When you’re an adult, you’ll understand. Grown-ups play by different rules.’

‘It doesn’t look very grown-up from where I’m standing.’

Gabe came running up the stairs. ‘Everything all right, Jenna?’ he asked as his eyes took in the situation.

Kai arched his eyebrows in mock surprise. ‘So I’m not the only one having a secret rendez-vous here today.’

‘Don’t judge everyone by your own low standards. We brought Tallulah back. She’d wandered on to the festival site,’ I explained.

‘So it takes an hour to bring the cat inside, does it? That’s how long I’ve been waiting up here for you to go.’ Kai gave us an annoying grin.

There was a knocking at the door. Kai turned to look.

‘You could always help us load some of the furniture into the van,’ he said.

‘Does Sarah know about this?’ I stood beside Gabe and together we blocked the doorway.

‘I’m taking my dues here, and then on to the shop.’

Gabe and I looked at each other. We had to do something to stop him.

‘We were meaning to tell you . . .’ I began.

‘But of course you haven’t been around,’ Gabe added.

Kai’s eyes flashed with panic. ‘What? Anything happened to my record collection . . . ?’

‘No . . . not to your
entire
collection,’ Gabe replied, looking at me meaningfully.

‘There’s still some albums left in the shop, but some aren’t there any more,’ I said slowly. ‘When you sent Emma to snoop in the shop I knew I had to do
something.’

‘Which ones aren’t there?’ he asked, his face purple with rage.

Emma continued knocking on the door.

‘What did you say?’ I pretended I couldn’t hear him.

‘What have you done with them?’ Kai screamed as he grabbed Gabe’s T-shirt.

‘Leave him alone!’ I pulled on his arm.

Emma opened the flap of the letter box and began calling, ‘Kai, it’s me. Let me in.’

Kai’s voice softened. ‘OK guys, you’ve had your fun. Emma is in no condition to be messed around.’

Without speaking, we all turned and walked down the stairs.

I wrenched the door open.

Emma looked surprised and said, ‘Oh, we thought you’d be busy at the festival.’ She blinked like some kind of sleepy animal.

Gabe glared at her. ‘Very convenient time for you to come round and steal Sarah’s stuff.’

Emma went up to Kai and took hold of his hand. ‘You said it was your stuff.’

‘So it is.’ He stroked at his chin.

We were all jammed in the hall, but nobody moved.

Emma tugged at Kai’s sleeve like a persistent child. ‘You said it was all your stuff. That Sarah would give us her blessing. Even let us live in the cottage. Was that a
lie?’

‘Ssh,’ Kai said, a little roughly, as he put a finger to Emma’s lips.

‘Don’t think there will be any more room at the inn once I move in,’ I said.

‘Now that we can hear ourselves think, let’s return to the matter of my records,’ Kai said, changing the subject.

‘We don’t think of them as material goods,’ I began.

‘We think of them as an insurance policy,’ Gabe added.

Kai was getting edgy again. ‘Against what?’

‘Against any more stuff going walkies from the house – or the shop.’

Kai stroked his chin again. ‘I need to know which records are no longer at the shop. They may be ones that can be easily replaced.’

Gabe laughed and shook his head. ‘Velvet Fogg is pretty hard to replace and Leafhound is practically impossible.’

Kai’s face began to heat up again. ‘Where are they?’

‘Somewhere safe,’ I said.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

A
fter Kai and Emma had left, Gabe and I piled into the Land Rover and raced over to the shop. ‘What a
team!’ Gabe said, laughing.

‘We were totally convincing,’ I agreed.

‘It was like we were reading each other’s minds – like we both just knew what to do to rattle Kai.’

I leaped out and opened up the shop. ‘Naming those records was inspired.’

We didn’t have much time, so we ran to Kai’s records and Gabe picked out the really rare ones.

‘Where can we hide them?’

‘He’s bound to come back and look.’

‘Yoohoo!’ Ava’s voice chirped at us from the hairdresser’s.

Gabe and I looked at each other and smiled.

When we finally made it back to the festival it was starting to get dark. After leaving the shop, we had to pick up the groceries for the hall. Fortunately Isobel had been
sidetracked by a journalist and didn’t complain too much about our lateness. Then we had to reassure Sarah that Tallulah was fine and that we had left her enough food. I didn’t want to
upset her so I didn’t mention the Kai and Emma incident.

Mum, Marcus and Aurora were watching a puppet play in the theatre tent. Charlie and Freddie whisked Gabe away to discuss setting up his drum kit.

I decided to go for a look round the festival. By now all three fields designated for camping were jam-packed with an assortment of tents and camper vans. Groups of people sat around eating and
drinking. A young woman and an old man started to play their violins together. People started cheering and dancing. It was a beautiful evening.

I found myself smiling privately. For once in my life I felt I was part of something and that the people who mattered liked me for who I was. I wasn’t a ‘background person’
lost in a crowd, or in the foreground only by association. I felt I could handle anything.

Being in Little Netherby – and with Gabe – had given me confidence. Being with Jackson was fun and flattering, but it was like being on shaky ground with him. Besides, I could never
respect Jackson again for not standing by me.

I realised that I was very hungry and so I found myself drawn by the food smells to the main field, where the main performing tent and all the food stalls were. I pulled up my hood. There was a
slight breeze, and also, I didn’t want Sarah to notice me. Despite my hunger, I couldn’t face another of her tasteless Soul Food wraps.

I needn’t have worried because she was far too busy sitting talking with a group of friends. It was good to see her laughing again. I followed the delicious fried onion smell to the
Netherby Farm stall that was selling organic burgers. I bought a large one and sat down on a patch of grass at the side of the stall to enjoy it.

As I was chewing the last mouthful I spotted Mia and her crew checking out the craft stalls. Mia was striding in front, posing as if she were being filmed. Rebecca and Jackson were a few steps
behind. I winced. Not so long ago that would’ve been me trailing behind and looking grateful to have Mia as a friend. They were laughing, but it was loud attention-seeking laughter and it
seemed out of place at the festival. Justin looked uncomfortable and he soon wandered off.

Mia had got me into a lot of trouble lately, but Gabe was right – I’d get over it. And my problem could be fixed. Besides, if I hadn’t got into trouble I’d never have
been sent to Netherby. I wiped my mouth. I have learned some important things from the experience. Never again would I put myself in the personal assistant role in a friendship. From now on it
would be equal terms or nothing. No more making light of bad things and going along with things for the sake of friendship. Friendship should be about standing up for what you believe in and not
about being a crowd pleaser. And if you can’t forgive your friends their weaknesses, then you should let them go.

Mia and Co were now looking at a clothes stall and were laughing at the goods. Jackson grabbed a feather boa and struck a pose. I found myself smiling at him despite myself. Jackson could always
make me smile. After that, they moved on to a stall selling jewellery.

If you hadn’t been spying on them as I was, you wouldn’t have noticed. I could hardly believe it myself. With one adept movement, Mia took a necklace with one hand and held it up in
the air, whilst at the same time slipping a ring into Rebecca’s bag. Then they quickly moved on, Mia and Rebecca clinging to each other and giggling. A bemused Jackson followed them. He
hadn’t seen a thing. Their amusement only lasted a few seconds because a man and a woman quickly surrounded them.

They flashed something that looked like a bus pass at them. Rebecca and Mia froze. Mia offered her handbag up to be searched. She even showed them her purse that must have been full of
money.

Everyone looked at them with disgust as they were led away by the plain-clothes police officers.

A discussion followed amongst the crowd about what would happen next:

‘Lord Netherby decides whether to press charges or not.’

‘They’re only a group of kids.’

‘But they had money. What about the stallholder?’

‘Even if they don’t arrest them, they’ll have to leave the festival.’

I wandered around in a bit of a daze after that. Memories of the incident with that credit card had come racing back. How Mia had pleaded with me not to say anything. I thought that taking the
credit card had been a one-off thing. That we had all been caught up in some mad moment. I never thought for one second that Mia made a habit of it. It wasn’t as if she needed the money. How
could I have got someone so wrong?

A loud horn sounded in my ear. I jumped. I was standing next to a stilt-walking clown.

‘Cheer up!’ He honked the horn in my face again.

I faked a smile and walked away as fast as I could.

Without realising it, I had walked into the theatre field. In front of me was a small striped tent. There were ripples of laughter, which were followed by loud clapping. I popped my head round
the flap and was hit by a wall of heat. The small tent was packed and a puppet play was in full swing. Right at the front I could see Aurora sitting next to Mum. Marcus was asleep in her lap. Mum
was rocking him whilst laughing at the show. How Marcus could sleep through all that din was beyond me.

I felt a huge wave of affection flood over me. I know that I had disappointed Mum, but now was the time to make it up to her. The summer was practically over and plans needed to be made. I had a
direction for my life. I decided I was going to school here in Netherby, where I would work really hard and be a credit to Mum.

An image flashed into my head of Gabe and me sitting in a café studying together. We’d go to the observatory at Greenwich and stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one
in the Western Hemisphere just like everybody else. I was looking forward to doing lots of things with Gabe.

As I was heading back to our bit of campsite I went past the ‘Alternative Zone’. There was a large bonfire in the centre and people were gathered round banging drums and
chanting.

Drawn by the heat of the fire I went in. I sat down as close to the fire as I could get without drawing attention to myself. I found a smooth flat stone to sit on.

Nothing in particular seemed to be happening. Some people were giving massages. A woman was casting stones on the ground like dice and speaking to someone. I suppose it was some kind of
fortune-telling.

‘Jump in my grave just as quickly,’ a voice said next to me and I looked up to see a tall woman dressed in a long woollen cloak.

‘Sorry.’ I stood up. ‘I didn’t realise it was your place.’

‘Stay there,’ she said, then she chuckled. ‘Don’t mind me. My name is Cassiopeia, Cassie for short, and I’m just a grumpy old crone.’

She sat down beside me. The air around us filled with her sickly rich perfume. I was desperate to get away, but didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

‘Like the constellation,’ I said, thinking Gabe would be proud of me for remembering.

‘I expect you’ve come for the healing circle. It should have started by now, but things always run late. That’s hippies for you.’ She chuckled again.

‘No, I haven’t come to the healing circle. I was just wandering about the place.’

‘So you were summoned, then.’ She turned and looked very closely at me. ‘You have a good, strong soul.’ She tapped the stone I was sitting on. ‘You found the
healing stone. You have come to heal someone you love.’

An image of Gabe jumped into my head.

Cassie nodded. ‘The boy. I can feel his pain.’

I shuddered. I was sure she was just taking a wild guess and got lucky. But all the same, it freaked me out and I looked around for a way to escape, but more and more people had sat around and I
was hemmed in.

I resigned myself to staying. A healing circle couldn’t hurt, could it?

Chapter Thirty-Eight

W
e all had to stand up and form a circle around the fire. There must have been about a hundred people there. Cassie
hurled some incense on the fire.

The drummer began a low, mournful beat as we were told to face up to the pain that was in our lives. I imagined Gabe’s bugs in the blood and I began to move around the circle stomping on
them and shouting at them to go away.

Someone began to play on a flute and someone else joined in with some jangling Indian bells and, as the rhythm changed, we were encouraged to embrace the pain and bathe it in a golden light. I
held out my hand and imagined a little bug sitting on my hand. I bathed it in golden light that was sticky like honey. The bug enjoyed this and stayed there frozen in the honey that began to
harden. Now that it was trapped it couldn’t hurt anyone.

Then everyone swirled around the circle. It was like country dancing gone mad. I was picked up and twirled around.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said in a grand voice, ‘May I have the honour of the next dance?’

At first I thought it was Julius, but it wasn’t.

It was Gabe. ‘Didn’t have you down as a hippy chick,’ he said, grinning.