Drive By Read online

  Sorry — my immature little brother sent that text. He’s an idiot. Cld we meet Fri? J

  I press send and then look up at Mikey. He laughs again. I lunge towards him just at the moment that his phone bings and a message comes through. I wrap my arm around his neck and then reach down to try and grab his phone from his hand. He tightens his grip on it, but my hands are bigger than his and after a few seconds I have his phone. I keep my arm around his neck and open the message. It’s from his friend Asif. I don’t bother to read it, but press reply instead.

  There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell u. I’m gay 4 u. I love u. Xxxxxx

  I press send and then throw Mikey’s mobile across the room. The back of the phone comes off and the battery spills out. As Mikey scrabbles around after it, I go upstairs with my phone and my crisps.

  Summer

  There’s an odd atmosphere in Nan and Grandad’s house today. Everyone’s been rushing around most of the morning, getting food ready, making sure the house is clean and there are enough chairs and all that stuff. But it’s also been really quiet and there hasn’t been a cross word exchanged, even though I can tell from people’s faces that on any other day there would have been.

  Now we’re all sitting stiffly in the front room. Everyone except Sky, who’s still in the kitchen. Everyone looks smart in black. And whenever anyone catches anyone else’s eye, they force a half-smile and don’t say anything much. The house is full of the smell of all the flowers people have sent. They’re mainly from Nan’s relatives in Canada and Australia who couldn’t make the funeral, but also from some of her neighbours.

  As Sky is busy in the kitchen and Mum and Grandad talk quietly about who’s coming to the funeral and who’ll be travelling in which car, I think about whether Nan’s spirit is watching us. I wonder what she’d make of us all, nervous, not really acting like ourselves, waiting to give her a good send-off. If she was here, she’d probably be telling Grandad that his shoes aren’t clean enough or his hair needs cutting, or fussing about whether there are enough sandwiches.

  Sky comes through from the kitchen with a tray and puts it down on the coffee table.

  ‘Oh, Sky,’ Mum says. ‘You’ve used the good cups and saucers.’

  Sky looks at Mum. ‘Yeah. Why?’

  Mum tuts. ‘You should have used the ordinary mugs, Sky. These are for the wake. Now we’ll have to wash them.’

  Sky sighs and shakes her head. ‘Yes, Mother,’ she says. ‘So I’ll wash them. It’s not a big deal.’

  Sky pours the tea and hands the cups around to everyone. It feels surreal, sitting in Nan and Grandad’s front room, feeling so on edge, drinking from the best china that never gets used. It feels horrible. I can’t wait for it to be over and done with. I can’t wait for things to be back to normal.

  Johnny

  As I step on to Exminster Avenue I see a hearse waiting in the road. My heart skips a beat. I stop still. Beside me I sense Mikey looking at me impatiently, wondering why on earth I’ve stopped. But I don’t move. I can’t say for sure, but from where I’m standing it looks like it’s waiting outside the Poisoned Dwarf’s house. I could be wrong, but I have a horrible, gnawing feeling in my guts.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Mikey says.

  I don’t answer. Instead I shrug and hurry along the road, sneaking looks at the hearse, trying not to make it obvious to Mikey that I’m freaked out, that I’m scared. As we get closer, I see that the hearse is sitting outside number fifteen. An undertaker stands by it, looking solemn, hands behind his back. There’s another undertaker in the driver’s seat. The porch and front door of the Poisoned Dwarf’s house are both open. Inside the house I can see people in black moving around.

  No.

  Please.

  No.

  Oh my God.

  This can’t be happening.

  But this is happening.

  It must be the Poisoned Dwarf. She must have died. That must be her, right there in the back of the hearse, inside her coffin. I stare at it. There are flowers propped up against the side of the casket, spelling out the name Jean in capital letters. It is her. Jean Hornby.

  And I know exactly why she’s dead.

  Because of us. Me, Jake, Drac and Badger.

  A moment of madness.

  And now this . . .

  My heart is racing. Mikey must have noticed the way I’m reacting and will be wondering why I’m so freaked out about seeing a hearse. So I keep moving, trying not to draw attention to myself, trying not to look at the hearse or the house.

  I keep my head down and reach the end of the road and the turning on to our road. I look back quickly. I see the Poisoned Dwarf’s husband come out of the house. He’s wearing a black suit. He brushes his comb-over with his hand and then goes to speak to one of the undertakers.

  I turn away and keep walking home.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Mikey says. But he doesn’t say it like he’s concerned for me – it’s more like he’s mocking me. ‘You’re acting even more strangely than normal.’

  I give him a look – raised eyebrows, confused expression – as if I have no idea what he’s on about. Then I try and get home as quick as I can.

  Summer

  What is there to say about a funeral? I don’t think there are words to describe it. Nan’s funeral was nice – for a funeral – but nice isn’t exactly what I mean. There were loads of people there – more than I thought there’d be. There were relatives I haven’t seen for years, like Great-aunt June. Lots of Nan and Grandad’s neighbours were there too. I’ve known some of them since I was tiny. There were also loads of people I don’t know, but Grandad knew them all and in a weird sort of way he seemed to enjoy seeing everyone. The main thing is, I think Nan would have been happy with the turnout, to see that she meant something to so many people. And that makes the funeral nice.

  Almost everyone that was at the funeral has come back to Nan and Grandad’s house for the wake. Right now, they’re all standing around, wearing black, drinking tea, nibbling at sandwiches, making small talk. As for me, I’m trying my hardest to stay out of the way. I don’t want to eat sandwiches or drink tea and, most of all, I don’t want to make small talk. So as soon as we got here, I volunteered to help Sky and Mum sort out all the food and the drinks so I could hide myself away. And now that everyone has their tea and sandwiches, I’m tidying up in the kitchen, as slowly and as carefully as I can, waiting for people to finish and go home. Maybe when they do, things can start to get back to normal.

  Johnny

  I wake up, soaked with sweat again, my heart racing. I look at the clock. 2.43 a.m. Again. What is it with that time of night? I rub my face. I look around the room, on edge. I know there’s someone else here. I can feel it. I look in the corners of my room, peer among the shadows. Everything is absolutely still though. If there is anyone else here, I can’t see them.

  I look over at the window. It’s closed. My bedroom door is closed as well. In fact, everything is as it was when I went to bed. I rub my hands over my face again. I still have a nagging feeling, like I’m not alone. This has happened at exactly the same time for a week now. Something is happening. It can’t be coincidence.

  ‘I know you’re there,’ I say quietly. My voice is croaky.

  I look around the room, expecting to see something, for something to happen. But nothing does. Everything is still and silent apart from the sound of some cars out on the main road.

  ‘Who are you?’

  There’s a rustling sound. My heart starts pounding even more. I turn and look at my desk just in time to see a pen roll off and fall to the floor. I stare at it for a second. The room is silent and still again. I try to think of a rational explanation for what just happened. The pen could have just slipped off the desk. It might have been resting on something and then overbalanced. Nobody moved it, that’s for sure. If they had done, I’d have seen them. I’d be able to see them now.

  I switch on my bedside light. I get out of my b
ed, go over to the pen and pick it up. I hold it up with sweaty hands. It’s just a pen.

  I put the pen back on the desk and go back to bed. The sheets feel cold and damp. I sigh, sit up in bed and put my head in my hands. I must have been asleep for only an hour or so. I went to bed early enough, but I couldn’t sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes and put my head on the pillow I started thinking about the hearse that I saw outside the Poisoned Dwarf’s house and that led me to thinking about the drive-by soaking and the newspaper article.

  However I look at it, the four of us are to blame. If we hadn’t decided to get our own back, if we hadn’t shot at her with water pistols, she would still be alive right now, scowling at the world from her porch. Which makes us murderers. If your actions cause someone else to die, that’s murder, right? Or man-slaughter.

  I take my phone off the bedside table. I stare into space, turning my phone round and round in my hands, thinking. I kept this to myself. When I got home yesterday after seeing the funeral procession, I tried to pretend that it had never happened. Not that it worked because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I didn’t let the others know what I saw. I thought about it. I picked up my phone plenty of times and started writing a text to them, but something stopped me each time. I felt like I should tell them in person and yesterday afternoon I didn’t feel like seeing anyone.

  I look around the room again. I look at the pen sitting on my desk. It must have just fallen off on its own. There’s no other logical explanation. No one is in the room with me. It’s only my mind playing tricks. I sigh. I put my phone back on my bedside table and switch the light off. I lie down, close my eyes and try to get comfortable. I need sleep.

  My phone alarm goes off. I open my eyes. I roll over, pick my phone up off the bedside table and switch the alarm off. I feel tired.

  Today is a day off. Chessington day. I’ve been looking forward to it for ages, but now I don’t feel like it. All I can think of at this moment is going back to sleep and blocking out the world. I consider sending Jake a text saying I’m sick and I’m just about to start writing it when I get a message. It’s from Jake.

  Meet me @ mine @ 10.

  I put my phone back on the table and lie on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I make a decision. I’m gonna tell them what I saw yesterday. They have to know.

  I have to walk past the Poisoned Dwarf’s house on my way to knock for Jake. There’s no other way to get there. Passing the house fills me with a mix of different emotions, all horrible, but mainly of guilt and fear. I keep my head down as I walk past. I don’t want to look at the house. Though I don’t know what I expect to see if I do look at it – the Poisoned Dwarf’s ghost glaring at me; a poster of us four with the word murderers emblazoned on it; or maybe just her husband, a broken old man. When the temptation to look becomes too great and I raise my eyes towards 15 Exminster Avenue, all I see is a house, like all the other houses on the street. The car is parked in the space out at the front of the house. The blinds in the house are all drawn. The front door and the porch are shut. I look away and reach the end of Exminster Avenue as quickly as I can.

  I hear the latch on Jake’s front door.

  ‘Morning!’ Jake says, cheery as anything. He looks like he’s dressed up for a date. The smells of Jake’s shower gel and aftershave fill the air. As he looks at me, his brow furrows. ‘You OK?’

  I nod. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘You look like death warmed up, J,’ he says. ‘You look knackered. You stay up all night playing with yourself or something?’ He laughs.

  I force a smile. ‘Something like that, yeah.’

  A little later, with Drac and Badger in tow as well, we get the train to Chessington. Most of the passengers on the train are going there for a day out. The whole carriage is filled with a kind of buoyant feeling. Everyone’s looking forward to all the rides. Except me. I don’t feel cheery. I don’t feel excited. In fact, I feel like rubbish. I feel tired, guilty, confused and muddy-headed. I’d rather not be here. I’m not quite sure where I would like to be right now.

  As soon as the train starts moving, the joking around starts. Jake kicks off by making fun of Badger for the white streak that he has in his otherwise dark bush of hair – the reason he’s always had the nickname Badger. And then the same jokes and mickey-taking that we always go through. It’s almost like a script now, we’ve been through the jokes so many times. But today I don’t smile and I don’t join in with my parts. I look out of the window as the train flashes through New Malden station and I think about when I tell them what I saw yesterday. I promised myself I’d do it. Is this the right time? It’s gonna spoil their day, just like it’s spoiling mine. But they have to know. Someone’s dead for God’s sake. We don’t deserve to be having fun.

  My lips stay sealed though. I don’t say a word on the train journey or on the walk to the theme park. In the queue, as Drac and Jake are looking around, checking out girls in the line and making jokes, Badger turns to me.

  ‘You feeling all right, J?’

  ‘Yeah. Fine,’ I lie. ‘Why?’

  Badger shrugs. ‘No reason. You seem quiet, that’s all.’

  I think that maybe I should tell him – for his good and mine. A problem shared and all that. But I say nothing. I can’t tell him here, not in this queue, not with all these people around.

  The queue starts moving forward more quickly and in no time we’re through the gates. Jake and Drac, who are leading the way, stop by the site map.

  ‘Don’t know about you, but I wanna go on Dracula’s Revenge first,’ Jake says.

  A group of girls strut past us. Drac watches them like a big cat sizing up his prey. One of the girls looks back over her shoulder at him. Drac smiles at her and then looks at the rest of us.

  ‘I think we should go wherever they’re going,’ he says.

  ‘What do you reckon, Badger? J?’ Jake says.

  I shrug my shoulders. ‘I don’t mind. Whatever you want to do.’

  Badger smiles. ‘I wanna hang upside down like a vampire,’ he says, slapping Drac and Jake on the back. ‘There’ll be plenty more girls in the park.’

  Summer

  We’re walking along the pavement towards the high street. Sky has her backpack on even though I offered to carry it for her.

  ‘Do you have to go back?’ I say. ‘It’s nice when you’re home.’

  Sky puts her arm on my shoulder. ‘I’d love to stay,’ she says, ‘but I have to work.’

  I sigh. I’m gonna be bored without her. I’ll be on my own again.

  ‘You know you’re always welcome to come and stay with me in Edinburgh,’ Sky says.

  ‘I asked Mum already,’ I say. ‘She won’t let me.’

  Sky shrugs. ‘Just keep pestering her. She’ll give in eventually.’

  ‘Thanks for the advice,’ I say. ‘I’ll start nagging her later.’

  ‘Anyway,’ Sky says, ‘you’ve got a hot date coming up. I bet you’ll forget that I even exist by tomorrow evening.’

  I smile. I think of Johnny. I wonder what he’s doing right now and I get a little nervous feeling inside.

  We walk on in silence for a while, out on to the high street and left towards the station. It’s busy on the high street, like always. There are people clustering around the grocers’ shops. Cars are queuing on the road. Sky’s phone starts ringing. She takes it out of her handbag and looks at it. She makes a face at me, like she’s sorry.

  ‘Do you mind if I take this?’ she says.

  I shake my head. And then for the next minute or so I listen as she argues with her boyfriend over the phone. Every now and then she stops and gestures with her hands or rolls her eyes. We get to the tube station and stand outside and I feel like a gooseberry even though it’s only her and me here. She stands there, continuing some argument that I can’t quite understand just from hearing one side of it.

  ‘Look, I’ll see you later,’ she says eventually, sounding cross and kind of like she’s softening at the same ti
me. ‘Bye. Love you.’ And then she puts her phone away and makes an angry sort of growling sound.

  ‘Are you OK?’

  She looks up at me and rolls her eyes. ‘I would be if he’d trust me a bit more!’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Sorry. You didn’t need to hear all that.’

  ‘It’s OK.’

  ‘I love you, Summer,’ she says, putting her arms around me.

  ‘I love you too,’ I say, but the words get smothered by Sky’s shoulder as I say them.

  Sky stands back and looks at me. ‘Don’t forget to nag Mum to let you come and stay with me.’

  ‘Believe me, it’ll be the first thing I say when I see her tonight!’

  ‘And good luck with the big date tomorrow,’ she says.

  ‘It’s not a big date,’ I say, laughing. ‘We’re just meeting up. He’s a friend.’ But inside I hope that it does turn out to be more of a date.

  Sky gives me a kiss on the top of my head and then she goes into the tube station.

  I stand there for a while. I get my earphones out of my bag and put them in. I put some gum in my mouth and then I look at the time.

  Johnny

  Jake rubs his belly. ‘I’m starving. Let’s go get a burger or something.’

  Everyone agrees so we follow Jake in the direction of the burger bar. As we pass underneath Dracula’s Revenge, I hear the rumbling of a rollercoaster car racing along the tracks towards us. I look up as it passes right overhead. The passengers scream as they twist upside down and then the right way round again, their legs flailing as the ride spins them through the air.

  Drac turns to us with a grin on his face. ‘Do you reckon you could grab someone’s leg as they went past on Dracula’s Revenge?’

  Badger shakes his head. ‘Not a chance. It’s way too high.’

  Drac stops walking. He looks up at the tracks above our heads. ‘I reckon you could. Watch . . .’ To try and prove his point, he jumps up and swipes an arm out towards the rails. He misses by about two metres.