Run, Zan, Run (3 page)

There were almost tears in Ivy’s voice as she answered. ‘I’m … not … goin’ to … touch her … again—’

‘Her?’

‘Your … friend … Katie—’

‘And what else?’

‘Or go near her … or threaten her … or anythin’ else. Just let me up!’

With one bound Zan was on her feet, pulling Ivy up after her. ‘Get goin’, and just remember this. If you don’t keep that promise, I’ll come after you. And you don’t know when I might pop up. So watch it!’

She threw Ivy away from her.

Ivy ran, stumbling, falling more than once, pulling herself up the embankment to the road once more. Then she disappeared into the night.

Katie stood up and winced as she put weight on her ankle.

Zan turned at the sound. She smiled. ‘You’ll never learn, will you? Letting people like that get the better of you. Ankle sore?’

‘Who are you?’ was all Katie could ask.

Zan shrugged. ‘Nobody. I don’t know. Does it matter?’

‘You told her I was your friend.’

‘I suppose you are. Never had one before?’

Katie tried to step towards her and winced again.

‘Here, lean on me,’ Zan said, slipping an arm around Katie’s waist and holding the hand that Katie draped around her shoulders.

‘I thought I was going to die. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.’

‘You don’t have to … but do me a favour.’

‘What?’

‘Learn some self-defence, judo or something. Learn to take care of yourself.’

‘Where did you learn to fight?’

Zan laughed. ‘It was either fight back, or don’t survive. I fought back.’

‘How did you find me here?’

‘You found me. I moved house. Under the bridge. Thought it would be quieter.’

They climbed back on to the road. There was no sign of Ivy.

‘You know, you’ve got to stand up to people like that. Bullies thrive on fear.’

‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever been afraid of anyone in your life.’

She felt Zan tense beside her. ‘I’ve been afraid …’ she said softly.

When they reached Katie’s house Zan released her. ‘There. You can go in yourself.’

‘Aren’t you coming with me? My mum and dad will want to thank you.’

Zan held back, looking at the house. How inviting it must seem to her, Katie thought. The warm glow of the lamps lighting the windows, the hall lit up and the red carpeted stairs rising to the floor above. There were sounds too, music and laughter. Her parents’ party in full progress. Katie wanted her to come in so much.

She clasped her hand. ‘Come with me. Stay with me, the night at least. Sleep in a warm bed. You’d love my mum and dad.’

The light, the smile vanished from her eyes. ‘Never!’
She snapped the words out. ‘I’m safer where I am!’

And suddenly she was running down the street, away from Katie, away from warmth and security. Running back to her cardboard box.

Chapter Three

‘What do you mean? A girl in a cardboard box?’ Her father had taken out his false fangs, but still managed to look slightly ridiculous with his slicked-back black hair and white face. Katie was finding it very difficult not to giggle. There was a sea of made-up faces listening to her story, and a penguin examining her ankle.

‘Honestly, Dad. She does. She lives in a cardboard box. She helped me, the other day … and again tonight.’

‘It’s only a bad sprain, I think. Better have it X-rayed anyway to be on the safe side,’ the penguin said seriously.

‘Lucky you were at the party, Dr Robb,’ her father said.

Katie giggled.

‘Are you joking about this, Katie?’ her mother warned her. She looked around the room. ‘Girls living in cardboard boxes, here, in this town? I can hardly believe it.’

‘It’s true,’ Katie protested.

‘You’re always hearing about homeless children,’ her father went on, ‘but you think of them in London, in New York, not in your own home town.’

A woman dressed as Adolf Hitler patted her head and said gently, ‘The poor little mite, she’s come through such a lot tonight.’

Katie giggled again, and she could tell by her mother’s narrowed eyes that she was doing her credibility no good at all.

‘If you’re lying Katie …’

‘Honest, Mum …’

‘It’s nerves making her giggle, Katherine,’ the penguin said. ‘She’s had a shock …’

‘Maybe we should get the police. Girls doing a thing like that, they deserve to be charged.’

Katie protested immediately. ‘No, please, Mum. Ivy Toner has had a big enough fright for one night. I don’t think she’ll give me any more trouble.’

The memory still pleased her. Ivy beaten, Ivy afraid, running.

‘What was this girl’s name?’

Katie almost said Zan – but stopped as she realized how stupid it sounded.

Her hesitation made her mother even more suspicious.

‘I … I don’t know.’

Her mother bent down beside her. Lovely as usual, especially now, looking exactly like Cleopatra. She blinked startled black eyes at her. ‘You mean this girl helped you, helped you twice and you didn’t even ask her name?’

‘She wouldn’t tell me …’ She looked around at all the questioning, wondering faces. ‘She’s been living like that for months, and she’s only my age.’ There was a shocked, communal gasp.

‘I’m going to have to do something about this,’ her father said, and Katie knew when she heard that kind of determination in his voice nothing would stop him. He was a well-respected local councillor, who had a reputation for helping the people who most needed help.

‘Well, you can do what you want for the homeless, Douglas. But right now, I’m taking my daughter to hospital.’

‘I’ll be all right, Mum. I don’t want to spoil your party.’

Cleopatra kissed her cheek. ‘You could never do that, never. You’re the priority here.’

Poor Zan, Katie thought, as her mother slid an arm round her tenderly and helped her from the couch.
Never to be anyone’s priority. Never to know the security of sleeping safe and warm.

‘Are you coming?’ Her mother already had the car keys in her hand.

‘Looking like this?’ Her father held out his scarlet-lined cloak and looked even more like Dracula.

‘It’s Hallowe’en,’ her mother said, sensibly. ‘You won’t look the least bit unusual.’

‘And they took you to hospital dressed up?’

Her friends, those friends who only last week had refused to speak to her, were now gathered round listening to her story, eager for every detail. News of Ivy’s humiliation had raced round the school, just as news of an under-age girl living rough on the dump had raced round the town. Ivy wasn’t at school. Lindy and Michelle were, but they were only cyphers without their leader.

‘Yes …’ Katie giggled at the memory. Her parents had caused quite a stir in casualty, especially as her mother remained in her regal character throughout the visit and almost had the doctors curtseying in front of her. As for her father, he had to suffer the wisecracks from the drunks who were also being treated in casualty.

‘In for a wee transfusion, are ye, Drac?’

‘Have you come for a takeaway meal, Count?’ Then the drunk indicated his neck. ‘Here, Count, have a drink on me.’

‘No, thank you,’ her father had retorted. ‘I think I’d rather have my fangs drilled … without anaesthetic.’

She loved her parents. They were so funny.

‘And is it true, Katie? Did this girl beat Ivy?’

‘Yes, this one girl.’ She looked round at them all. At some time each of them had been Ivy’s victim. ‘She says we shouldn’t be afraid of her. Ivy was frightened. Really frightened. I saw her run off, scared stiff. Bullies thrive on the fear we show them. That’s what Zan says.’

‘Zan?’

‘That’s what I call her.’

‘She’s really mysterious, isn’t she?’

‘I suppose she is.’

Katie became something of a celebrity in the school, bathing in Zan’s reflected glory. She was always careful, though, to point out that she had done nothing. Everything was due to Zan.

It was two days before Ivy returned to school. A different Ivy. A quiet, subdued Ivy. One who didn’t even look Katie’s way in the corridors.

As for Zan, searches were proving futile. Her father was trying hard not to be disheartened. ‘Where can she be? I have whole groups of volunteers out searching for her.’

‘She’s good at hiding,’ Katie told him. ‘She said so.’

‘But why should she hide? We mean her no harm. We only want to help.’

Maybe, a voice inside whispered to Katie (where did it come from?), maybe she didn’t want to be helped.

It was Saturday morning and Katie was hurrying to the sports centre. She was late for badminton, so she took a short cut through back closes and back greens. Suddenly a hand grabbed her and pulled her against the wall of an old disused wash-house.

Ivy! She was in Ivy’s clutches again!

‘What the hell do you think you’ve done!’

Katie opened her eyes. Zan!

‘What have I done?’

‘You told them about me. You told everybody about me.’

Katie swallowed. This was the Zan she had first encountered. Defensive and aggressive. There was nothing friendly about this Zan. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know I
wasn’t supposed to. But they don’t mean you any harm, Zan. They want to help.’

‘I know, and I know how they want to help. Put me in a home, look for my real parents, send me back. NEVER!’

She screamed the last word out and Katie was almost frightened. She looked into her eyes and realized it was Zan who was frightened. ‘Why did you run away from home, Zan?’

Zan was breathing hard. For a time, Katie thought she wasn’t going to answer her. Finally, she said, ‘Don’t ever ask me that. Ever.’

What could have happened? Katie thought. What terrible thing could have happened to her?

‘They’re everywhere,’ Zan went on breathlessly. ‘Police, social workers, do-gooders. I wanted to stay here for a while. I like this town, it’s big enough to hide in, but not to get lost in … and this is how you thank me.’

‘I’m sorry. But … what can I do?’

‘Nothing.’

‘I’d undo it if I could. Honest.’

Zan leaned up against the wall thoughtfully. All at once, her eyes brightened again. ‘Maybe you can.’

‘How?’

‘Tell them you were lying … tell them I don’t exist.’

‘But why should I have lied?’

Zan shrugged. ‘You were afraid you’d get into trouble for fighting. I don’t know. Think of something.’

‘But they’d never believe me.’ Yet even as she said it she remembered their incredulous faces, her mother’s especially, and knew they’d believe her all too readily.

What she was really afraid of was what her parents would say. Lying, wasting police time … Maybe she’d end up in borstal, with a hundred other Ivys.

She looked at Zan. For the first time, she didn’t look tough, or defiant. She looked vulnerable. ‘I just want things the way they were. I want to stay the way I am.’

Zan had helped her when she needed it most. The only one who had. Now it was Katie’s turn.

‘I’ll tell them. I’ll make them believe me. Honest I will.’

Zan’s face lit up. ‘That’s all I wanted to hear.’ She began to hurry away. ‘You promise?’

‘I promise.’

‘See you, Katie, you’re a real friend.’

‘So are you, Zan.’

They smiled at each other and then Zan was gone, dodging through the back closes and away.

‘I hope she comes to visit me in prison,’ Katie thought, trudging home. Forgetting about badminton. Better get it over with now.

‘What do you mean, she doesn’t exist?’ Her father still hadn’t got over the shock of her admission.

‘How many times does she have to tell you, Douglas?’

‘But I’ve just started a campaign, in conjunction with the local paper, to save homeless people in the town.’

‘They’re still there,’ Katie tried to comfort him. ‘It’s just that she’s not one of them.’

‘You’ve made me look like a right idiot. Do you know that, Katie?’

Her mother had taken the news better. She had never fully believed Katie’s story. She took her hand now.

‘So you’re saying that you fought Ivy Toner, and these other girls, singlehanded.’

It didn’t sound too believable to Katie either. ‘Yes …’ she said weakly.

‘My little Katie?’

‘I’d just had enough with Ivy, Mum. I blew up. I don’t know where I got the strength to do it.’

‘I’m about to blow up too,’ Katie’s father retorted. ‘I’ll have to let the police know, the papers … I’m going to
look like a complete fool.’

Her mother turned on him. ‘Is that all that’s bothering you? If Katie got rid of the bully by her own efforts, I’m very proud of her. And so should you be.’ She looked again at her daughter. ‘You are telling the truth this time, aren’t you?’

Katie had never deliberately lied to her mother, not over something as serious as this. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, harder even than facing up to Ivy Toner every day in school.

‘It’s the truth, Mum. This other girl just doesn’t exist.’

It was the same at school.

‘But Ivy Toner saw her,’ her friends all pointed out. ‘She says you’re lying.’

Now that was going to be a problem. ‘She’s mistaken,’ Katie assured them, she hoped with conviction.

‘Why did you lie?’

‘I have my reasons.’ They had all asked the same questions. She always gave the same, enigmatic answers. She just hoped no one would ask what those reasons were.

Ivy, however, didn’t say too much about the news that Zan didn’t exist. She knew different, of course. It wasn’t
until one day, in the school toilets, that Katie discovered why she’d been so quiet.

She was just about to come out of one of the cubicles when she heard Lindy and Michelle’s voices, as they came into the toilets.

‘She’s sayin’ that lassie doesn’t even exist.’

‘I know,’ Michelle answered. ‘How can she say that, Ivy?’

Katie froze. Ivy was there too.

‘We know she does. We saw her.’

‘I know … but …’

‘But what, Michelle?’

‘Well, Ivy … Me and Lindy were just thinkin’ …’

‘That makes a change.’

Lindy laughed stupidly. ‘But you know we never actually saw them together … at the same time …’