Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (9 page)

It probably
made her a bad person or something but Katie couldn’t find it in
her to care that much. Too busy feeling guilty.

“Just bumped
his noggin but I thought I’d better get it checked. Just in
case.”

“There’s no
doctors or real hospitals?”

The woman –
maybe the same age as Lainy, which meant her son could only be a
toddler – blew out her cheeks and waved her hands in front of her.
This medical centre, seemingly built for the academy, was it, the
first and last lines in medical intervention for Northwood
citizens. Not a thought that inspired a whole lot of
confidence.

“Miss
Cartwright?” Dr de Rossa sat down opposite her. “Your uncle should
be fine in a while.”

“Did I – I
mean, is he really hurt?”

“I think the
shock hurt him more than anything. We see a lot of similar injuries
– rugby players mainly.”

The sun was
just a couple of hours away. Had the last hour just been some
twisted nightmare that she would wake from in just a few hours? Had
she fallen asleep and was actually safe and warm in her own bed
instead of freezing out here? True or not, those thoughts were so
much easier to contemplate than she had nodded off for an hour or
two then woken up to this twisted night time where she turned into
the attacker instead of the attacked. “Lainy – Elaine – used to be
a nurse?”

“She was my
star student,” he whispered like it was a secret. “I taught her
sports therapy for a few years. She was good, really good, but…” he
shrugged.

“Things
happen.”

“Anyway, she’ll
stay for a while. You did the right thing bringing him straight in.
Don’t get yourself upset.” The doctor smiled at her and handed her
a wad of tissues from the box on the coffee table. A crackle of
static sounded from a hidden speaker and asked him to see a patient
in the pharmacy. No matter how often Katie repeated how her uncle
was fine, it wasn’t her fault, Katie just couldn’t forgive herself.
She felt a sudden rush of love for her Uncle Billy. It could have
been tiredness talking but mortally wounding some-one and hearing
them forgive that made even jerks like him appear loveable. The
clock on the wall ticked seconds, then minutes before she felt
brave enough to go next door and see him.

She braved
herself to see her uncle stripped and squeezed into a rustly
hospital gown, lying in a bed surrendered to tubes, monitors,
needles and drips. She expected that but what she saw was a man in
clothes a size too small, propped against a load of pillows with
some bruising around his left eye and playing catch with Lainy and
his van keys. Katie took a deep breath and let it out as a huge,
shuddering sob.

“Hey, what’s
all this for?” Lainy got up and wrapped the girl in a hug. “Relax,
girl. Look, he’s okay. Be back annoying you before you know
it.”

“What did you
tell the doc?”

“He didn’t ask.
He knows I’d tell him if I knew. Which I don’t. I didn’t see
anything happen.”

The three of
them sat in the tiny room until sunrise trying to think of games to
play to pass the time and with the nurse checking every so often.
Trying to guess the mans pulse each time had provided some
amusement. Sad but true. Just after six, Dr de Rossa came and said
Uncle Billy could leave. Leo drove the four of them back to the old
house and then handed the keys back to Billy.

“Maybe I can
get some damn sleep before noon,” he grumbled and slouched off.

Katie wasn’t
entirely happy with him driving the four hours home but was just
too tired to argue. She half-hugged him goodbye.

“Come on, you
can do better than that.”

“Don’t push
it.”

When Uncle
Billy had promised to tell anyone who asked he had hurt himself in
a disagreement with a lamp post, the two girls watched him leave
and then collapsed on the sofa for a few hours – not enough energy
to navigate stairs.

Something dug
into Katie’s side when she sat down. She shoved a hand in the
pocket and moved the folded letter until it was not digging in her,
brain barely registering what it was. There was a party to get
ready for later and being unconscious until then seemed like a very
appealing prospect.

“Everything
okay?” came a voice when Katie thought she had barely closed her
eyes longer than a blink. Determined to will herself back to sleep
she kept her eyes tightly closed and tried not to listen to the
conversation between Adam and a far too alert Lainy. “Did you get
on okay down there?”

“Fine. Her
uncle patched up and gone. Leo still hates everyone and everything.
Katie spoke to the doc but he promised he wouldn’t say
anything.”

“You’re sure he
didn’t?”

“If he did, she
wouldn’t…” then, just as the conversation was getting interesting,
sleep crept up on Katie and took her under.

CHAPTER
FIVE

The party was
themed – SAVE ME, the banner hung over the door read. It was all
about saving. Jaye and Dina dragged Katie to the Levenson Academy’s
swimming pool by the leisure centre. There were lifeguard uniforms
there.

“I’m not sure
we should be in here.”

“The door was
open.” Yes. Yes it had been… after Dina had slipped the lock. She
had obviously done this before. The lock was just a simple slip
latch, Katie could have flipped it if she had not been so worried
about getting caught. She needn’t have fretted though because
discarded fast food wrappers dotted the floor and some poor soul
was walking around with only one flip flop.

“The public
pool is in the centre and this is just ours. Kids use it as a hang
out.”

Jaye opened the
door to a closet of floats, foam lane markers and lifeguard
outfits. “Everyone comes here. I’m a guard here so I give you
permission to be here.”

“That makes me
feel better.” Katie hung back by the door and let the other two
girls start rummaging around for enough stuff to make three
outfits. “It just doesn’t feel right. I mean, some-one has to come
in to clean up, right?”

“You would
think so. But not ‘til term starts in two weeks. No-one’s going to
even notice this stuff’s missing.”

Dina held out a
bundle of clothes and shoved her towards the changing room door.
“These should fit.”

Katie opened
the door and stood in the opening. It was not a huge changing room
but it was cool, echoey and banks of lockers split the room in
three. The lockers blinded you to the rest of the room. Anything
could be in the room and sneaking up on a person before they even
saw it. “It’s too cold in there. I’ll change by the pool.” The
windows were shuttered just enough to let light in but prying eyes
out. Katie hoped it was enough to stop passers-by from seeing her
but considering she was not changing completely and so many people
had seen most of her body one more wouldn’t matter. “I look like
I’m drowning in these clothes.”

“Don’t worry,
they have to be loose so you can strip them off easier.”

“There’s gonna
be stripping?”

“Don’t stress,”
Jaye assured her. ”You don’t have to. It’s just what we have to do
when we dive in.”

Katie changed
back into her ordinary clothes, went back into the guard room and
added a smaller t-shirt to her pile – she was bound to spill
something during the party. The three of them walked back to the
old house and dumped their clothes in their rooms. Lainy had laid
iced drinks out and the three of them downed them before Katie
offered to help Lainy decorate while the other two excused
themselves to slink off again. The day was a hot one and it seemed
even hotter once she started rushing around. There were precious
few decorations to be put up – just the banner over the door and a
few streamers and strips of brightly coloured paper. Katie ripped a
piece off and scribbled bathroom on it in thick black marker. Then
she tore another load off and wrote KEEP OUT on them, intending to
stick them on all the bedroom doors. After that, she helped Lainy
fetch some drinks and set them out with chips and dips. By all
accounts, most people had been instructed to bring their own
drinks. Then it was time for Katie to go have a shower and get
ready for the party. Amazingly, she was looking forward to it.
Being in a room with so many people she didn’t know should have
scared her – would have scared her just a day or two ago, only now
Katie was almost excited. Nervously excited because of the
uncertainty, but excited nonetheless.

As she was
changing into the lifeguard uniform the girls had picked for her,,
Katie heard whispering voices and something large and heavy being
dragged up the front garden path. It wasn’t even dark yet and
partiers had already arrived. A quick check of her watch said it
was only 5 in the afternoon. The party started at seven and no-one
ever turned up on time. Coming two hours early was unheard of. That
meant someone was creeping around. Again. Having people skulking
around outside was getting boring. She decided to ignore it. Let
someone else worry about an intruder. There was a party to get
ready for and she wanted to have plenty of time to grill her
housemates about the people who would be coming. No-one could
really tell her anything, though, because it was just pot-lock who
had gotten wind of it and decided to come along.

As the sun
dipped towards the horizon, Jaye grabbed Katie by the shoulders and
propelled her out of the front door. By the front door was a tall
lifeguards chair, the like of which she had only seen on TV when
guards were keeping watch over a beach. This was what the noise
must have been. “Please tell me you’re not planning to climb that
thing.”

“I do it every
day.” Jaye was half dressed in her shorts and a t-shirt so tight
and short it was definitely not regulation uniform. She climbed the
rungs to the seat and gazed around. “Your shift starts at eight.
One hour, then it’s Adam and them me again until midnight. It was
meant to be Dina but she’s scared of heights.”

“You didn’t
know that?” The pair had given the impression they were best
friends.

“She never used
to be,” Jaye shrugged. “I think the Grand Canyon did things to her.
Maybe I shouldn’t threaten to throw her over.”

“Probably not.
We do an hour each, right, so what happens at midnight?”

“It’s a free
for all for those who haven’t flaked.”

Jaye gave a
short blast on her whistle and ordered Katie inside. She went and
not long after, the first few people arrived. Adam stole a few
dances with her before her shift on the tower. It was her job to
make sure she only let the sober ones in – drunk students tended to
wreck the place – but she couldn’t quite keep track of who was
going in and out since everyone had also dressed up. There were
doctors and nurses, more lifeguards and drowning victims, even a
couple of people in suits with a sticker that read GOD. Well, he
was the ultimate saviour she supposed. One poor sod had gotten
completely the wrong end of the stick and turned up completely
kitted out as a piggy bank. At least he was a memorable one.

“Hey, guardy
guard. Girl,” some-one hollered up at Katie, slurring words and so
well-costumed she couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. “Come
down. I’ll buy a drink.”

“I’m fine,
thanks.”

“Okay.”
Suddenly swept away by a group of friends or maybe other random
drunk people, the person wandered happily away.

Drunk people
were best happy. Katie spent quite a while just sittingon her tower
and watching people whooping and wailing. A party was happening a
few streets away too, nearer the academy, she had heard a few
people talking about it down at the pool. No doubt there were quite
a few students there but there seemed to be plenty here too.
Definitely many more than she would remember in the morning.

“Hey. Time to
clock off.” Adam was climbing up the wooden slats, squeezing into
the guard seat with her and looking suitably idiotic in a Superman
costume, complete with underpants on the outside.

“Already? I was
kind of enjoying it up here just looking at everything. I guess I
felt like I was in charge.”

“Must be the
uniform. Scoot over.”

Katie shifted
over s far as she could on the platform, breathed in, watched him
trying to figure out if he could get into the space without hurting
something vital. He couldn’t. “I really don’t think this is made
for two.”

“Sure it is.”
He moved so quickly that Katie was perched on his lap before she
knew what was going on. “See? Perfect fit.”

“Adam!”

“Hey, I’m just
being Clark to your Lois and stopping you from falling.”

“I don’t like
falling.” Katie peeled his hands from her waist with a smile she
prayed would stay there just long enough for her to make her
escape. “But ladders I like.” Adam had let go of her easily enough
and she knew he had only been messing with her but the experience
had shaken her to her roots. Back in the house, a hand held out a
plastic cup filled with something fizzy and sweet looking. She
downed the drink in three long gulps, concentrating so hard on
keeping her happy face on that she did not recognise what the drink
was or the person holding it. If she had, a lot of the coming
events might have made sense.

Or not.

“She was never
told?” the person in front of her was saying as she drank. “Man, I
knew after a few weeks but I was older.”

“We can’t say
anything yet. Not ‘til she’s old enough,” said her friend.

“It just
doesn’t seem right.”

“That’s just
the way it is. The orders are to keep shtum and…”

“Really sucks
for the new girl.”

“Yeah.”

“I wonder if
she’s worked anything out yet.”

Katie scrunched
the cup and threw it in the nearest bin and headed for the stairs,
pushing past the two girls who were speaking by them. They both had
their backs to Katie and she tried to work her way between them.
“Sorry,” she apologised as she knocked the dark haired one but the
girl seemed not to have felt it or even moved. It was almost as if
she had walked through the girl not past her. Apart from a rough
line of people stood outside the bathroom the top floor of the
house was quiet. Katie .kicked a plastic cup off the top step and
forced herself to sit down. It was tempting to just carry on down
and spend the rest of the night hiding outing her room but that
would be like admitting defeat. Plus she was starting to feel
funny. Adam grabbing for her had shaken her a bit – she just needed
to calm down for a minute. Take some time to breathe. Everything
was fine, the party was fun, life was looking good. At least, those
were the things Katie kept telling herself to stop from panicking.
Something bad had happened a long time ago but that was all over
now. And still she couldn’t let herself relax and just enjoy her
new life.