The Thirteenth (14 page)

Val was cleaning the front window when she spotted Delta’s mini pulling up outside.

“What are you doing here?” Val shouted out of the shop door.

“I tried ringing you. Why aren’t you answering your mobile?” asked Delta raising her hands.

“I haven’t heard it ring.” Val put her hand in her pocket, no phone.

“Are you looking for this?” Delta waved Val’s mobile in the air.

“Oh, what would I do without you, Yankee?” Val climbed down from her ladder. “Want a coffee?”

Delta nodded. “Well I might as well stay for a while. The boys and I were worried.” She handed Val her phone. “Try to keep your head screwed on, Val,” Delta said, smiling at a geeky looking man with thick glasses who was reading a book in the entrance, then turning to pull a face at Val behind his back.

“Are you going to be helping me this afternoon or just insulting my clientele?” asked Val. Delta picked up the duster and waved it at Val as she walked off. Val was shocked but decided for once to leave the sarcasm on the table and accept a helping hand.

It was such a lovely day that Val decided to open the shop doors wide in the hope of attracting more passing trade. She really wanted to show Mr Gallymore she could do well. There was quite a large number of people on the street and as Val said goodbye to a client she spotted Wendy out of the corner of her eye making a beeline for the bookstore. Val turned away, quickly beginning to close the doors.

“Are we closing early?” Delta came up behind Val.

“No! It’s Wendy. If she knows I work here we will never get rid of her.”

“Too late” Delta muttered. Wendy was already in the door and browsing. “Bite the bullet, Val. Yes she is skeletal, but she hasn’t done anything wrong.” Val had to agree. Although she didn’t much like the girl, Delta was right, she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Hi Wendy.” Val swallowed hard and walked over.

“Val! So, you buy your books here as well. We have so much in common.”

Val walked behind the counter to give Wendy a clue.

“Oh, you work here! Wow! What a great job. I come here all the time.” Then she spotted Delta. “I see your friend is here too. Does she work here?” Wendy’s smile had visibly dropped.

“No, she doesn’t,” Delta responded, from behind Wendy.

“So, how can I help you on this fine day?” enquired Val, needing to get Wendy and Delta apart before there were claws at dawn.

“I was just looking for some summer reading material. Don’t worry, I know my way around.” Wendy walked off and Val let out a sigh of relief.

“She is such a freak. Why did you let her in?” asked Delta.

Val couldn’t believe her ears. “You told me to!”

Delta looked shocked. “Next time I do that, punch me HARD.”

Val nodded in agreement and left to make them a drink.

Val and Delta were chatting at the counter as they drank their coffees when Wendy returned with her chosen purchases. As Val looked at Wendy’s books she began feeling a little disturbed, but it wasn’t her business what Wendy chose to read and she of all people shouldn’t be judgmental. She bagged them quickly.

“That will be twenty-three pounds please.”

Wendy opened her purse to pay Val. “Well, now I know you are here, I’ll try and get back in soon. Maybe we could have coffee one day?” Wendy smiled at her.

“That would be lovely,” replied Val while Delta pretended to be sick in the background.

Wendy, suddenly suspicious, turned to find Delta standing statuesquely still behind her.

Picking up her bag she made her way past Delta. “You take care now, Selta.”

“It’s Delta,” Delta fumed.

“Oh sorry, I always get those weird names wrong,” responded Wendy as she left the shop.

Val dashed around the counter grabbing Delta by the arm. “Oh my… That girl has more problems than you could imagine. You should have seen the books she was buying.”

“What do you mean?” Delta was intrigued.

Val checked to make sure Wendy was out of sight. “She bought five books about witchcraft,” Val whispered.

Delta’s eyes widened. “Do you think she is a witch?”

“Well, she isn’t training to be a mechanic now is she?” Val joked. “Anyway look at the time,” said Val pointing to her watch. Delta looked at the watch; it was five minutes to five. “Great. Let’s get this place locked up and you home in time for dinner today.”

Val couldn’t have agreed more.

As they pulled up outside Val’s, Susan was weeding the front lawn.

“Hello Delta. Well at least one person can get Val home on time, thank you honey. Do you want to stop for tea?” she asked, placing her gloves in the bucket in front of her.

“Will you have enough?” enquired Delta sweetly.

Val nearly choked.

“I’m sure I can put a bit more on if necessary,” Susan smiled.

“That would be lovely, Mrs Saunders.”

Val pinched Delta.

“What?” said Delta shrugging her shoulders.

“You are such a creep.” Val mimicked Delta, “If you have enough, Mrs Saunders.” Val curtsied.

“You are just jealous because you have the personal skills of an adult slug.” Delta flicked her hair and followed Susan indoors.

“Whatever.” Val followed them both.

Mike was already at the kitchen table. As usual, his head was buried in a book. “Hello girls,” he said, keeping his eyes on his page.

“Good afternoon Mr Saunders. How’s the swing?”

Mike instantly looked up. Delta was so good at picking up your favourite thing and asking you just the right question. Val’s dad was an avid golfer, and had played many rounds with Delta’s dad when he was in the country. “Well, thank you for asking, Delta. I’m having a very good season.”

Delta turned and grinned at Val like a Cheshire cat.

They ate dinner together, laughing and joking. Val looked at them, enjoying the fact that she still had normal times in her life. She felt that as long as she did, she could deal with the crazy parts. Delta also had Mike and Susan wrapped around her little finger, which gave Val a break from being the only child and centre of attention.

“Do you girls want some ice-cream?” Susan asked.

“Yes please. We’ll take it upstairs.” Val grabbed two bowls brimming with various flavours of her favourite Ben & Jerry’s. “Come on Delta.” Val walked out of the room, leaving Delta to give her compliments to the chef before following Val upstairs.

“Do you know how lucky you are to have your parents at home, Val?” Delta said affectionately. Val knew that Delta missed her parents who travelled abroad on a regular basis.

“Well you can have mine anytime you want. I’m sure they prefer you to me.”

As they entered Val’s room, she felt a twitch in her arm, not as bad as it had been in the past, but it was getting hot. She placed her ice cream on the bedside table and lifted her shirtsleeve.

“What’s wrong, Val?” Delta asked, putting her ice cream down as well.

“I don’t know. It hurts, but not as badly as it has been in the past.”

They both inspected Val’s arm. A symbol that resembled a swirl was red and inflamed.

“That’s Leo,” said Delta looking quite pleased with herself.

“It’s what?” All of a sudden, Val couldn’t hear Delta for the TV that was now blaring out in her room.

“I said it’s Leo. Are you deaf?” Delta stood directly in front of Val, practically shouting into her face.

“Let me turn the TV down. I can’t hear a thing,” Val shouted waving her hands by her ears.

As she turned towards the TV, the screen showed a young woman hanging off a building’s roof. She seemed to be crying hysterically. “Mum must be watching CSI downstairs. She loves those police crime programmes.” She reached out to turn the TV down. As she touched the switch, she disappeared.

Delta was left alone in Val’s room. “Fantastic,” she exhaled. “Another evening in by myself.” Then she grabbed her mobile and started to dial. “Hi. She’s gone again. I don’t know. She was saying something about the TV being loud, but it wasn’t even on.” Delta sighed. “No I can’t come over I’m stuck in her room with her mum and dad downstairs. I need to stay put. I’ll give you a call when she gets back.” Delta popped the phone back in her pocket, picked up her ice-cream bowl and sat on the bed, beginning to dig in. “No point in waiting for you,” she said to the TV, raising her ice cream bowl towards where her friend had just disappeared, as if raising a glass of champagne.

Landing on the hard pitch of the flat roof, Val fell clumsily into one of those forward-rolls you learnt at school. Skidding to a halt, her face scraping along the wall, she dropped backwards onto her bottom and let out a wheeze of air.

Trying to absorb her surroundings, she sat still for a second. Touching the tender spot on her grazed cheek she wondered what she would tell her mum this time. “Sorry Mum, I got intense paper cuts from a book trying to sand my face.” That’s when she heard the whimpers.

“Help! – Help!” a faint, tearful voice called out. Val leapt to her feet and ran across the roof in the direction of the cries.

“I’m coming. Hold on,” Val called, spotting the white curled fingertips on the opposite side of the roof. As she approached, Val threw herself full force against the wall. Placing her knees as anchors against the red bricks, she looked over the top. The building looked at least seven floors high and, taking a quick glance at her surroundings, she seemed to be enclosed by several buildings of the same style.

Glancing down, she came face to face with a very petrified, very plump young woman. “Take my hand.” Val reached out and the woman instantly grabbed it. “Now the other one. It’s going to be OK.” Val smiled at her, although it became a mixture of smile and grimace as she felt the strain on her arms. Val struggled with the woman’s weight. Val guessed by the strain on her back that she must be at least sixteen stone. That was six stones heavier than Val.

“Don’t let me go!” cried the woman.

Val nodded mechanically; too busy contemplating how much her arms were going to hurt once she had stopped trying to stretch them. Under normal circumstances she was sure she couldn’t do what she was doing now; her strength seemed to be intensified when she teleported.

“Nearly there, come on.” Val gave a final heave and a split second later, they were both falling back onto the roof. Lying together looking up at the first evening stars, they gasped for breath. The woman was still clutching Val’s hands, as if she afraid she might fall again. “Thank you,” said the woman, finally letting go of one hand and pushing at a clump of black hair that had fallen onto her. “My name’s Sarah. Who are you?”

“You’re welcome, and I’m Val,” she replied, still out of breath.

After a few more moments of recovery, Val asked, “Do you mind telling me why you were hanging off the top of a very large building?”

The woman looked at Val with a deeply embarrassed expression. Val had the feeling that she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“You’ll think I’m crazy and to be honest so do I at this very moment in time.” Sarah started to sit up, nervously straightening her clothes with her free hand. “I was meeting someone I met on a friendship-website on the internet.”

Val sat up. “Do you mean a date?”

“Yes. He was a man called John. I had been talking to him for several weeks and he seemed so nice. I thought this was going to be our romantic first meeting.” Sarah looked at the floor with a far away expression.

“Why here?”

“He said he worked here and I had no reason to doubt him,” Sarah said.

“What went wrong? It’s slightly extreme to throw someone off a building just because you don’t like the way they looked,” Val said.

“I didn’t even get to see him.” Sarah’s expression became one of anger as she spoke. “I arrived to find a single red rose resting on the wall. I was so blinded by excitement that I rushed over to grab it. That was when something hit me from behind. The rest is history.” Sarah was now beginning to stand and she released Val’s other hand as she moved back towards the edge that moments earlier had nearly been her demise.

Rearing out of the silence, Val heard a phone ringing. She looked around and spotted an emergency phone on the wall near the exit from the roof. Unable to ignore a ringing phone and hoping that it might be someone who had witnessed what had happened and wanted to help them, Val lifted the receiver.

“Hello,” Val said hesitantly.

“Hi Val,” a smooth female voice responded. “Did you think that was easy?” Val felt a sharp pain in her chest.

“I’ve had harder,” she replied dryly, realising that this was one of those lovely people who just wanted to enhance her existence. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” Val yelled down the receiver. There was a moment’s silence and Val wondered if the woman had gone. Then she heard her voice again.

“Here is what I want, chosen one - five, four, three…”

Val looked at Sarah, who was standing at the edge of the building, her body filling with fear.

“…two, one.”

Val screamed “Sarah” and threw herself onto the ground, covering her head with her arms.

Sarah turned, luckily understanding, and instantly followed suit as a massive explosion shook the foundations of the building.

Alarms began ringing and, below them, people started screaming and running in all directions. Val lifted her head searching for Sarah through a thick cloud of dust. “Are you OK?” Val spotted her and crawled in her direction.

Sarah nodded.

“We need to get out of here and now!” Val said urgently, grabbing Sarah’s hand, and standing up making their way towards the roof top door.

As Val reached out to grab the handle, Sarah pulled Val’s hand back sharply. “Look, there’s smoke coming under the door. It’s not safe. We can’t go that way.” Sarah dropped down to the floor pushing her head between her knees and beginning to sob.

“Now is not the time to give up,” Val said firmly, grabbing Sarah’s arm and hauling her to her feet. “So you had a bad date; at least you got one.” “You just get back on up and start again, that’s what my mum says.”