Vintage (23 page)

“Yes Mum. We did.”

They went upstairs.

“That was close. If she'd found out I'd be in big trouble.” Marilyn didn't know what kind of punishments Holly's mum used.

“I'd be grounded for a month – she'd have been onto my dad, and I'm keeping well out of his way. After the car. Dreading going to the police station tomorrow.”

“Better keep out of her way for a while too.”

They went into Holly's room and Kyle set up the machine.

“You know, you talk in a strange way, the last few days. It's cool, but it's like you're talking out of some old book.”

Marilyn didn't know what to say to that.

“Cool,” she said awkwardly, “I just thought I might you know, like, make some changes.”

Kyle went on at the keyboard. It seemed Marilyn didn't sound as strange as she felt.

This life felt real to her now. Her old life was so far away. There was so much she loved about this one. Even after last night.

She wrote a text to Holly. She pressed send.

A shiver of doubt went through her spine.

It must be well after three. We're lying here on the rug, looking at the branches flying about in the wind. It's spring. The leaves are fresh green. You can still see the sky through them. The sun. We're far away from home.

I think of Kyle. Of everyone in my life. That life.

“I have to go.”

Dave's lying beside me.

Holding me.

“In a bit.”

“You know, you're not like everyone says.”

“Tell you a secret. I read. From the library. Nobody knows. There's a job there. Applied. Manager says I've got a chance, being as they know me and that.”

He's playing with my hair.

Then he kisses me again.

I groan. Sit up. Smooth down my hair. “I've got to go.”

“Right. Wish we could stay. Here.”

“Me too.” And I'm not lying. This is real.

“Come here again? Tomorrow?”

“Maybe.” My heart pulls.

We get back on the bike.

I lean my head on his back.

Hold him tight.

Smell him.

Maybe I should stay here.

Maybe I should be Marilyn. Have her life at uni. Live through the hippy times. Summer of love.

With Dave.

Maybe.

He lets me off at the bottom of the hill.

So my mum won't see.

Marilyn's mum.

I'm crying.

He wipes the tears from my face. With his fingers.

Gentle.

“See you tomorrow then.”

He starts the bike again.

“Dave…”

“Yeah?”

“Nothing. I don't want to go.”

“Yeah.”

He revs the engine.

I watch him leave. Round the corner and onto the Portway.

Speeding off until he's out of sight.

I can still hear the engine.

I climb the hill for the last time. It's a few minutes to four.

Don't know if I want to go.

I see the house. With the mum. And the dad. And the little brother. Andrew. Wonder how he will grow up.

Maybe I want to be Marilyn.

Maybe I am her.

There's no way to say goodbye.

Nobody will know why I'm saying it.

It's a lonely place.

I'm not sure I want to leave at all.

Want to cry.

Don't know what to do.

Then a text from Marilyn comes through.

“I think I want 2 stay here.”

Kyle leaned back from the keyboard and laughed.

“Here you are, back in 1962. Look at these clothes! And they've got the music too – listen.”

A stream of music Marilyn knew so well flooded into the room. She could see the girls in the pictures, the families. She knew them, knew these people. They were her people. She thought of Andrew. She couldn't stand him most of the time, but he was her little brother. She even missed her mum.

“There's loads here for your project – you don't need to look any further than this site, it's got everything.” Kyle was absorbed in the pictures.

“Right.” To her enormous shock, Marilyn was gulping back the tears, homesickness, everything she'd been through the last two days engulfing her at once. She wished she'd never sent that text.

“Hey, it's okay.” Kyle put his arms round her and hugged her tight. “You and me, we'll get through, we always do.”

“But it's not enough. I have to go.”

“We only just started – for your project.”

“I'm sorry, I have to go. I've got something – to do. At four.”

“Will you be back?”

“No – yes. You'll see Holly again.”

“I'll stay here then.” Kyle turned back to the keyboard and scanned through the pages. “I'll bookmark some of these for you.”

“Thanks, Kyle. Thanks. For everything.”

“It's cool.”

Marilyn took a look round the room and left. She crept downstairs to avoid Holly's mum. She heard her singing loudly to the radio, in the kitchen. Safe. She whispered goodbye.

She shut the front door after herself, and she could see the bus stop. She walked through the gate. There was nobody at the stop.

She wavered. She could just go back in as if nothing had happened. Nobody would know. She didn't know what she wanted. She didn't know how she'd get back, or whether they'd ever be able to do it. She couldn't imagine how it had all happened. Or how it would end.

A text came through. Holly.

“But U cant stay there. Thats my life U R living. U cant steal it.”

Holly was right. She couldn't let her down. Holly had saved Kyle's life. Perhaps Marilyn's too.

At least Holly didn't want to stay in Marilyn's life. Though why should she? And Marilyn was here, wasn't she? At the bus stop. She must want to go back.

She looked up at her bedroom window. Imagined Kyle up there. Blinked away the tears.

“Ok. Lets try it. Where R U? Its 4.”

The text came straight back.

“Here. Where R U?”

I've no idea what to do. It's four o'clock and I know something should be happening.

I want to run. I am petrified.

I think hard. My life back home. Kyle. Saleem. My mates. My family. My plans. The plans that seemed so important when I wrote to Marilyn. It was the life I'd wanted out of.

I think of Dave.

Take a deep breath. Focus.

I'm going home.

But I don't know what to do to make it happen. I feel stupid standing here. A bus comes along and stops to pick me up. I wave it on. The people inside stare at me. I turn my back on them.

I know Marilyn's here. On the other side of whatever gap this is we slipped through. On Friday. Can't believe this is only Sunday. How much can happen in two days?

How much can change?

I can almost feel her. But I've no way of reaching out. I think of all the movies I've seen. All the TV series.

But nothing seems to match what's happened to me. To me and Marilyn. I feel like I know her. Know her from the inside.

Nobody could make this up.

Marilyn stood by the bus stop, gripping the mobile. She squeezed her eyes shut and thought about time travel, but nothing happened. She even tried jumping off the ground, but she just landed back down again where she'd been. She was frightened. She felt stupid, and sad, such a mixture of emotions. This was her decision. It was hard, and painful.

She thought of Kyle, trawling through 1962 in her room. She thought of the club, and the man outside, and Sheila, and the coffee shop.

She thought of her future, all the possibilities of everything that could happen to her, good and bad.

She thought of Holly, stranded in a life she didn't want.

“I can't do it. You'll have to help.”

I'm willing my way into her mind. Like in the dream when Kyle was getting a kicking. I do it as loudly as I can. But I don't know what I'm asking her to do, how it could happen.

It's ten past four.

And it's beginning to rain.

And my hands are shaking.

Marilyn looked across the road. Saleem came out of his house and right towards her. She looked round, but there was nowhere to hide.