Читать книгу The Last Chapter - S. C. Loader - Страница 9

Chapter 4

Quickly recovering from the shock Adam brought a broad smile to his face, a real one, one that he could not have suppressed even if he had wanted to.

'It's wonderful to see you again,' he said brightly, then noticing the knife held in a two-handed vice-like grip added, 'and I see you've brought your friend along as well.'

Hurriedly swapping the shaving gel and razor into his left hand he stretched out his right to greet the young girl, but before he could introduce himself his towel fell to the floor. With no regard to where they fell Adam discarded the shaving equipment and grabbed the towel. Red-faced and with his modesty once more securely covered he apologised, 'I'm really sorry, it keeps doing that.'

A small smile sneaked into the girl's expression, 'I know, I've been watching you from that car over there,' and with the knife, she pointed fleetingly to her former hiding place parked in front of Five Star.

In spite of his admiration of her soft locally accented voice Adam's embarrassment deepened quite considerably with that revelation, 'How long have you been watching me?'

'Since you came out of the water.'

'Not possible!' he stated assuredly. 'When I came out of the water I checked to make sure that there was no one around and I could even see under the cars and that one is not even ten metres away, so I know you weren't hiding behind it for as long as you say you were.'

Adam feared the worst when he noticed the smile rise up to her eyes, 'It's not locked.'

'Oh!' he said thoughtfully. Then, taking a deep calming breath gripped his towel tightly with one hand and offered the other in greeting once again, 'My name's Adam and I sincerely apologise for the unintended biology lesson.'

Tentatively the young girl stretched hers out and briefly shook his hand, 'I'm Evie.'

'A short form for Evelyn I presume?'

After what felt like an unduly long time to Adam, she slowly nodded as though deep in thought and her unerring stare at his chest began to make him feel uncomfortable, was she telling him he should get dressed?

'Well Evelyn I'm very pleased to meet you, now let me collect up my things and get some clothes on, then I'll put the kettle on the boil for that cup of tea I invited you over for.'

Stepping into Five Star he gestured towards the dining area, 'Please take a seat, I'll be back just as soon as I've found something to wear.' Noting the girl's hesitation he added, 'Or you stay out there and slowly toast under that furnace of a sun if you prefer.'

By the time he emerged from the bedroom, Evelyn was sat at the dining table, her awestruck eyes roaming over the luxurious interior. He joined her after putting the kettle on to boil and collecting a chilled bottle of water and a couple of glasses. Struggling to tear open the cellophane packaging of the new T-shirt Evelyn wordlessly offered to do it for him.

'Are you rich?' she asked.

'If you mean this,' and he looked around himself, 'I… borrowed it.'

Evelyn smiled knowingly and drunk each of the three glasses of water Adam poured out for her and while he poured the fourth the cat leapt up onto the two-seat bench opposite her, 'Is that a cat?'

'Well according to the book I read it said if it meows, has razor blades concealed in its paws and has a mouth resembling that of a great white shark then it is a cat.'

'What's happened to his ear?'

'A rat chewed it.'

'Really?'

Adam grinned.

'Why does he have an orange face?'

'Chilli-con-carne.'

Evelyn cast him a curious look, 'What's his name?'

'How do you know it's a he?'

'Cats with single colour fur are boys… mostly.'

'Oh! I didn't know that and I don't know his name, he didn't introduce himself. I did ask, but he refused to tell me,' he paused while refilling her glass for the fifth time, 'I was tempted to torture him for the information, but then I realised that with those talons he could probably open his own tin of pilchards anyway. So I just call him Kat.'

'Cat? That's not very imaginative.'

'Not cat, Kat. With a K and not a C. Actually my first choice was Fluffy Bunnykins, but somehow I felt it didn't quite suit him, so I opted for Kat instead.'

'So it's not your cat?' asked Evelyn stretching a hand out to give the cat a scratch behind the ears before Adam could stop her. Kat started purring.

'No, I found him last night in a litter bin with a tin on his head and took pity on him. I gave him something to eat and we've been mates ever since,' and stretching a hand out as if to stroke the cat asked, 'haven't we Fluffy Bunnykins?' Kat immediately spat at him and bared his teeth.

'See what I mean, Fluffy Bunnykins doesn't really suit him, does it? Actually, before I forget may I compliment you on your improvised use of the barbecue, I was very impressed by that. Did you enjoy your soup?'

'I dropped the can picking it up.'

Adam returned from making a pot of tea, 'I hope you didn't burn yourself?'

She shook her head.

'I'm sorry to hear about your lunch, but I'm pleased you're unharmed. Did you have anything else instead?'

Evelyn shook her head again.

'Then you must still be hungry, as I'm just about to make myself some lunch would you like to join me?'

Evelyn nodded, 'Yes please.'

‘I warn you I'm not a master chef or anything so don't expect anything fancy, would spaghetti with canned bolognese sauce be okay?'

A large smile accompanied another nod.

'A small hunger or a big one?'

'Quite big.'

While filling a saucepan with bottled water Adam noticed her eyeing the bucket and shampoo he had left by the door, 'I have a shower if you would like to use it.'

'Then why did you wash your hair in the stream?'

'I thought you said you only started watching me after I came out of the water?'

'I did, from inside the car.'

Adam blushed, 'And before that? Actually don't answer that… I have a horrible feeling that wherever you were, you would have been close enough to read the instructions on the shampoo bottle and I don't think I can take any more embarrassment for one day.' He paused long enough to consider whether she might not belong to the S.A.S. or the Navy Seals, then went on to explain the value of the water in the tank concluding with, 'But as long as you promise to keep it short, you're very welcome to use the shower.'

'It would be rude of me to use your water, I can use the stream.'

'Evelyn, the water's ice-cold down there, please use the shower at least you'll not look like an ice cube when you've finished and I really don't mind. The shower's in the bedroom back there, there's a clean towel on the bed and there's a lock on the sliding door.'

'But…'

'No buts Evelyn, just take your spare clothes, make-up, hairbrush and whatnot with you and I'll get on with the cooking.'

Evelyn stood nervously by the side entry door cuddling the bucket containing the shampoo looking a little sheepish.

'I promise I won't spy on you if that's what's worrying you, Evelyn.'

'No, it's not that.'

'Then what is troubling you?'

'I don't have any spare clothes.'

Adam pointed to her rucksack, 'Sorry? Then, what's in there?'

Evelyn reluctantly exchanged the bucket for the rucksack and then started slowly emptying everything out onto the table. Adam sat down and looked at the meagre collection in total disbelief. One can of soup, a pencil case, a framed photograph of two people who he presumed were her parents, a small collection of loose photographs, some school geography and mathematics books, two boxes of matches, a bag of t-light candles, an older style mobile phone, a table knife and fork, a dessert spoon and finally a hairbrush.

'Is that it?' he asked. 'Is this all you brought with you?'

Evelyn blushed the deepest red and emptied a small side pocket out onto the table.

'Evelyn where are your spare clothes? You have nothing, not even a change of underwear.'

She remained silent and to avoid eye contact continued to stare at the items on the table, her fingers nervously fiddling with a strap of the rucksack.

'Were you planning to wear what you have on for the rest of your life?'

The question remained unanswered.

‘And what about when it gets colder? You have no coat, hat, gloves, not even a scarf.'

Again she offered no answer. Adam buried his face in his hands and sighed, if a twelve-year old was so illprepared, then what hope had a younger child of making it through the winter, if they even managed to survived that long.

Tears began to roll down Evelyn's cheeks, 'I couldn't get my things, Grandma was in my room. When she fell ill she couldn't make it up the stairs to her room so she laid down on my bed.'

'And she's still there, which is why you couldn't go back into your room to collect the things you needed?'

Evelyn nodded, her tears sprinkling over the table where she sat.

'Where were your parents? Why didn't they help?'

'They died when I was three years old in a car crash. My Grandma and Grandpa raised me, but Grandpa died two years ago, so it's just been me and Grandma since then.'

Adam went and crouched down next to her and drew her into a comforting embrace, Evelyn buried her face in his chest and let the tears flow.

Evelyn's sobs had quietened to an odd sniff when Adam heard spitting coming from the hob, the saucepan of water had finally come to the boil. As he added a large handful of spaghetti to one saucepan Evelyn emptied the two tins of bolognese sauce into another, once both were gently simmering nicely they returned to the table.

'How old are you Evelyn?'

'Fifteen.'

'Fifteen?'

She rummaged through the things on the table and finally handed him what she had been looking for, her school ID and travel warrant with her picture and date of birth on it. Adam was quite taken aback, he was sure she was only twelve. He was quite short for a man at only one metre seventy-four tall and she was a good head shorter, she had no bust to speak of, or at least it didn't show if she had one and her clothes were nothing like those other girls of her age wore.

'Sorry, I thought you were much younger.'

Thankfully he saw the smile fall instantly from her face because it helped him realise he had committed a very serious mistake, 'Sorry! It's your dirty face that made me think that you look like one of those little street urchins you see in those really old films, but up close I can see there's quite a beautiful young woman behind there and I'm rather looking forward to meeting her.'

Evelyn blushed profusely and the smile returned, 'Can I ask how old you are?'

'I'm two and a third times your age, which makes me ancient.'

'You're thirty-five, oh!' and with a large grin added, 'I thought you were much older.'

'Touché!' said Adam feigning a wound to his heart, causing her to giggle a little. The light-hearted mood encouraged him to voice a question that had been patiently waiting for the right moment to be asked, but one that carried with it the worry that she might answer negatively thinking he was some kind of weirdo. 'Evelyn would you like to stay here,' and trying to justify asking her added, 'the streets are not where a young woman should live.'

Her eyes lit up, 'You want me to stay here?'

'Yes I do, but it's your decision. Here you would have a comfy bed of your own to sleep in, we could get you some new clothes and perhaps even some other bits and pieces you might be wanting,' adding the sudden afterthought, 'but you would have to put up with Kat. He may be a cross between the ugliest duckling that ever lived and a great white shark, but I've grown attached to him, so I'm going to let him stay here as long as he wants to. What do you think, do you want to stay?'

She said nothing, just leapt into his arms and buried her face into his neck, shedding another bout of tears, only this time he assumed they were tears of joy rather than sorrow.

'Right! Come on young lady let's get this table cleared so that we can eat.'

Adam gathered up six little boxes, 'I presume your Grandma didn't know about these.'

'How did you know that?'

'Because my wife took a contraceptive pill as well and each prescription was for six months' worth, one box per month and you kept all yours in your school bag so she wouldn't find out, this is your school bag isn't it?'

A short nod confirmed it.

Adam looked across the table contents, 'I'm sorry to have to ask this Evelyn, but as you've no sanitary products with you, how soon do we need to go shopping?'

Evelyn face turned deep red and promptly went into hiding behind her hands, 'Two days.'

She accepted his offer of a cuddle by way of an apology for having had to ask.

While he served up their lunch another question suddenly occurred to him, 'Evie, are you ever going to unpack that T-shirt for me?'

Evelyn emerged from the bedroom fresh from the shower, wrapped in a towel. Adam looked up from his work, 'Who are you?' then stretched his neck to look behind her, 'Where's Evie?' Evelyn giggled and made her way over to him. As she came closer Adam could not help admiring the young woman before him, she was going to break a few young men's hearts when she grew up he thought to himself. She was not classically beautiful, but she was pretty. Her straight brown hair was just over shoulder length and pulled back into a loose ponytail as it was now exposing her slightly squarer shaped face. The loose strands of hair from her fringe that she had failed to pull back fell into her eyes, they were brown in colour and very expressive of her mood, they were also slightly larger than normal which he found rather appealing although he couldn't quite pinpoint why. The lack of sleep revealed itself in the dark shadows under her eyes, but the rest of her skin was clear, smooth and very lightly tanned. She had a nice shaped neck and shoulders and although she was covered up from this point down the one thing he could not fail to notice was her lack of height. She was a good fifteen centimetres shorter than his one-time babysitter who was the same age.

Adam stood as she reached him, 'Wow! There really was a beautiful young woman hiding under all that dirt, wasn't there?'

Evelyn blushed and stood up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek, 'Thank you.'

'Here,' he said handing over a pair of shorts, 'this is the best I can do with them. I split the seam on the waistband and tied a knot in the elastic. They're still too big, but at least they shouldn't fall down now. How was the T-shirt I gave you to try on?'

'Baggy.'

'Sorry, it's the only size I have, but we'll get you some better fitting clothes tomorrow when we go shopping, which we need to talk about a bit later, but first I'd better show you around Five Star, once I've given Kat something to eat, I fear for my life if he gets too hungry.'

'Five Star?'

'She needed a name and I didn't like all the run-of-the-mill nicknames such as R.V. and the like, so I chose Five Star because that's how she was described in the manual I found for her.'

'She? Her?

'Of course! Aren't all vehicles? Now get dressed while I feed Kat and then I'll show you around your new home.

Starting with the external stowage lockers on the passenger side Adam opened them all up and explained what lay behind them, the trailer came next, but he left the tarpaulin in place as it would take an age to get it off and then back on again. Settling for a list of what lay in it and their intended purpose in relation to his overwintering plans, which he also explained in detail to Evelyn. After the two small external stowage lockers on the driver's side, he then showed her the large one towards the back.

'Wow! You can crawl all the way through to the other side,' marvelled Evelyn.

'It's meant for stowing larger items like bikes, this is the reason why the bed is raised up so high, to give the necessary headroom, Admittedly it needs sorting out, I used it as a convenient hidey-hole when I was tidying up inside one day.'

'Is this where you keep the fold-up table?'

'Yes around the other side with the two chairs.'

'Good, then I'll put it away before it starts raining or else it'll go rusty.'

Adam stared up into the bright blue cloudless sky, 'It's over thirty degrees and there's not a cloud in the sky, what makes you think it's going to rain.'

'Look between those two houses over there.'

Adam duly followed her pointing finger, 'That's just a normal white fluffy summer cloud, that's nothing to worry about,' but when he turned around Evelyn had gone and a few seconds later heard her struggling to drag the table up to the storage locker on her side.

With the table safely stored Evelyn's attention turned to the awning, 'How do we wind it back up?'

'It's electrically operated, the switch is inside. You really think it's going to rain?'

Evelyn disappeared inside Five Star leaving Adam staring up into the blue sky wondering whether she might not be firing on all cylinders. Minutes later she reappeared with her school books in one hand and her dirty clothes in the other, then with obvious glee dropped the books into a litter bin followed by her clothes. For a while, she just stared at the litter bin then slowly she walked over to Adam with tears waiting in her eyes. Placing her hands very tentatively over his heart she stepped up close, automatically Adam wrapped his arms around her and a short while later he heard through her sobs, 'Thank you.'

'What for, Evie?'

'I was so scared that I was the only one.'

He kissed the top of her head and pulled her in a little tighter, 'Me too.'

After a tour around all the cupboards, a short explanation as to why the toilet looked like a stock room and being shown the hiding place for the spare ignition key, Evelyn was given the job of fitting the sheets to her bed. She was small enough to clamber around the pull-down double bed with ease, even with its limited headroom. Adam added the two pillows and the cashmere duvet from the unused side of his bed to hers.

'What do you think,' he asked, 'better than that shed you slept in?'

She smiled and nodded, but her eyes gave her away.

'What's wrong, Evie?'

'They can see me.'

'How? The side and back screens come down automatically with the bed and every window in Five Star has a draw across blind that blocks out all daylight and if you can't see out, then no one can see in.'

'They can,' she said pointing to one of the skylights, 'from up there.'

'No one is going to be watching you from up there, Evie, we would hear straight away if someone climbs up on the roof and anyway, you have a curtain that you can draw across to block everyone's view, even I wouldn't be able to see you once that's drawn.'

Although Evelyn conceded the point Adam was making he could still see nervousness in her eyes, it was only once the bed had been stowed away again and all the blinds opened that he thought to ask, 'Evie, when you said “they can see you”, just who did you mean?'

'The faces.'

'What faces?'

'Those of the dead people.'

Adam fully understood her, his own imagination had played enough tricks on him and it would be a long time before he was able to forget those frequent spine-tingling shivers that never failed to raise goosebumps or that aching pit-of-the-stomach feeling that evil Jack was about to explode out of his box, 'Is that why you slept in that windowless shed?'

A nod answered the question, but her vacant stare told him there was more to this than she was admitting to.

'Adam how many eggs do you have?' asked Evelyn as he started up Five Star's engine.

'We… don't have any eggs, why?'

The 'we' raised a bright smile from Evelyn, 'Because opposite that shop you want to check again there's a man who kept chickens, perhaps we could collect a few of their eggs?'

'That's a good idea. How do you know about the chickens, did you live in this village?'

'No, I lived in Mansvale, but my best friend lived here so I know my way around it.'

'Is that why you came here, to see if your friend had survived?'

'Yes, but I don't think she did, nor her dad.'

'What makes you think that?'

'Because I slept in her dad's shed and he didn't come out to tell me off for sleeping there and she didn't come out to ask me why I was sleeping there.'

'Logical I suppose. Did you know a little girl called Anja in Mansvale?'

'No, was it, someone, you knew?'

'No, not really, only by name. Okay here's the shop, let's check that then you can show me where the egg man lives…sorry, lived.'

With twenty eggs in the bowl, Evelyn cautiously made her way back to the galley while Adam broke a section of fencing away so that the hens could escape the confines of their prison if they chose to do so.

'If you kill one of those hens we could have fresh chicken for tea,' suggested Evelyn when he returned to the cab.

Adam watched one of the hens enjoying its newfound freedom by running around the road flapping its stubby little wings and squawking excitedly.

'To be honest, Evie, that's something I suppose I will have to learn to do in the future, but it's a lesson I wish to avoid for as long as I possibly can.'

Evelyn looked at him for a few moments and then at the hen, 'I couldn't do it either.'

'Watch for movement behind the windows, things being waved, curtains moving, that type of thing.'

'Are we going to do the whole village?'

'No, only one loop around it via the bigger roads. Five Star is way too big to take down the narrower side streets and besides, it looks like you might be right about that rain, those clouds are coming our way apace and before they get here I want to be parked up, preferably somewhere out in the open countryside.'

'That's going to be a thunderstorm.'

'Do you think so?'

'Yes.'

Adam cast a concerned eye over the approaching clouds, 'Then perhaps it would be more prudent to spend the night parked up behind the camping shop, it's only a little further up the road and it will afford us some protection if there is one. Plus we'll be conveniently right outside the first shop on tomorrow's list of generous donors.'

Evelyn turned off the CD player effectively silencing their second top-of-the-lungs singalong to Alice Copper's Schools Out For Summer and asked, 'What's that hanging from that tree?'

Adam had difficulty following her pointed finger while driving, 'Where?'

'Over there, where all those crows are fluttering around.'

‘Crows?’

‘Those big black birds!’

Adam finally found what she was referring to and added a weighted hand to the end of the binoculars Evelyn was trying to focus, she looked up questioningly.

'Some things are best left unseen, Evie.'

'What was it?'

'That it was once a man.'

'How could you know that?'

'Women tend to take their own lives in private.'

'Carrion eaters will eat anything won't they, even us?'

'Nature never turns down a free meal.'