If I Could Fly by Jill Hucklesby Read Free Book Online Page A

his hair shorter than the left.
    ‘I know plenty about ye, as a matter o’ fact. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be at all. I tell you the way it is. Then you should say, “OK, Dair, pal, agreed.”But no. You have to be lairy. I’m trying to look out for ye, and this is the thanks I get.’
    My mouth starts to open in protest, but he is turning and walking away, out of Wonderland and down the stairs, three at a time.
    I rush to one of the long windows and try in vain to force the catch back so I can open it and call out to him. It won’t budge. A flash of blue tells me that Dair has already reached the overgrown gardens and done his vanishing act. Holy kumquats, that man is annoying!
    But what if those things he said were true? How do I know he isn’t just making it up?
    See with your own eyes, Paper Clip
. Yeah, Crease, I’ll have to check it out myself. I need medical help. The goo from the aloe vera leaves Dair made into a poultice hasn’t really stopped the pain. There’s a bruise the size of Alaska right across my thigh and down my leg. It seems to be getting bigger, not smaller. I try not to look at it. I can’t forget it, though. The pain is too intense.
    I’m drawing a rose in the dust on the window pane,wondering where Dair has sloped off to, hoping he’s not too mad at me. It’s the first time I’ve noticed the block of flats opposite and I realise its upper-floor windows look directly down into ours. I’ve got to hand it to Dair – he’s vigilant about our privacy and the ‘no candles or torches after dark’ rule doesn’t seem so completely lame now.
    I’m not sure if it’s the sun’s reflection or my eyes straining through the dust, but I get the feeling that I am not the only one surveying this ’hood. A movement in the shadows behind the flats’ glass and brick façade makes me blink. I rub the glass with my elbow and look again, more intently. Nothing. But the view is different. There was something there before that isn’t there now. And the more I think about it the more I am sure it was a face. A face that was staring at me.



Chapter Eleven
    I found a diary in a bin in the park this week, so now I can keep track of the day and date. Its last owner had torn out some pages before throwing it away. Apart from the ragged remains of the missing paper, it’s in very nice condition. The front cover has some velvety swirls in black and pink and there’s a ribbon to keep your place. The spine even has a pocket with a slim pen tucked inside.
    I’m folding down the page corners each time I see the Face – there are four so far. It’s there every evening, as the light fades. I can’t see its expressions, but from its stillness I’m guessing it belongs to someone who is sad, or bored, or just plain nosy. It’s a big head on a small body, which is another clue. So maybe it’s a kid, a dwarf, or a life-size doll some joker is trying to scare me with.
    I’m not frightened of it, though. In a strange way, I like it. It makes me feel less alone.
    Whoever it is doesn’t seem to want to get us evicted, but Dair and I have stopped using the front door just in case. Dair has smashed out some panes on the ground floor at the side of the building furthest from the street so we can climb in and out without being seen. He told me to stay inside my house and away from the windows too. The curfew on the streets has been extended and begins at eight o’clock at night now, so there are more patrols driving around the neighbourhood and he says I must be extra careful.
    I’ve put blinds up so that there’s no way I can be spotted from outside. One is actually made out of a woven cotton mat, wrapped round a piece of wood which is balanced between paperback copies of
Pride and Prejudice
and
Vampire Vacation
. I found them with about twenty other stories in a box in the hospital library at the end of this corridor. It was the only thing left in the room, apart from two wax crayons and abeanbag with