No Going Back by ALEX GUTTERIDGE Read Free Book Online

what was happening to me. The man took a couple of steps closer, the hint of a frown crossing his face.
    â€œLaura, you do know who I am, don’t you?”
    I managed a tiny tip of my head. Yes, of course I knew who he was. All those years of wondering if Mum was right when she said that he was watching over me. All those years of wondering if he wouldever come back to see me. All those years of wondering if the thoughts that went around and around in my head made me a bit of a mental case. And yet, impossible as it seemed, there he was, standing in my bedroom, dressed in jeans and a blue and white checked shirt and looking almost human. My dad.
    â€œOh dear! Can you speak? I haven’t caused you to lose your voice? Shock can do that sometimes, can’t it?” He peered at me in a worried way.
    â€œNo, it’s okay.”
    Was that raspy sound coming from my mouth really my voice?
    â€œI’m okay.”
    I didn’t mean it. I was about as far from okay as I’d ever been.
    He clasped his hands to his chest and sighed. “Excellent! I knew you wouldn’t be a wimp.” Another frown. His whole face rippled when he did that. “You don’t look very pleased to see me though.”
    I shook my head. “I-I just can’t believe it, that’s all,” I stammered. “Are you real? Am I imaginingyou? Is this all a dream?”
    â€œDon’t I look real?” he asked, a bit indignantly. “I’m as real as you are!”
    He touched his hands to his shoulders and wafted them down his front. As he did so his whole form rippled apart like lots of little trails through soapy water, before melding back together again.
    â€œHmm!” he murmured. “Maybe you’re right. I can see this body issue might be a bit of a problem for you to take on board. Have you done the molecule thing at school?”
    He didn’t wait for me to respond.
    â€œWell, you know that protons, electrons and neutrons combine to form atoms, which are the building blocks of molecules?”
    â€œSort of,” I mumbled.
    â€œThen the molecules combine to form chemicals, which are what the cells of the body are made of. Following that, the cells combine to form tissues and the tissues combine to form organs, and so on and so on, blah, blah, blah, and hey presto you have a human.”
    My head was spinning now. What was this? Some nightmare of a physics lesson? Or just simplya nightmare?
    â€œYes, I know all of that,” I replied, “but you’re not human, are you? You’re not solid matter and you’re sort of glowing around the edge.”
    He looked down at himself and grinned. “So I am. I don’t know how that’s happened. Cool though, isn’t it? Anyway, to answer your previous questions – no, you are not imagining me, and I am most definitely not a dream or a nightmare. At least I hope you don’t think it’s a nightmare because here I am, large as life.” He paused. “Well not that large. I do try to keep trim and the life thing’s a bit inaccurate, but you get what I mean.”
    â€œSo,” I said, slowly, “you’re a ghost?”
    He threw his arms upwards and a waft of air lifted all of my clothes off the big, squashy chair underneath the window and deposited them in a heap in the middle of the floor.
    â€œI do hate that word,” Dad said. “It has such negative connotations.”
    â€œHow would you describe yourself then?” I asked.
    He stood up tall, squared his shoulders.
    â€œI’m not that different to you,” he said proudly.“I am a cloud of molecules.”
    â€œOh!” I replied. “I see. That explains everything.”
    â€œI knew that you’d understand,” he said. “I told everyone on The Other Side that my Laura’s as clever as anything.”
    Actually I’m not clever at all, well, not nearly as clever as Liberty, and I