S.O.S by Will James Read Free Book Online

that’s bothering you?”
    If only, Molly thought, if only I could say yes, a dead boy. She shook her head and pulled her coat a little tighter round her body. “Thought I saw someone I know,” she said, “but he’s gone now.” She smiled. “How do we get to yours?” she asked.
    â€œWe can get the bus,” Dev replied. “Come on, it’s this way.”
    Dev’s house was similar to her own; a semi-detached with a front garden that Dev’s Dad had converted to brick for parking off road. Molly followed Dev inside and was relieved when he shut the door firmly behind them. Inside however, it was completely different to the house she shared with her mum.
    â€œHow long have your family been in England,” Molly asked.
    â€œI was born here,” Dev said. “My parents came over forty years ago.” He shrugged and smiled. “I know, it’s very Indian, isn’t it?”
    Molly looked around. “It’s...” she stared three hundred and sixty degrees around the hall. “Crap.” She stopped and put her hand over her mouth.
    â€œSorry?” Dev said. He had walked through to the kitchen to put the kettle on and popped his head back round the door. Molly glared at the dark young boy who stood just inside the front door, gawping at the ornate Hindu interior.
    â€œSnap!” she said, “We’ve got the same lamp at home.”
    Dev grinned. “Really? We have so much in common,” he said cheerily and Molly grinned back. This was going better than she had hoped; if it wasn’t for the dead boy in the corner.
    â€œGo away!” She hissed at him when Dev went back into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. “I don’t know why you’re following me, but you need to go away and leave me alone. You are REALLY getting on my nerves!”
    Zack shook his head. “I’m getting on your nerves? That’s choice. You two are so lame that it’s making me puke.”
    â€œThen go AWAY!” Molly snapped through clenched teeth.
    â€œI can’t!” Zack snapped back. “I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to move out of your aura. It’s like I want to walk away, but I can’t, I’m sort of stuck to you and it is REALLY getting on MY NERVES!”
    â€œOh God,” Molly groaned, putting her head in her heads. “This is impossible...”
    â€œBesides,” Zack went on, as if he hadn’t heard her, “I haven’t got anywhere else to go.”
    Molly glanced behind her at the kitchen to check that Dev was busy. “Look,” she said, “why don’t you try really hard to think yourself away from here. Imagine yourself somewhere else.”
    â€œBut where? Where should I imagine myself?”
    â€œI don’t know! How about outside, across the street, in your own home?!”
    Zack stared down at his hands. “I don’t have a home,” he said.
    â€œOh.” Molly bit her lip.
    â€œAnd it’s freezing outside and dark and...”
    â€œYou’re dead!” Molly said, “You don’t feel the cold and nothing else can happen to you, I mean nothing worse – it’s not like you can get murdered or anything! She looked at him. He looked young and lonely, much like he did in the café, and she felt sorry for him. “OK,” she said, “well how about you imagine yourself down here, in the front room, while I go upstairs with Dev.”
    Zack raised an eyebrow. “Upstairs? To his room?”
    â€œYes...” Molly hissed.
    â€œTea?” Dev said, coming back into the hall. “Shall we take it up to my room? My mum and dad will be back soon and we don’t want to have to watch Punjabi TV with them in the front room.” He smiled. “Come on.”
    Molly glared once more at Zack who finally nodded and closed his eyes. He focused really hard on the front room and suddenly he disappeared.