The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke Read Free Book Online Page A

the room because I was colder than frozen sausages even though it was May, and sometimes he does that. All the hairs on my arms were standing straight upright. I said, ‘What is it now, you creep?’
    He took a step out of the shadow beside the window and said, ‘I want you to tell Anya all about me.’
    I sat up in bed, trying to keep the blankets tight around me. ‘I was right, wasn’t I? You really do fancy that lady, Ruen.’
    And for some reason I thought of my dad just then. I saw his face in my head, all blurry, his eyes blue just like mine, Mum said. Then I saw the policeman, his face turning towards me in slow motion, angry and scared at the same time.
    Ruen scowled at me. I snapped out of my daydream and rolled my eyes at him.
    ‘Fine, Ruen. I’ll tell her about you, OK? Does that make you happy?’
    He gave a tiny nod and then he vanished and I thought, What a nut .
    I slept all night at the hospital and in the morning Anya came and said I could see Mum. She was more smiley today, though her eyes looked sad and she was wearing black square glasses. I didn’t tell her what Ruen had said because I was so excited to see Mum.
    ‘How are you today, Alex?’ she said as we walked through the hospital.
    ‘I thought of a new joke,’ I said, and I told her it: ‘How do you make a hot dog stand?’
    She shrugged.
    ‘You steal its chair.’
    She laughed, though she sounded like she didn’t find it funny.
    ‘I bet you’re excited to see your mum,’ she said, and I nodded. ‘She might not look like her usual self, though. Is that OK?’
    This to me could only be a good thing, so I gave a big grin and Anya told me to follow her. We walked down loads of hospital corridors until I thought my legs would fall off, and then finally we came to a small room where Mum was in a white bed.
    At first, when I went in, she didn’t look up. She was just lying there with white bandages around her wrists and a tube in her arm. Her face looked like someone had taken a rubber to it and erased Mum out of it. Then she turned her head and smiled at me, and it was as if someone had put all the colour back into her face. Her hair turned yellow again with black roots and her eyes changed from grey to sky-blue and even the tattoos on her arms and neck seemed brighter. Someone had taken out the hoop in her nose but that was a good thing because I thought it made her look like a bull. I wanted to ask if they’d taken the one out of her tongue as well, but I didn’t.
    ‘Hello, love,’ she said as I walked in. Her voice was hoarse. I felt nervous to go in, in case Ruen appeared.
    ‘Come here, Alex,’ she said. I stepped forward and she put her arms around me and squeezed me. Her arms felt cold and skinny.
    ‘Are you feeling better yet?’ I said.
    ‘I’ve had better days,’ she said after a long, long pause, and she smiled but her eyes were wet and small. ‘How have you been?’
    I shrugged. ‘They don’t have TVs here.’
    ‘What a shame, eh? You can watch TV when you get home.’
    ‘Yeah, but I’ve missed loads.’ And I started naming all the programmes I’d missed and counting them off on my fingers.
    Mum just stared at me. ‘How’s the barking footstool?’
    ‘Woof’s OK,’ I said. ‘Though who’s feeding him, Mum? Won’t he be hungry?’
    Mum’s face looked worried. Then Anya stepped forward and touched Mum’s hand with her fingers.
    ‘I’m Anya Molokova,’ she said, and her voice was suddenly very soothing and kind. ‘I’m a consultant at MacNeice House. I’m here to take care of Alex.’
    I wanted to say this was a lie because Anya wasn’t cooking me pizza or onions on toast or anything like that. Mum nodded. I pulled a chair close to her bed and she reached out and ruffled my hair.
    ‘Cindy, I’m aware that you’ll be kept in here for another few weeks?’
    ‘Yeah?’ Mum said, in a way that made me wonder if Anya was doing something wrong.
    ‘I’d like Alex to stay at my unit for a little