The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks Read Free Book Online

themselves.
    After I’d put the note in the lift I
stayed in there for a while, staring up at the camera. I knew it was pointless, but I
did it anyway. I was feeling all gripey and irritable and I couldn’t think of
anything else to do. So I just stood there, staring up at the camera, waiting to see
what happened. Nine o’clock came and went and the lift didn’t move.
    ‘Go on,’ I said to the ceiling.
‘Beam me up. I promise I won’t do anything. I just want to see you, have a
little chat.’
    Nothing happened.
    I smiled. ‘What’s the matter?
Don’t you trust me?’
    Nothing.
    I waited another minute, then sighed and
stepped out. As soon as I cleared the door, the lift started to hum, and I immediately
jumped back in again.
    It stopped humming.
    I looked at the ceiling. ‘I suppose if
I push this too far you’re going do something unpleasant, aren’t
you?’
    The silence was beginning to annoy me.
    ‘All right,’ I said, stepping
out. ‘I’ll catch you later.’
    As I walked down the corridor I heard the
lift start up. The door closed, the hum hummed, and the lift went up. I went to the
bathroom, ran a cold bath, and got in fully dressed.
    Now it’s nearly lights-out time. My
clothes are still soaking wet and I’m lying under a blanket, shivering. I think
he’s turned the heating down. Vindictive bastard.
    But at least I’m clean.
    Jenny’s been quiet all night.
    Anja hasn’t shown her face since this
morning.
    Fred’s making the occasional howling
noise.
    I’ve had an idea about the camera in
the bathroom.

Saturday, 4 February
    No new clothes, nothing to read.
Fred’s still out of action. I’ve solved the bathroom problem and been
electrocuted.
    When the lights came on this morning I
showed Jenny my bathroom idea. It’s so simple I feel like an idiot for not
thinking of it before. Jenny tried it out first. When she came back she was grinning all
over.
    ‘How was it?’ I asked.
    ‘Brilliant.’
    Her face was radiant. It was wonderful to
see. I wanted to stay there soaking it up, just bathing in her joy, but it made me feel
too
good. It was almost embarrassing.
    ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I suppose
I’d better go and give Miss Snooty the news.’
    I went along to Anja’s room, knocked,
waited for her to answer, then went in. She was still in bed. The room smelled bad. Her
eyes were all puffy and her hair was knotted and dull.
    ‘Yes?’ she said.
    There was a packet of cornflakes on the
floor and a big chunk of bread on her bedside cabinet.
    ‘Yes?’ she repeated.
    ‘How are you today?’
    ‘What do you want?’
    I glanced at the bread. ‘Midnight
snack?’
    ‘I was hungry.’
    ‘You
can
eat with us, you
know. We’re not savages.’
    ‘Did you want something?’
    I held up the sheet I was carrying in my
hand. ‘Privacy.’
    ‘What?’
    I showed her the head-sized hole I’d
torn in the sheet. ‘You just slip it on,’ I explained, ‘like a poncho.
You can go to the bathroom, have a wash, use the lavatory, and he can’t see a
thing.’
    ‘Is that it?’
    I looked at her. ‘I thought
you’d be pleased.’
    ‘Ecstatic, I’m sure.’
    I couldn’t think of anything to say. I
stared at her. She was lying quite awkwardly, kind of scrunched down low in the bed with
her knees raised and one arm under the blanket. The other hand was fiddling nervously
with the silver necklace round her neck.
    I sniffed the air, looked round the room,
then looked back at her.
    ‘What?’ she said.
    ‘I’ll be back in a
minute.’
    I left her room and went down the corridor
into the kitchen. I looked in the sink, then in the cupboard, then under the sink. I
stood there for a moment, looking all round the kitchen, then I went back to
Anja’s room. She was sitting up straight with the sheet pulled up tight to her
chest.
    ‘Would you mind telling me what
you’re doing?’ she snapped.
    ‘Where is it?’
    ‘Where’s what?’
    ‘The washing-up bowl you’ve been
peeing in.’
    ‘The
what
?’
    She