‘He thinks everyone’s corrupting me. I don’t think we can go out anymore.’
The world narrowed down to the smallest pinprick, the book shop flying away until all she could see was a spot of dust on the arm of the sofa. The throw was this grotesque seventies pattern that made them both feel sick, but it was so comfortable. They could fit on it together, with Lara’s head in her lap or their feet squashed beneath them, touching at the toes.
She blinked and the world came back and she opened her mouth to say something.
‘Lara, we’re leaving.’
Lara jumped like Hermione had just come in and asked her to go for coffee. She gave Scarlet one last look, like she was being led away to the gallows, and rushed from the shop. At some point Scarlet made it from the floor to the sofa, where she curled up and let the tears come.
A throat being cleared made her look up. The guy who ran the place was looking at her with a mixture of confusion and sympathy on his face. ‘I’m sorry, we’re closing.’
‘Oh.’
Why was he telling her? Oh.
‘Oh, right, I should probably leave then.’ She crawled out of the sofa and picked up her bag. She rubbed her face with her hands, coming away with foundation caked to her palms. She tried to leave the shop covering her face without looking like a nutter. Then again, she had just spent the afternoon on their sofa crying, so it was probably a little late for that.
It wasn’t dark outside. Why wasn’t it dark? She could have hidden if it was dark, but the sun was still visible above the houses and there were hours of daylight left. She stumbled through Harrow, thinking she was heading for the station but finding herself wandering into the park.
A tree beckoned her over and she collapsed beneath it, staring up through the leaves that bustled gently in the breeze. Every now and then the sun would catch a gap and blind her and she’d refuse to close her eyes until they watered like mad. What just happened?
God her dad was such a dick. How could anyone be that stupid and ignorant and dick-ish? She was trying really hard to hate Lara but it wasn’t working. Why should she when it wasn’t her fault? Only she could have stood up for herself couldn’t she? If she was gay, surely she knew anything her dad said wasn’t going to make any difference? Did she say that to him? She should have.
She needed to be home now. The journey was far too long and crappy and with a guilty sigh she dug into her bag and pulled out her spell book. As her fingers touched it she thought that maybe Martin could help. He had no idea whatsoever about people, but he was an old guy, maybe had some— he wasn’t bloody here. He was in Australia, probably surfing and drinking beer or something.
Urgh, why did stuff like this happen? Someone wanted her to be miserable. Someone had decided, at some point in human history, that a person called Scarlet would one day be born and all the world’s sorrows would be dumped on her head. All at the same time. She wanted Lara. She needed a hug and maybe something more fun. That thought sent her off and the tears came again.
It was really unpleasant, all snotty and she must look horrible, just completely horrible. She needed to be home now. She pulled ingredients from her bag, throwing them however on the ground and cast the spell, barely thinking about what was going on, just zoning in on her bed.
The light came and she stepped through and the ground changed from grass to the familiar spring of her mattress. With a sigh she threw herself down and buried her face in the pillow.
A throat being cleared made her look up. She yelped and grabbed her pillow, bringing it before her like a shield. It was her! Only it wasn’t her, because this girl was skinny, like, unhealthy skinny and she was smiling far too much. Her eyebrows were raised and Scarlet couldn’t help noticing that the skinny hers were plucked to perfection. God, she hated herself already.
‘Um, hello. I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’re going to magic yourself onto my bed, could you perhaps remove your shoes before you…’
She talked funny as well, like she’d learned English from watching Downton. The skinny her trailed off and stared, eyebrows drawn together. ‘Who are you?’
‘Scarlet?’
‘Me too.’
‘Yeah, I figured that. Um, where am I?’
The skinny her looked around her room, heading over to what Scarlet realised was a webcam in the far corner. The girl who was her but wasn’t stared up at it. ‘Is this a test? Because if it is, I wasn’t told about it and I think that’s very unfair.’
Scarlet was about to reply that life wasn’t fair when skinny Scarlet turned around and put her hands on her hips. ‘Well, I don’t understand what is happening here, not at all.’
‘You don’t, what about me?’
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Scarlet Rose Parker, I live in 23 Park Road North, London. Who are you?’
The skinny Scarlet gave her a sassy look and repeated back exactly what she’d said in a sarcastic voice. God she was a complete bitch. Only there was one difference. ‘…Park Road North, Sector six, London.’
‘What’s the sector six thing?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘What’s sector six?’
The girl’s face softened for a moment. Scarlet was tempted to take the moment to throw herself out the window, thereby waking from the dream and returning to the misery that seemed now both tempting and reassuring. She could do misery. This was just weird.
‘Sector six is this part of London.’
‘When did they become sectors?’
The girl jutted her chin out and recited like a textbook. If books could talk and sounded like posh old English people.
‘The sectors were created in the 1950s, following the end of the second world war. They were created to improve the level of control the government could have over potential terrorists and subversives.’
‘What terrorists? There weren’t any terrorists back then, it was just the nazis, wasn’t it?’ Her history wasn’t the best. In fact, it wasn’t even the average. It was nearer the complete rubbish if she was honest, but even she knew about the nazis.
The girl looked stunned, jerking back in her chair. ‘What do you think happened in the war? The nazis were gone by 1942, it was the terror groups that kept it going.’
‘Kept it going?’
The girl sighed, shaking her head. ‘Where did you do your learning, a school?’
‘Um, yes?’
Her eyes opened even wider, which shouldn’t have been possible. Scarlet half expected them to fall out and go bouncing around on the floor which, considering the circumstances, wouldn’t have been all that surprising.
‘The second world war began in 1938 and ended in 1951. In the course of the war, nearly one billion people were killed including large parts of the population from most of Europe and the Americas. Those who survived lived a further twenty years in closely controlled sectors and were screened regularly by the army-run government that took control following the ceasefire.’
Scarlet’s mouth opened and closed and she blinked a few times. ‘Where am I?’
‘You’re in sector six, London.’
‘Yeah, but, like, where’s that?’
‘Earth?’
‘Scarlet, dinner.’
It was mum. It was actually mum. With something close to a sob she ran out the door, down the stairs and flung herself at mum. Only it wasn’t mum, because she was skinny and her skin was half decent and she was looking at Scarlet like she had a gun to her head.
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘Mum, it’s me, it’s Scarlet.’
Skinny Scarlet appeared in the kitchen, shaking her head. Scarlet looked from one to the other and burst into tears. Skinny mum took the phone off the kitchen table and dialled a number, then explained to the room.
‘I think I should call the inspectors. They’ll want to know about this.’
Skinny Scarlet did something that surprised her then. ‘Hang on, mum, this is me. I’m not sure how, but it is.’
Mum put her hand over the end of the phone and mouthed ‘what?’
Skinny Scarlet nodded. ‘I think she must be from another dimension or something. We’ve just been learning about that in class.’
Mum hung the phone up and stared at Scarlet, eyes running up and down. ‘Not a very healthy dimension from the looks of things.’
Scarlet had just managed to choke down the sobs, but now they came straight back. Mum came over and put an awkward arm around her shoulders. ‘It’s alright. Maybe you should tell us what you did before you arrived here, hmm?’
Scarlet nodded, wiped away the tears and sniffed. The sound of her nose rattling with snot filled the room and she cringed. The noise was rudely and blessedly interrupted by another sound, the thumping of fists on the front door.
‘Open up at once, inspectors.’
The skinny ones wore the same expression at the same time and Scarlet realised for the first time, like, ever, how similar she looked to mum. That was going to take some getting over. Then skinny mum was pushing her toward the back door and skinny Scarlet was grabbing a jacket and her hand and she was pushed out into the garden. Behind her the sounds of the door being broken down echoed through the house.
Next Instalment Monday 7th April
