The Day I Was Erased

by Lisa Thompson

  “Oh, hello. Are you one of Dan’s players?” she said, sitting beside the man and taking his hand.

  “Players?” I croaked.

  “On his basketball team? The Super-Dans?” she said, looking at me and then back at Super-Dan. I shook my head.

  “I think there’s been some kind of mix-up here,” said Super-Dan, giving me a big, cheesy smile. “This young man has got us confused with someone else I think. Amanda has just the one child, you see. There’s no crazy boy decapitating flamingos in our house,” he said, laughing. They lived together?! His eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled.

  “You know, I’m always looking for new players for the Super-Dans if you’re interested in giving basketball a try! I take on all abilities. Get your parents to give the sports centre a call.”

  My mum let out a giggle.

  “Oh, Dan, not everyone wants to play basketball, you know!” she said. She looked at me. “He’s always scouting for players!”

  “I just like to see kids running around and enjoying themselves, that’s all,” he said.

  They stared into each other’s eyes and then pecked each other on the lips.

  I nearly threw up right there and then.

  “Anyway,” I shouted, slapping my hands on the table so they both jumped. “Like I was saying, Dan, you should have a serious think about, you know … the hedgehog thing … what with you being vegan and all.”

  I tapped the side of my head as Dan’s jaw dropped.

  I jiggled around, not quite knowing the best way to say it, so I just came out it with it.

  “Do you have a dog?” I said, directly to Mum. “A fat beagle with bad breath?”

  Super-Dan laughed as he reached over and held Mum’s hand.

  “No. We don’t have a dog,” he said. “Are you sure there’s not someone we could call?” He said it all calmly like I was some kind of crazy person.

  “No,” I said. “No phone call, thank you.”

  And then I turned and ran away.

  Poor Monster. He really wasn’t anywhere. He’d gone and there wasn’t anything I could do to bring him back. And Mum had seemed so happy with Super-Dan it made me feel really sad for Dad. I wanted to see him and check that he was OK. I could also ask him if he had a beagle; not that I was holding out much hope now. I walked around the town for hours, keeping warm by hiding at the back of the library until eventually, it was getting to the time when Dad would be heading home from work. I sat on the bench outside the station and waited.

  Every twenty minutes or so there was a surge of people as a train arrived from London. It was just as it had been the other morning when Dad had dropped his phone, but this time the crowds were walking in the other direction and not as quickly.

  After another rush of people, a lone man came slowly through the ticket barriers and out on to the street.

  It was Dad.

  His cheeks were red and he had deep, grey bags under his eyes. His forehead was creased and he looked absolutely awful. I hated seeing him like that and my mind whirled as I tried to think of something I could say to help him. I looked along the high street and then I had an idea. I ran past Dad and stopped in front of a florist’s. It was closed but that didn’t matter – I didn’t need to go in. My dad got closer and closer and then I jumped out towards him.

  “Excuse me. I wonder if you could help me with something?”

  My dad frowned at me and looked around.

  “Erm. OK,” he said cautiously. He looked even worse close up – just like he had when he’d stopped going to work all those years ago.

  “It’s my mum’s birthday soon and I want to buy her some flowers. Do you know what that flower is, right there?”

  I pointed to a photograph of a red flower that was in the florist’s window. My dad took a step closer and looked at the picture.

  “Er … yeah, it’s a rose.”

  “Ah … right. And what about that pink one there?” I said, pointing to a vase in the window. My dad looked at me like I was losing the plot. “She likes pink you see so I want to make sure I get the right kind.”

  Dad huffed, then looked in the window.

  “That’s a dahlia,” he said.

  “A dahlia! Brilliant. Wow, you really do know a lot about plants and stuff, don’t you?”

  My dad shrugged.

  “No, not really. They’re quite common. Well, good luck with your mum’s birthday.”

  He walked on and I stumbled along beside him.

  “I’d say working with plants must be quite relaxing, wouldn’t you? I mean, who would choose to work in a stuffy office when you could be outside in the fresh air?”

  My dad took a sideways look at me, then stopped.

  “Hang on. Aren’t you that kid who picked my phone up for me the other morning? Outside the station?” I opened my mouth and shut it again.

  “Um … no? I don’t think so. I don’t remember that, anyway. That must have been someone else.”

  He shook his head then turned and carried on. I felt my stomach knot. I followed a few paces behind him. When Dad had been off sick from his stressful job and we’d chatted in the garden I was sure that something I had said had made him decide to quit his job and go back to college. Maybe I could try again? I caught him up.

  “You know, I was just thinking of something someone told me once,” I said. “Something about work.”

  “Oh yeah, what was that then?” he said, not looking at me. I was irritating him now, I could tell.

  “What this person said was: why do a job that you don’t like very much?” I said it all dramatically.

  Dad stopped again and faced me. He laughed a bit, but it wasn’t a nice laugh. It was a sarcastic one.

  “Yeah, well, real life doesn’t work like that I’m afraid.”

  “But it does! I know this man … he’s a bit like you actually. And he had a job that he hated and it was so stressful that it … it made him ill. And he carried a brick around in his pocket but he didn’t always notice it was there … or something like that … but then … then he decided that it wasn’t worth all the misery and he quit. He became a gardener. Maybe you could do that? Seeing as you like flowers and stuff.”

  My dad smiled.

  “Well, that’s great. Good luck to him. But I’ve got rent and bills to pay and … sometimes life just doesn’t work in your favour, you know?”

  He walked away, his head hanging low. This time I didn’t follow him. I just watched as he disappeared into the distance, getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

  I didn’t get it. I had said exactly the same thing to my dad but this time he hadn’t even thought about it at all. Why hadn’t it worked? And I didn’t get a chance to ask him about Monster.

  I had to find a way back to my proper life where things were normal, but first I had to work out how I’d been erased. It had something to do with that egg in Reg’s cabinet, I was sure of it.

  As I walked I spotted two girls outside a shop. One of them had a high ponytail and I realized it was Bex. She had her arms folded and was facing another girl. It was Claudia, her worst enemy in the world. I got closer so that I could hear what was going on.

  “I can’t go back in there,” my sister said. “The guy has seen me too many times. He’s getting suspicious! You’ve got to do it.”

  Claudia flicked her hair from one shoulder to the other.

  “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “That’s what you’re for. I’m not getting caught.”

  Claudia took a step closer to my sister so her face was just inches away from hers and then said something through gritted teeth which I couldn’t hear. Bex kept her head down and then Claudia strutted off along the high street.

  My sister turned and spotted me.

  “What are you doing here?” she spat. “Are you following me again?”

  I shook my head.

  “I-I wanted to ask you something. About history. You knew about someone called Armun … Amund-thingy … I need to find
out who he was.”

  Bex gave me a look then rolled her eyes.

  “So what if I do? Don’t you have someone else to ask?”

  I thought about it for a bit and shook my head.

  “Not really, no,” I said.

  She suddenly started to chew some gum that she must have had stuffed in the corner of her mouth. Her face turned from a grimace into a smile.

  “Look. I tell you what. If you do something for me then I’ll tell you what they mean, OK?”

  I stared as her mouth went round and round and round.

  “What do I have to do?” I asked.

  Bex looked around her.

  “I want you to get a new phone case from the shop in the high street. The one that does repairs, do you know it?”

  I nodded. It was a tiny shop in between a chemist and a clothes shop.

  “Go in there tomorrow, get the case for me and then I’ll tell you who Amundsen was.”

  She got her phone out of her pocket and swiped at the screen. She turned it towards me and showed me an image of a phone case with a Union Jack design on the back.

  “It’s got to be exactly that one or the deal is off. OK?”

  I stared at the picture.

  “Obviously it goes without saying that if you get caught then it’s totally your problem. And if you mention any of this to anyone then you’ll live to regret it. Meet me in the library during lunch at twelve-thirty. OK?”

  I nodded again and she walked away. I couldn’t believe my sister was blackmailing me into stealing in return for telling me something about history. It was bonkers.

  I fought back tears as I began to walk slowly towards Reg’s house. I didn’t want to be in this world any more. I wanted to be back home where my sister was a nerd who would never steal anything in her life. I wanted my dad back doing the job he loved and to see my mum without a stupid boyfriend. I wanted to see my best friend Charlie being his usual nerdy-self again. But, most of all, I wanted my dog. I wanted Monster to be alive again so I could give him the biggest hug ever.

  I’d had enough of being erased.

  I wanted to exist again.

  When I got to Reg’s I let myself in through the kitchen. The TV was on but the old man was asleep. His head was tipped back and he had his mouth open. His throat rattled as he snored.

  I stood in front of the old cabinet. The weird wooden egg was on its side where I’d left it. I had a gut feeling it was somehow responsible for what had happened to me. Or maybe it was the old globe dotted with strange, tiny holes? I picked it up and stared at it. I remembered seeing this when I was really angry after the Centenary Ball. Could the globe have erased me somehow? I held it in my hands and turned it around slowly.

  “I want … I want to exist again,” I whispered, feeling like a bit of an idiot.

  I held the globe for a moment, then shook it up and down three times. I’m not sure why I did that but I felt like I had to do something else. I took a deep breath then put the globe back on the shelf.

  I could feel something fizzing in my stomach. The kind of fizzing I got on Christmas morning. Maybe that meant it had worked?!

  I left Reg snoring and ran out of the kitchen door. I skipped down the pathway and then sprinted towards my house. As I ran I planned exactly what I was going to do when I got home. First, I was going to make a big fuss of Monster and then I’d give Mum and Dad a big kiss. I’d even give Bex a hug. It would be nice to see her looking like her usual self again. I’d then run over to see Charlie and see if he wanted to hang out or something. It was getting late now though so I didn’t expect he could, but I’d still like to see him. But as I turned the corner on to my street I saw that there was a strange red car parked on our driveway.

  And it got worse.

  The gate was still there.

  The gate that I’d busted all those years ago was still in its place, unbroken. I walked up the path and stared in through the lounge window. I could hear some music playing. The man I’d seen through the patio doors was standing pouring a glass of red wine for another man in a white shirt and jeans. The man in the white shirt said something and they both tipped their heads back and laughed.

  I turned away before I was spotted.

  It hadn’t worked. There were strangers living in my house. My family were all wrong. And Monster. Well, I couldn’t bear to think about what might have happened to my dog.

  When I got back to the bungalow, Reg was in the kitchen. I explained who I was and while he listened he got a jar out of the cupboard.

  “Can I interest you in a cocoa, Maxwell?” he said and I nodded. I watched him making our drinks.

  “Reg, do you remember I asked you what you’d do if you didn’t exist in the world any more? If you’d been erased from your life but everyone was still here?”

  Reg looked blank but I carried on.

  “Well, I know it sounds mad but … but I think it might have happened to me.”

  The old man nodded as he passed me my drink. We went and sat in the lounge.

  “I think it happened when I came here after I messed up at the Centenary Ball. After I’d shut off the electric. I didn’t mean to be erased. Not really. And now … and now I want to go back. I want to go back to see my family and to tell Charlie Geek that he’s my best friend in the whole world. And I want to see my dog again. I want Monster to be alive.”

  I could feel the tears coming so I put my drink down, and then I began to sob.

  “Oh dear,” said Reg. “Oh dear, dear, dearie me.”

  I covered my face with my hands and felt the sofa sag as he sat down beside me. An old, blue-checked handkerchief appeared under my nose and I took it and used it to wipe my eyes.

  “I don’t know what to do, Reg. I think it was something in the cabinet. I think something in there made it happen. I think it’s that egg. Something magical happened and I need … I need to undo it. Do you have any idea what it could be?”

  “Something in my cabinet?” he chuckled. “I don’t think that’s possible, do you?”

  I shrugged at him.

  “I don’t know, Reg. I just know that I need to get home. I’m worried that if I don’t exist then my dog is dead. I want to go home.”

  I cried some more and he patted me slowly on the back.

  “There, there. We’ll have a think what to do. Let old Reg have a little think and we’ll come up with a plan, OK? Together we’ll work out what to do. Don’t you worry.”

  He patted me three more times and then stopped and stood up.

  “I know what we could do!” he said brightly. I quickly blew my nose and looked up at him.

  “Yes?” I said.

  Reg gave me a big, wide smile.

  “Let’s have a nice piece of Victoria sponge cake. How about that for a plan?”

  I opened my mouth and closed it. I wanted to cry again but I swallowed the tears away.

  “That’ll be great. Thank you … thank you, Reg,” I said, and as he made his way to the kitchen, I dabbed the handkerchief on my eyes.

  I could see Monster lying in the middle of the road. He had his back to me and, as I got closer, he lifted up his head. His tail thumped slowly on to the hot tarmac, his tongue dangling out of the side of his mouth like he was grinning.

  “Monster? Are you hurt?” I said. I heard an engine rev and looked along the street. A car was coming and it was getting faster. I looked back at Monster who was still staring at me, his tail thump, thump, thumping on to the ground. The car was heading straight for him. If he didn’t move out of the way he’d be hit!

  I went to step off the kerb but my feet wouldn’t move. I looked down at my legs and tried to lift them but they were completely stuck. It was as if my trainers had been superglued to the pavement.

  “Monster! You’ve got to get out of the way! You’ve got to get up!” I shouted, trying desperately to move.

  I looked at the car, speeding towards my dog. Through the window I could see the driver on his mobile, looking into
his rear-view mirror.

  “Monster! NO!!!!” I screamed. The car made a horrendous sccrreeeechhh and I woke up.

  My heart banged against my ribs as I stared at Reg’s lounge ceiling. It was a dream. But it had felt so real. Not being able to get off the kerb and save Monster was agonizing. It was exactly how I was feeling now, trapped in this world where my dog was dead because I didn’t exist. I had to get home. I got up, went to the kitchen and put the kettle on. I felt queasy when I thought about what faced me today. Today there would be no more “nice Maxwell”. Today I was going to be a shoplifter.

  Reg spent all morning chatting about this and that but I wasn’t really listening. All I could think about was how I was going to steal the phone case and how I was going to turn the world back to how it was before.

  I headed to the high street at the last possible moment and when I got to “The Fone Place” my stomach was churning even more. It was a tiny shop, about half the size of Reg’s living room, and the man who owned it was sitting at the back, fiddling with the phones. I’d been in there once with Mum. The speaker on her phone had stopped working and we watched as the man took it apart and removed a huge piece of fluff. He’d said there was no charge, so I knew he was a nice man and I really didn’t want to steal anything from him. I hung around outside, pretending to look at the adverts in his window, and then I couldn’t leave it any longer. The doorbell pinged as I went in and the man looked up over his glasses.

  “Afternoon,” he said. “Can I help?”

  I stuck my hands in my pockets and smiled.

  “I’m just looking, thanks,” I said. He raised his eyebrows a bit and then he looked back down at what he was doing.

  The shop was so tiny that “just looking” would take approximately eight seconds. I walked straight to the stand of phone cases and slowly turned it around, trying to find the Union Jack one. There was one left, hanging on a hook right at the top. I reached up and took it down. It was the right case in the right size and exactly the one I was after. I glanced over at the man who was still looking down at what he was doing. I was just going to slip the case into my jacket when the shop man suddenly started talking.