I fired a massive grin at him but he looked unimpressed.
“What are you on about? Science is my worse subject. I hate it,” he said. He opened his front door and stepped inside. “Just go away will you? I don’t even know you. My mum will be back any minute now and she won’t like you being here.”
I stepped a bit closer.
“No, she won’t. Your mum doesn’t finish work until six and she doesn’t get in until at least six-thirty.”
Charlie frowned at me. I carried on.
“I know it’s going to sound crazy, but something happened and … actually, you’d better brace yourself for this. It might come as a shock.”
Charlie raised his eyebrows.
“So, what has happened is this … somehow, and I’m really not sure how at the moment … somehow I have, erm, managed to … erase myself from all existence.”
Charlie stared at me and ran his tongue along the inside of his top lip as he sighed. He looked incredibly unimpressed.
“You’re shocked! I can tell,” I said. “I know. It’s bonkers, isn’t it? But it’s true. And in my old life we were best friends. You and me! You were the dorky one and I was the one getting into trouble all the time … and, well. Everything sort of went wrong. I accidentally broke your nose and ruined a big party at the school which was going to be on TV and… Well, none of that really matters any more. I don’t know how but I wished I’d never been born and just like that – I vanished. Well, not vanished exactly, I’m still here, but now nobody knows who I am. I really have never been born. Can you believe it?!”
I laughed nervously, then swallowed as he stared back at me. He didn’t say anything.
“I thought you might be able to help,” I added, in a quiet voice.
He continued to stare at me and then he leaned against the door frame and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know what it is you’re trying to achieve by making all of this stuff up but I’m not falling for it. OK?”
My heart sank. This was my last hope and it was going horribly wrong.
“Charlie, I’m telling the truth, I swear it,” I said, fighting back the tears. “What do you think could have happened? Please? What can I do?! How can I get back?”
Charlie frowned.
“What can you do? Let me think…” he said. “It certainly is a dilemma.”
I knew it! I just knew he’d have an idea in that big brain of his! I gave him a smile as he carried on.
“I know, how about you keep away from me and never come back? Does that sound like a plan?” he said. “Now get off my step and go home.”
He went to shut the door but I put my hand up and stopped him.
“But-but I don’t have a home,” I shouted.
He let the door go.
“Please, Charlie,” I said. “This isn’t a joke. I don’t have anyone to ask. No parents, no friends, no grown-ups. No one. Please. I’m in trouble. BIG trouble and I need your help. I need you to help me!”
I held my hands together like I was begging. His eyes flickered a little.
“We are really good friends, Charlie. The best! You’ve got to believe me.”
He stared back. He didn’t look angry, he looked almost embarrassed for me. Taking a deep breath he leaned towards me and I took a step closer.
“Leave me alone, you weirdo,” he said, and the door slammed in my face.
I couldn’t believe it.
I turned around and sank down on to the step. Now what? Reg couldn’t understand, my sister was too terrifying to talk to and if I tried to explain it to Mum or Dad they would probably call the police and then where would I end up? It was no use. Charlie was my only hope. I just had to make him believe me.
I knelt down by the letterbox and carefully pushed it open with my fingertips. I could see the back of his head as he sat on the floor, untying his shoelaces.
“I’m going to go away in a minute and leave you alone, I promise. But before I do, I want you to listen to something. I know this is all hard for you to believe but … just hear me out. OK?”
Charlie sat motionless.
“When you were six years old you went ice-skating with your cousins and you broke your wrist. You went to school with your arm in a cast and everyone wanted to sign it. Davy Peterson wrote across it, in thick black pen: CHARLIE IS AN IDIOT. You managed to squeeze in a tiny NOT after the IS but you were really upset about it.”
I blinked as I watched him through the letterbox.
“If I didn’t know you, how would I have known about that, eh?” I said.
He slowly turned but his face was still frowning.
“But anyone could have told you,” he said. “It wasn’t exactly a secret. You might have asked my classmates about me and they could have told you a hundred things. A thousand things.”
He was right.
“OK! OK…” I shouted. “I’m trying, all right? I’m trying to get you to believe me but I don’t know how!”
Charlie shook his head.
“You’re really not very clever at all, are you?” he said. The old Charlie would have never spoken to me like that but at this precise moment, I really didn’t care. “Look. If you want to convince me then you’ve got to tell me something that only you and I would know. If you’d been my best friend, like you say you were, I would have probably shared stuff with you and only you. Now, that would be proof.”
This was why I needed Charlie’s help. He was clever! I desperately thought of something else.
“Erm … OK. I’m thinking … erm … your favourite crisp flavour is salt and vinegar?”
Charlie snorted. “Pathetic!” he said, as he kicked off a shoe. “That could be a lucky guess.”
“Erm, how about the rarest bird that you’ve ever seen was a nightjar? You saw it at a nature reserve in Suffolk with your dad when it was his turn to have you for the weekend.” He’d bored me for days about that one.
Charlie took his other shoe off.
“That’s true,” he said. “But again, you could have found that out from my parents. And anyway, birdwatching is boring. I only went because my dad dragged me there.”
Well, that was rubbish for a start. The Charlie I knew loved birdwatching. He stood up.
“Time’s up,” he said, folding his arms. “You need to go now or I’m ringing my mum.”
“Hold on! I should get three goes. Everyone gets three goes of these kinds of things, don’t they? Like in fairy tales!”
He glared at me through the letterbox. My fingers were beginning to hurt from keeping it open for so long.
“Come on then, Rumpelstiltskin,” he spat at me. “Last try.”
I thought hard. It had to be the best memory I had about him, ever. If I wanted to save Monster I had to get this right. I needed to get home to save my dog.
“Right. OK. I can do this,” I said out loud. I cleared my throat. “On the back of the headboard in your bedroom there’s a drawing of a heart with Charlie Loves Miss Jacobs written inside it.”
Charlie’s face dropped.
“You fancied our Year Five teacher! You told me about it and showed me the heart when I had a sleepover at yours once.”
I carried on.
“You said it was her long hair that you liked.”
“But I’ve never told anyone about that, ever,” said Charlie, his mouth dangling open.
I grinned through the letterbox. “But you did, Charlie! Me! And I never told anyone because, even though I wasn’t the best friend in the world, I could keep a secret. Especially an embarrassing one.”
Charlie walked across the hall and I stood up. My knees throbbed from contact with the cold, concrete step. The front door opened and Charlie stood there, still open-mouthed.
“Ohh, I’ve got another one,” I said. “When we were about eight, you told me in class one day that you had a tummy egg. I remember thinking, what’s a tummy egg? and then I realized you meant tummy ache. You’d been saying it wrong, like, for ever. You were all embarrassed beca
use you’re so intelligent and stuff. You told me not to tell anyone, and I never did.”
I grinned at him.
“Th-that’s weird … yeah, I did used to say tummy egg.” And then he frowned. “But I’m not intelligent, you got that bit wrong.”
I shook my head.
“You are in my world. You know about all sorts of weird things and you’re interested in everything. You used to get picked on at school about it a bit but I stuck up for you so the others left you alone.”
He smiled. A tiny one, but it was still a smile. Something I’d said made sense.
“So … you said you’ve been erased? You didn’t want to exist and you just … what? Disappeared from your own life?”
I nodded.
“And you’re the smartest person I know. I figured if anyone can help me then you can.”
Charlie looked a little dazed as he chewed on his bottom lip and then he suddenly opened the door wide.
“Look. I’m not saying I believe you or anything … but you’d better come in. And you’ve got to stop going on about this smart stuff, all right? I’m not clever.”
“OK, Charlie,” I said, and I stepped into his house.
It was nice being back in Charlie’s house. Everything looked exactly as I remembered.
“Have you got anything to eat? I’m starving,” I said as I took off my trainers. Charlie’s mum is the best cook in the whole world. She makes these amazing spicy samosas and these little flat breads called chapatis. Charlie went off to the kitchen and came back with a sausage roll, a carton of juice, two cupcakes and a banana.
“Oh,” I said, staring at the plate. “Haven’t you got any of your mum’s food?”
“Don’t push it,” said Charlie.
I shrugged and stuffed the sausage roll in my mouth.
“Shall we go and sit in your room, Charlie Geek?” I said, through chewed-up sausage.
He punched me hard on the top of arm.
“What did you just call me?” he said, glaring at me. I rubbed where he’d hit. It had really hurt.
“Sorry. It was just a name we call you where I am from. It’s not rude or anything. It’s like a compliment really. It’s just because you’re so clever.”
He kept frowning at me.
“Don’t call me that again. OK? Ever.”
“OK, OK,” I said, stepping away.
“Let’s go to my room and you can start from the beginning. I’m not saying I believe you. I just want to see how far you’ll go with this whole thing…” he said, frowning at me. I grinned at him through more sausage roll but he didn’t smile back.
Everything in Charlie’s bedroom was different. The room I knew was extremely tidy, with science books lined neatly on his shelves and two plastic trays on his desk marked homework to do and homework completed.
This room was a mess. The shelves were cluttered with screwed-up pieces of paper, empty drinks cans and old cups. The desk was littered with school books, crisp packets and I counted seven empty plates. Even my room wasn’t as bad as this. On the floor under the desk I recognized a pile of encyclopaedias that he’d got for his tenth birthday. I remember at the time I said that maybe he could take them back to the shop and swap them for something better but he told me he’d actually asked for them. I gave him a lot of stick about that, but now, seeing them covered with a thick layer of dust, I just felt sad.
I sat on the edge of his bed and began to tell him about Reg and the old cabinet and the carved wooden egg full of strange things. I told him about the piece of sail from the spooky ship, the piece of Amundsen’s glove and Amelia Earhart’s handkerchief.
“There was something else too,” I said, sucking the straw in the carton of orange. “A silver button.”
Charlie stared back at me. He didn’t look like he believed me and he also didn’t seem to be very interested. In fact, he looked like he was waiting for me to finish just so he could get rid of me.
“So, what do you think?” I said. “Shall I take you to Reg’s place and show you? You might get a few ideas once you’ve seen everything.”
Charlie shrugged.
I finished the second cupcake, dropping crumbs down the front of my top. I brushed the crumbs off which reminded me;
“Can I borrow some clothes? I’ve only got these and they’re starting to stink a bit,” I said.
Charlie tutted, then pulled open a drawer, throwing me a black jumper; not exactly my look but it’d have to do.
“Thanks,” I said. I took my smelly jumper off and put the clean one on over my T-shirt.
He leaned against the desk again and scowled at me.
“I’m not saying I believe you, but if I did, what else is different?” he said. “You said I’m smart. What else?”
I sat on his bed.
“Everything. The school is run-down. My parents are divorced. My sister is Bex Beckett, and she’s like some horrible bully here.”
Charlie’s eyes widened.
“Bex Beckett is your sister? Blimey.”
I nodded.
“But she isn’t like that in my world. In fact, she’s the complete opposite. She’s the most annoying Little-Miss-Perfect, never-done-anything-wrong-ever person you’ve ever met. She came to see the things in the cabinet yesterday. She knows a lot about history in my world but here she pretends she doesn’t. She’s quite intellectual actually.”
Charlie rubbed at his eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe,” he said, but I ignored him.
“My dad is still working in a job that made him so stressed he got ill. He looks like he is about to explode. And my mum … well my mum looks really happy and all that, but she’s got a boyfriend.”
We both grimaced.
“And have you tried telling them what’s happened?”
I shook my head.
“No. Can you imagine? ‘Hello, I’m the son you didn’t know you had because I accidentally wiped myself out of existence. Oh, and can I come and live with you?’ That’s never going to happen. They’d call the police.”
Charlie nodded.
“Also,” I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “In my life I had a dog called Monster. A beagle. I saved him from being run over and now … now I can’t find him anywhere.”
Charlie nodded. “Yeah. That’ll be because he’s dead.”
“Oh. Thanks for that,” I said.
Charlie shrugged. “Sorry, Maxwell, but if you weren’t there to save him then he won’t be alive, will he? Monster’s gone. Everything you did in your world won’t have been done here.”
At least it sounded like he was starting to believe me.
“So, shall we go? To see the cabinet?” I said. “I really think you’re going to be able to help me with that big brain of yours, you know.”
Charlie stood up.
“OK. But I told you – lay off with all this ‘big brain’ stuff, OK? It’s like you said, things are different here.”
On the way to Reg’s, Charlie asked more questions.
“How about me? You said I’m clever, but is there anything else different about me in your world?”
I stuck my hands into my pockets.
“Erm. Yeah. A little bit.”
Charlie grinned and punched me on the arm again. It was really annoying when he did that.
“Go on then. Tell me. What am I like?”
I shrugged.
“Oh, I dunno. You’re just different. You’ve got a different hairstyle. You’re more … you, I guess.”
My best friend snorted.
“I’m not a dork or anything, am I?” He laughed. “Can you imagine it if I was a total nerd? Ha!”
Yes, you are, I thought in my head. But I much prefer you that way.
I kicked a stone and it rebounded off a garden wall and in front of Charlie’s feet. Charlie kicked at the stone but totally missed. At least his sporting ability was the same.
“You never hung around with Marcus Grundy in my world, that’s for sure. I don’t un
derstand why you’re even friends with him! You hate him where I’m from.”
Charlie shrugged.
“Marcus and I are mates.”
I tutted.
“Really? A mate that nearly strangles you in a headlock in front of the whole school?” I said.
Charlie forced a grin.
“Ah, he was only messing!” he said, giving a forced laugh. “Marcus is like that, isn’t he? He’s just joking about all the time. He’s a right laugh.”
I snorted.
“Well I didn’t see anyone laughing, did you? And in my world you’re really interested in science and you go to science club and read all these difficult books,” I said. “Your latest thing is space and you like to play me recordings of stuff on your headphones.”
“Music?” he said.
I laughed.
“No. Nothing that normal. Apparently, some scientists recorded the sound the sun makes and you played it to me the other day. It was really weird.”
Charlie’s eyes lit up.
“The sound the sun makes? Wow. I never knew they could do that … but I guess it’s feasible…”
His forehead crinkled up like it did when he was thinking hard, but when he saw me looking he shook his shoulders. It was as if he was trying to shake the real Charlie out of himself.
“Let’s just hurry up and see what’s in this cabinet, shall we?” he said, speeding up. “Let’s see if we can get rid of you once and for all.”
When we got to Reg’s house he was in the kitchen washing up. He looked a bit puzzled about who I was but I quickly reminded him.
“This is my friend, Charlie,” I said, feeling Charlie bristle beside me. He clearly didn’t like being called my friend. “I promised him he could have a look in the cabinet like Bex did. Is that OK? It’s for a school project he’s doing…”
I heard Charlie huff beside me but Reg just smiled and nodded then carried on washing up.
“What’s wrong with him?” said Charlie as we went into the lounge.
“He has problems with his memory,” I said. “It’s like his brain is a computer and it’s accidentally been wiped clean and he can’t access certain files any more.”
Charlie nodded as if he understood. I opened the cabinet and his eyes lit up when he saw the “shrunken head”. He took it out and studied it closely.
The Day I Was Erased Page 14
