The Fearless Five

by Bannie McPartlin

  ‘When I saw the man, I weed myself a little,’ Sumo admitted.fn2

  ‘When I went to check on Jim Roland’s granny and she jumped out the window at me, I nearly died!’ Johnny J said.

  ‘Running out of the shop with the bag of money, my knees wobbled all the way to my bike,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Cycling away from the scene, the fastest I’ve ever cycled in my life and terrified I was going to have an asthma attack,’ Walker said.

  ‘Cycling away for me too, terrified we were being followed! It was the most scared and excited I’ve ever been, just like a roller coaster.’ The word ‘gurrier’ rolled around in my head.

  ‘Except for it not being legal,’ Charlie said. ‘A roller coaster may land in you in hospital, but not in prison.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I agreed. Everyone talked about how buzzed they were during the robbery. Nobody said how depressed and sad they were when we all realised that we hadn’t scored enough money.

  ‘What now?’ Charlie said.

  Johnny J shook his head. ‘Nothing. We should just give the money back.’

  Walker stood up. ‘We’re not doing that,’ he said. Everyone looked his way. ‘We have to do it again,’ he said.

  ‘No,’ Johnny J said, shaking his head from side to side.

  ‘We can’t,’ I said. I couldn’t imagine going through all that again. ‘I can’t even think of where. It’s just impossible.’

  ‘I can,’ Walker said, and he started to pace around the picnic table as he spoke. ‘You know that my dad drives the money van for the bank?’ He stopped walking and looked at us all.

  ‘So?’ Charlie said.

  He started circling again. ‘So he keeps a spare set of keys to the van in the house. Usually there’s three of them – my dad drives, a big fellow called Tom goes into the bank and collects the money, and there’s another little fella, they call him Titch, he stays in the back of the van. He takes in the money and secures it in a safe built into the floor. While my dad’s in Italy at the matches, they can’t find a replacement, so Tom is driving and collecting the money and Titch is still inside the back of the van.’ He stopped.

  ‘So?’ Charlie said again.

  He took off again. ‘So I know the code for the van depot. We could let ourselves into the van. When the little fellow jumps in, we can tackle him and tie him up.’

  ‘What about Big Tom?’ Johnny J said.

  ‘He drives, collects, pushes the money through a slot; he doesn’t go near the back of the van. When Tom collects the money and pushes it through, we grab it and as soon as we’ve got enough – one bag should do it – we wait till he stops at traffic, jump out and make a run for it.’

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘Have you fallen on your head?’ I asked, because that’s what my dad asked me every time I did or said something stupid.

  ‘I’m deadly serious,’ he said, and he stopped moving and finally he sat down.

  ‘But you’re too smart to go to jail,’ Charlie said sarcastically, but Walker was serious.

  ‘Is her dying a fact?’ he asked quietly. He didn’t make eye contact with Johnny J, but I did. He looked like he was going to fall apart into a million pieces.

  ‘Fact,’ I whispered, and the word burned in my throat.

  ‘We have to save her,’ Walker said, and he shrugged. ‘We just have to.’

  I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t have the stomach for it. I wanted to cry. I wanted to run away.

  20

  The Mastermind

  No one spoke. We all just sat at the picnic table for what seemed like a really long time, lost in our own thoughts and fears. Finally I gulped and said what I felt I had no choice but to say.

  ‘OK.’ I didn’t want to do it but I had to.

  I looked around the table. Sumo and Charlie nodded. ‘Yeah,’ Sumo said. ‘I’m in,’ Charlie said.

  Johnny J couldn’t speak. He was battling hard to hold back tears, fighting with his own insides.

  ‘How are we going to get into the depot unseen?’ Charlie asked, diverting attention away from him.

  Walker fixed his glasses to his face and held them there as he spoke. ‘The security guard leaves at 5 a.m., the lads come in for 6 a.m. We have an hour to get in and hide before they arrive.’

  ‘Where do we hide?’ Sumo asked.

  ‘There’s a storage area where they keep all the mops and cleaning stuff. No one goes in there but the cleaning lady, and she’s only in on a Monday and Thursday night. None of the men ever go there.’

  ‘And when do we slip into the van?’ I asked.

  ‘The lads do a walk-around as soon as they get in. Then they go for a coffee and a smoke, and that’s when we get into the back of the van.’

  Sumo put up his hand. ‘What’s a walk-around?’

  ‘It’s when they check the van for any damage, make sure the back is empty and stuff,’ Walker said.

  ‘How are we going to keep the little fellow quiet?’

  ‘We’re going to gag him, tie him up and threaten him with pepper spray, and this time if we need to use it, we will.’

  No one argued, not even Sumo. I was shocked.

  ‘Are you serious?’ I asked.

  ‘Deadly,’ he said. I couldn’t believe it. He was a criminal mastermind and it was terrifying.

  ‘Who’s going to drive the van if the driver runs away?’ Charlie asked.

  ‘Why would the driver run away?’ I asked.

  ‘He might be scared,’ she said.

  ‘He won’t even know we’re there,’ I said.

  ‘But if he does?’

  ‘We’re kids – he won’t be scared. We’ll be scared.’

  ‘OK then – he opens the van, we spray him in the face with pepper spray. He can’t see to drive, we need to get away and it’s too dangerous on foot. Who drives?’

  ‘It’s a stupid question!’ I shouted.

  ‘No, it’s not,’ Walker said. ‘We need to think about every eventuality.’

  ‘I’ll drive,’ Johnny J said, and we all looked at him. ‘If I have to drive, I will. I move cars in my uncle’s garage all the time,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, from one car space to another in a yard,’ I said.

  ‘So? Driving is driving,’ Walker said.

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ I said. Johnny J knew how to change gears, accelerate, brake, turn and stop. That’s it. He had never actually been in traffic or driven around a roundabout and he didn’t have a driving licence.fn1

  ‘Of course it is,’ Walker said.

  I looked to Johnny J. He nodded.

  ‘It’s OK. I can do it.’

  ‘Good,’ Walker said. I let it go.

  ‘When?’ I asked.

  ‘Three days’ time,’ he said.

  ‘The Ireland versus Netherlands game? But that’s at eight o’clock at night.’

  ‘I know,’ he said.

  ‘So you want us to rob during the day, while the match isn’t on to distract everyone?’ I said.

  ‘My plan doesn’t need the match to distract everyone because we’ll be hiding in a van. Besides, even before the match comes on, people will all be distracted, waiting for the match to start, and half the country will still be decked out in the Ireland gear all day, especially the kids, so it’s good cover.’

  He was right. It didn’t matter if it happened during the match or not, and the best bit was that if we did make it through the robbery undiscovered we could watch the match! Hurrah! Finally a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

  ‘Anyone got any objections?’ I asked. Everyone stayed silent.

  ‘OK then, it’s decided. We’ll hijack a cash van,’ Charlie said, and it sounded so insane we all started to laugh, even Johnny J. Of course we were terrified. We knew what we were doing was highly dangerous, but we also knew that after we did this one last robbery we’d never have to do another one.

  ‘There’s thousands in those vans. Fact,’ Walker said.

  ‘We’ll just take enough t
o make up the difference,’ Johnny J said, and we all agreed that was the thing to do. I was amazed that Charlie and Sumo were on board when they didn’t even know about Auntie Alison coming to snatch Johnny J away from us. It was brave and they were good friends, even if she was still really irritating.

  After we’d agreed to hijack and rob a cash van we played football for the rest of the evening. It was brilliant fun, the lads and Charlie running around, using coats for goalposts under a pink sky. Above our heads the birds were swooping, diving and singing a loud song. The ice-cream van’s jingle wafted through the air, and for a really short time life was really, really good and I forgot we were gurriers.

  21

  The Hummingbird

  It was nearly teatime when we parted at the forest gates. Johnny J and I cycled together, only getting off our bikes at the top of our road. We always got off our bikes there and walked the last stretch of the journey.

  ‘Do you think we can pull it off?’ Johnny J asked.

  ‘We pulled off robbing Rolands’,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, but this is big stuff – we’re robbing a security van! “SECURITY” being the important word in that sentence.’

  ‘But we have a code and a key and an evil genius in our friend Walker,’ I said.

  ‘Do you think I can drive that van if I have to?’ Johnny J looked worried.

  I’d thought a lot about that since Walker had suggested it, and I believed he could, because Johnny J could do whatever he put his mind to. ‘Yeah, you can do it. Besides, it won’t happen like that. We’ll just grab the first bag that comes through the slot and jump out as soon as the van stops at a light. Easy,’ I said.

  ‘How do we get home?’ he said.

  ‘We’ll catch the bus.’

  ‘With a bag of stolen money?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘It’s a gym bag – people will think it’s smelly gym gear. Who’d want to take that?’

  He laughed. ‘You’re my best friend in the world,’ he said.

  ‘You too,’ I said.

  We didn’t look at one another. It was embarrassing. He just nodded and I nodded and then he punched me in the arm and then I punched him. We had just reached his house when a big black taxicab drove onto our road, passed us and stopped right in front of Johnny J’s. My heart squeezed in my chest as the blonde woman dressed head to toe in black stepped out. I knew who it was even before she turned around. I heard Johnny J gulp and I felt a searing pain in my chest as my heart broke in two.

  ‘Auntie Alison,’ he said. She didn’t hear him – she was too far away and busy wrestling her large suitcase from the taxi man’s hands. We both stopped walking and just stood together, frozen.

  She stood in front of the house, staring up at it before looking around the street, and that’s when she saw us. She broke into a smile and waved. ‘Johnny.’

  Johnny J just stood there, petrified to the spot. She dropped her case and walked over to him as quickly as her really high heels would allow. She hugged him tightly and then she ruffled his bouncy hair. Johnny J stood still, with his hands by his side, not moving, not speaking. I looked on in horror.

  ‘There you are, my poor, poor boy,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry – I’m here now. Auntie Alison will take care of everything.’

  She looked around at me. ‘You’re the friend,’ she said.

  ‘My name is Jeremy,’ I said. ‘Jeremy Finn.’

  ‘Do you know what I do for a living, Jeremy Finn?’ she asked. I did know. Auntie Alison had a string of hairdressers’ across the UK. She was very successful. She was very wealthy. She was used to living in a better place than our little street and being around more successful, richer and no doubt smarter people than us, at least that’s how she made us feel.

  ‘I know what you do,’ I said.

  ‘Well then, I’d be happy to give you two boys a free haircut,’ she said.

  I really didn’t like Auntie Alison at all.

  She looked back at the front door of the house again. ‘I should go in,’ she said.

  Johnny J didn’t move.

  I nodded. ‘Yes,’ I said.

  She walked back and picked up her case. ‘Right then, in I go,’ she said, but she didn’t move. It was like being surrounded by living statues. I waited. She just stood there, her suitcase in hand. Then the front door opened. It was Uncle Ted. He stood still, holding on to the door and looking at Auntie Alison. For the longest time nobody moved or spoke. It was freaky. Finally Uncle Ted nodded and Auntie Alison started to move toward him. When she reached the door, she handed him her suitcase. She walked past him and he closed the door. It was a big relief.

  ‘Are you OK?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ Johnny J said, shaking his head.

  ‘Me neither.’

  He didn’t want to go inside, so we sat on the wall. I think he was in shock. Auntie Alison’s arrival was news to him. I hadn’t told him I’d overheard my mam talking to Rachel about it. I regretted that. Maybe if I’d warned him, he wouldn’t be shaking. I offered him my coat. He shook his head again.

  ‘I think it’s over,’ he said, but just as he said it a bird swooped down right in front of our faces. It flew up, then down, then backwards and upside down, its pretty, colourful feathers and long, tapered bill mesmerising us. I could hear the humming coming from its flapping wings. Unmistakable.fn1 There was a hummingbird hovering right in front of our faces and I swear it was looking us straight in the eye. It was remarkable.

  ‘I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with h,’ I said.

  ‘Hummingbird,’ Johnny J said, and his eyes lit up and a smile crept across his face.

  ‘What did that book say about spotting a hummingbird?’ I asked, pretending to forget.

  ‘It said that when a hummingbird hovers nearby, it means you are capable of achieving the impossible,’ he said.

  ‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ I said, and he nodded, because h is for hummingbird but it’s also for hope.

  22

  The Fear

  In the two days after Auntie Alison’s arrival, life became more difficult. Walker was the only one who seemed happy about planning a new robbery. He kept promising us that it would work and that everything would be fine. I wanted to believe him but I couldn’t. Jim Roland’s granny had almost caught us. Now we were planning on sneaking into a security warehouse and jumping into a van unseen, overcoming a grown man (I didn’t care how small he was) and stealing bank money. That made us bank robbers. This was not good. It was not good at all.

  Every time I closed my eyes I had a terrible nightmare. I was trapped in a box or a cage or underwater or in a bin or under a bed. Once, I was stuck in the U-bend of a toilet. That was the worst. I forced myself to stay focused on the fact that Johnny J and I had seen the hummingbird. Whenever my faith wavered I thought about that. We can achieve the impossible! Then I thought, even if we did achieve the impossible and we got the money, sent Mrs Tulsi to America and saved her life, it still didn’t mean we wouldn’t get caught. Seeing a hummingbird did not mean you’d never go to jail. I tried to think of anything else we could do to get the money to save Mrs Tulsi and avoid spending the rest of my life sharing a very small room with bars on the windows with a boy called Stab-a-Rasher for a cellmate.

  Johnny J was nervous too. In a bid to avoid robbing a security van, he tried to sell his guitar, a speaker and his bike by putting notices up in all the local shops, but no one came knocking.fn1 Charlie said everyone was too absorbed in the football to buy things. She was probably right. But I hoped he could, because I really didn’t want to rob a cash van. His mam was spending more and more time in bed, and he sat by her bedside playing games of I spy and talking about their favourite things. One of the days, I called in to pick him up for rehearsal with my stupid brother. Uncle Ted let me up the stairs. Mrs Tulsi was so small in the bed I couldn’t really see her under the mountain of covers. Johnny J sat on the floor, his back resting against the bed frame, but his hand was ra
ised and his mam was holding it tight. They were mid-game so I just stood in the doorway and kept quiet.

  ‘My favourite ice cream is rum raisin,’ Mrs Tulsi said.

  ‘Chocolate chip,’ he said.

  ‘My favourite superhero is Batman,’ she said.

  ‘Superman,’ he said.

  ‘My favourite time ever is the day I had you,’ she said.

  ‘Me too,’ he said, and I heard her cry out a little, and he turned and gave her a kiss on her cheek and fixed her blankets the way my mam fixed mine.

  ‘It’s going to be all right, Mam, I promise,’ he said.

  Johnny J accepted that nobody wanted to buy his second-hand stuff quickly enough, so when he wasn’t with Mrs Tulsi he was either planning the robbery with Walker or practising in the band with my brother. He couldn’t quit rehearsals as long as we needed to keep Rich quiet.

  I missed my friend. I was also anxious all the time. Everyone was talking about the match, my brother’s stupid gig or the robbery, and so I spent most of my time battling stomach pain and running to the nearest available toilet.

  My worst moment was when I heard Mr Lucey talking to my dad about the Rolands’ robbery and how the police thought it was boys from a local rough estate.

  ‘Really?’ my dad said.

  ‘Sure who else would it be?’ he said.

  Eh … me! I thought.

  ‘I hear they threatened to give her a kick,’ Mr Lucey said. WE DID NOT!

  ‘Animals,’ my dad said.

  ‘I heard the guards raided a few houses last night. It was a big operation, Ron,’ Mr Lucey said.

  ‘Go on!’ my dad said, and I had to clench really hard to hold my insides in! ‘They broke down the Fitzers’ door,’ Dad went on.