The Fearless Five

by Bannie McPartlin

  It was just then two policemen walked into the pub in full uniform. They looked serious, as though they were on a mission. This was it! This was the moment we’d be hauled off to jail. My fists clenched so hard I burst a few blisters. Sumo didn’t notice them, but beside me Charlie and Walker’s eyes were on sticks. Johnny J nearly dropped his guitar. The policemen looked around the pub, nodding at a few people. Then someone from the back started singing and the Garda joined in and Mr Cornally handed them both pints. We all sighed with relief. Phew. We were fine. Everything would be fine. Except it wouldn’t.

  29

  The Gig

  The post-match commentary went on till just after 10 p.m. The pub was still busy when the telly went off, and even before the band started playing, everyone was singing. Mr Cornally served out more chips. My mam had brought her own sliced pan and a pound of butter to make up chip sandwiches. Nobody really noticed the lads getting up on stage – they were eating chips, talking about the game, laughing, singing, hugging and crying happy tears.

  Rich spoke to the crowd. ‘Hello, Ireland,’ he said, and no one paid attention. They were too busy having a good time to notice the kid on the stage. ‘Hello, Dublin,’ he roared again to the few people who bothered to listen.

  Walker was patting his slightly swollen nose and making snorting sounds. ‘I think I took an elbow to the face from Titch,’ he said. ‘I didn’t feel it till now.’

  ‘Yeah.’ I nodded. ‘Your nose is definitely bigger.’

  ‘Nuts,’ he said.

  I looked over at Sumo. He was asleep in the corner. Charlie came and sat beside me. We didn’t speak, not even one word. We were the only people in the room who had nothing to say. After a bit I looked her way. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

  ‘It’ll be OK,’ she said, and that was that. We looked back onto the stage to Rich and the boys struggling to get attention.

  ‘Would you all shut up and listen to these lovely boys?’ my mam roared from the corner of the room. ‘Go on, son,’ she said, and everyone laughed and cheered.

  Rich turned the colour purple, then he coughed a little and fixed his Lego-man hair before leaning into the mic.

  ‘This is our first song. It’s called “Take On Me”, by A-ha,’ Rich shouted, and stepped back from the mic. He clicked his fingers three times and then stepped back to the mic and started singing. On the second line of the song the rest of the boys joined in and Johnny J started to play, but the sound was too low.

  ‘We can’t hear ya,’ someone roared.

  ‘Eh? Hello?’ Rich tapped the mic, ‘Testing, one, two. Decko, will ya turn us up?’

  Decko twiddled with loads of knobs.

  ‘HELLLLLOOOOOOOO.’ It was so loud the room shook!

  ‘OK, TURN IT DOWN A BIT, DECKO.’ The room rumbled with the sound of my brother’s voice. My mam looked around the place anxiously. My dad dropped some chips out of his chip sandwich. Decko just pushed everything down again, so now Rich was just mouthing words. Some of the kids that went to school with us laughed and jeered. ‘You’re crap!’

  Johnny J looked panicked, so I got up and went over to Decko.

  ‘Hiya, Decko.’

  ‘All right, Rich’s brother?’

  ‘Yeah, grand, thanks. Any chance you’d let me take over?’

  ‘Ah yeah, great. I’m bursting for some chips,’ he said, and he was gone.fn1

  I took over. The sound wasn’t perfect, but the lads could be heard. They were halfway into the first verse before the crowd really started to notice them. By the end of the second chorus they had them in the palm of their hands. Everyone was singing along, and every now and then someone would shout, ‘Ooh aah Paul McGrath, ooh aah Paul McGrath.’ By the time they sang U2’s ‘Bad’, my dad was crying again.

  ‘That’s my son,’ he said, pointing to the stage.

  Johnny J sang really well and he was great on guitar, and for the first time I thought to myself, This could be something.

  The boys left the stage to thunderous applause, and just like that they were local heroes. It was only when Johnny J got off the stage that I saw his Uncle Ted. He was waiting for him by the door. They hugged, a big bear hug. They held on to one another really tight. I think Uncle Ted was crying, but a lot of grown men cried that night, so no one took much notice.

  Afterwards, Johnny J went missing. I looked for him and found him outside, sitting on the ground, leaning against the pub wall. I sat beside him.

  ‘Good gig,’ I said.

  ‘Do you mean it?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah.’ And I did. They were good. The crowd loved them.

  ‘It was fun,’ he said.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘What now?’ he said. It was a good question.

  ‘We buy your mam a ticket to New York City,’ I said.

  ‘But where in New York City?’

  ‘The hospital.’

  ‘What hospital?’

  ‘I’m sure any of them will do,’ I said.

  ‘Do we even know where the hospital is?’

  ‘No, but there’s plenty of money for a taxi so …’

  ‘Are we mad?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but I told you before, my dad says everyone’s mad.’

  Uncle Ted came round from the back. ‘You ready to go home?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Johnny J said.

  ‘I’ll walk with you. I’ll nip in to check on your mam and you can tell me all about this band.’

  ‘Nothing to tell,’ Johnny J said. ‘It was just one gig.’

  ‘Just one gig! No way – you have something there. Don’t they, Jeremy?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘You see,’ Uncle Ted said, and he ruffled his nephew’s hair. ‘Rock stars.’

  ‘What about Auntie Alison?’ Johnny J said to his uncle, and Ted’s smile faded and he held Johnny J by the shoulders.

  ‘Don’t you mind Auntie Alison,’ he said, and Johnny J nodded and they hugged again. I just sat there.

  ‘See ya tomorrow,’ Johnny J said, and they started down the road. He spun around and walked backwards. ‘And, Jeremy?’

  ‘Yeah?’ I said, struggling to get up off the ground.

  ‘Best friends ever,’ he said, and I grinned. He turned around and walked away.

  I waited outside for my emotional father, my proud mother, my grown-up sister and my ultra-annoying brother to come out of the pub.

  Rich was high on life. ‘We are going to be the biggest band on the planet,’ he said, punching the air.

  ‘Ah you were fantastic, son, just fantastic, and, Jeremy, you were brilliant too. Wasn’t he, Daddy?’ my mam said.

  ‘I did nothing,’ I said.

  ‘You twiddled those buttons. Didn’t he, Ron?’ Mam said, and Rachel grabbed my hand.

  ‘Good job, Jeremy,’ she said.

  ‘Ace,’ my dad said. ‘Oh, it was some night. We’ll remember this one, Debbie. It’s one for the books all right.’

  They talked and laughed and my dad chased my brother up and down the street before putting him in a headlock and ruffling his hair. Rich had tried to spike up his hair for the gig with gel. He looked like a Lego man who’d received an electric shock.

  ‘Dad, Dad, me do! Don’t mess with the hair.’

  ‘Ah you’re lovely, isn’t he, Debbie? Isn’t he lovely?’

  My mam and Rachel just laughed.

  Rich was busy protecting his hair. ‘Ah no, seriously, it takes ages to do it.’

  That night my mam and Rachel sat up drinking tea and I could hear Rachel telling Mam about how lovely Rupert, her doctor boyfriend, was and how hard it was to be a nurse, and Mam told Rachel about how sad she was about her friend and how worried she was about Johnny J and me. I tried not to listen because I needed to sleep. There was still so much to do. What I didn’t know as I drifted off was that a detective had Walker’s jacket in his hand and that jacket had Walker’s name written on the inside collar. It was only a matter of hours before they would co
nnect Walker’s jacket to Walker’s dad, Walker’s dad to Walker and Walker to the rest of us. Time was running out.

  30

  The Guards

  For the first time in days I woke up feeling hungry. I got dressed and made my way to the kitchen. I was pouring cereal into a bowl when the phone rang in the hall. My parents were moving around upstairs. I think my mam was in the shower.

  I walked into the hallway and picked up the phone.

  ‘Hello, the Finn household. Who’s speaking, please?’

  ‘They’re here. I mean not here – they’re at my house.’ It was Walker.

  ‘Are you joking?’ I asked. I knew he wasn’t. I just had to be sure. He wasn’t joking.fn1

  ‘Are you OK?’ I stammered.

  He didn’t bother answering. Instead we agreed he’d pick Charlie up and go to our spot in the forest.

  ‘What will I say to Mrs Eastman?’

  ‘Make something up.’

  ‘OK, what about you?’

  ‘I’ll ring Sumo and grab Johnny J. We’ll meet you there.’

  ‘OK, and get Sumo to bring the rest of the money,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because we’re going to need it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean we’re on the run now, Jeremy,’ he said, and it’s a miracle I didn’t faint because I actually heard my brain pop.

  Walker hung up. I sat on the hall stairs with my head in my hands. How am I going to tell Johnny J?

  My dad came down the stairs.

  ‘Who was that?’ he asked.

  ‘No one.’

  ‘Well, it must have been someone.’

  ‘It was a wrong number,’ I said.

  ‘Not someone looking for that vet’s two streets over again?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Oh, I am so sick of people ringing the wrong number. Since when has 845612 been 845912? Six and nine are two different numbers. How hard it is to get it right?’ He was so busy ranting he didn’t even notice me dialling Sumo’s number. ‘That’s the trouble with people – they don’t know how to dial a phone, and who’d be calling a vet so early in the morning anyway?’ he said before closing the kitchen door behind him. Someone with a sick animal, I thought. I didn’t say it. I was too frantic to be cheeky.

  Mrs Lane answered the phone.

  ‘This is the Lane household, who’s calling, please?’ she said.

  ‘Hiya, Mrs Lane, it’s Jeremy. Is Sumo around?’

  ‘He’s eating his breakfast, Jeremy.’

  ‘Any chance I could have a word? It’s just for a project in school.’

  ‘They’re giving you projects? During the summer holidays?’ she said.

  ‘Only if we want to,’ I said. ‘We really like learning,’ I lied.

  ‘Good for you, love. I’ll get him.’

  I could hear her shouting Sumo’s name and then I waited for what seemed like forever. Come on, come on.

  I knew that as Walker and Charlie were running to the park and I was making calls, Walker’s mother would be answering the guard’s questions. Who does Walker hang out with? Sumo would be top of the list. There was no time to waste.

  ‘I didn’t know we had a project!’ Sumo said, and he sounded really stressed.

  ‘We don’t. The guards are at Walker’s.’

  ‘Oh,’ Sumo said. ‘That’s much worse than a project.’

  ‘You need to get to the forest.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘I dunno, Sumo. We need a plan.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Leave now.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Don’t tell your parents where you’re going.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Bring a bag and the money from the fights and Rolands’.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘And sandwiches – you’re going to need lots of Spam sandwiches.’

  ‘OK. Jeremy?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Are we going to jail now?’

  ‘Probably,’ I said.

  ‘Right then.’

  Sumo hung up the phone. My dad was still talking to himself in the kitchen. ‘Six is not nine. Nine is not six.’ Mam was moving around upstairs and singing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ to herself. Rich was still sound asleep on his bed, probably dreaming about being a rock star. I forgot Rachel was home.

  I ran upstairs and filled my backpack with some underwear, my toothbrush, a comb, jeans and two jumpers. I grabbed my jacket and left the house as quietly as I could. As I turned away from the door, I saw Rachel sitting on our front wall. She instantly saw the backpack.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘It’s something.’

  ‘I’m doing a school project,’ I said, and Rachel laughed. She wasn’t as easily fooled as Mrs Lane.

  ‘A school project during the summer before you go to an entirely different school?’

  ‘It’s voluntary,’ I said.

  ‘What are you up to, Jeremy?’ she said, and I wanted to confess everything but I couldn’t. We had to get Johnny J’s mother to America.

  ‘How come you are sitting out here?’ I said, turning the tables on her.

  ‘Just thinking.’

  ‘And smoking,’ I said.

  ‘I’m eighteen. I can do what I want,’ she said. She was right. She could, except that my mam would kill her stone dead if she found her smoking.

  ‘Smoking is stupid,’ I said, and she nodded.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘So why do you do it?’ I asked.

  She shrugged.

  ‘Mrs Tulsi has cancer. Smoking causes cancer,’ I said, and Rachel sighed.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You’re a nurse.’

  ‘OK, Jeremy, I know. It’s stupid. I’m stupid. You’ve made your point. So just go,’ she said, and I ran to Johnny J’s and I didn’t look back even once.

  Johnny J answered the door.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Get your coat,’ I said.

  ‘It’s warm outside.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it might be cold tomorrow. Pack some stuff.’

  He gave me a really funny look. ‘What?’

  ‘We need to go, Johnny J,’ I said. ‘We need to go now.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘The police were at Walker’s first thing this morning.’

  ‘You’re messing.’

  ‘Wouldn’t about this.’

  ‘Right,’ he said. He looked around and up the stairs. ‘What about Mam?’

  ‘We’ll work it out.’

  ‘I need to say goodbye.’

  ‘We don’t have time,’ I pleaded.

  ‘I have to.’

  He ran up the stairs. I stood there looking around, waiting for the police car to make its way down the road, and then I saw it snake toward me. I jumped inside Johnny J’s house, and without even thinking, I ran up his stairs, two steps at a time.

  ‘Johnny J,’ I whispered urgently. I crept over to where his mam’s room was. Through the crack in the door I could hear him talking to her.

  ‘I’m just going out, Mam. I won’t be long. There’s your water. Do you see it? On the locker.’

  ‘I see it, son.’

  ‘Auntie Alison will be here soon and Uncle Ted after work.’

  ‘She’s moved into that fancy hotel,’ she said, and she laughed to herself. ‘She couldn’t stick it here. I had afternoon tea in that hotel once with your daddy. Fifteen quid for a few triangle sandwiches with no crusts and a cup of tea!’

  ‘Will you eat something for me, Mam?’ he said.

  No time, no time, they’re here, I shouted in my head.

  ‘No, son, you go.’

  Yes, son, go, go, go!

  ‘I love you, Mam.’

  ‘I love you too, son. Don’t worry about me, OK?’ she said.

  ‘OK.’

  He walked into the hall and he closed his mother’s door behind him. I was standing in front of him w
hen the doorbell rang.

  ‘They’re here,’ I whispered and his face changed colour. He ran to the front window and we could see two men standing at the door. Both wore coats, and suits under their coats, and they had their IDs in their hand.

  ‘It’s over,’ Johnny J said, and his eyes threatened to fill and his lip trembled.

  ‘It’s not over,’ I said, looking down at the tops of the two men’s heads. ‘We need to go –’ held out my hand – ‘NOW.’

  He nodded, and as the police were knocking on the front door we were running for the back door.

  31

  The Money

  Johnny J’s house was terraced. It didn’t have an entrance on one side like ours. His garden backed on to an elderly woman’s. She was called Mrs Shanley.fn1 We scrambled over the wall and I could hear Mrs Shanley playing her piano as we made our way into her garden. I got caught in her roses. They tore chunks out of my legs and arms. Johnny J pulled me out, but not before I’d trampled her pink ones. Two of the cats were sitting in the garden just staring at us. One hissed as we passed.

  ‘What are we going to do now?’ I said, and I was panicked. The only escape was through Mrs Shanley’s house. Johnny J checked her back door. It was locked.

  Johnny J knocked at the door.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I whisper-shouted.

  ‘Getting us out of this,’ he said.

  Mrs Shanley came to the door.

  ‘Hello?’ she called. ‘Who’s there?’

  ‘It’s me, Johnny J!’ he said, and she opened the door and smiled.

  ‘Ah, love, I wasn’t expecting you today.’

  ‘Hiya, Mrs Shanley. I’m not here for a lesson and sorry to bother you, but would it be all right if we came through your house?’ Johnny J said.

  ‘Who’s this?’ she said, looking at me.

  ‘My friend Jeremy,’ he said, and that’s when Mrs Shanley moved over and took my face in her hands and took a good look at me.

  ‘Oh,’ I said. It was a shock to be touched by old hands. They looked like melted ice-cream on a hot day. I felt faint.

  ‘A lovely boy,’ she said before pulling gently on my ponytail. ‘I like the hair.’

  Johnny J laughed a little. He really liked Mrs Shanley. There was a cat at the top of the stairs, a cat at the bottom and two in the kitchen, but the house was sparkling clean and smelled of lemon not cats.