The Fearless Five

by Bannie McPartlin

  ‘Do you like cats?’ she asked me.

  I nodded yes.

  ‘Always keep a cat – they’ll let you know when a bomb is about to drop.’

  ‘OK,’ I said.

  ‘Their fur rises, and if they run, you run,’ she said.

  ‘OK,’ I said again.

  ‘So why do you need to go through my house?’ she asked as we walked through her kitchen. It was then the police sirens started to peal out.

  Mrs Shanley listened to them and looked at us. She stood between us and the front door and freedom. One of the cats on the stairs darted onto the landing, her fur standing on end. That was not a good sign, and Mrs Shanley knew it.

  ‘We really have to go,’ Johnny J said, and I thought, That’s it, we’re finished, but Mrs Shanley nodded her head slowly as she thought about things.

  ‘Go on,’ she said, opening her front door and letting us out.

  ‘Mrs Shanley, will you tell my mam and my Uncle Ted I’m sorry,’ Johnny J said when we were outside.

  ‘What trouble have you got yourself into, pet?’ she asked as the sirens grew closer.

  ‘Did you know that they can cure cancer in America, Mrs Shanley,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, love,’ she said, and tears sprang in her eyes. ‘Please stay. Whatever you’ve done, we’ll work everything out.’

  ‘I can’t. Not yet. Tell them, Mrs Shanley, won’t you?’ he said, and the sirens sounded so close we started running and we didn’t stop until we arrived at our spot in the forest.

  Charlie was there, hanging upside down from a tree, her eyes red from crying. Sumo had the large bag of money between his legs. Walker was walking around in circles.

  ‘About time,’ he said.

  ‘They were at Johnny J’s,’ I said.

  ‘That means they know about us all,’ Charlie said as she jumped down off the tree. We sat around the picnic table. I could picture them in my house, telling tales and upsetting my parents’ morning. If Rich was awake he was probably loving this, although now that Johnny J was in his band maybe he’d be concerned. Either way, we were in very big trouble.

  ‘But how?’ I asked. ‘How could they know it was us?’

  Walker put up his hand. ‘It was me,’ he said, and no one understood what he was talking about. ‘I overheard them telling my mam. My jacket – Titch grabbed it off me. My name was stitched into the lining.’

  ‘Oh, Walker!’ I said.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think.’ I could see that he felt terrible. There was no point in saying anything to him. Every kid in the country had their name sewn into clothes back then. It was just something mothers did.

  ‘What now?’ Sumo said.

  Walker got up and walked around in circles again before shaking his head wearily and looking to me.

  ‘We save Mrs Tulsi,’ I said.

  ‘We need to buy that plane ticket,’ Johnny J said.

  ‘And then what?’ Charlie said.

  ‘We post the ticket and some cash to Mrs Tulsi and we go on the run,’ I said.

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘How long does the post take?’ I said.

  Walker thought about it and sniffed and held his swollen nose. ‘Two days.’

  ‘Look, the important thing is we get Mrs Tulsi on a plane, so we buy the ticket, post it and stay hidden until she is in America,’ I said, and everyone agreed.

  ‘What then?’ Charlie asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said.

  Everyone grew very quiet. We were all scared and sad and sick. It was a terrible moment. It was time to open the bag of money and count out the amount we needed for the ticket. Sumo lifted the bag onto the picnic table and unzipped it, and as soon as he touched the stacks of cash, there was a massive purple explosion. We all ducked, except for Sumo. He turned to me with a purple face and blinking eyes.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked, looking at his purple hand.

  ‘You’re purple,’ I said. Then I looked at the money. ‘The money is purple too.’

  We all looked from a purple Sumo to a pale Walker.

  ‘Did you know about this?’ Charlie asked. ‘What is this stuff?’

  ‘They’re dye packs,’ said Walker.

  We all looked at him as if he was talking a different language.

  ‘They’re set to explode if the money is robbed,’ he explained.

  ‘Well, why didn’t you mention it?’ I almost screamed.

  ‘I’ve seen it on the TV! I didn’t actually think they were used in real life!’ he said.

  ‘This comes off, right?’ Sumo said, rubbing his hand.

  ‘No, don’t touch it!’ Walker said. ‘The whole point is that it stains.’

  ‘Oh no,’ Sumo said.

  Johnny J didn’t care if it stained him. He opened the bag up and shook all the money out on the picnic table, looking for enough unstained notes to buy his mam a ticket to America. He was frantic, until eventually he found a stack that was untouched by the dye.

  ‘One thousand and five pounds,’ he said, and he held it close to his chest. ‘With the other money, it’s plenty.’ We took the unstained cash and left the rest – it was no good to us and just weighed us down. Although we had the money we needed, we also now had a large purple-faced Sumo that would give us away to law enforcement.

  ‘What do we do about Sumo?’ I asked.

  Charlie took her pink scarf off. ‘Put this on,’ she said, and Sumo wrapped it around his face, only leaving room for his eyes.

  ‘It looks too obvious,’ I said.

  ‘It’s better than purple dye,’ she said.

  I disagreed, but we didn’t have time for an argument. It wouldn’t be long before the police started combing the forest for us. We needed to go.

  ‘We’ll get a mask for him in town. Now it’s time to go,’ Charlie said, and we were on the move once more.

  32

  The Ticket

  We took the bus into town. We sat at the back on the top deck. It was a Friday. There were no World Cup games on that day, but the city was still decked out in green, white and gold and everyone who passed us seemed to have an extra pep in their step, strangers saying ‘Howya’ to one another and everyone smiling, laughing, upbeat. The sun was still shining and it felt like the only people with troubles in Dublin, Ireland, that day were us and our families. Every time I thought about my family I wanted to cry. They had been so happy the night before. I had ruined that now. Sorry, Mam and Dad. Sorry, Rachel. Sorry, Rich.

  We got off the bus on O’Connell Street. There was a travel agent on the corner of Talbot Street. Charlie went off in search of a mask, Sumo hid in a doorway and Johnny J and I went inside while Walker watched for police. The bell rang out as the door opened and a blonde lady in a red suit and white silk scarf looked up from her computer and smiled at us.

  ‘How can I help?’

  ‘We’d like to buy a ticket for New York, please,’ Johnny J said, and she looked us up and down and pointed.

  ‘You’d like a ticket for New York?’

  Johnny J nodded. ‘It’s for my mam.’

  ‘Oh, and she sent you to buy it?’ she said.

  ‘She’s not well.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Sit down.’ She pointed to some chairs in front of a desk.

  We sat down. I put my backpack, which held the money, under the chair and between my legs.

  ‘When would she like to travel?’ she said.

  Johnny J and I looked at one another. Good question.

  ‘As soon as possible,’ I said, and Johnny J nodded furiously.

  ‘Yeah, ASAP.’

  ‘OK,’ she said, ‘well, it will take about a week for the ticket to be processed and sent out, so I’ll book for fourteen days from now.’fn1

  How were we going to outsmart the law for two whole weeks? Johnny J looked like he was about to throw up.

  ‘I was hoping for sooner,’ he said, and the lady laughed.

  ‘We’re not magicians,�
� she said.

  ‘It’s fine,’ I said.

  ‘The ticket costs seven hundred and eighty pounds,’ she said.

  ‘Grand,’ I said. I opened my bag and counted out the money.

  When I handed her the exact amount, she looked from us to the cash and I held my breath. Then she smiled and nodded. ‘Right then.’

  She asked us loads of questions about Johnny J’s mam, including her middle name, the details of her address and phone number, and then he answered questions about what meal she’d like and where she’d like to sit on the plane. He said she’d have the chicken and asked if they’d seat her beside the toilet if possible.

  ‘So you’ll have those tickets out to her ASAP,’ he said as we were leaving.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said.

  ‘Just before you go – does she have a visa?’ she asked.

  ‘A visa?’ Johnny J looked from the travel agent to me.

  ‘Yes, a visa to get her into America?’

  ‘I don’t think so. Does she need a visa?’

  ‘Oh yes.’

  ‘Well, how does she get one?’ Johnny J sounded very upset.

  ‘She’ll have to go to the American Embassy.’ She riffled through a drawer and handed us a lot of forms. ‘She’ll need to fill out forms like these.’

  ‘In the embassy?’ Johnny J asked.

  I pushed forward. ‘And then she can go to America?’

  ‘Unless she has a criminal record,’ she said, and she smiled.

  ‘No, she doesn’t,’ Johnny J said.

  ‘Good, shouldn’t be a problem then.’

  We met up and all headed to a doughnut shop on O’Connell Street and sat around a table eating doughnuts bought with the proceeds of crime and working out our next move. We all agreed that the only thing we could do was post a letter to Mrs Tulsi telling her to get an American visa and to expect a ticket to turn up within ten days.

  ‘Of course, that makes her an accomplice to our crimes,’ Walker said.

  ‘Well, being an accomplice is better than being dead,’ Johnny J said. He was right.

  We finished up our doughnuts and headed to the General Post Office and congregated in a corner of the giant room. Johnny J wrote a letter to his mam and Uncle Ted on the back of an old brown paper bag that someone had left in the wastebasket.

  Dear Mam and Uncle Ted,

  There’s a ticket on the way to you for America. Please use it. Here’s money for expenses. Please get on the flight and get a taxi and go to the hospital – ask the taxi man which hospital is the best one for you. Walker says that taxi men know everything. They will fix you, Mam. I’m sorry that we couldn’t get enough money to send Uncle Ted with you and I’m sorry I’ve had to go away. Please tell the Finns, Browns, Lanes and Eastmans that we are all OK and that we are very sorry for everything.

  I’ll miss you, Mam, but I’ll see you again.

  USE THAT TICKET.

  Big love,

  Johnny J.

  PS Uncle Ted, please check Mam’s passport is up to date and take her to the American Embassy to get a visa. It’s very important. Thanks, Johnny J.

  I handed him most of the money we had left, only keeping one hundred pounds for us. I figured one hundred pounds would do the five of us for as long as we needed it. He put the money and letter into a big envelope, sealed it and posted it.

  ‘What now?’ he said.

  ‘Now we hide,’ I said.

  ‘Where?’ Charlie said, and we all just stood there in the middle of the General Post Office, not having a clue where to go.

  ‘The zoo?’ Sumo said. We all looked at him, hiding behind the pink scarf. He just shrugged. ‘I just like the zoo,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Maybe hide out in the Dublin Mountains?’ Charlie suggested.

  ‘What if it rains?’ I asked.

  ‘I’ll die out on a mountain,’ Walker said, and then took a blast of his inhaler just to make his point.

  After what seemed like a really long time, Sumo put his purple hand up in the air. ‘My Auntie Nora has a caravan in Wexford.’

  ‘Any chance she’d be there?’ I said.

  ‘Nah,’ he said. ‘She hates Wexford.’

  ‘Do you know how to get there?’

  He hunched. ‘Mam and I got the train down a few times. The place is called Strawberry Beach Park.’

  ‘That’ll do,’ I said, and we walked outside onto the street. I saw a taxi coming up the road and I put my hand out.

  ‘Taxi,’ I shouted.

  The guy stopped.

  ‘Will you take five of us?’ I said.

  ‘I’ll take ten of you if you’re paying,’ he said.

  We all piled in.

  ‘Where to?’ he said.

  ‘Heuston Train Station,’ I answered, and that was it. Johnny J, Sumo, Walker, Charlie and I were officially on the run.

  33

  The Train

  In the summer of 1990, trains were not as they are today. They were slower. The engine was a lot louder. The carriages were attached to one another by something that looked like a bockety old rubberised concertina. The seams between the carriages shook and shuddered and felt really unsafe. I always jumped over them. Charlie seemed to like them though. She stood right on the dodgy join with her arms spread wide and her fingers touching each side of the rubberised wall. She closed her eyes and just shuddered and shook for the longest time.

  Sumo, Walker, Johnny J and I sat opposite one another in two two-seaters with a table between us. It was like the picnic table in our forest, except the seats had backs and instead of timber slates they were solid and the fabric was so rough that it felt like they had been upholstered in carpet. The table had cigarette burns in it, but other than that it was covered in crisps, chocolate and really dry sandwiches we’d bought from the cart.fn1

  The carriage was busy but not full. Four girls in their twenties sat opposite us. Even though it was early in the day, they were drinking and singing songs about love. One of the girls was wearing a veil and a set of L-plates. They were louder than the really loud train engine. They tried to talk to us.

  ‘Where you off to, boys?’ the girl with the veil said.

  ‘Nowhere,’ Walker said.

  ‘Oh yeah, where’s that then?’ she said.

  ‘It’s just past none of your business,’ he said, and I was worried he was being a bit rude, but the girls laughed.fn2

  ‘Hey, Scarf-face?’ another girl said, and she was talking to Sumo. ‘What age are you?’ She had so much black eye make-up on that at first glance you could be forgiven for thinking a panda had escaped from the zoo.

  Sumo froze.

  ‘Thirty-five,’ Walker said.

  ‘Is he the only one with a mouth?’ she said, and the rest of us just stared at her, scared to say a word. Although we were criminals, we weren’t as confident or as rude as Walker.

  ‘We’ll get a taxi to Strawberry Beach Park,’ I whispered to the others.

  ‘Do they have taxis in Wexford town?’ Johnny J said.

  It was a good question. I didn’t know. ‘There will definitely be a bus?’ I said, but everyone could tell I wasn’t sure.

  ‘Ah have you ever been to Wexford?’ Walker said. ‘It’s a country kip.’

  ‘No, it’s not, it’s lovely,’ Sumo said.

  ‘So why does your auntie hate it then?’

  ‘Because my mam says she has a cold soul,’ he said.

  ‘How far is it from the train station?’ I asked.

  ‘Dunno,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t paying attention.’

  Charlie returned to the table and grabbed a sandwich. Johnny J tried to make room for her by pushing me into the window. She sat on the arm of his seat.

  ‘I’ve been thinking – we just have to keep our heads down for two weeks, time for Johnny J’s mam to get a visa to America and for that ticket to come in the post. As soon as she’s gone we can hand ourselves in –’

  ‘Hand ourselves in?’
Walker said.

  ‘Well, what do you think we’re going to do, genius?’ she said, and Walker was stumped.

  ‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘In the meantime, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been to the beach, so let’s make this a holiday, the best holiday ever.’

  ‘Because after we hand ourselves in we’re going to be locked up?’ Walker said.

  ‘Probably,’ she said, ‘but if Johnny J’s mam survives it will be worth it.’ She looked around at us. ‘Won’t it, Jeremy? I mean, that’s what you’ve been thinking all along, isn’t it?’ she said.

  ‘I suppose so,’ I said, and for some reason I cheered up a little. ‘No matter what happens to us, it’ll be worth it.’

  Sumo nodded and slapped the table. ‘Totally worth it.’

  Walker sighed. ‘Yeah, absolutely, of course,’ he said. ‘Of course, we’ll probably die because our mams will murder us before we ever get to jail.’

  We all nodded. ‘Yeah.’

  Johnny J grinned at us and he looked like he might cry, but he didn’t. I wished I could be more grown-up like Johnny J. ‘Best friends ever,’ he said, and beamed at all of us.

  ‘That’s it then,’ Charlie said. ‘We’re going on holiday.’

  Suddenly I felt a weight lifting. I didn’t have to pretend that we weren’t going to get caught any more, because we were! Now all we had to do was have two weeks of the best fun ever, and after that? Well, I didn’t want to think about after that and neither did anyone else. We spent the rest of the train journey playing games of I spy and laughing at jokes, and we even joined in when the girls opposite sang Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ for the fifth time in an hour.

  34

  The Town

  We stepped off the train in Wexford and we may as well have been in a foreign country. It’s hard to describe how, but it was just so different from Dublin. It was even warmer for a start! I was sweating buckets before we left the station. The town was weird; the shops were all different colours and one of them had a straw roof. There were two horses just randomly tied to lamp posts, eating feed from bags. There was a man and a donkey walking down the centre of the road, and instead of beeping him all the cars just went around him. The strangest thing of all was everyone waved at each other and said hello and stopped to talk about the weather and how good it was. The accents were odd – some of them I couldn’t even understand. The only thing that felt familiar was the green, white and gold bunting that hung around the lamp posts and fluttered above the town.