Joined at the Hip

by Natasha West

  ‘Fine! But if I get to that’ she pointed at a shrub twenty-five feet away, ‘you drive me home right this minute.’

  ‘Gladly’ Jamie said.

  Molly span on her heel and began to walk away, trying to affect a casual gait. She got most of the way to the shrub and it began to get harder. Three feet later and that was it. She could go no further. She turned to see Jamie holding onto the handle of the car door to steady herself, having learned a lesson from the last time.

  Molly turned back, still not ready to accept defeat, and tried to take another step. But it was as if there was the hand of a giant around her waist. She couldn’t go any further. She began to wave her hands all over her body, looking for something that might be attached. She still half believed that when she found the string, she’d turn around and Jamie and Max would be laughing at her.

  But there was nothing.

  It was a true mind fuck of a moment. All Molly could do was scream at the sky. And so she did.

  Max plugged his ears as Molly gave the primal cry. But Jamie understood it. She wanted to do the same herself.

  They watched Molly scream out her frustration and confusion. It went on for a few seconds. Once she was done, she stayed where she was for a moment, panting, bent double with the exertion of her scream.

  And then she stood straight and turned to Jamie and Max. She walked back to them slowly. They waited, not sure what to expect of her.

  ‘Right then. We need to find this kid’ Molly said calmly.

  Five

  They were all back in the SUV, headed towards town. A fresh argument was already in full swing.

  ‘I don’t see why we can’t go to my house?!’ Molly was demanding. ‘My Mum’ll be wanting to know where I am.’

  ‘Are there security cameras in your shop?’ Max asked from the passenger seat. He’d thought it best to let Jamie drive at the moment. God knows, she’d lost a lot of control over her life tonight. Driving the car was slim consolation but better than nothing.

  ‘Yeah, we’ve got cameras’ Molly answered.

  ‘OK. Now cast your mind back to earlier. How did we leave the place?’ he asked.

  Molly began to see what he meant.

  ‘And we showed our faces to your camera’ Max said with a look to Jamie.

  ‘You didn’t have to show yours’ Jamie said defensively.

  ‘Once yours was off, it was all over’ Max said irritably.

  ‘So what you’re saying is that the police will be looking for you.’ Molly asked, not wanting to get side-tracked by a sibling squabble.

  ‘Yeah, so if you turn up at your Mum’s with us in tow, the first thing she’ll do is call the police.’

  ‘Actually, I think the first thing she’ll do is lecture me for leaving the shop unattended…’ her voice faded out as she realised something. ‘Oh god!’

  Jamie turned in the car.

  ‘What?’

  ‘She’s going to look at the footage and think I’ve been kidnapped! She’s gonna be worried sick!’

  ‘This is such a shit storm’ Jamie muttered to herself.

  ‘It’ll be alright. I’ll call her and explain’ Molly said, mostly talking to herself.

  ‘And how are you going to explain?’ Jamie asked.

  Molly’s closed mouth was her answer. There wasn’t a way to explain any of this. Not in any way her Mother could understand. Not when Molly didn’t even understand it herself.

  ‘We’re just gonna sneak you into ours. But try and avoid our Dad. He’s got a nose for a lie.’

  ‘But if you do cross his path’ Jamie added, ‘You’re my… friend. From school.’

  Molly snorted.

  ‘Something funny about that?’ Jamie asked sharply.

  ‘No’ Molly said quickly.

  There was quiet in the car after that.

  ‘So, I get the key in the door and Molly, you follow me upstairs. Max, you’re running interference if Dad’s still awake. Ready?’

  Molly and Max nodded.

  She unlocked the door of the house and they went into the small hallway. Molly glanced around the space, it was pokey and clearly hadn’t been decorated in at least twenty years.

  All was quiet. Jamie thought they’d been lucky as they crept towards the foot of the stairs.

  Then a light switched on in the living room off the hallway. Leo Jenson was still very much awake. He’d been waiting for them, sat in the dark, in his armchair. The dramatic switching on of the light reminded Molly of her Mother. It was a total Vera move.

  ‘Well, well, well’ he said, standing from the chair. He was a chubby guy with stubble and a thick estuary accent, which gave him a tendency to drop his H’s, even when he didn’t need to. It was almost as though no one was ever allowed to forget what a cockney wide boy he’d once been. ‘What’s going on ‘ere then?’

  ‘Dad!’ Max said, stepping right in front of Jamie and Molly.‘I’m glad you’re up, I wanted to speak to you-’

  But Leo wasn’t diverted in the slightest. He hadn’t missed the young female stranger wearing a blue tabard, stood in his house. He stepped around Max, whose voice trailed off.

  ‘And ‘oo might you be?’ he said to Molly.

  Molly looked wildly from Jamie to Max, looking for rescue. Jamie came to her aid ‘Her name’s Molly, she’s a friend. She’s staying the night. And we’re tired, so-’

  ‘I don’t understand why we’re ‘avin houseguests, tonight of all nights. I thought you two would be pretty busy?’ he said, looking to his kids. He couldn’t come straight out and talk specifics, not in front of a random. That was pissing him off on its own. But what was really getting underneath his skin was his strong suspicion something had gone awry with the job.

  ‘Can we talk about it in the morning, Dad?’ Jamie pleaded.

  But Leo was not one to cut anyone slack, not when it came to money.

  ‘Just tell me tonight went off alright and there’s nothing more to say’ he said, a black note of warning in his gruff voice.

  Jamie looked down.

  ‘Right. So what I’m starting to understand is that not only did you fuck it up, but then you’ he pointed at Jamie ‘decided to cheer yourself up by picking up some skirt? Have I got that right?’

  Molly gawped at Leo, aghast. She hadn’t seen that one coming. So Jamie not only liked girls, but tended to pick up strange ones? It was an insight she hadn’t expected from the night. But then again, it was a night for the unexpected.

  Still, she wasn’t prepared to be cast in the role of anybody’s ‘Skirt’. She opened her mouth to correct Leo, happening to catch a look from Jamie. She was giving her a look of caution. Molly closed her mouth, understanding what Jamie was trying to convey. Being thought of as his daughter’s one-night stand was simpler than trying to explain the truth.

  Jamie shrugged at her Dad and said ‘Dad, can you please not do this in front of her’, nodding at Molly.

  Leo’s mouth puckered and his brow creased. He looked like he might blow. But with a glance to Molly, he knew that wasn’t an option.

  ‘Get to bed then. But this conversation is not finished. We might need to talk about responsibility and living arrangements’ he said, darkly. He walked past the group and up the stairs.

  Jamie flushed with mortification. She’d been put in her place in front of Max and Molly. And it was only a taster of what she’d be getting tomorrow.

  Max sensed his sister’s humiliation and said ‘Why does he never assume any of the strange women that come through this house are mine?’

  Jamie gave him a small, grateful smile. ‘Because you don’t have my game, that’s why.’

  Molly watched the moment between the siblings and noticed something she’d missed before. They were tight.

  Max had just rescued his sister from the embarrassment of what had just happened with her Dad, and he’d sacrificed his own reputation to do it. He’d made the moment about his sister’s sexual success instead of her apparent failure. And she’d obv
iously known what he was doing and said thank you without the words ever leaving her lips. Molly, as an only child, felt a pang of envy.

  ‘Come on’ Max said. ‘Let’s get upstairs and figure out what we’re gonna do now.’

  Upstairs, in Jamie’s room, Molly and Jamie sat on the bed while Max sat in an armchair near the window. Molly couldn’t help but look around. The room was covered in clothes. The floor, the end of the bed, the dresser was almost buried in them. And they were the kind of clothes that Molly would never have had the confidence to wear. They were bold colours and tight fit. Jamie, even amidst this night, was clearly the type of girl who was easy in her own skin. That much screamed out of her. Not like Molly.

  ‘I still don’t get how some boy who looked like his balls had barely dropped could have done something like this’ Jamie was saying, tiredly.

  ‘Maybe it’s something to do with puberty’ Max pondered. ‘Like Carrie? She got her Auntie Flo and then boom! She was throwing people about like they were tennis balls.’

  Jamie bit her lip as she thought about that. When she’d hit puberty at thirteen, a lot of people had called her a little witch, so maybe there was something in it. What if he was some kind of warlock?

  ‘Look’ Molly interrupted, trying not to look at the poster of Megan Fox that was staring down at her from Jamie’s wall ‘what difference does it make? We just need to find him.’

  ‘And how the hell do we do that?’ Jamie asked.

  Molly shrugged and said ‘Milcroft.’

  ‘Milcroft?’ Jamie asked, perplexed.

  ‘The local school, ten minutes from Quick Snack. He was wearing his school uniform; the crest was on his chest. He definitely goes there.’

  ‘That narrows it down’ Jamie said. ‘So what, we go there tomorrow and catch him as he goes in?’

  ‘Great’ Max said, jumping quickly up from his armchair. ‘So that’s that and I’m going to bed before any other calamities happen. See you both in the morning’ he finished and dashed out before anyone could stop him.

  It was only then that Jamie and Molly realised they’d be sharing a room tonight, the connection making it impossible to do anything else. They looked at each other.

  ‘Well’ Jamie said ‘I’m sleeping in my bed. So you can share or take the floor. Your choice.’

  ‘Floor’ Molly said immediately.

  Later on, after some awkward bed preparations, t shirts handed out, sleeping bag dug out from underneath the bed, people having to turn while the other got undressed etc., Molly was lying on the floor, a few feet from Jamie’s bed. The light was off and she was staring at the ceiling, wide awake. She was trying to understand the route from A to B.

  A was her standing behind the counter of the mart, bored out of her skull. B was right here, on this floor, feet from the woman who’d tried to rob her, attached to her by a mystical curse. But there was no connecting the dots. There was no logic that could be applied. Yet that didn’t stop Molly from trying.

  Jamie was also wide awake, unbeknown to Molly. But she wasn’t trying to understand what was happening. It was just another disaster and in that sense, it seemed like a natural development of the way things had been going for her for quite a while now.

  First off, the job. The ‘Apprenticeship’ with her Dad was not her choosing but it was the only choice given to her. And then when Max had come of age, he’d been given the same choice. None at all. No one had ever really asked them if it was what they wanted. Leo didn’t ask questions. He gave orders.

  And their Mum hadn’t been any use in preventing it. She’d decided she couldn’t take any more of this haphazard life and scarpered three years ago. But Jamie and Max had stayed. Not out of loyalty. Their Mum had simply not extended the invitation to escape the party to her kids. Jamie tried not to think about that. But she couldn’t help but wonder how Max felt about it. It was the one thing they never talked about.

  So tonight had been bungled and if Jamie was honest with herself, it had not been that unexpected. Jamie and Max weren’t what you’d call natural criminals. They were fine as subordinates, acting under orders. But if tonight had shown anything, it was that their hearts weren’t really in it.

  And now this? Molly the Till Girl? When you got right down to it, it was just the kind of thing that would happen to Jamie. Just another weight to drag, another person to carry. It was nothing new.

  ‘Are you still awake’ Molly suddenly whispered, breaking into Jamie’s maudlin thoughts.

  ‘Yeah.’

  There was a pause and then Molly asked nervously ‘This is really weird, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah. Totally fucking weird’ Jamie replied.

  She waited for Molly to say more, but she was quiet.

  ‘Was that it?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘Yes. I just wanted to hear someone acknowledge it. I feel like I’m losing my mind and you and your brother are just carrying on like it’s no big deal that we’re trapped together by a curse from a teenage boy.’

  Molly heard Jamie sigh.

  ‘What can I say? Life’s weird.’

  ‘People always say that. And I thought I knew what they meant. But there’s weird. And then there’s this.’

  ‘I don’t know what to tell you. I’m just trying to keep it together until we can break the curse. Once that’s done, I might just let my mind snap’ Jamie said.

  Molly and Jamie began to drift off to sleep, some kind of peace brought to them both by simply admitting how fucked up all this really was.

  Six

  At eight thirty the next morning, three people were peeping out from behind a large oak tree on Davis Road, looking at the large wrought iron gates of Milcroft Comprehensive. Rowdy kids had been piling in for a while, but so far, no one had spotted the curse thrower.

  ‘What about that one?’ Jamie asked, pointing at a boy walking into the gates, swinging his bag from side to side.

  ‘No, he was shorter than that’ Max replied.

  ‘Him?’ Jamie suggested, pointing at another boy.

  Max squinted. ‘Maybe? Not sure.’

  Jamie turned to Molly, who had been silent thus far.

  ‘You’re the one who should know him. He knew you. He said your name.’.

  ‘I don’t know how he knew my name’ Molly defended. ‘I didn’t know his, I can promise you that. Anyway, all these teenage boys look the same to me. Acne, whiskers on their chins, goofy teeth. They’re about as distinctive as Minions.’

  Jamie had to admit she was right; they were all quite similar. She turned to see Max rubbing his chin defensively. She realised that at twenty, he was barely out of his teens.

  ‘S’alright Max, you’re well out of the awkward phase. And you turned out alright.’

  ‘Dya reckon?’ Max asked casually, pretending not to care.

  ‘Yeah. Obviously, I got most of the hot genes. But you didn’t do badly.’

  Max tried not to smile.

  Molly, who’d been telling herself that the second she could get away from this pair of thieves the better, felt the slightest twinge of warmth toward them.

  ‘Hey!’ a voice cried out suddenly, startling all three of them. They turned to see a woman walking across the street, in her sixties, wearing a severe suit. She was looking right at them.

  Molly, Jamie and Max all froze, still half hidden behind the tree. But they’d definitely been spotted.

  ‘Can I help you?’ Jamie said, stepping out from behind the tree with a dash of quickly conjured confidence. This woman looked a bit angry, better to head her off directly.

  ‘Do any of you have kids here?’ she asked. But she obviously knew the answer. None of them could be old enough to have a teenage child.

  ‘No’ Jamie answered, confused. And then it hit her. They were three people, hiding behind a tree, watching children. She looked over at Max, hoping he’d be able to come up with a reasonable explanation for what they were doing. But his face was blank as white canvas.

  ‘Then can you expla
in what-’ the woman began.

  ‘We’re here for the assembly’ Molly said abruptly. She didn’t know what had made her say it. But it was out of her mouth now.

  Jamie and Max turned in surprise to Molly but then they heard the woman, who was no doubt a teacher of some sort at the school, say ‘Oh!’ There was an unmistakable relief to her tone. Whatever unsavoury thing she’d thought they were doing had been wiped from her mind by Molly’s lie.