Missing

by Cathy MacPhail

  She awoke with a start, little beads of sweat on her brow, her face flushed. Thank heaven she was awake!

  The phone was ringing. ‘I’ll get it,’ she called downstairs.

  The house was quiet now. The early-evening sun darting in and out of clouds sent shafts of light along the landing.

  She picked up the extension outside her bedroom. ‘Hello?’

  She waited for an answer. Someone was there. She could hear them breathing. Short, nervous breaths. ‘Hello?’ she said again.

  ‘Maxie ...?’

  No one had ever called her that except ...

  ‘Yes, it’s Maxine. Who’s this?’

  There was another pause and at precisely that second the sun appeared from behind a cloud and light exploded along the hallway. Maxine was always to remember that moment.

  ‘Maxie. It’s me ... it’s Derek.’

  c

  CHAPTER SIX

  Maxine slammed down the phone. She began to shake and couldn’t stop.

  Was she still dreaming? That was her first thought. That she was still lying on her bed, having a nightmare. Any moment now, she would wake up. She had to. She stared at her trembling hands.

  No. It wasn’t a dream, or a nightmare. She was standing here on the upstairs landing, and Derek had just phoned her.

  NO! NO! NO!

  That couldn’t be. Derek was dead.

  ‘It’s me, Derek.’ Had that been Derek’s voice? She couldn’t remember how his voice had sounded, but she was sure it had never been so deep.

  And, of course, it couldn’t be Derek. What was she thinking about?

  Yet ... Derek had always called her Maxie; he was the only one who ever had.

  Someone was playing tricks on her. Who could be so cruel? Could anyone?

  Maybe there had been no phone call. It had all been in her imagination. Yet here she was standing at the phone, hands still trembling on the receiver.

  ‘It’s me, Derek ...’

  There must be hundreds of boys called Derek. It wasn’t an unusual name. This was just another of them. A wrong number. Another Derek.

  ‘Maxie.’ He had called her Maxie! What were the chances of another Derek having a sister called Maxie?

  What was going on? Who had it been?

  Suddenly the phone began ringing again. Maxine almost screamed. He was phoning back!

  ‘I’ll get it, Maxine.’

  Her mother was padding across the hallway to the phone downstairs.

  No! She mustn’t answer it. That would be too cruel. Mum had been through enough.

  Maxine grabbed for the receiver and lifted it, shouting at the same time, ‘Got it, Mum. I’ve got it.’

  The footsteps stopped. ‘Fine, dear. Who is it?’

  Maxine held the receiver far away from her ear. She didn’t want to hear that voice again. Didn’t want to speak.

  ‘Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?’

  It was her gran. Maxine almost screeched with delight. ‘Gran! It’s great hearing from you.’

  ‘Goodness, you sound pleased to hear my voice. If I’d thought I’d get a welcome like this, I would have phoned sooner.’

  Her gran was wonderful. She had some strange job where she used flip charts and gave ‘motivational’ talks to business people. She was always jetting off to one foreign place or another. If she lived closer, or stayed in one place for any length of time, Maxine was sure she would be able to talk to her, to tell her things. Her gran was smart.

  ‘I’m actually phoning from Sydney. I just wondered how your mum is.’

  ‘Who is it, Maxine?’ Mum called.

  ‘You can ask her yourself, Gran.’ She shouted downstairs, ‘It’s Gran.’ She giggled. ‘She’s phoning from Sydney’s.’

  Before her mum picked up the receiver, Gran said softly, ‘Are you managing all right, dear?’

  If Mum hadn’t been on the line, Maxine might have told her about the phone call. Gran’s common sense would have made everything normal. But Mum was there now. It was impossible to speak. ‘I’m fine, Gran. Honest. Love you.’

  ‘Love you too, sweetheart.’

  She put down the phone. Her hands had stopped shaking. Gran’s sensible voice coming down the line had made that other voice seem an age away. Unreal somehow. She didn’t want to think about it.

  ‘Bet you didn’t tell your mother about this fortune teller coming!’ Dad said sharply when Mum finally came off the phone. Mum’s face flushed and Maxine knew he was right.

  ‘No. Of course you didn’t. Because you know exactly what your mother would have said. Voodoo mumbo jumbo nonsense!’

  ‘You don’t agree with it, Jim,’ Mum said softly. ‘But you promised you wouldn’t interfere. You promised.’

  His face lost its anger. Tenderness filled it again. He touched his wife’s hand.

  ‘You know I won’t. I don’t want you to do it.’ He sighed. ‘But I’ll stay with you.’

  Mum lifted his hand and held it against her cheek. And Maxine, standing watching them from the doorway, couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her mother making such a loving gesture to her dad.

  The fortune teller – medium – didn’t look a bit like Maxine had expected. She was bursting out of the flowery dress she was wearing, which was also far too short for her. She had obviously just finished her late-night shopping at the freezer centre and she pushed the bags at Maxine. ‘Put these in the freezer for me, hen. I don’t want my thighs defrosted.’

  Her dad had started to cough at that – trying to stifle a giggle. Maxine almost giggled too.

  ‘By the way,’ the medium said, ‘my name is Luella Oribine.’

  Luella Oribine. Maxine ran the name around her tongue. It had a ring to it.

  ‘Are we in here, hen?’ She followed Mum into the dining room, waving Maxine and her frozen thighs away to the kitchen.

  When Maxine returned, the medium was lighting a cigarette without even asking if she could smoke. And Mum didn’t even give her any trouble. Maxine saw Dad glare at her. He was always sent out into the garden with his pipe whenever he wanted to smoke.

  He motioned Maxine back into the kitchen. ‘Do you believe her?’ he whispered when the door was safely closed. ‘I know what I’d like to do with her frozen thighs.’ They were both giggling as Luella Oribine popped her head round the kitchen door.

  ‘Are you coming, Mr Moody? I feel the vibes very strong tonight. Who knows, I might have a message for you as well.’ It was an order, not a suggestion.

  Dad looked at Maxine. ‘I suppose I have to.’ He turned again to Maxine at the door. ‘I think we should fasten our safety belts, honey ... we’re in for a bumpy night.’

  c

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Maxine stayed upstairs while the seance went ahead. She expected to hear weird noises, moans, ghostly voices. Instead, all she heard, quite clearly, was the strident tones of Luella Oribine.

  ‘I have a message for you, Mr Moody. From your father. He’s a happy man. He always knew there was a heaven and now he’s in it.’

  Bunkum! thought Maxine. She could just picture her dad’s expression as he listened. Incredulous, biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud.

  There were messages from aunts and uncles. Even neighbours who had ‘passed into the spirit world’, as she put it. According to Luella they were all crowding round her trying to get messages through. Every so often she would break off communications and scold one of them for their impatience.

  ‘I’m telling you for the last time! Shove me once more and you’re at the back of the queue!’

  Maxine ended up sitting in the kitchen so she could hear better. This was more fun than she had expected. I bet Dad is desperate to giggle, she thought. But he wouldn
’t. This was too important to Mum, and there was only one message she wanted to hear.

  Finally, it came.

  ‘Ah, your boy ... that’s who you’re waiting for, isn’t it?’

  Maxine held her breath. Surely she wasn’t really going to bring a message from Derek?

  Mum’s voice trembled as she answered. ‘He was alone. He ... died alone ... I want him to know ... we cared ... how much we cared ...’ Her voice broke. She was crying. Maxine couldn’t quite hear her father’s murmured words of comfort.

  ‘He understands.’ Luella’s voice was gentle now. She sounded so different.

  ‘He wants me to tell you. He loves you. He always did.’ Then her voice became so low and indistinct that Maxine could no longer make out what she was saying.

  Finally she heard her say, ‘He wants you to be happy. To get on with your life. For his sake. That’s the important thing now.’

  Yes! Yes! Maybe this fortune teller hadn’t been such a crazy idea after all. If she made Mum forget about the past and get on with her life.

  ‘He says he loves you all. And he’s very happy where he is.’

  Her mother’s voice when she answered that was almost a whisper. But there was so much relief in her words. ‘Is he? Is he honestly?’

  Luella Oribine left soon afterwards. The gentle voice was gone. She was back to what Maxine felt was her usual self, cigarette in her mouth, demanding her frozen thighs. Maxine had by this time decided she liked her and smiled broadly as she handed them over.

  Dad’s attitude too seemed to have changed. He shook her hand warmly.

  ‘Thank you. I appreciate what you said tonight.’

  She took the cigarette out of her mouth and smiled. ‘I hope it helps. She has to get on with her life. There’s so much sadness here.’ She looked around and her eyes rested on Maxine. A puzzled frown settled on her face. One that Maxine couldn’t understand.

  Then she shook her head and turned back to Dad. ‘If you ever need me again, you know where to find me.’

  Dad closed the door thoughtfully.

  ‘Dad, was that really Derek giving her a message?’

  He looked up at Maxine’s question. He sighed, and took a while to answer. Finally he straightened up. ‘Bunkum!’ he snapped. ‘But if it helps your mum, Maxine, if it gets things back to normal around here, I don’t care. I just don’t care!’

  Over the next few days, Maxine forgot about the phone call. Began to imagine it had never really happened. Mum seemed better too. Elated almost. For the first few days after the seance Maxine was happier than she’d been in a long time. But it wasn’t to last.

  Saturday was a beautiful day. Dad was out playing golf, Mum was in the kitchen fitting new shelves. Maxine had a lie-in and was still half asleep as she came downstairs. She heard her mother murmuring something and expected to see someone with her when she entered the kitchen. But the room was empty.

  ‘Is this even?’ Mum held the shelf for Maxine to judge.

  ‘Looks even to me. Who was here? I heard you talking to someone.’

  Mum didn’t even look at her. ‘Derek,’ she said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. ‘Derek is here.’

  Maxine felt the blood drain from her face. What was happening to her mum?

  Her mum turned to her, her face radiant. ‘I’m not going crazy. I know he’s ... well, I know he isn’t here in the physical sense.’ She smiled. ‘But since the seance, I’ve felt him so close, watching me. With me. My son.’

  Maxine wanted to cry. Instead she shouted, ‘There’s no one here, Mum. I’m here! I’m the only one who’s here!’

  Her mother was hardly listening. ‘Have you ever felt sometimes that someone was watching you? I’ve felt that for a long time now.’

  Maxine shivered. How often had she felt that? Was this the explanation? The ghost of her dead brother had been watching over them all along? Her mother had no doubt anyway.

  ‘Now I know the reason. Derek. The seance brought him back to me, and now ... I’m never going to lose him again.’

  Maxine ran from the house in tears. She was never going to be rid of Derek. Even in death, he was pushing her out of her mother’s life!

  I hate him! I hate him! She almost screamed it aloud, running, where to she didn’t know. People looked at her in annoyance as she plummeted into them and then ran on without a word.

  Suddenly there were footsteps behind her, closing in on her. Hands grabbed at her shoulders, whirling her around. ‘Maxine, what’s wrong?’

  It was Cam, looking genuinely worried about her. Cam! He was clever. Cam would understand what was going on. He would know what to do. Cam would help her. She was going to tell Cam everything!

  c

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  They went to a nearby café and there, Maxine poured it all out to him.

  ‘My mother says the very worst thing that can happen is to lose a child,’ Cam told her when she’d finished. ‘Your mum’s lost Derek twice. Just think what she must be going through.’

  Maxine almost stormed out of the café then. ‘Whose side are you on? I only told you because I thought you’d know how to help me.’

  ‘You have to understand your mother’s feelings. Be patient.’

  ‘I’m fed up being patient. Understanding. I want someone to understand me for a change.’

  ‘I understand.’ Cam pulled her back into her seat. ‘I wouldn’t like it either.’

  Maxine slumped down. ‘She gave me the creeps, Cam. She’s making me feel he’s there in the house. A ghost. And what about that phone call? Do you think it was Derek? It was strange I got the phone call the same night we had a seance. Maybe he came back to give Luella Oribine that message.’

  He looked at her as if she was crazy. ‘Don’t be stupid. Ghosts don’t make phone calls.’

  ‘Well ... who then?’

  ‘A crank. Someone who doesn’t like you ...’ He shrugged. ‘And there’s plenty of those about.’

  Was this him trying to be funny again? It was hard to tell when he didn’t even smile.

  ‘Someone who’s just plain nasty.’

  For a second a picture of Sweeney came into her head. Sweeney who was always watching her with a sneer. Sweeney, who might not pick on a girl openly, but could think up just such a devious plan to frighten her.

  Cam was still talking. ‘When things like this happen, cranks come out of the woodwork. I’m surprised you haven’t had more.’

  Maxine interrupted him excitedly. ‘Maybe we have, Cam.’

  She was remembering calls now. Long silent calls, when she would shout down the line, ‘Who’s there?’ And never receive an answer. She knew someone was there. She could remember the breathing, quick, nervous breathing, just like the other day. Then whoever it was would hang up and the line would go dead.

  ‘Just since Derek has died?’ Cam asked.

  Maxine nodded. ‘Yes. Over the past few weeks. Do you think I should tell my parents?’

  ‘Wait until you get another one,’ Cam said. ‘If you get another one. But just tell your dad. Not your mum.’ He hesitated, but she could imagine what he’d been about to say. Her mum was potty enough already.

  She wasn’t. Maxine almost told him. But she was near the edge of some kind of madness, even Maxine could see that.

  ‘And if you get another,’ Cam said slowly, as if he was explaining something to a stupid child, ‘dial 1471 to find out where they’re calling from. I don’t know why you didn’t do that the last time.’

  Typical Cam! ‘When you get a phone call from your dead brother you’re not exactly thinking straight, smart alec!’

  He smirked. The nearest thing she’d ever seen to a smile on his face. ‘OK, OK, keep your hair on.’

  She planned to tell
Dad anyway about her mother talking to Derek. That was scary. But when she came home she didn’t have to tell him anything. He already knew. That was clear from the vacant look on his face when she went into the living room.

  ‘I knew that seance was a mistake,’ he said at once. ‘Heard the latest? She can feel Derek touching her hair as she passes him. He’s with her all the time now.’ For a moment, Maxine felt they were together, that he too knew the feeling she had been experiencing for so long ... being shut out because of the memory of Derek. For the first time since her brother had gone, she didn’t feel so alone. Maybe now she had her father.

  ‘So ... what are we going to do about it, Dad?’

  He looked at her, puzzled. ‘Do? We’re not going to do anything. She’s happy. For the first time she seems happy. If it’s not going to do her any harm, if it helps her ... what’s the point of doing anything?’

  All Maxine’s hopes evaporated with those words. She was alone again.

  ‘If it helps her cope,’ her dad went on. ‘I don’t care ...’

  After that, Mum took to visiting other fortune tellers – mediums. (She would correct Maxine every time.) She returned happier with every visit. Maxine simply didn’t know what to do. If life had been hard before, it was impossible now.

  Hard at home, and hard at school. All the talk there was about Paul Wilson. He had finally given up coming to school and his parents had moved him somewhere else. Sweeney was jubilant. He had won again. He swaggered about the playground looking for his next victim, and every pupil avoided him. They didn’t want to be next.

  ‘How does he get away with it?’ Maxine said to Cam as they watched him. ‘He never seems to be the one to suffer.’

  ‘He’s devious,’ Cam said. ‘Careful who he picks on. Haven’t you noticed? Always the boys who come from good family backgrounds. With caring parents and settled family lives.’

  Maxine wasn’t sure she understood what he meant. ‘Why should that make a difference?’

  ‘When your parents went to the headmaster to complain about Sweeney, can you remember what they were told?’