Alice Next Door

by Judi Curtin

  Mum smiled again. She’s really quite pretty when she smiles. She should do it more often. ‘Don’t worry, love. It’s all arranged. I spoke to her mother yesterday. Alice’s music lesson will be over by the time we get there, and her dad isn’t going up until tomorrow. Now hurry up or we’ll miss the train.’

  I was so happy that I gave her a huge hug, and in my mind, I forgave her for the petition thing the day before. I didn’t tell her that, though, I didn’t want her getting ideas.

  The train journey seemed to take forever. Mum proved that she hadn’t totally lost it, so instead of tea and chocolate muffins, I got a healthy snack of sunflower seeds and organic apple juice. I didn’t care though.

  Next we got a taxi to Alice’s new apartment. I rang the buzzer, and could hardly stop myself from jumping up and down while I waited for an answer. Then I heard Alice’s voice. ‘Who is it?’ It was funny talking to a metal box. ‘It’s me. I mean, Megan.’

  She laughed. ‘Well, come on in. It’s the second floor.’ There was a clicking noise, and the door opened. Mum kissed me goodbye, and promised to be back to collect me at half past four. I looked at my watch. That was five and a half hours. Heaven. Then I ran up the stairs as fast as if there was a whole crowd of mad park-petitioners after me.

  Alice met me halfway up. We both stopped. I felt shy, which was really stupid, since I was only meeting my very best friend in the whole world who I hadn’t seen for five long weeks. She looked kind of shy as well, so I didn’t feel too bad. Then her mum’s voice floated down the stairs. ‘Alice O’Rourke, were you by any chance born in a field? Get up here and close that door.’

  We both laughed, and all of a sudden everything was OK. Alice put her arm over my shoulder. ‘Come on up, Megan. Welcome to my new life.’

  When we got into the apartment, Alice’s mum came out into the hallway and shook my hand. ‘Why, hello Megan. How very nice to see you.’ She didn’t look like she meant it. As usual she was dressed like a model, all slinky clothes and high-heeled pointy boots.

  Then Jamie came over. He looked smaller than I remembered. ‘Did you bring sweets?’

  I shook my head, and he immediately lost interest in me. Alice’s mum put on her coat, and bullied Jamie into his. ‘Now, Alice. You know I’m trusting you, so you have to be on your best behaviour. I’ve left you some sandwiches in the fridge. I’ll be back at five.’

  Then with a click-click of her very high heels she was gone. I could hardly believe it. I grinned at Alice and she grinned at me. Then she took me by the hand and pulled me into her bedroom. She lay on her bed, and I sat on a huge purple beanbag, and we said all the silly things we hadn’t been able to say for weeks. She laughed at all my funny stories about Melissa, and she made a face when I told her about the petition the day before.

  Then she told me about her school. It sounded just like any other school – pretty boring. Then I noticed that she looked really sad.

  ‘What’s wrong, Al? Is it awful?’

  She shook her head. ‘Not really. The teachers are OK. And some of the girls are quite nice. It’s just that I keep wishing that I was back in Limerick, that’s all. I miss Dad. I miss you. Sometimes I think I even miss Melissa.’

  I didn’t know what to say. Alice was usually so positive, I didn’t know how to cope with this new, sad girl.

  Then she shook her head like she was trying to push away all the bad thoughts. She jumped up and smiled. ‘Anyway, enough moaning. Let’s go out for something to eat.’

  I was shocked. I’d never been out to eat without an adult before. ‘But didn’t your mum say she’s left us some food?’

  Alice laughed. ‘Oh, yeah, that. Let’s check it out.’ She led me back into the kitchen, and pulled open the fridge door. She took out a plate covered in foil. She peeled back the foil and revealed a stack of small white sandwiches with the crusts cut off. She put her nose down and sniffed. ‘Yuck! Tuna. I’m not eating these.’

  I actually quite like tuna sandwiches, especially when I don’t have to eat the crusts, but I didn’t like to say so.

  She threw them into the bin, and covered them up with an old newspaper. Then she grabbed her coat and led me to the hallway. ‘Come on, Megan. It’s time for your tour.’

  We had a lovely few hours. We went to a fast food restaurant and had a giant bag of chips. Then we bought a monster ice-cream each. Then we hung around a shopping centre, looking at the clothes and the CDs and the jewellery. We bumped into a girl from Alice’s class, Janine, and we chatted for a few minutes. She seemed nice and friendly, but I felt so jealous it gave me a pain in my head. I couldn’t bear the thought of Alice having a best friend who wasn’t me. When she’d gone, I tried to act casual. ‘Do you like her?’

  Alice thought for a moment. ‘Yeah. She’s nice.’

  It was like a knife twisting in my heart. Then Alice continued. ‘But she’s not half as nice as you.’ I felt a lot better then.

  After that, we went for a walk, and got more chips and then it was four o’clock.

  We went back to Alice’s apartment. Alice rooted around the kitchen and found some chocolate biscuits. We took them into her room, but I didn’t feel like eating them. I felt kind of sick after all the chips. I sat on the beanbag again, and played with the zip of my jacket. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to leave Alice behind in this place that wasn’t home. She was very quiet. She was looking out the window with her shoulders all sort of hunched over. I went over and stood beside her. There was no garden outside – just an ugly old car park. I felt like crying, but that would have been really mean. Alice had much more reason to cry than I had.

  She made a sudden kind of a croaky noise. I felt sick. I hadn’t seen Alice cry since she was about six. I wondered if I should hug her. Then I looked at her, and saw that she wasn’t crying. She was laughing. As I watched, she turned to me and laughed out loud. For a minute I thought that she had gone completely mad. She looked like she had completely lost it.

  ‘What is it, Al? What’s so funny?’

  ‘I’ll tell you what’s so funny, Megan. I’ve just had the most wonderful idea ever. I have a plan.’

  ‘What kind of plan?’

  She laughed again. ‘A plan to put an end to all this. A plan so you and I can be together again.’

  Now I knew she’d gone mad. Nothing would persuade her mother to move back to Limerick. I felt sorry for Alice again. She’d have to tell me about her plan, and I’d have to be the one to tell her all the reasons it wouldn’t work. Sometimes, being the sensible one in a friendship was very hard work.

  I sighed. ‘So tell me about your plan.’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I won’t. You’ll only tell me it won’t work.’

  I went red, but she didn’t seem to notice. She went on talking. ‘But it will work, I promise. I just have to work out a few details.’

  Now I was interested. ‘Please, Al, tell me.’

  She shook her head. ‘No, Meg. Sorry. Just trust me for once. I’ll tell you when I see you again.’

  ‘But when will that be? I know Mum won’t bring me up here again.’

  She shrugged. ‘Well, sometime soon, Mum will have to let me go to Limerick. Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon, and everything will be fine, I promise. All will be revealed the next time I see you.’

  Alice was good at keeping secrets. I knew there was no point in pushing her. And also, I knew that underneath all her laughing and joking, she really was very unhappy. She missed her dad, and she missed her old life. She was my best friend, and it was my duty to help her. I had a funny feeling that however mad or crazy her plan was, I’d end up helping her to put it into action.

  Just then, I saw a taxi pulling up outside. Mum got out and walked to the entrance of the apartment building. The buzzer in the hall went. Alice walked me downstairs. She chatted to Mum for a minute, and then winked at me when Mum wasn’t looking. Then Mum checked her watch. ‘Sorry, girls, but we have to go. I don’t want to miss the train.’<
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  Alice and I had a quick hug, and then I got into the taxi with Mum. I looked back as we drove off. Alice was still grinning madly, and for one precious minute, I really believed that she could fix everything.

  Chapter seven

  It was strange going back to school on Monday. Everything was just like before, and it was kind of like the weekend had never happened. I wanted to tell someone about my trip to Dublin, but the only person I could think of was Miss O’Herlihy, and telling the teacher was too sad for words. So I didn’t tell anyone.

  Melissa had sprained her arm on Saturday, and everyone was fussing over her so much that she didn’t get a chance to tease me about the petition. Fingers crossed, I thought, with any luck she’ll forget about it altogether.

  * * *

  And so a few weeks went by, boring, just like before. As usual, Alice e-mailed me every few days. I wanted to send her a message every day but Mum wouldn’t let me. She said that would make me seem desperate. I was desperate of course, but I couldn’t tell Mum that. She’d only have started one of those serious talks I hated. And I couldn’t sneak a message without Mum knowing because she won’t tell me the password for the computer. She thinks the Internet is a dangerous place for kids. When she said that, Dad said the world is a dangerous place anyway and why not just lock me up in an ivory tower altogether and be done with it. Then Mum gave Dad one of her not-in-front-of-the-children looks and that was the end of that.

  Alice and I took turns to phone each other on Saturdays. I never had much to say. Alice always had lots. She was making friends. She mentioned Janine a few times. Even though I was glad for Alice, I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous too. Sometimes she mentioned her secret plan, but I pretended not to be interested, even though I was dying with curiosity.

  Then, just before Halloween, I got the e-mail I was waiting for.

  Dear Meg,

  The best news ever ever ever!!!!!! I’m coming home at Halloween. Jamie can’t come because he has a soccer match (yippee!) so it will be just me and Dad. I’ll be coming down on the train. And I can see you every day. It’ll be fantastic. Mum says I can stay for three days. She said it would be unsettling to stay for longer than that … I didn’t argue too much, because of THE PLAN. I can’t say any more in case anyone else reads this. Does your mum read your messages? Mine doesn’t, but that’s only because she still can’t work the computer. (Let’s hope she never learns.) Anyway, I’ll e-mail you again soon, and I’ll see you in sixteen days. I can’t wait.

  Al xxxxxx

  Those sixteen days were very long. It felt more like sixteen hundred days. Every night I crossed off another day on the calendar over my desk in my bedroom. Mum said that wouldn’t make them go any faster, and she was right, but I continued anyway. I hadn’t anything else to do.

  At last it was the Friday of mid-term. I was so happy, I felt like shouting and screaming and dancing out of school. (Of course I didn’t do it. Melissa and her buddies would never ever let me forget something like that.) Even so, I found myself giving an odd little skip every now and then as I walked home.

  When I got home I changed out of my uniform, and hung it in the wardrobe, shoving it right to the back. After all, I wouldn’t be wearing it again for ten more wonderful, happy, Melissa-free days. I put on my best jeans and the top Mum bought me on the day Alice had left. Then I sat in my room and waited. I tried to read my new Jacqueline Wilson book, but I couldn’t concentrate. I was reading the words and turning the pages, but I had no idea what was happening in the story.

  It was a long wait. It was nearly six o’clock before I heard Alice’s dad’s car stopping outside. I ran out to the front door. Alice was just getting out of the car. I hadn’t seen her for five whole weeks. She looked just the same. She had a new denim jacket, and great new jeans.

  ‘Meg!’ she shouted, when she saw me, and she ran over to me. We even hugged.

  Her dad smiled. ‘Oh, hello, Megan. I see you two are glad to see each other. Would you like to come inside with Alice for a while?’

  I knew Mum would give out to me later for ‘invading their privacy’, but I didn’t care.

  ‘I’d love to thanks,’ I said. Alice put her arm around me and we went inside.

  It was funny being in her house again. I’d spent half my life there before, but hadn’t been in there since Al had left. It was tidy, but it was very cold. Al’s dad went upstairs with her bag, and Al and I went into the family room. All of Al’s books were still on the shelf, and Jamie’s toys were in the corner where they always used to be. They used to have a fancy black and white family photograph hanging over the fireplace, but it was gone.

  I sat on the beanbag, and Al lay on the leather couch. With her shoes on. She noticed me looking at her feet.

  ‘That’s one of the good things about being from a broken home. There’s different rules. Mum would kill me for putting my feet on the couch, but Dad doesn’t care. And in Dublin, I can leave doors open, and lights on, because they’re the things Dad hates, so Mum just lets me do them. She doesn’t care, as long as I don’t mess the place up, or make too much noise.’

  I laughed. Even being in the same room as Al again made me feel good. There were loads of things I wanted to tell her, but first there was the one big thing I had to ask. I took a deep breath. ‘Come on, Al. Now’s the time. What’s your secret plan? How are you going to get us back together again?’

  She looked towards the door, and whispered. ‘I’m not going back to Dublin on Monday.’

  I was so delighted that I forgot all about the plan. ‘Hey, that’s great. Are you staying for the whole week?Your dad must be pleased. But how did you get your mum to change her mind?’

  Al put on one of the mysterious looks that I knew so well.

  ‘She didn’t change her mind. That’s the plan. She thinks I’m going back, but I’m not.’

  Alice was my best friend, but even I had to admit that she sometimes had crazy ideas. She kind of got all excited, and forgot that she was living in the real world, not a nice, easy, storybook kind of world. She always thought life could be like the movies.

  I looked at her. She was lying back on the couch, like she was all relaxed, but her eyes had that wild, crazy kind of sparkle, that always made me a little bit afraid.

  I had to ask. ‘But won’t your dad just make you go back?’

  She smiled. ‘Well, actually, he won’t know anything about it.’

  I tried not to sound too suspicious. ‘How exactly are you going to fix that?’

  She gave me a big grin. ‘Easy. You’re going to help me.’

  I smiled nervously. Nothing was ever as easy as Alice thought it would be. Still though, I didn’t really care. It was great to have her back, and if she had a way to stay for longer than three days, I was all for it.

  Just then, the doorbell rang. It was Rosie, looking all cute in her dalmatian dressing-gown and pink furry slippers.

  ‘Meggy. Home,’ she said, looking very pleased with herself.

  I sighed. ‘Sorry, Al. I know there’s no point arguing with Mum. I have to go. And I know she won’t let me back after tea. She’ll just say you need “quality time” with your dad. I know she won’t let me out again. Will your dad let you call over do you think?’

  She grimaced. ‘I don’t think so. He wants us to have pizza together. And I’m really starting to hate pizza. And he’s rented a movie. I saw it ages ago, with Mum, but I can’t tell him that, can I? I’ll have to see you in the morning.’

  Just then her dad appeared in the hall, so I couldn’t ask any more about Al’s big plan. She was probably very pleased about that. She loved dragging things out, keeping me in suspense.

  Her dad had the phone in his hand. ‘Sorry for interrupting girls, I’m just going to order the pizza. Pepperoni for you, Alice?’

  Alice made a face behind his back, and put her finger in her mouth, pretending to be sick. ‘Sounds great,’ she said. ‘Just what I want.’

  I had to run out
the door so her dad wouldn’t see me laughing. I just gave a little wave, behind my back, and went home to my organic pasta.

  Chapter eight

  Next morning I woke real early, and I got dressed straightaway. No point though, because of course Mum wouldn’t let me go next door. She was afraid Alice and her dad wouldn’t be up yet.

  She suggested what she thought was a great idea.

  ‘Why don’t you do all your jobs now, so later, when Alice is up, you’ll be free to play with her?’

  (I was twelve years old. Didn’t she know that twelve-year-olds don’t play? Twelve-year-olds just hang out.)

  So I spent an hour hoovering, and dusting, and helping Mum clean out the utility room. Every now and then I had a little grumble.

  ‘No one else has to do as many jobs as I do. Melissa doesn’t do a single thing.’

  Mum had her usual answer. ‘Well, I’m not Melissa’s mum, am I? I can’t help it if she’s allowed to be a spoiled brat. And anyway, since when do you care about Melissa?’

  I shrugged. ‘I don’t. It’s just that I seem to do more jobs than anyone I know. It’s not fair.’

  Mum put on her serious voice then. ‘I know love. It doesn’t seem fair. But I don’t want you thinking that the house tidies itself. It doesn’t, you know. I have so much to do, and if you don’t help, I’ll never get through it.’

  I looked at her. She did look a bit tired. So I worked even harder, jumping whenever she asked me to bring something upstairs, or to put something in the bin. By half past nine, the house looked perfect to me.

  Mum sighed. ‘Now for the hall cupboard.’

  I groaned and Mum gave a big laugh. ‘Just kidding. The hall cupboard will wait. You go and call for Alice.’

  She gave me a hug, and a kiss on the cheek. ‘And thanks for all your help.’ I pretended to wipe the kiss away with the sleeve of my fleece, but I was pleased.