Perfectly Reflected

by S. C. Ransom

  “Couldn’t leave without saying goodbye, eh?” he said smarmily. “I’m not surprised. You know, you really should reconsider your position. We would make a great team.”

  I looked over his shoulder. Ashley was still sitting at the table, her back to us. “Nice touch, Rob, trying to chat me up while your girlfriend sits and waits for you. Shall we go over there and continue this conversation? I’m sure she’d love to hear what you are really like.”

  He shrugged. “She’s not important, you know that. It’s you I’m interested in.” He turned on his most devastating smile and ran his fingers down my cheek, waiting for me to melt.

  “Leave me alone!” I hissed, batting his hand away.

  “Oh, come on! You didn’t complain that time in the car.”

  “I’ve just about had it with you, Rob. You deserve a smack in the mouth.”

  “I know exactly where I want to put my mouth,” he said in an oily voice, taking another step forward. “Isn’t it time you realised that you really did want to kiss me again?”

  “You need to learn some manners, Underwood.” Josh’s deep voice came from behind, and Rob’s face fell as he spun round. Rob was tall, but Josh was taller. “She said no.”

  Rob began to bluster and mutter something, but Josh had had a bad evening. “Oh, what the hell – he deserves it,” he said, and punched him hard.

  Rob hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

  Mum appeared in the kitchen as I was rummaging in the freezer for ice to put on Josh’s hand. “What on earth …?” she said. “Have you been fighting?”

  “He was defending my honour, actually, Mum. Someone didn’t seem to understand the meaning of ‘No’.”

  “Good for you then!” She planted a quick kiss on Josh’s mop of curly hair. “Anything broken?” She took his hand and examined it quickly but gently.

  “No, just bruised, I think. I was aiming for his stomach but I think I must have caught a rib. He’ll certainly know about it, anyway.”

  “Your dad will want hear all the details when he gets back from Rome. He’s not had to defend my honour for decades!” She was remarkably cheerful, and Josh and I stared at her in bewilderment.

  “Dad – in a fight?” I couldn’t bring that picture to mind.

  “Well, not a fight exactly, but it was close, and it was years and years ago now, though. He’s very protective, your dad.”

  Josh and I exchanged glances. “Come on then, spill the beans! What happened?”

  Mum smiled enigmatically. “Ask your father. But I can tell you this, if anyone else ever refuses to take no for an answer, your dad would be more than happy to put them straight, just like your brother.” She ruffled his hair. “Keep that compress on for half an hour or so. That should sort it out.”

  “Thanks, Mum,” mumbled Josh, clearly still having trouble processing the new information.

  “Now, is this fighting going to become a habit? I was about to ask the two of you a favour.”

  “No, Mum, just a one-off,” I said as I sat down next to her at the kitchen table. “What favour?”

  “Well, I need to go to Milan for a meeting tomorrow, and as your dad is in Rome, I thought I’d join him afterwards for a few days instead of coming straight back. But frankly I’m a bit worried about leaving you, Alex. I mean, someone impersonating you to steal all your money? It’s not your usual mugging, is it? I don’t want to go if there’s any possibility things might get worse.”

  Josh and I exchanged a quick glance, and I could tell we’d both had the same thought: the benefit of having the house to ourselves for the rest of the week far outweighed any problems we might have. And luckily Mum didn’t know that Catherine had been stalking Josh too.

  We both started at once, talking over each other. “No, we’ll be fine, don’t you worry…”

  “And it also depends on whether I think you two can look after yourselves for a few days without killing each other, or anybody else.” She looked pointedly at Josh.

  “Honestly, Mum, I’m not going to punch anyone for a long while – this hurts like hell.”

  “OK, well, if you’re sure. And no parties, either! Remember what happened over the road.”

  “Yes, Mum,” we groaned in unison. Years before, the kids opposite had held a party when their parents were away, and the house had been completely trashed before Dad had realised and called the police. We had been too young to go and had been watching from our bedroom windows when the riot squad arrived. The family moved away not long afterwards. “No parties, we promise.”

  “Great. Well. I’m off to bed as my flight is first thing. Don’t make too much noise coming to bed, will you? I’ll see you in the morning before I go.”

  We sat silently as we listened to her climbing the stairs. “Yesss!” exclaimed Josh in a loud whisper, putting up his hand for a high five, then wincing in pain. “Argh! Wrong hand – I forgot.”

  We both got up to see Mum off in the morning, having had to convince her all over again that we would be all right, then Josh ambled back to bed. “Have a good day at school,” he called from the landing. “I’ll probably be up by the time you get home. Probably…”

  School was not too challenging; the end of term was fast approaching so most of the lessons weren’t covering anything new. I was relaxing in the common room during yet another free period when Ashley appeared.

  “I thought I told you to keep away from Rob?”

  “Now what are you talking about?”

  “Last night. You came to the pub.”

  “I popped in after the cinema to meet my brother, not that it’s any of your business. I’m allowed to go to the pub, I think.” I couldn’t help snapping at her, despite trying to keep calm.

  “The same brother who then, completely unprovoked, viciously attacked Rob?”

  “Oh, grow up, Ashley. It was just one punch and Rob thoroughly deserved it.”

  “Really? Well, he will be pressing charges for assault. I thought you’d like to know. No one does that to my boyfriend!”

  “Boyfriend? I thought you two had split up.”

  Ashley bristled, but carried on. “I mean it. I’ll get the police!”

  “If I were you I wouldn’t go down that route. You might not like what you find out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, there are plenty of witnesses who heard what your boyfriend said before Josh floored him, and I don’t think that you want to know what it was.” Ashley stood there open-mouthed, so I took my chance to throw my books in my bag and get up. “Honestly, Ashley, he’s so not worth it.” I stalked out of the room before she had time to answer.

  I managed a quick conversation with Callum at lunchtime, but as all the upper-sixth girls had finished their exams and left, my year was needed to supervise more and more activities and I didn’t have a lot of time. Olivia had been distraught about what had happened, so he didn’t want to press her for too much in the way of detail, but it had been clear that Catherine’s warped mind was dangerous to touch.

  “Olivia had been trying to keep you safe,” Callum told me, “and had tried to remove whatever it was from Catherine’s mind that had made her angry. But whatever she took, it seems to have scarred the poor kid. I’ll keep trying to get the details out of her, but I’m not hopeful.”

  “I thought you couldn’t really tell what is in the memories that you take.”

  “We can’t. It really is just more of a flavour, nothing specific. The only time I’ve been able to see more detail,” he paused and gave me an apologetic half-smile, “is when I was copying all your memories as Catherine drained them out of you. Downloading is completely different to our normal sort of gathering, which really is just a hint of the happy thoughts and memories we are stealing. I’m not sure we’ll ever know what was in Catherine’s mind at the time.”

  “It’s so frustrating! What on earth can be bugging her that much? What can I have possibly done?”

  “I don’t know. It beats m
e too.”

  “That’s not the only thing she said that you need to hear. Just before Olivia turned up, she said something about knowing how to free all the Dirges.” I could see the surprise on his face in the tiny mirror. “I’ve no idea if she was just messing with me. She told me she couldn’t decide between letting me know how you could all escape or why she hates me so. Just after that her memory was taken.”

  “So whatever that was, it’s all gone now anyway?”

  “I suppose. That’s when she went really crazy.”

  “No wonder Olivia’s so devastated; not only has she got Catherine’s warped thoughts to deal with, but she knows that what she did, even with the best of intentions, has just made things worse for us. I’m not surprised that she’s feeling so bad.”

  “Poor Olivia, it’s really not fair on her.” I sighed. “Let’s talk more tonight,” I said as we walked towards the sports hall. “We need to work out how to find Catherine and at least try to talk to her, maybe get some information out of her? But first, why don’t you bring Olivia over and I’ll see if I can borrow Beesley. That should cheer her up a bit. I won’t be able to be with you all evening though; Grace is coming over.”

  “OK,” he promised, kissing me briefly. “See you later.”

  Grace was coming round after dinner. She had seemed a little distracted at school and I hoped everything was all right between her and Jack, because whatever it was she wanted to talk to me about, she clearly didn’t want to do it with an audience. I mulled over the possibilities on the way home then headed next door to borrow the puppy.

  Beesley was as enthusiastic as ever. He nearly pulled Lynda off her feet as he made a break for the open front door, but I caught him by the collar. His tail was wagging so hard that he knocked over a pot plant on the doorstep. I quickly found myself being dragged down the pavement. It usually only took about five minutes to walk to the golf course, but I tried to get Beesley to stop and sit at every road we crossed, and that took a while. I wanted to get him used to being with me on the path before I called Callum and Olivia. The little stream with the ford that went through the meadow also went through the golf course, but there it was a bit more manicured and controlled. There were still plenty of ducks though, and some rather fat ducklings, looking all punky with their new big feathers sticking up at random intervals.

  I kept Beesley on a short lead, otherwise he would have been in the water and chasing every duck he could see. He grumbled a bit at first, but his sunny nature soon won out and within minutes he was gambolling about, jumping at flies and sniffing every tuft of grass he came across. I knew that there was a bench further down the path, so I decided to call the others from there.

  It was a beautiful afternoon, and still early enough that the golf course wasn’t too busy with the after-work players. It was easy to forget my problems as I wandered along with the puppy. He stopped suddenly at one point and when I looked at him I realised I was going to need one of the little plastic bags that Lynda had given me. I was scooping up the mess, making sure that I didn’t actually touch it, when I was suddenly aware of a strange whooshing noise behind me. I felt a huge, sudden force on my shoulder and above my ear and I realised I was falling sideways. Sparks seemed to explode across the inside of my head and then everything went black.

  The pain in my head was staggering, and I couldn’t work out why someone was rubbing warm, wet sandpaper over my cheek. The other side of my face was pressed into something sharp. I gingerly opened one eye, but the light was blinding. I carefully moved my hand up to my face, and finally worked out that I was being licked. I tried to get up but slumped back down on the gravel path in defeat. “Beesley? Good boy, stay here,” I slurred at him. It was easier to stay where I was.

  The ground started to thud rhythmically and I was slowly aware of voices. They were getting louder, like the thudding.

  “Alan! Alan – quick, is she breathing?”

  “Give me a second to have a look at her. All right, love, don’t move. Let’s see what the problem is.” The voices were kind and I could feel someone deftly checking me out.

  “What’s the matter with her? Has she fainted?”

  “Argh, what happened?” I ventured when I thought I had regained control over my mouth.

  “It’s OK, just stay still. I’m a doctor. Let me finish examining you,” the voice soothed. “Can you tell me your name?”

  “Uh, Alex. Alex Walker. Owww! What happened to me?” The pain above my ear was excruciating.

  “I’m not sure. We just came over the ridge there and saw you lying on the ground. Do you feel faint now?”

  I knew I hadn’t fainted. Someone had attacked me from behind, and I had a pretty good idea of who might have been responsible. My head and arm felt as if they had been whacked with something really, really hard.

  “Now, let’s see if we can sit you up. Turn over slowly, please.” I straightened out my neck and turned my face up towards the sky. I could feel the bits of gravel falling off my cheek, and I was aware of the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. “OK, now let’s sit up.” The hands were on my neck, checking my spine. I opened my eyes again, and blinked at the bright sunshine. The two golfers had abandoned their clubs on the far fairway, and I could see other people hurrying towards us.

  “You must have gone down with a spectacular thump. That’s a really nasty graze on your cheek,” the guy continued.

  “What … what happened?” I tried again. “Please, tell me!”

  “OK, OK. Here, have this.” He pulled the bottle of water from my pocket, uncapped it and handed it to me. The water tasted sweet and cool. I sat up gingerly and poured some in my hands and splashed it over my face, wincing a little as I moved my head. “We were playing over on the next fairway, behind that hill. We were just walking up it to get to the balls when we saw you lying on the ground, the dog licking your face. I’ve no idea how long you’ve been unconscious. We really ought to get you properly checked out. You shouldn’t just collapse like that.”

  Two more golfers arrived. Both were very red in the face and looked in more need of the doctor than I did.

  “Is everything OK? Has she been mugged?” the older one gasped.

  “We’re not sure yet. I don’t think so. What makes you say that?”

  “A woman just sprinted past us, looking really suspicious, and then we saw you all over here. Thought she might have had something to do with it.”

  “Where did she go?”

  “Through the gate back there that heads towards town. She’ll be long gone by now.”

  I tried to keep up with the conversation as it continued, but my concentration was elsewhere. Catherine hadn’t waited long before making good on her promise to make my life hell. My head was absolutely pounding and my arm felt really stiff. I knew that I had to convince the doctor that I was OK though. I couldn’t afford to involve the police or the hospital again.

  “I think the dog pulled me over and I banged my head a little when I hit the ground. I don’t think I was unconscious at all, just a bit stunned,” I said quickly, hoping to deflect them from all this talk of muggers.

  “What else hurts?” the second man asked. “You must have jarred everything when you went down.”

  I raised my arm carefully, gritting my teeth to stop from crying out, but everything seemed to be moving. I gently tested my elbow and wrist, but they were fine. Beesley was still sitting patiently by my side, tail swishing the gravel. I reached over with my good arm and ruffled his ears. “You’re a hopeless guard dog, aren’t you? At least you stayed put though, I suppose.” He woofed happily in agreement. I turned my attention to the group of men.

  The first two were both in their early thirties, I guessed, and dressed quite well for golfers. The other pair were much older. One of them was shaking his mobile phone.

  “Can’t get a signal down here. I’ll just run up to the top of the rise and call the ambulance.”

  “No! Please, no ambulance, I’ll be fine, not
hing’s broken.”

  “Look, love, you can’t take a bump to the head and not get it looked at. You might have concussion.”

  I looked up pleadingly at the one who had examined me. “Didn’t you say you were a doctor? You can see I’m all right, then.”

  “Well, yes, I am, but I don’t specialise in this sort of injury, not now. You really do need to go to A&E and get an X-ray.” He sounded pretty firm, but I wasn’t about to spend another day in the hospital.

  “I live just over there.” I waved vaguely in the direction of the house. “And my family are in. If there is a problem later one of them will be able to take me to the hospital, I promise.” As I spoke I searched for a tissue in my pocket to stem the bleeding from my lip where I had bitten it as I fell into the gravel.

  “I’m really not sure about that,” he said uncertainly.

  “Honestly, I’ll be OK. I’m pretty robust.”

  “Well, at least sit still for a moment, and we’ll see.”

  Sighing in relief, I relaxed and pulled Beesley closer. The little dog was bouncing around with excitement, keen to continue with the fun game. I petted him absently, rubbing his ears and trying to stop him jumping up to lick my face again. The doctor continued to regard me with a worried expression. I needed to show them that I was OK, that they didn’t need to call the ambulance, so I got gingerly to my feet. I made sure that I used my good arm to lever myself up, biting my lip to stop myself gasping with the pain. As soon as I was back upright I smiled at them all.

  “Really, I’m OK, honestly. Please just carry on with your game, there’s no need to disrupt your afternoon.”

  The doctor looked at me dubiously. “I’m still not sure. If you hit your head when you fell you ought to be checked out.”

  “Truly, I’m fine. As I said, it was the dog. He – umm – he pulled me over when we were running along and I got all tangled up in the lead, that’s all. Hardly any bump to the head. I’ll be fine once I get some antiseptic on these cuts.” I felt a tiny pang of guilt about blaming Beesley, but he was jumping up so much it seemed like a credible story.