The Witness

by Jane Bidder

  The first girl looked almost ethereal despite the small silver stud in her lower lip. In a strange way, she reminded her of a gently freckled wood nymph or one of the figures in a pre-Raphaelite painting: a style that Alice adored. She was fiddling with her auburn dreadlocks (more like pale red-gold actually) as though trying to brush them out. As she did so, Alice noticed something on her neck and again on her shoulder. A pair of bluebirds.

  Bluebirds. Just like the tattoo she had noticed that evening. Don’t let your imagination get the better of you, Alice. Yet the hair was so distinctive! So too was that natural grace; that seemingly unconscious way of floating rather than moving, which Alice would have loved to have possessed herself.

  “Excuse me,” she said, hardly believing these words were coming out from her own mouth, “but aren’t you the girl from the park?”

  Chapter Six

  For a minute, Kayleigh wondered if the beautiful blonde woman leaning over her was an angel. They’d done angels last term when Mr Brown had told them about the Romantic poets. It had inspired her to borrow a book about them from the library and ‘read more widely’; a phrase that her English teacher used quite a bit.

  Angels didn’t just belong to the fiction shelves, apparently. You could get them in real life. Some people swore by a Parking Angel who helped them find a space. Kayleigh found that hard to believe. Then again, she found it hard to imagine herself ever affording a car.

  One book declared that everyone had a guardian angel who helped you in terms of trouble. All you had to do was think of it very hard and then ask it to visit you. Kayleigh had tried this when Mum came out of her room with a bigger shiner than usual but nothing happened.

  Another angel book, which she took out at the same time, declared that there were loads of angels around, pretending to be ordinary people. Maybe this explained the woman bending over her now, smelling like the perfume counter at their local Boots where Marlene was always ‘trying stuff out’.

  But then she’d spoken. “Excuse me. But aren’t you the girl from the park?”

  The beautiful woman’s words sent a shot of fear through her. She’d been recognised! All the humiliation and terror and hurt of that day came rushing back. Scrambling to her feet, Kayleigh made to take off but the woman put a hand on her arm. “Please don’t go. It’s all right. I’m not going to call anyone. I just want to know if you’re all right.”

  Glancing across the step, she saw that her new friend appeared to have gone. Good. So she hadn’t heard. “I’m OK,” she retorted, pulling her thin cardigan around her.

  There was a frown across the beautiful woman’s face. “Have you slept here all night?”

  Kayleigh shrugged as though it was no big deal but inside she felt uncomfortable. She whiffed a bit. The way you did when you hadn’t washed or cleaned your teeth before going to bed. She was always very careful to do that. But there hadn’t been a shower room here; just a public toilet with pee on the concrete floor that she’d tried to step round. And there was no way she had enough for the leisure centre her new friend had mentioned.

  Maybe the woman could smell her. Perhaps that frown on her face was due to distaste rather than pity. “You must be cold. Hungry too.”

  Her voice was posh but soothing too. It reminded her of a story that she’d found once. It had been in the kids’ section but you could get some really good books there. This one had been about an enchantress (a really cool word that she’d written down in her book) who had given a kid called Edmund some kind of Turkish drug.

  Unfortunately, someone had ripped out the last few pages so she didn’t know how the story ended. But now she couldn’t help wondering if this woman wasn’t to be trusted any more than the enchantress in the book.

  “Maybe this will help.”

  Kayleigh found a note being pressed into a hand. Bloody hell. She’d only once seen a red one when the police had come round and found that plastic bag under her half-brother’s mattress. There had been loads of twenties as well but they had all been taken away apart from a couple that Mum had managed to sneak away.

  “Have you got anywhere to live?”

  Kayleigh wanted to tell her about Mum throwing her out and Marlene not wanting her because her bloke was mad about Frankie being in the nick. But if she did that, the woman might shop her for sleeping rough.

  So she said nothing, looking away but still clutching that fifty quid really tight.

  “Please. Take this.”

  Another fifty? No. Disappointingly, she found a small card in her hand. It had a picture of a rose tea cup and saucer and the words China Restoration followed by a mobile number and a name. Alice Honeybun. She almost laughed. What kind of name was that?

  “If you need me,” continued the woman, “just give me a ring”.

  Then she stood up and looked down at Kayleigh but not in a way that made her feel dirty. This look reminded her of the way she’d seen a mother tenderly help her kid when he’d fallen over and hurt himself on the street the other day. (Her own mum would have just yelled at her, she’d thought at the time.)

  “What’s your name?”

  The question slid in so neatly that she found herself replying. “Kayleigh.”

  “Kayleigh,” repeated the beautiful woman as though savouring the word in her mouth. “Nice to meet you. And remember. Call me if you ever need me.”

  “I hate my name. I always wanted to be called Victoria.”

  The woman started as though she’d said something shocking. Maybe she had. Kayleigh had never told anyone this before, not even Marlene. But it was true. If she’d been a Victoria with blonde hair, her life would have been different. She just knew it.

  “Why?” said the woman urgently. “Why do you want to be called that?

  Kayleigh shrugged. “I just like it.”

  The woman’s face softened. “Me too.”

  For a minute, she looked as though she was going to say something else but instead she shook her head, like she was disagreeing with herself and went. Up the stairs and into the centre which was open now. Kayleigh watched her standing at the automatic doors and glancing towards her. Then she just melted away. Maybe she had been an angel after all. Who else could have seen her in the park?

  Then a vague image of a blonde woman with a dog came back to her along with Frankie’s words. “Nosy cow.”

  Had that been her? If so, maybe she had been responsible for ringing the police and getting poor Frankie arrested. In fact, perhaps she was calling them, right now and they’d come and get her for being a vagrant. That’s what had happened to the kid in the flat next door when he’d run away last year.

  “Give you anything, did she?” asked the girl with pink hair, suddenly returning. Kayleigh nodded, keeping her hands tightly closed around the fifty-pound note so it couldn’t be seen. Otherwise she might lose it the way her half-brother had lost his to the cops.

  “Enough for a double whopper and fries, is it?” pressed the girl.

  Kayleigh felt guilty. Her night neighbour had been good to her. She ought to share the money; or at least some of it. “More than enough.”

  The girl grinned. There was a big gap at the side of her mouth where a tooth was missing. “Great. Let’s go then, shall we? I know this cafe where you can get a butty and a cuppa for next to nothing if you play your cards right.”

  Kayleigh hesitated. It was Friday. The last day of the school term. She’d like to explain to Mr Brown why she hadn’t handed in her essay. Then again, how could she go into school, looking like this?

  Glancing down at her jeans, she could see they had bird poo down them from the pigeons earlier that morning. Just as well Frankie couldn’t see her like this or he wouldn’t fancy her. Frankie! Her heart lurched. She hoped he was all right.

  “OK,” she said, getting up. “Let’s go.”

  Her new friend’s name used to be Di. She’d been christened Diana after the princess but didn’t like it ʼcos it hadn’t done William and Harry’s mum any go
od, had it? So she’d decided when her mum had thrown her out that she was going to change her name. Posy sounded more exciting.

  She said all this in between mouthfuls of the bacon sarnie which Kayleigh had paid for out of Alice Honeybun’s crisp fifty-pound note. She had put the change carefully into the side pocket of the rucksack that Marlene had thoughtfully provided her with, before telling her she had to leave.

  “What’s the centre?” asked Kayleigh, sipping her tea which was very sweet. Maybe she’d got Di’s, or rather Posy’s, by mistake.

  There was another ‘are you mad’ stare which made her feel really daft. “The centre’s where you go if you haven’t got anywhere else to kip.” Kayleigh tried not to look as she spoke. It reminded her of Ron, who was always eating with his mouth open, making her stomach churn.

  “Then why didn’t you go there last night?” enquired Kayleigh, hoping that this wouldn’t be treated as a daft question like the others.

  Posy wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, leaving a tomato sauce stain across her cheek. Kayleigh had a motherly desire to reach over and wipe it off. Instead she sat and waited patiently. This was, she was beginning to learn, the way to handle this new friend of hers.

  “ʼCos I’d been using, that’s why.”

  Using? Using what?

  One of the boys at the table next to them, looked across sharply. “Got any stuff on you now?” he said in a low voice, looking round furtively. “ʼCos I know someone who would pay good money for a bit of skunk.”

  Skunk? Kayleigh’s ears pricked up. Callum, her half-brother had used that word. It had been something to do with the stash of notes under his bed. And some other stuff as well.

  “No, I ain’t.” Posy scraped back her chair and stood up. “I’m clean now. Have been for twenty-four hours.” She shot a glance at Kayleigh who was pretending not to listen; another trick she’d learned from living with Mum and Ron. Anyway, she was still savouring the last of the bacon butty. It tasted amazing after being hungry all night.

  “Where are we going?”

  Marlene used to say there were two kinds of people in life. Leaders and those who liked to be led. ‘I’m the first and you’re the second’ she had announced firmly. Sounded OK to Kayleigh. She didn’t want to be the one with responsibility. It would be too easy to go wrong.

  “To the centre.” She pulled Kayleigh up by the sleeve. “They’ll have me back once I’ve done my piss test. And if we can get there early, they might have a bed for you too.”

  A bed?

  “It’s not as though you’ve got anywhere else to go, is it?”

  “But won’t it be expensive?”

  Posy laughed. “This ain’t the bleeding Hilton we’re talking about. The centre’s got charitable status, like. That means you can live there free ’cos some geezer has had a prick of conscience and coughed up some money to help the less fortunate like us. But if you do want to splash out on a bed somewhere else, you’ve got your own money, haven’t you?”

  Kayleigh felt the pocket of the rucksack where she had put the change from the butties. It felt flat. Heart pounding, she unzipped it. Empty.

  “It’s gone!”

  A feeling of dismay coupled with inevitability went through her. She hadn’t deserved the money in the first place so maybe it was right that someone had taken it. Alice’s card with the phone number wasn’t there either.

  Kayleigh looked at Posy. Her face seemed genuinely surprised. The bloke at the next table, near where she’d put her rucksack on the ground, wasn’t there any more. “Maybe it was him or one of his mates,” sniffed Posy. “You’ve got to be careful on the streets. Now come on. Before you get anything else nicked.”

  The centre was a small concrete building at the back of a dirty-looking church made of grey stone. It looked a bit like a squashed-up bus shelter but bigger. Posy rang the bell with an assurance that suggested she did this regularly. “It’s me,” she said through the speaker. “Posy.”

  “Don’t you mean Di?” said a voice.

  Posy sniffed. “Told you, didn’t I? I’ve changed my name, no matter what my paperwork says.”

  “Have you changed your habits too?”

  The voice sounded like that of a serious young man. “Yes,” replied Posy sullenly.

  “Then you can come back, but we’ll need to do a test first.”

  “All right, all right.”

  The door swung open to reveal not a young boy but a middle-aged man. He had a kind face, she noticed with relief. “I’ve brought a friend with me,” announced Posy airily.

  The man gave her a welcoming smile. “Hi. I’m Brian. What’s your name?”

  Kayleigh thought for a moment of telling him she was a Victoria. It would give her a new start. Maybe then, no one would be able to find her.

  “It’s Kayleigh,” stepped in Posy firmly as though she wasn’t there. “Don’t know her second name. We’ve only just met. She was on the steps of the shopping centre.” Her eyes hardened. “Where you made me spend the night.”

  Brian’s voice was even and calm. “I didn’t make you Posy. But you know there’s a no drugs or smoking rule here.” His gaze turned back to Kayleigh. “Do you do either?”

  She thought of the pill in the park that Frankie had given her.

  “No,” she replied, crossing her fingers behind her back.

  “Good. Then you don’t mind doing a test then?” He led the way down a corridor covered in stained green carpet squares that reminded her of Mum’s bedroom. The thought made Kayleigh feel both homesick and angry.

  There was a lounge too with deep armchairs that a boy was sitting in, headphones plugged into his ears. Another boy, a bit older, was sitting in the other. He looked up as she passed and gave her a friendly nod. Kayleigh’s heart began to feel a bit lighter. This was a bit like boarding school! She’d read about those places in a book from the library and wished with all her heart that she’d been allowed to go to one, far away from Mum or Ron.

  “We need you to sign a form,” said Brian. He was wearing brown corduroy trousers, she noticed. Classy. “How old are you?”

  “Sixteen,” said Kayleigh swiftly.

  “You’re sure?” His eyes were on her. “Because if you’re younger, we need to inform your parents where you are.”

  “I don’t have a dad. Just a mum.”

  Why did that still hurt when she said it, even though she’d never even seen her father?

  Brian was writing something down. “Any trouble with the police?”

  “No.” She crossed her fingers again.

  “That’s good.” He pushed across a form to her, inviting her first to sit down at his desk. It wasn’t neat like Mr Master’s desk at school but not untidy at the same time. She liked that.

  The writing on the form swam in front of her eyes for a moment.

  “You do know your date of birth, do you?” asked Brian.

  What did he think she was? Stupid?

  “ʼCourse I do.”

  “That’s good.” He was nodding encouragingly. “Because not everyone does. Right, now when you’ve done that, we’ll show you to your room. You’ll need to share with Posy but that’s good because she’ll be able to teach you the ropes.”

  “Bleeding hell.” Posy kicked the wall with her shoe. “I didn’t know I was going to have to share or I wouldn’t have brought her with me.”

  “Come on, Posy.” Brian’s brown eyes looked disappointed. “You know it’s the ethos of this centre to encourage people to share.”

  “Ethos?” Posy snorted. “What’s that when it’s at home?”

  “It’s a sort of motto,” said Kayleigh quickly. “Or principle.”

  Brian was giving her a respectful look. “It certainly is.”

  “Who’s a smart-ass, then?” Posy tossed her head so that her long fringe covered only one eye instead of both. “Come on then. I’ll introduce you to the others. Not Sam though. She’s having her stomach pumped out.”

  She sp
oke like this was quite normal.

  “Will she be all right?”

  “Sure. Happens all the time.” Posy nudged her hard in the ribs so Kayleigh winced. “Thought you came from the estate.”

  I do, Kayleigh wanted to say. But I’m a good girl. I don’t want to be like the others or like Mum. Yet if she said that, Posy would think she wasn’t cool. She needed a friend. After all, who else did she have now?

  They had a really great evening. The boys in the television lounge were friendly, asking her where she had lived last and if she liked ping-pong. “They’re trying to get into your pants,” hissed Posy. “Be careful, unless you like that sort of thing.”

  Kayleigh thought of Frankie. It was difficult to remember exactly what had happened but it had seemed nice until the sirens had started. She certainly didn’t want to repeat the experience with one of these lads. It was Frankie she loved and there was no way she was being unfaithful.

  Where was he now? Please may he be all right and not as mad at her as Marlene said. She’d had to tell the policeman what happened. Surely Frankie would understand that.

  When it was time to go to bed, Kayleigh tossed and turned for a bit in the bunk below Posy. It was quite a comfy mattress compared with her own at home but she couldn’t sleep with the moonlight streaming in through the curtain. Would Mum be worried now?

  Maybe she should have told her where was. On the other hand, Mr Brown was always telling them about the importance of putting both sides of an argument in an essay – Mum had put Ron first before her, hadn’t she? When she was a mother, she would never do that.

  In the morning, when they came down to breakfast in the canteen, there was cereal all nicely laid out with milk in a real jug and not a carton. Just like a proper hotel. Not that Kayleigh had ever been to one but Marlene had, once, and was always talking about it. It had been in a place called Minehead. One day, when she and Frankie were married with a baby, she might get him to take her there.