by Lyn Gardner
They reached the garages. Jack looked around as if hoping for some kind of miracle and that a large, seven-bedroom, three-bathroom house with two reception rooms and a modern kitchen would suddenly appear from nowhere like magic. He buried his face in his hands.
“I’ve fouled up, big time, Liv,” he said. “It seemed such a good deal, but I was naive and I let myself be scammed. When I spoke to Mitch he sounded so plausible. There were even pictures of the house. I’m such a fool. I’m not a kid – by my age I should have learned that you can’t believe everything you see and when something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Mitch just seemed so nice on the phone and in his e-mails. I’m such an idiot.”
Olivia put her arms around his waist and gave him a hug. “You’re not an idiot,” she said. “You’re the bravest and best dad in the world. Maybe you’re just not the greatest at business, but it’ll all work out OK in the end.”
But she didn’t really see how it could. Where would they stay? How would they pay for it? She wondered if Eel was right and they would have to abandon their show and return to London. She had always trusted her father so completely, had always believed that if there was a problem, he’d be able to solve it. He was her dad, wasn’t he? He knew how to make things right. But she wasn’t sure he could make things right this time.
“You need to report what’s happened to the police,” she said, and even as she said it, she felt as if she were the sensible grown-up and Jack the bewildered child.
Jack nodded. “I’d rather like to find this Mitch myself,” he said, “but I don’t know where to start and besides it’s probably not a good idea. Come on, chick, let’s go and join the others and work out what to do.”
Olivia turned reluctantly, and she noticed the vase of flowers again. It made her curious. Jack had already started trudging down the path. She jumped on to the drainpipe that ran down the side of the building, then shimmied up until she was at eye level with the dirty little window near the roof of the garage. Olivia moistened her thumb with saliva, used it to wipe away the grime and peered in.
The garage was gloomy and she couldn’t see much except piles of boxes and crates. But then she noticed some camp beds and bedding on the floor, a tiny little gas stove and saucepan, and two tins of beans. It looked as if someone was camping out in the garage. There was a dog bowl filled with water in the corner.
Olivia twisted her head to get a better look at one of the beds. It was covered by a blue sleeping bag, and just peeping out from underneath was a yellow dress with a distinctive blue trim. Olivia slithered down the pipe in surprise. The rude girl in the yellow dress must be living here with her sister and the collie dog! It was such an amazing coincidence. She couldn’t wait to tell Georgia and Aeysha.
As she and Jack arrived back at the bus, an elderly woman walked by, dragging a small yapping poodle behind her.
“Excuse me,” said Jack. “You don’t happen to know if there’s a number 13 Jekyll Road?”
The woman looked surprised. “Goodness no, not for years. It burned down ages ago, when I was still quite young. It was a terrible tragedy.” The woman was clearly lonely and pleased to get the chance to chat. She talked on and on while Jack and Olivia nodded politely, although Olivia could tell her dad was eager to get away. Finally the woman concluded: “The house was never rebuilt. Lots of people are superstitious and don’t want to live in a house with an unlucky number or on a plot with a bad history.”
They thanked the woman and got back on to the bus. Everyone could tell from their faces that there was no hope.
“So,” said Pablo, “what do we do now?”
“We go back to Calton Hill and consider our options,” said Jack.
“I’m not sure we’ve got any options,” said Alicia quietly but with such intensity that Olivia knew as soon as Alicia got Jack alone, she was going to give him an earful. She wouldn’t like to be in her dad’s shoes when that happened.
Chapter Four
Olivia walked along the tightrope, stumbled slightly and jumped off just before she lost her balance completely and fell. Normally, she loved walking the wire, and even if she was feeling down it always cheered her up, but her heart wasn’t really in it today. What was the point of practising any part of her routine when she might never get to perform it? The day had curdled. The time on the Mound, the girl in the yellow dress and the boy-magician all seemed like a long-ago dream that had turned into a nightmare. She had spent some time poring over the Fringe programme in the hope of spotting the show the boy-magician might be in, but with no success.
Everyone’s luggage was piled up in the middle of the big top and the children were all sitting around, playing cards or reading. The sandwiches they had bought on the way back to Calton Hill lay half-eaten on the floor. Most people had lost their appetite and nobody could quite settle to anything. Eel, Aeysha and Georgia had tried to practise their excerpt from Swan Lake, which formed part of the show’s witty, opening number, but like Olivia they couldn’t concentrate and had given up.
Eel was now flicking through a book about famous ballerinas, and Georgia and Aeysha had just given up on a game of cheat with Will, Kylie and a Year Ten boy called Connor O’Toole, and come over to join Olivia. Everyone was very subdued. They knew that they might all be back on the train to London before the day was out unless they could find somewhere to stay. Olivia’s phone bleeped with a message from Tom asking what the house was like.
Olivia sighed as she texted back: House? What house? Turned out to be a figment of someone’s imagination. That’s the trouble with having a dad who believes everything he sees on the Internet. Disaster. Will explain all later.
“What else did that woman say, Livy?” asked Aeysha, who had been trying to quiz Olivia about the garages since they had arrived back at the big top.
“Oh, it was so sad,” said Olivia. “When the house burned down there was a family living there, and the mum and dad were killed. There was a little girl who survived. But the woman didn’t know what happened to her. She thought she was sent to stay with an aunt or something.”
“How awful,” said Georgia.
Olivia shook her head. “I know. She’d be pretty grown up by now, of course. At least as old as Dad.” She paused, and added: “But I did see something interesting…”
“What?” asked Aeysha.
Olivia told them about looking through the garage window, and how she was certain that the girl in the yellow dress, her sister and the collie dog were living there.
“Why would they be living in a garage?” asked Georgia. “It must be really uncomfortable. Even though it’s summer and warm and dry.”
“I don’t know,” said Olivia.
“Maybe we should tell Miss Swan or your dad?” said Aeysha.
“I was going to tell Jack,” said Olivia, “but I thought he had enough to worry about. Anyway, if they want to live in a garage, it’s their business. I don’t care. We’ll probably never see them again. At least they’ve got a roof over their heads, which is more than we do.”
As soon as they’d got back to the big top, Jack had gone online and started trying to find an alternative place to stay. Alicia had rung the Fringe office and got a list of letting agencies and hotels, and she and Pablo and Georgia’s mum, Lydia, had started to ring round. But it felt like every available house and flat in the city had already been let, and the bed-and-breakfasts and hotels were either full up or way too expensive. Jack was looking increasingly desperate.
“Well,” said Alicia, flipping her phone shut. “That’s the last place on the list. They can’t help us, either. I know it’s tough, Jack, but we’re going to have to make some kind of decision. I’ve got a duty to the children’s parents to keep them safe and that includes making sure that they’ve got somewhere to stay. Unless you’ve got a better idea, I think we have no choice but to return to London. Perhaps we’ll be able to come back in a few days’ time if you’ve managed to find some suitable accommodation.”
Jack shook his head. He knew that if the Swans went back to London, they would never return and his dream of a Swan Circus would crumble to dust. He wasn’t sure that his relationship with Alicia would survive such a disaster, either.
“Let’s go outside and discuss it,” he said.
Olivia hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. She had simply gone to one of the portaloos that had been set up a little way away from the tent, close to where the bus was parked. Alicia and Jack were leaning against the bus talking and they didn’t see Olivia enter the little green cubicle. But once she was inside she realised that she could hear them quite clearly and she couldn’t resist listening.
“Well, that’s that,” said Alicia with a steely finality. “Either we go back to London, or you think again about my other suggestion. As far as I can see it’s our only other option, but if you won’t do it, Jack, I can’t force you.”
“I can’t do it,” said Jack. “Not after all these years. I saw Alfie’s birth announced in a newspaper and that would have been the time to get in touch. He must be about ten now. I feel terrible that I’ve never even seen him, never sent word, never tried to heal the hurt, say I was sorry for what I did and admit I was responsible for such a huge betrayal.”
“It caused a lot of pain,” said Alicia, so quietly that Olivia could barely hear her.
“I know that,” said Jack, sounding really upset. “It was the one thing that Toni and I never talked about, though we discussed everything else. We had no secrets from each other but that was the one thing that was out of bounds. It was too painful for both of us, and I felt too ashamed of what I’d done. And guilty.”
“You can’t change the past,” said Alicia. “So maybe you could take this opportunity to put things right–”
Jack cut her off. “How could I possibly call up out of the blue and say: ‘Hi, I just happen to be in Edinburgh and I know I haven’t seen you for years and I did a terrible thing but I thought I might move in with you for the rest of month, and oh, I’m sure you won’t mind at all, but I’ll be bringing twenty children with me, including Toni’s and my daughters.’”
“If you can’t do it, I could,” said Alicia quietly.
“Have you kept in touch all this time?” demanded Jack hotly. “Did Toni know?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Don’t meddle, Alicia. It was mine and Toni’s business, not yours. What happened happened. I don’t feel proud about how I behaved but I can’t change anything now. It’s too late.”
“It’s never too late with family. It wasn’t too late for us, remember,” said Alicia desperately.
Olivia opened the door of the portaloo and crept away. She felt like a thief who had stolen something that didn’t belong to her. Secrets. But she could make neither head nor tail of it all. She was trembling slightly. What had her dad done that was so terrible, so awful that he hadn’t even been able to discuss it with her mum and that he referred to as a betrayal? Everybody always said that her dad and mum’s marriage had been a great love affair, just like in Romeo and Juliet. She remembered the Swan acting teacher, Sebastian Shaw, telling her about them during her first unhappy term at the school. He had said that it had been love at first sight but that their relationship had come at a cost. Olivia wasn’t sure what he’d meant by that beyond the fact that it had temporarily estranged Toni from her mum. But what could Jack have possibly done that made him feel so ashamed, and who was this Alfie person?
Olivia’s brain was all of a whirl. Whatever her father had done, he wasn’t prepared to risk it being found out even to save the Swan Circus. She suddenly felt a surge of anger towards him. It was his fault that they were in this mess. He had mucked up. Everyone knew that you had to take care on the Internet. Things weren’t always what they seemed. Even Eel knew that and she was only eight. Olivia had always felt so proud of her dad. People often called him a real-life latter-day hero for his amazing high-wire stunts such as walking across the Niagara Falls. To her he was just Jack, her dad, and he could do no wrong. But now he’d landed them in this mess and he had a dark secret, too. She felt the scratchy, itchy feeling in her throat that she knew meant tears. She swallowed hard and stomped back into the tent and sat down by herself a little way away from everyone else. Aeysha looked up, surprised, but just then, Jack, Alicia and Pablo appeared in the tent doorway. They looked serious.
“Gather round, everyone,” said Alicia. The children all moved towards them. Alicia looked at Jack. Jack cleared his throat. He looked really uncomfortable, his face chalky.
“We’ve explored every avenue, and I’m afraid it’s bad news.” A great groan went up from the children. “I’m sorry, we’ve no choice but to go back to London.”
There were wails of disappointment and Eel wasn’t the only one to burst out crying. Jack looked as if he might be close to tears, too.
“I’m so, so sorry,” he said. “I’ve let you all down.”
Eel ran towards him and gave him a hug, but Olivia didn’t move. “Are you absolutely sure that you’ve explored every possibility?” she suddenly asked loudly. “Are you sure there isn’t somebody you know who we can stay with, even just for a few days while we get sorted?”
Alicia glanced expectantly at Jack, and Jack stared at Olivia as if puzzled by the challenging edge in her voice.
“No, Liv, I’m sorry. There’s nobody,” he said, and he averted his gaze as if he couldn’t bear her scrutiny. Olivia felt hot and angry. What was Jack hiding?
“Please gather your things,” said Alicia. “If we hurry we might get the train that leaves in forty minutes. I’ll ring all your parents, and of course anyone who needs to stay at the Swan will be able to; there’s plenty of room, though the work on extending into the next-door building is a bit noisy.”
Everyone began to collect their belongings in total silence.
“It’s so sad our Edinburgh adventure has ended before it really began,” said Aeysha. “Your dad looks really cut up about it.”
Olivia shrugged, disappointment making her blood boil. “It’s his own fault, he shouldn’t have been so stupid. Everything’s ruined because of him! Everyone thinks he’s such a hero, and he is. But he’s rubbish at all the practical stuff, and because he didn’t sort it out properly we have to go back to London and the summer is totally spoilt.”
Georgia and Aeysha looked at Olivia in surprise. She was normally Jack’s greatest champion. Olivia ignored them as she packed her rucksack miserably. It had been a long and exhausting day. Now she’d never know which show the boy-magician was in. She began to roll up her sleeping bag and wondered again about the rude, prickly girl in the yellow dress and her sister. Why were they running from that man and why were they camping out in a garage? Camping out! She suddenly felt a surge of excitement like tiny pinpricks all over her skin.
“Wait, everyone, I’ve got an idea!”
Everyone turned to look at Olivia, their faces expectant.
“We could camp!” she cried, excitedly. “There must a campsite somewhere close to Edinburgh. Even if it’s miles away, we could drive in each day. We’ve all brought sleeping bags. We’d just need to buy some cheap tents.” Even before she’d finished speaking, a buzz of excitement had started to go round the group, Kylie and Connor were high-fiving each other and Jack had his laptop open as he feverishly searched the Web.
“That’s a brilliant idea, Liv!” said Jack, entering “Edinburgh” and “campsites” into a search engine without looking up. “You’re a genius.” But Olivia didn’t smile at his praise, and as she watched him there was a question in her eyes.
Chapter Five
Kasha and his band were playing a mesmerising piece of music that sounded like something a snakecharmer might use. It was strange and exotic, almost a little creepy in the way it curled around insistently inside your head like musical smoke.
Olivia, wearing a gauzy white costume shot through with silver thread so that she looked like a sprite, was hanging upside down on the trapeze and flying through the ai
r as if possessed. Jack walked nimbly across the tightrope, turning and whirling; a staff helped him keep his balance. He was wearing a midnight-blue cloak covered in tiny silver stars and looked very dashing.
As in many of the scenes in the Swan Circus show, Olivia and Jack were playing characters from Shakespeare, in this case the spirit Ariel and the magician Prospero from The Tempest. Below them in the ring, the Swan children were balancing on piles of old, leather-bound books that looked like ancient magical tomes, and building a human tower that rose higher and higher into the air.
The music reached a climax and Jack broke the staff in half as Prospero renounced his magic for ever. There was a shower of sparks as the staff broke and parchment and spells fell down on the auditorium like ancient faded confetti. The music ceased abruptly and there was a total blackout. Immediately Will Todd’s cheeky face appeared in a circle of light and he launched into Puck’s final speech from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.”
Will continued through to the end of the speech and ended with a flourish.
“Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.”
Kasha hit the triangle three times and then there was an eerie silence. From the front seats came the sound of four hands clapping. Lydia was shouting, “Bravo.” Leaning on her stick, Alicia smiled as the lights came up. “I’m very proud of you all,” she said. “It’s a show that really lives up to its name, it is genuinely enchanting. You deserve to be a big success. Well done, Swans.”
