On the night Macula died, Tom had saved Boy too, ordering the Child Snatcher to give his brother over to their friend Jack. Violet was sure he must have gotten into huge trouble when Nurse Powick found out. Tom had said something strange as he handed Boy over, he told Jack to “tell Mam I do feel it sometimes”. Jack was confused by the message but Violet understood it.
Standing in the Market Yard that same night Macula had pleaded with Tom to come back to her, telling him she loved him. She’d said that a mother’s love was strong and that she knew he felt it too, even though they had lived apart for so many years. Violet had been excited to pass Tom’s message to his mother, but Macula had died before she could.
“Tom, please stop,” she called now as he raced ahead through the pillars of the Ghost Estate.
Violet hesitated.
The Ghost Estate had once been a place full of fear. Every bad thought imaginable had crowded the mind of anyone who stepped inside its crumbling entrance. Then Violet discovered the mind-altering mist that Edward Archer had concocted in his cloud-making room and released to create this terror. After the Archers had been arrested and locked in the Town Hall, the Committee had destroyed the white room, stopping the gas. Now, she reminded herself, though the Ghost Estate was still derelict and looked eerie, it at least felt normal.
“Tom, please,” Violet called as she walked up the cracked path surrounded by half-built houses. “I need to talk to you. I think you’ve been told awful things about your family. I know you’re not bad, not really…”
Wind rustled black plastic sheeting in a cavity window, startling her.
“Please, Tom.” A quiver rattled her voice. “I saw you visit Macula’s grave. I know you think about your mam…”
Silence hung heavy in the night air. A door creaked and Tom stepped out onto an overgrown lawn to her left. He stared straight at her.
The walkie-talkie crackled to life.
“Violet, Violet, where are you?”
She fumbled in her pocket, trying to switch the device off. When she looked back up, Tom was disappearing over the hill at the back of the estate, heading towards the graveyard. She wouldn’t chase after him up there, not alone.
“Violet, stop messing! Where are you?” Boy shouted. This time the sound came from the eye-plant field.
“I’m here,” she called, turning to walk back out between the pillars.
The beam of a small headlight bounced along the road as Boy hurtled forward on his bike, skidding to a halt just in front of her.
“What are you doing up here?” he panted, a balancing foot touching the ground.
“I was definitely in that field longer than fifteen minutes!” she snapped, annoyed at her friend for making Tom run off.
“Someone was scared!” Boy laughed.
“I wasn’t scared! It was a stupid dare!” she replied, walking back towards Town. She wasn’t sure she should tell him about his brother.
“You’ll have to get me another present now,” he joked, pedalling slowly behind her.
Another present? An idea suddenly popped right into her head. She wanted to get Boy a present that was special, something that’d mean a lot. What if she got Tom back, reuniting Boy’s family for his birthday? It was so perfect, and she was sure William would be really happy too.
“Did one of the eye plants bite you or something, so you ran away?” her friend teased again.
She ignored him, lost in thought. Macula would have wanted it – Violet would be fulfilling her promise to Boy’s mam. She’d also be getting her best friend a gift money couldn’t buy, and that was how adults described all the best presents. She’d have to do it carefully though. Ever since Macula died, the slightest mention of Tom made her friend clam up.
The last time there was any talk of Boy’s twin brother was back in spring. A search party, led by Violet’s dad, had combed the Outskirts, looking for signs of Tom or Nurse Powick. They found nothing. Powick’s small thatched cottage was empty. So were the attached caravan and the stables across the field where she’d kept Hugo the zombie, who they’d nicknamed the Child Snatcher, and two other similar creatures named Denis and Denise.
After she’d heard the outcome of the search, Violet had begged Boy to come looking with her again. She was sure the adults had missed something – they usually did. When he refused, she told him about her promise to Macula to bring him and Tom together, to make them a proper family. Her friend got really angry, angrier than she’d ever seen him – in fact he’d told her never to mention it again.
But a few months had passed since then, so maybe Boy would be okay now? And even if he was a little angry at first, he’d get used to it and surely he’d be so happy to have a brother in the end. Violet had always wanted a sister or brother herself. It was lonely sometimes being the only kid stuck between two adults. Parents were usually boring – all they ever wanted to do was sit around and drink tea. What if she could find Tom and bring him back to his family? A brother. What a birthday present that’d be – Boy would never be bored again! And Macula would definitely be smiling down if she saw all her family together for the first time ever.
Now Violet knew that Tom was around again, it might not even be too hard to find him. He’d run towards the graveyard and that was the way into the Outskirts. Maybe she was right, maybe the adults had missed something when they searched there?
“Have you calmed down yet?” Boy interrupted her thoughts.
“I wasn’t not calm!” she snapped, walking across the footbridge back into Town, the black waters resting still beneath her.
“Yeah, right!” he laughed, his bike rattling over the wooden planks behind her.
Violet turned up Wickham Terrace, stopping at number 135, Boy’s home.
“Dad wants me to meet him at the Town Hall after the Committee meeting, so I’d better go,” she said.
“You still haven’t told me what you were doing in the estate!” Boy sounded a little frustrated now as he dismounted his bike.
“I did – I told you I wasn’t doing anything!” she replied.
“Girls never make sense,” he sighed, bewildered, as he pulled his keys from his jeans pocket.
“And boys do?” Violet mocked. “Now hurry up – I need to get my bag so Dad believes I was doing a project!”
Boy pushed open his front door, which led straight into the kitchen. The small space was still the colourful place Macula had left but somehow it felt less cosy without her. There were dirty dishes on the table from the morning’s breakfast; some even looked to be from the previous night’s dinner, though an opened Town Tribune had half hidden them and Violet didn’t want to stare. Mounds of clothes hung off the back of a chair and piles of paper tumbled from the worktop onto the tiled floor. William wasn’t the neatest person. Boy said his dad’s head was so full of ideas he didn’t have space for stupid things like dishes or washing.
Violet grabbed her khaki-green school bag from the beaten wood table as Boy pulled out a chair and sat down, studying the Town Tribune .
“Do you ever think about Tom?” she asked, stopping at the doorway.
Boy looked up, his dark eyes unblinking.
“Why’d you say that?”
“I just…” She struggled for a reason. “I don’t know, I just wondered!”
Boy stared back down at the paper, pretending to be engrossed in an article. Silence filled the space between them. Violet shifted awkwardly.
“So…do you?” she asked again, still hovering by the door.
“No, Violet, I don’t!” His reply was sharp.
She reddened and was about to step outside when her frustration caught hold. “Don’t you at least want—?”
Boy glared at her, cutting the sentence short.
Her face more than a little rosy, Violet stepped silently out onto Wickham Terrace, closing the door behind her.
She picked up her bike from round the side of the house and cycled back through the Market Yard and onto Forgotten Road, headin
g for Edward Street.
At least Boy hadn’t gotten really angry. That was progress. If she could just prove to him that Macula was right and Tom was good, then Boy’s thirteenth birthday could be the best one ever.
The Committee were already filing out of the Town Hall when she pulled her brakes. Her dad sat patiently on the steps.
“Get your project done, pet?” He smiled, standing up and dusting down his trousers.
“Almost, Dad,” she lied, slowly pedalling off ahead. She hated lying to him, but Violet knew he wouldn’t approve of her upsetting the eye plants.
The pair continued down Edward Street towards Splendid Road in silence. It was an easy quiet.
“Dad?” she asked, slowing down as they passed Archer and Brown.
“Yes, pet?”
“What would you do if you had the best idea for a birthday present ever and you knew that the person you were…ahem…buying it for would really, really love it, even though they think right now that they don’t want that present at all. Would you still buy it?”
Eugene Brown ruffled his hair, something he did whenever he was confused.
“Are you buying me a present?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“No, Dad, it’s just a hypotechnical question…”
“So you’re not buying me a present? Because you know I do like presents!”
“No, Dad! Pleeeeaase, just answer!”
Eugene laughed. “Okay, pet, but your hypothetical question is a little hard to follow…”
“So you wouldn’t…buy it…the present?” she urged.
“Violet, I didn’t say that. You do whatever you think is right. You’re a good judge, pet. My advice is to trust yourself. If this friend is a good friend then they’ll know you got them something for the right reasons, no matter what it is. It’s the thought that counts, pet… Anyway, everybody loves presents!”
“Thanks, Dad.” Violet smiled, pedalling ahead again.
She climbed the stairs to bed that night, her mind made up.
Her mam believed in signs like feathers and robins and, though her dad didn’t think that was at all scientific, part of Violet believed in them too. Seeing Tom tonight after all this time, and so close to the twins’ birthday, had to be a sign. Macula wanted Violet to bring her family back together.
And anyway, just like her dad said, everybody loves presents!
Violet raced excitedly down the stairs the next morning. It might have been because it was Friday – after today she wouldn’t see Mrs Moody for a whole weekend – but it might also have been because she’d made a decision and was going to act on it.
Boy’s birthday was on the twenty-third, only a few days away. It’d be tight but she would do her best to find Tom before then.
“You’re in a good mood, pet.” Rose smiled as she looked up from scraping char off her burned toast. “Happy it’s Friday?”
“Something like that, Mam.”
Violet wasn’t going to tell her parents anything, not yet anyway. Her dad always told her off for poking around in other people’s business and she was pretty sure he’d think Boy’s business wasn’t hers to interfere with.
She opened the fridge, looking for milk. Her dad was at the kitchen table engrossed in reading the paper again.
“He’s been like that since I got up. Your father is great company at times, pet! Something about that missing scientist again.” Her mam sighed, sitting down across from him.
“It’s not just one scientist, Rose,” Eugene announced, taking a bite from his toast. “More are missing now. These are some of the world’s greatest minds.”
“I thought you said they’re retired, Eugene? So they were some of the world’s greatest minds!”
“Once a great mind, always a great mind, Rose! It’s a very odd story really. There’s four of them now. And they’ve all been taken from their homes in the middle of the night.”
Eugene pointed to the blotted black and grey pictures in the paper. Two men and two women stared out from the page. They looked granny-old – one man’s nose hair almost touched his top lip.
“They’ve each contributed hugely to society and our understanding of the world!” her dad continued.
“A great mind,” Rose muttered. “I’m not sure I’d like to be remembered that way! Wouldn’t it be nicer to be remembered for your kindness or caring or something like that?”
“But why would anyone want to kidnap those scientists, Dad? They all look ancient!” Violet stabbed her finger at the pictures.
“Age is just a number, pet. The scientists were old friends – it says they met in Hegel University, where they all worked in their heyday. They were celebrities in their time. What I wouldn’t give to have studied under any of them!”
“Celebrity scientists! Well, I’ve heard it all now.” Rose laughed, buttering the toast she’d half scraped away. “Anyway, did you get your project done last night, pet?”
“Yes, I did it at Boy’s. It took a while – he hates maths!” Violet avoided her mother’s eyes and looked down at her bowl.
“Maths is everywhere, pet.” Eugene glanced up from the Tribune . “Tell Boy to look for it outside his books, he might find it interesting then. Maths is in nature. Take a sunflower or the way trees branch out – they use a type of numerical symmetry called the Fibonacci sequence. Each number in the sequence is determined…”
“I’m going to be late for school.” Violet jumped up before Eugene could properly launch into his lesson. “But I’ll tell him. It sounds…ahem…really interesting!”
She grabbed her bag from the floor and headed into the hall. The front door banged behind her as she crunched across the gravel and round the side of the house, pulling her bike from the pebble-dashed wall to pedal towards school.
Violet arrived earlier than normal, hoping to finish the project she was meant to have done last night. Boy was already perched on the bench that hugged the yard wall, crouching over his books in serious concentration. He clearly hadn’t done it either.
“I meant to do my project when I got home last night but completely forgot,” she fussed, pulling out her exercise book.
“Oh brilliant.” He smiled. “We can do it together!”
“No, Boy! You have to do it yourself! Mrs Moody will know if we helped each other.”
“Come on, Violet, you know I’m useless at maths.”
“Well you won’t get any better if you don’t do it yourself! Dad says you should look at nature and you might enjoy maths more. Something about sunflowers and a Fibber sequence—”
“The Fibonacci sequence.” Jack suddenly loomed above them. “Are you learning about that with Mrs Moody? I think it’s amazing. The world is so weird in a cool kind of way! I mean, it all follows patterns, you know, nature, everything. I bet humans do too – I must look into that, I’m sure there has to be a book on it somewhere.”
Jack was an ex-orphan too and had been one of Boy’s best friends in No-Man’s-Land. When Perfect fell he’d been reunited with his family and since their adventures saving Town, he was now Violet’s friend too. Unlike Boy, Jack loved books and studying and school and seemed to know everything there was to know about everything.
“Jack, just the right person!” Boy smiled. “Can you do my project?”
“No!” Violet scolded. “Don’t, Jack – he needs to do it by himself!”
“Thanks!” Boy replied. “I’ll remember that next time you need help!”
“I like doing other people’s homework,” Jack said, taking the offered copybook as he sat down on the bench.
“See, I’m doing him a favour!” Boy smirked.
“Anyone want to do my homework?” Anna Nunn asked, joining the threesome. “I didn’t get time to do it last night ’cause I was—”
“Sneaking out again?” Boy smiled.
Anna was a few years younger than Violet and had been an orphan in No-Man’s-Land too, where Boy and Jack had protected her like older brothers. Violet often thought Anna
didn’t need protection – the little girl was one of the most daring people she knew. Anna was always sneaking out of her house and exploring Town at night, a habit she’d picked up in No-Man’s-Land. After Perfect fell, Anna had been reunited with her family too. Her mam Madeleine was a Town Committee member.
“You can’t tease me, Boy,” Anna replied defensively. “I saw you sneaking up Forgotten Road last night!”
“No I wasn’t,” Boy replied, confused.
“Yes, you were. You ignored me when I called you!”
“That wasn’t me. Are you sure, Anna?”
“Yeah.” The blonde girl nodded.
“Maybe it was…ahem…maybe it was Tom?” Violet said, careful how she broached the subject.
If she’d seen Boy’s twin last night then it was possible Anna had too. Maybe he was visiting Macula’s grave again – she was buried in the Town cemetery up past the school and he’d have to go by Forgotten Road to get there.
“Don’t tell me he’s back?” Jack looked up from writing in Boy’s copybook.
“He’s not!” Boy stated, standing.
“But if it wasn’t you,” Anna replied, “then it had to be Tom. It was dark so I didn’t see his eyes. You— I mean, Tom went into one of the old, falling-down houses at the bottom of Forgotten Road. I knocked on the door and said it was me, but you— I mean, he didn’t answer. I was a bit annoyed at you but now I know it was him, I forgive you, Boy!”
“Which house? What time was this, Anna?” Violet questioned.
“Around seven I think, ’cause I sneak out when Mam goes to Committee meetings – she leaves early to prepare. She’d get cross if she caught me, so I only do it when she’s not home. It was the house we used to use to get onto the roof and over to the wall down into Perfect, I think, or maybe it was the one beside it – one of them ones anyway!”
“Why would he be back?” Jack looked concerned and had even stopped writing. “Maybe we should look into it a bit. What if he’s trying to help Edward and George escape? I don’t like the sound of this!”
The Battle for Perfect Page 2
