‘I don’t know how you stay so slim with all that junk you put into your body.It takes me all my time to keep in shape.’Stan looked up from his book and rolled his eyes.Leo guessed that Stan rather wanted to be sitting next to Jess himself.He had brought his own ancient camp blanket from home, and had wrapped it around Jess’s shoulders, but she still couldn’t seem to get warm.Stan said it was part of his emergency pack, and he never travelled without it.The blanket was huge, soft and rather grubby, and Stan said it always made him feel better, whatever crisis he was going through.So far it didn’t seem to be working its magic on Jess.She wriggled more closely into its warmth, looking without much interest at the multi-coloured patches that were stitched all over it in random patterns.
‘Well, it’s going to be easy to keep slim if I can’t eat,’ said Jess.
‘What about a cracker, and a little piece of cheese?Or a nice poached egg?I always have poached eggs if I feel rough, my mum used to swear by them, on marmite toast,’ said Alex.
‘When George is found, I’ll eat,’ said Jess.
‘What about you, Nina?’
‘I can’t eat at the moment, Alex, honestly, I just keep thinking about Georgie.He must be hungry by now, and completely lost.Where can he have gone?’
The landline in the flat began to ring at exactly the same time as Jess’s mobile.Leo looked round, startled.‘I’d forgotten there was still a landline connected here.Where the hell is it?’he said, starting to rummage around.He found it under a heap of newspapers.
‘Quick, Mum, you take my phone, I’ll get Leo’s,’ said Jess, throwing her mobile to Nina, who went into the kitchen covering one ear.
There was a silence and everyone except Sophie leaned forward hopefully.
‘So, you’re saying you think someone’s seen him?’shouted Jess into the phone.‘What time was that?I need to get to Brighton quickly.You’ll send a car?Yes!I’ll be ready in two minutes.Great.’
The others waited impatiently for Jess to enlighten them but she had already run through to the bathroom and could be heard using the facilities noisily.Seconds later, she returned and did a circuit of the room, searching for her bag, which Alex held up.
‘Jess, I know you’re preoccupied, pet, but we all need to know what’s going on.Are you off to Brighton?Has someone definitely seen George?’
‘Yes, they’ve been questioning people around the station area and an old lady remembers seeing a blond spiky-haired boy with a skateboard walking down the hill, she said he looked very cross.That sounds like my George all right!’Jess took a deep breath, and tried to tidy her hair, which had started to come out of its usual plait.In desperation, she undid it properly and shook it free of its binding.A cascade of blonde waves fell to her waist; every male in the room looked on in admiration and Stan gasped and sat down suddenly on the sofa.
‘Beautiful… just beautiful… like Lady Godiva, or even Lady Gaga, or Jerry Hall on those old Roxy Music album covers that Dad’s got,’ murmured Alex, ecstatically.‘Have you ever thought of modelling, Jess?’The others glared at him scornfully as Nina came back from the kitchen.
‘Mab and Den have just caught the train to Brighton,’ she announced.The sound of a car horn in the street stopped everyone in their tracks.Jess looked out of the window.
‘They’re here – I need to go.Look, thanks for everything, all of you.I’ll find him soon, I know I will.’
‘You can’t go on your own, Jess.I’ll come with you,’ said Nina, starting to get up.Stan put his hand on her shoulder.
‘No, I’m going with Jess.You’ve all got a million and one things to do.I’m not working, remember?I’ll go.We’ll soon have him home.’
Jess looked hunted.‘There’s no need for that, Stan, honestly.I’m OK.’
‘Look, we haven’t got time to argue.I’m going with you, and that’s final.’
Jess paused, shrugged, and then nodded.The two of them clattered down the stairs, and Alex, Josh and Nina followed with the idea of waving them off.Sophie was writing something in a small notebook, and didn’t look up.
14
GEORGE
George stood in the Laines, looking into his dad’s favourite noodle bar.He was ravenous.He knew MM would be really pleased to see him, but he really thought that he should have a food stop before he went to the flat, something to help him to get over the bad stuff that had happened.The DH always said that there was no problem that couldn’t be solved by chocolate and cuddles.George disagreed.In his opinion, fresh, hot noodles in a little carton or sushi from one of those ace conveyor belts were the things that would be able to make him happy whatever else was going on.You couldn’t get sushi anywhere in Clayton-on-the-Bream, apart from those little plastic-wrapped trays of fishy things in the best supermarket, and the noodles only came in a disgusting solid lump in a packet.Now, if that man Leo was to give his café a Japanese theme, George might be more interested in living there.He’d heard them talking about his chocolate project.What a load of rubbish.Chocolate was for kids.There was no way George was going to live in a bookshop with a café that only sold sweet stuff.
He rummaged in his pocket and found his stash of two-pound coins.Would that be enough?MM had always paid for his Brighton snacks.He thought of the small wad of money in his wallet; that skinny boy would probably be enjoying himself with it now.A sudden thought struck George.What if the boy used his mum’s credit card to buy stuff, on eBay, say?Oh, well, there was nothing he could do about that, and he was very hungry.
A few minutes later, with a box of noodles in his hand, George walked purposefully towards the sea.The crowds were starting to annoy him now, jostling and bustling, all on their way to somewhere much more fun.It was hot too, and George was thirsty.Luckily he still had some of his Vimto left.He drained the bottle.He would soon be at the flat now to refill it.Nearly all his had gone and he really needed to see his dad.Heading for the pier to orientate himself, George suddenly wondered if he should have sneaked a call from his mum’s phone before he left home to say he was on his way, but MM was very bad at messages.His mobile was ancient, and was never charged up properly.He had no Internet access in his flat either, even if he could have afforded a laptop.If people moaned at him for being hard to get hold of, he always said, ‘Chill, man.Bad news travels fast anyway, and if it’s good news, it’s all the better for the wait.’
George wished his dad didn’t hate phones so much, dads should be able to be contacted in an emergency, like now, for instance.George was beginning to think that MM didn’t seem all that grown up for someone over thirty.It would be cool to just ring him now, if he could find some kind person to let him use their mobile for a minute or two to make a call.Then MM could come out and meet him.They could go to that health bar by the pier and have some iced mango and pomegranate juice, and then they might walk to the end of the pier and watch the people on the big rides, the ones that swung you right out over the sea.Or even see if the little train was still running up to the Marina and go and look at the boats for a while.George loved the jingle jangle of the masts.It reminded him of a holiday at some harbour place in Norfolk that they’d had before DH got all stupid about MM being lazy and ‘unmotivated’, whatever that meant.
As George passed the Sea Life Centre, he started to get nervous.He had a nasty graze over his eye, and only 50p left in his pocket.He was just beginning to realise what DH and Grumpy Granny would think of his adventure.They would probably try to ground him; that had never worked, although it seemed to make them feel better.George had his own ways of getting out of the house day or night and he had no wish to go and play with anyone else anyway, but it made life difficult if they were cross all the time.Oh, well, perhaps it would be different this time.Maybe when Mum realised how much George needed to see his dad, she’d suggest that they all lived together in one house again.Not with GG, obviously.She had never liked Dad, but somewhere of their own would be fun.It might even be near the sea.That would be wicked.
Ten minutes later, George recognised the tall block of flats where MM had a room.They didn’t look as nice as he remembered them.Some of the windows were even dirtier than his dad’s and there was litter blowing around the steep steps to the basement flat.It looked very dark in there.Maybe the electricity had been cut off again.That seemed to happen a lot around here.
George banged on the door.No one answered.He banged again, and heard a rather pathetic voice shouting, ‘Daaaaaaad.’It couldn’t have been him, surely?After a few more minutes’ knocking, George started to cry – loud, embarrassing sobs that shook his narrow shoulders and made his nose run.At that, a window flew open above his head.
