‘I quit, in case you’d forgotten?’
‘Sarah,’ said Felix, sighing. ‘You have issues with me and Hattie, and I know you’ve quit the café. I’m not asking you to come back to your old job, I’m asking you to do this one favour for Fran. She wants you to do it for her. It was her idea for me to come up here.’
Sarah knew she was beaten. How could she refuse Fran’s request for help? ‘Fine, I’ll come down for one week. I’ll visit Fran, cook for the stupid wedding, then I’m done. Understand?’
‘Deal,’ said Felix, holding his hand out for Sarah to shake. She ignored it, taking a sip of her pint instead. ‘And listen, don’t get a train. It will be quicker to come with me and the train is so expensive.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘What if I promise not to talk? You can tune the radio to whatever station you like, and I’ll keep my mouth shut the entire way back to Cornwall.’
This time, it was Sarah’s turn to hold out her hand. Felix shook it, Sarah ignoring the fizz of excitement passing through her as their skin met. An hour later, Sarah was piling her bag into the boot of Hattie’s car, Felix waiting behind the wheel. She had to see Fran, but hoped she wasn’t making a big mistake going back to the café. With a sigh of resignation, Sarah climbed into the car.
Chapter 42
Despiteherreluctancetobe near Felix, Sarah had to admit he’d kept his promised silence. The radio filled any space left by absent conversation, Sarah hoping the current discussion on the menopause was leaving Felix uncomfortable.
Twice he’d broken his silence, but each time it was for a mundane question- ‘Fancy a coffee break?’ ‘There’s a service station coming up if you need a wee?’ Sarah replied ‘no’ to each question and they carried on, making good progress along the motorway.
After two hours, Felix pulled into a motorway service station to use the toilet. Sarah walked into the building with him, then they parted ways. Determined not to offer any sign of friendship, Sarah bought herself a coffee and a personal supply of snacks.
Once back on the road, they continued as before. It wasn’t until they turned onto a smaller A road that Felix leaned over and switched off the radio.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Sarah.
‘I’m going to tell you a story.’
‘I don’t want to hear a story.’
‘Please,’ said Felix. ‘I’ll keep it brief.’
Sarah considered fighting against him. She disliked the power imbalance of Felix behind the wheel and felt captive. In the end, she decided a fight wasn’t worth the effort, so instead stared out of the window in disinterest as he talked.
‘I want to tell you a story about a boy. This boy was lost in life. He struggled with school, drank too much on the weekend, and even dabbled in drugs from time to time. The one thing that stopped him from throwing his life down the pan were his little sisters. The boy adored his sisters. They were his world, his reason for waking up in the morning. His one goal in life was to protect them.’
Sarah risked a glance towards Felix. His tone was relaxed, but a pulsing vein in his neck suggested he wasn’t as calm as he was trying to appear.
‘One day, without warning, one sister changed. Before that day, she’d been fun-loving, full of life, excited for her future. Then, for no apparent reason, she became quiet, withdrawn, depressed. Instead of talking to her brother like she used to, the girl spent more and more time alone in her bedroom. The boy would hear sad songs blasting from her stereo, hear the muffled sound of crying as he went to sleep each night.’
‘The boy should have been paying more attention, but the change in the girl coincided with exams starting. He knew he wouldn’t do well, but as a bare minimum, he wanted to pass. The thought of retaking a year of school was unbearable. So, just like the girl, the boy spent more and more time alone in his room. The difference was, while the girl was falling into a pit of despair, the boy was trying to cram information from revision texts into his flighty mind. The boy and the girl drifted apart, each caught up in their own lives, their own problems.’
‘One day, the boy woke up with a strange feeling, let’s call it intuition. Every morning he’d call through the door of the girl’s bedroom, telling her to wake up. On this morning, he did just that, only instead of the usual shouts and swearing, there was no reply. The boy opened the door to the girl’s bedroom and found it empty. The bed was made, the floor clear of clothes, pens tidied away in their pots.’
‘Propped against a pillow was an envelope addressed to the boy. He tore the envelope open and read… and read…’
Sarah turned her body to look at Felix. He cleared his throat, sniffing and shaking his head.
‘You don’t have to say any more,’ she said.
‘Oh, but I do.’ Felix coughed. ‘Right, where was I? The boy read the note, which read like a suicide note. In it, the girl spoke of an assault at a party, of not being able to tell anyone, of feeling alone and like she couldn’t go on.’ Felix took his hand off the steering wheel and brushed it against his eyes.
‘What did the boy do?’
‘He called the police. His parents were in a drunken stupor. He didn’t know what else to do. He didn’t expect the police to take him seriously, but after reading the note, they set up a search party to find the girl.’
‘And did they find her?’
‘Yes, no, not exactly. They traced her movements to one of the north coast beaches. There was CCTV footage of her getting on the bus in town, and getting off at the beach. That was the last known sighting of her. The police found her clothes and shoes left in a neat pile at the water’s edge. In the shoe was a piece of paper with the wordsorrywritten across it. It was another three weeks before her body washed up on a beach further down the coast.’
