Changeling's Island - eARC (19 page)

“I didn’t do it for that reason. I never even thought of it. Really. And I was only…well, I, l…
like
you. A lot.” It wasn’t the cleverest speech he’d ever tried. But it did have her blushing to the roots of her hair.

“I quite like you too,” she said attempting to be light and sophisticated and not succeeding too well, but at least the bad moment had sort of passed. And then it got worse. “So, like, I’ve been meaning to ask, what are you saving the money for? Entertaining the beauty queen?” There was just a tiny edge in her voice, and Tim knew that it was a spike in at Hailey, who had been in a modeling competition and won.

“No. Just…” he sighed. “It’s not important.”

She looked directly at him. “Tim Ryan, you’re hopeless at telling lies. You can trust me. And I promise I won’t go off spare again.”

Tim shrugged. “If you must know, I was saving up to get away from here.”

She blinked. “Do you hate it so much?”

He shrugged. “I did. But I kind of got used to it. I’ve got…friends now. Even if one of them is never going to speak to me again. It’s not that…I, I, just need to go.”

“You know I wouldn’t not speak to you. I was just mad.”

“Yeah. I did know. You are, sometimes,” he said, trying to smile and to change the direction of the conversation. It didn’t work.

“So why do you have to go? And where?” she asked.

“Ireland; you know, like, overseas.”

She blinked. “Is your dad there or something?”

He laughed bitterly. “No. He’s in Oman. And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Nobody ever does.”

“I would. You’re not a liar.”

“Yeah, well, all of this is impossible, but it’s also true. But it’s so weird nobody could believe it.”

She sat down. “Tell me about it. Dad drives me spare, but he says a trouble shared is a trouble quartered, and he’s sort of right. And…and you did so much for me.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Like why you hated being here. I…I like having you here. I’d like to fix it.”

“It’s more about why I got sent here. Look, promise you won’t tell? But, well…”

It came out of him like a boiling-over pot. About things breaking, about the trouble with cannabis. About the tagging. About stealing the DVD and being caught…“And then the building caught fire. And like, well, they’d already called the school and Mum…and.” He stopped.

“So…what happened then?” She prompted.

He shrugged. “Then I got sent over here to my crazy old nan.”

“So… you didn’t get sent to court or prison?”

“No. I mean, the cops tried to get a statement out of the security guards, and they…I dunno, they never found it on me. And the CCTV record didn’t show anything at all…well, turned out they picked me up because I just
looked
guilty. They thought…and the copper said they shouldn’t have, that they’d find the stolen stuff on me…but, like, I hadn’t quite left the shop. Um, they shouldn’t have done that either…but my fingerprints would have been on the DVD that showed up on the desk. Only they thought it must have got burned. Only…only I found it in my stuff when I was packing up. I threw it away.”

“You made a mistake, did something you were feeling bad about anyway. What happened to Hailey in all this?”

“Oh, she sweet-talked them into letting her go. She said she barely knew who I was. She had, like, a bunch of stuff in her hat, too.”

“She would,” said Molly, “But Tim, so, it’s over. You came here, and we like you.”

He was silent.

“Tim. I really do like you. Lots of people do. And it’s over. You’ve left it behind.”

“I haven’t. Half the shop burned out, and…and the insurance assessor is hassling my mum. And he’s called here, and it’ll all come out. That’s the problem, see. I don’t want everyone to know.”

“Well, it’s not your fault it burned down. And, and anyway, like, almost everyone does stupid stuff. I pinched some lollies, when I was little, about seven. Dad made me take them back. I thought I was going to die of shame, but I didn’t. And here, no one but you and Dad know I did that.”

“It was my fault. Sort of,” said Tim, awkwardly.

“You set fire to the building?” she asked, incredulously.

“Of course not!” he said, hurt. And then, quietly, “But it did happen because I was there. These things do. I told you. I…I can’t explain. But they always blame me. And…they’re right, kind of. They’ll keep chasing me. So…I have to go.”

She shook her head. “But you can’t just run off. You’re a minor. They’ll just find you and send you back. And all sorts of horrible stuff happens to kids…living rough. Please, don’t do it, Tim. I’ll be on your side.”

“Not where I’m going. They can’t reach me there. I just have to get to Ireland.”

“Overseas won’t stop them sending you back,” she said. “They’ve got like treaties and stuff.”

“Not with King Finvarra they haven’t,” said Tim.

She looked blank. “Who?”

“Yeah, well, I said I couldn’t explain. It’s easier to go than to explain.”

“Try me.”

He looked at her doubtfully. Pulled a face, sighed, but started talking anyway. “Well, like, you know you said my nan was crazy because she talks to the wee folk, puts beer down for them? Well, she’s not crazy. And neither am I. I really have got an invisible friend. Only he’s pretty stupid and he breaks stuff, and, and does things. Things I might want to do, but wouldn’t.”

“That’s crazy. That’s not real, Tim, it’s…”

“Yeah? Watch,” he said, angry partly with himself for telling her at all, and partly with the sheer unfairness of it all. “Tip over that glass,” he said. “Go on. I’ll reward you.”

* * *

The glass on the scarred wooden table wobbled and then tipped, pouring out the water, then it fell over and rolled. And then…righted itself.

Molly watched it happen in horror, wondered if she should run…and then looked at Tim. He was crying, tears on his cheeks. “See! And bet you won’t believe me, either, even if you have seen it. No one does.”

Without meaning to, she reached out and grabbed his hand. “
I
believe you.”

He sniffed, and pulled his hand away. Wiped his eyes, blew his nose. “Thanks. Nobody else would, though,” he muttered gruffly, trying to pretend he hadn’t been crying.

They sat in silence, and then Tim got up and wiped up the puddle of water. Just like a boy! He used the tissue he’d wiped his nose on, and shoved it back into his pocket. This wasn’t the time to point that out, though.

“What can I do, Tim?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Do? Nothing. I’ll get the money together again, get on a plane and go to Ireland, go to Finvarra’s hill and use my key. I don’t belong here.”

“But you could do all sort of things with…with your invisible friend.”

“I think I can see him sometimes. He’s got little sharp black eyes and a long nose,” said Tim, morosely. “But I can’t really use him to do things. It always seems to go wrong, and they blame me even if I didn’t mean anything to happen. That’s why they’ll blame the fire on me, eventually. Just like all those vases at Harvey Norman. And because I took the blame for that, they’ll think I must have done it.”

It was probably his face that made people blame him
, thought Molly. He didn’t seem to be able to hide his feelings.

When she got home she took out her copy of
Fire and Hemlock,
by Diana Wynne Jones. It was one of her favorite books, read many times. She reread the part about the Fairy court living in the real world…and the poem…Tam Lin.

She was going to have to hold on to Tim tightly, because she was sure that there would be a price for living in Faerie, just like in the book. They wouldn’t tell Tim that, of course. She wasn’t going to tell him that she was planning to hold onto him herself either, at least not until she had finished paying back that money. Then she was going to have to find a way of stopping him from spending it. She sighed. Looked at the nautilus shell. This was kind of what her dad had meant when he’d said that it was never simple.

CHAPTER 17

Molly had been trying to reduce the number of hours she spent babysitting. Now, she had to take as much as she could, but she still found time to go down to the Ryan place a few times a week, and of course there was school and the bus, when Mum didn’t take the car in because she was working. She’d organized day stints at the local café during the holidays. It was something that had to be done. Tim had offered to ask Jon McKay if Molly could come out to sea with them too, if she had some spare time, just to see what they did. She wanted to do that, but she was a little nervous about it, too.

Still, Tim seemed okay for now about the new line drawn…sometimes she wondered if
she
was. The other girls all talked about their boyfriends. It wasn’t easy, as a geeky, reads-too-much girl with braces on her teeth, who everyone thought had a crush on Tim Ryan…not that some of them didn’t think he was quite cute, especially some of the younger ones. He didn’t respond to their baits, though. Molly noticed he was a softy at heart and could be conned into helping out anyone who was struggling…or pretending to. Huh. Some people weren’t beyond using that against him.

She supposed that was a good thing in a guy, too, although she’d have to watch him.

Then, just before the June holiday, things went pear-shaped. Hailey came home, and it was the end of that line of babysitting. Not, to be fair, that Hailey wanted to take her job. She was furious to have it expected of her. Molly and half of the island’s population heard all about it, because the argument took place in the small supermarket in Whitemark, the day after the ferry had come in, which of course had brought all the farmers and other folk in to town. As a time and a place to have a screaming match, it could hardly have been more a effective way of telling everyone on the island.

Molly wasn’t there, but got chapter and verse both from Melanie and Jane at school, and her mother’s friend Miriam, along with all the speculation. “It’s not school holidays in Vic.” “She’s pregnant,” in hushed whispers. “She’s been suspended.” “She’s been expelled.”

Whatever. Hailey was back, and her stepmother was furious with her, and she was furious to be expected to clean and cook and look after the younger two. She wasn’t a slave!

Even if she wasn’t a slave, she was back out at their modern glass-and-tile house with its magnificent views, and blocking Molly’s chief source of income—and phoning to see if she could cadge a lift into town.

“No, sorry. I don’t think Mum or Dad will be going in for a few days,” said Molly.

“Oh. I’m so bored. Sarah expects me to look after her stupid kids all the time,” said the sulky voice down the phone.

Sarah was her stepmother. Molly supposed she ought to feel some sympathy. She’d been a bit bored here, once. Like, a lifetime ago. “I could lend you a few books.”

“Oh, I don’t like reading. It’s boring. Anyway there’s lots of magazines here.”

“Computer games…I’ve got a few, and Tim has some too.”

“Tim? Oh, you mean Tim Ryan.” It was said dismissively.

Molly’s hackles rose. “He’s a nice guy. He…”

“Oh, I know him. He was at St. Dominic’s. Daddy told me to be nice to him because that dump of a farm is a real estate dream for selling off as holiday and lifestyle blocks. Daddy was going to buy it from Tim’s father, but the deal fell through.”

“Like, what’s that got to do with Tim?”

“I dunno. Apparently the old bat living there had a fit when her son suggested it, and changed her will. Daddy said she’d drop dead one of these days and leave it to Tim. So I must be nice to him. But he was such a boring little loser. And then he got kicked out of the school for stealing.”

Molly slammed the phone down, and sat there steaming for a good twenty minutes, thinking of all the things she should have said.

She retreated to her room and didn’t answer the phone when it rang again. She tried to lose herself in a book instead.

She was quite unprepared for her mother to come into her room, dancing and leaping around like a mad thing. That just so wasn’t Mum. “What’s up?” she asked, warily.

“Have I ever said anything nasty about your Aunt Helen?” asked her mother.

“Er. Yes. You said she was obsessive, and…”

“Well, I should eat my words. You remember when Bunce got bitten by the snake?”

“Like I could forget.”

“Well, I called her then. I thought…well, I thought we might need to borrow money, because the little bit I was expecting from my granddad’s estate, I wasn’t going to get because of Cousin Tobias-the-little-toad, and that insurance mess. And being Helen, she asked me to send her the will. So I did. Only I sent her Granny’s will as well as Granddad’s; they arrived together, and you remember we got the little davenport writing desk and those opal earrings from her…”

“Get on with it, Mum.”

“Well, being Helen, she checked both wills and all the details. And it turns out that the vague wording Tobias was using to lawyer away at getting a bigger share for his family…is all in Granddad’s will, but that he indisputably left his entire estate to Granny May, if he died before her.”

“But they died in the same car crash.”

“Well, no, it turns out. Your darling obsessive-about-details Aunt Helen checked. Granddad died immediately, but Granny May was just unconscious and only died in hospital the next day. So her will is the valid one. And Granny, being an accountant’s daughter, set it out very carefully and correctly and beyond any dispute, to be divided equally between her named children, and, if a child predeceased her, their share to be divided equally between their children, or if they’re childless, their share was to be divided equally between her other named children. The little toad shouldn’t have tried to grab so much, because now his family are going to get very little. He’s got seven kids, and he’s one of four, but my mother got a whole share, and only had me. That was a lady from the lawyers’ on the telephone, the executor of Granny May’s will. It is going to be far more money than I thought! The overdraft is off our backs, we’re a long way towards paying off the mortgage, and you, my dear, have money for Uni. And also for settling your debts, as I am your trustee, and can decide if you need it. That on top of Dad getting the ombudsman on his side with the insurers, it’s been a good week!”

“Wow!” She got up and hugged her mother. “I’m so glad for you, Mum. I know it has been worrying you so much.” She took her lip between her teeth. Then said…“I think, if it is okay, I’m going to rather go on paying Tim back slowly. I’ve…got reasons, Mum.”

“Probate won’t be granted for a while anyway. And I don’t think it a bad idea, Molly. It just means you don’t need to babysit quite so much, especially up there. I don’t like them.”

Molly knew who she was talking about. “Oh, the kids are okay. But that Hailey and her dad. He’s, like, sort of oily feeling. And you know what she said to me?” She told her mother all about Hailey’s call, leaving out the part about stealing.

“I’d sort of heard there was a big bust-up with Tim’s parents and the old lady about selling. They’d apparently arranged a retirement home for her.”

Molly stared at her mum. She just couldn’t imagine Tim’s gran in a retirement place. “Where do you hear these things, Mum?”

“At the hairdresser, I think. And some at the CWA. I’ll bet she never knew Burke was behind it all.”

* * *

Hailey was somewhat surprised to have the phone slammed down on her. It was kind of funny really. That plain bookworm with railway tracks on her teeth must fancy little Tim. She herself had no real interest in Tim at all. He’d been sort of useful at times, but he was, like, so uncool. He didn’t ever have much money, or an earring or tattoos or a car or anything important. He was such a weed he couldn’t even be emo. And he was young too. Like, barely her age. But it would be fun to make railway-tracks suffer a bit. Tim would come when she whistled, desperate to please her, like a little puppy dog.

So she called his mobile number. Only he wasn’t answering her. Or calling back. She needed a spliff, and she knew where Daddy kept his stash. So she went and had a smoke, watched TV, and then decided to call Justin and got told about the plan to have a jam session on Friday…she forgot all about Tim and Miss railway-tracks. She wasn’t really interested in music, but she really fancied singing in a band. Not the singing part, but the whole scene. She only remembered railway-tracks a few days later, when her stepmother announced that she was off to Launceston for a week. When Daddy asked her if she was taking Hailey, Samantha and Troy, she had said “no.”

“But you can’t just leave them here. I’ve got a load to go out on Friday.”

“I’m going to be in and out of the dentist, Ricky. I’ve got four appointments. I can’t look after them while I’m in the chair, and anyway, school only breaks up on Wednesday. That’s three days before I get back. Hailey is here. She can keep an eye on them.”

“But I want to go to Lonnie,” protested Hailey. “This place is so dead, Sarah. Oh, come on, please.”

“You are in such trouble you’re not going anywhere,” said that cow of a stepmother of hers. “You’re lucky not to be in jail, Hailey. How could you have been so stupid?”

“Like, I don’t know what you’re making such a fuss about. It’s not like it isn’t the family business!”

Eventually Daddy shut the argument up. “Look, you can’t go away, Hailey. But you can hire that girl from the place down the road to do some of the kid-herding. To give you a break.”

“Uh.” Good thing she hadn’t actually got around to whistling Tim in yet, but even so…“She might not want to.”

“Trust me, they need the money.” He tapped his nose. “I’ll pick that place up on a bank repossession soon. They’re in trouble deep.”

Now that Tim had been brought to mind again, Hailey thought of checking his Facebook page. It would be nice to have some leverage on railway-tracks. There were no entries at all since he’d left Melbourne. And then it occurred to her that his mobile number wasn’t a Telstra one. They were the only ones that worked on the island. He must have a new phone. She’d have to call him on the landline and get it. She could always use him for bait for railways-tracks. She’d need someone to babysit for Friday.

So she called the landline. And got a very sleepy Tim. “Hailey? What’s wrong?” he demanded, followed by a long “aaaaaaah” noise.

“Nothing. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Why? What did you call me about?”

He actually sounded…irritable. “You made a funny noise.”

“Oh. Yawning. Sorry. I was asleep. You woke us up.”

“But it’s only like half past ten at night!”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been up since half five. We went and got a couple of flounder. And I was working on scraping the boat for Jon this afternoon. Hard yakka. So what can I do for you?” he asked, not sounding in the least eager.

“Oh, nothing really. I just called to get your new mobile number. And to give you a hard time for not telling me what it was. And to say you should come and see me. I could use some company in this dead place.”

“Still the same old number. It just doesn’t work. Look, Hailey, I’m just so busy with stuff. If I’m not working this weekend I’ll walk over. But no promises. Life is kinda full.”

He didn’t really sound interested. Well, she’d change that soon enough. “Too busy with your new girlfriend for me?”

“New girlfriend?”

“Oh, I know all about Molly railway-tracks. Don’t the braces cut your tongue?”

“Molly? She’s not my girlfriend, but don’t you dare call her names,” he said crossly. “Anyway, listen, it’s late, and I’m working again tomorrow. I’m falling asleep talking. I’ll chat to you sometime when I’m awake. Maybe this weekend; the weather doesn’t look so crash-hot on the long range forecast. Bye.”

* * *

Tim actually had a bit of trouble going back to sleep after that call. Blasted Hailey. She never thought about anybody but herself. But what he really wanted to know more about was why Hailey thought Molly was his girlfriend. He wondered who she’d gotten that from.

* * *

Molly was more than a little surprised to have another call from Hailey, being sweetness-and-light, the next afternoon. “Like, I didn’t mean to tread on any toes about Tim. I was just being bitchy because he isn’t talking to me. He’s crazy about you, you know.”

Molly literally didn’t know what to say about that. “Uh,” was the best she could manage.

“Anyway. Look, I know you’re looking for babysitting work.”

“Um, not really…”

“And I’ve taken some of it away from you. So I felt bad and talked to Daddy. Sarah’s going to be away for a week, and Daddy said I could call you and he’d pay for you to do a few hours. The kids like you. They always tell me about you.”

“Um, I am going to be away for a day or two. My braces are coming off at last. I’m not sure of the exact date, because there was some hassle with the flights. And, like, I’ve got work in the café, and Tim said he’d arrange for me to join him on the boat.”

“Oh, well, I’ll give you a call. Bye.”

And Molly was wondering just what Tim had said to whom, and was both cross and a little pleased, and a little ashamed that she’d not said “no.” But it would be hard for her to find a real gap in her own schedule, so it was safe enough.

* * *

Hailey found being bored was a lot better than having Samantha and Troy expecting to be entertained and fed. And they got up so early!

When Justin called on Friday morning, she realized that she had not actually gotten around to organizing for Molly to come. So she phoned. The phone was answered by Molly’s mother. “Sorry, she’s not home. And I am sure she doesn’t want to babysit.”

She sat there biting her knuckles—she wouldn’t bite her fingernails, because that would spoil them. Daddy was away in his little shed in the bush packing the stuff for the plane. And she really didn’t have any other friends on the island. Well…there was Tim.

She called. And got Tim’s grandmother, “Hello, Molly. So I heard yer going to be on the boat while Tim is working.” She sounded…amused.

“Uh. This is Hailey Burke. I was looking for Tim.”

“Oh. He left with Mr. McKay at seven. They’ll be in the boat by now.” The voice was much more terse.