Flights of Angels (14 page)

‘Wow!’ Lily said. ‘Would you put that in writing for me? For my file? This is the best feedback I’ve ever had. They’ve only let me out two times before this, and they were both complete disasters,’ Lily confessed, giving a little snigger. ‘I thought they’d never give me another chance, but this is brilliant.’

Claudie smiled. ‘So what did you get up to the other two times?’

Lily looked sheepish. ‘You know we’re not meant to talk about our assignments but,’ she looked around her in case someone might be listening in, ‘I mucked up big time. There was one client - a little boy who’d just lost his pet dog.’

‘Poor boy.’

‘That’s what I thought. Until I met him. He was horrible! Just so mean to everyone. I think his dog had a lucky escape.’

Claudie stifled an urge to giggle.

‘Anyway, one day, when he was in a particularly gross mood, I hid in his school bag. I wasn’t meant to leave his bedroom, but I just couldn’t stand him any more. He had to be taught a lesson.’ Lily paused.

‘And then what?’

‘I kept well hidden all day and, believe me, that was hard with what I found in the bottom of his school bag - but that’s another story. So I kept hidden, but I kept on biting him and pinching him so that he’d yell out in lessons. It was so funny, the teachers got really annoyed and he ended up with two hundred lines and three lunchtime detentions.’

‘Lily!’

‘It wasn’t the half of what he deserved, but I got found out all the same and put in the Death Warrant department, where some evil woman gave me all the filing. Still, you got to find out who was about to expire.’

‘It all sounds so fascinating,’ Claudie said.

‘Don’t you believe it! You enjoy life while you’re here.’

Claudie nodded, waiting for her next divulgence.

‘Can I have a look in your wardrobe?’ Lily asked, breaking the spell.

Claudie nodded. ‘Yes, of course, but I don’t think you’ll find anything in your size.’

‘Elizabeth Chandler! What
do
you think you’re doing?’ a little voice suddenly bellowed, and Mary appeared on Claudie’s dressing table, hands on hips, and nostrils flaring like a mad horse.

‘Mary! What are you doing here?’

‘What do you mean -
what are you doing here?
’ Mary shouted back.

‘This was my idea, and you know it!’

‘Ah! What a liar. You promised me that you wouldn’t follow when I said I was coming here.’

‘I did not!’ Lily protested, looking deeply offended.

‘You know you did! You’re
always
breaking promises. Remember that time we went to market and you promised you’d introduce me to Robert Samuels?’

Lily sighed. ‘I can’t believe you’re still holding that grudge after nearly five hundred years!’

Mary shook her head. ‘Goodness, how I hate being a twin sometimes.’

‘Look!’ Claudie said, not wanting Daniel to become suspicious with the level of noise in the room. But it was too late. A light rap on her bedroom door told her that he’d already heard too much.

‘Claudie?’ he said, pushing the door a little and peeping in.

She turned round and, even though she knew it was Daniel, in the half-light she could have sworn it was Luke. Her heart banged against her chest and her eyes widened in shock.

‘Claudie? Who were you talking to? Are you okay?’

Claudie could only nod as she looked at Daniel. God, he looked so like Luke at times that it quite took her breath away. ‘I’m fine,’ she whispered, her voice barely there. ‘
Really
,’ she insisted when his eyebrows rose in disbelief.

She watched him nod and turn away, walking down the hall to the living room.

‘Who was that?’ Lily sighed, her eyes agog. ‘They didn’t make them like that where we come from.’

‘Elizabeth!’ Mary admonished.

‘Doesn’t he wear clothes?’ Lily asked.

‘What do you mean?’ Claudie said.

‘Well he was all bare - he was only wearing shorts.’

‘Was he?’ Claudie sounded surprised.

‘Don’t tell me you didn’t notice?’

‘I didn’t!’ Claudie said. ‘I was looking at his face.’

‘A likely story!’ Lily sniggered.

‘Elizabeth,’ Mary began, ‘I don’t think this is at all appropriate.’

Lily suddenly looked bashful. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you, Claudie. It’s just that - well - he’s gorgeous!’

Claudie looked down at Lily who was ankle deep in her jewellery box. ‘It’s all right,’ she assured her. ‘It’s actually a compliment, because he looks exactly like Luke.’

Claudie had no idea what it was that woke her up but, once awake, she was sure of one thing: there was something in her room. It wasn’t quite the same experience she’d felt just before the angels had descended: that of being watched, but it was a definite presence.

‘Lily?’ she whispered, wondering if she’d dared to come back. But there was no answer. Anyway, after the Daniel incident, they’d left pretty sharpish for fear of being missed. Something about an angel refresher course they were meant to be attending.

Claudie swung her legs out of bed and fumbled around for the lamp switch; flicking it on and letting her eyes adjust.

It was through the mirror that she saw it. There on the wall, just above her bed, was a spider the size of a saucer. There weren’t many things that could awaken Claudie with such surety, but spiders were one of them.

How on earth did these things get into the house? She never saw them sneaking in through the windows, and they certainly never came through the front door. Maybe it was that little one that had given her such a shock when it had descended over her Gene Kelly poster in the bathroom. Poor Gene. He’d smiled through the whole horrible incident, but she bet he was fuming inside.

Claudie bit her lip as she looked at the monstrous-legged one. She should have got when it had been small enough to cope with instead of letting it grow into a Goliath.

She watched the cheeky way it clung on to the wall, as if it were a permanent fixture, but Claudie knew that, if she hadn’t woken when she had, it would more than likely have dropped right in the middle of her face or crawled into her ear.

She shook her head, trying to expel the images. It was like a horror movie right in the middle of her bedroom, which wasn’t at all fair because everybody knew she loved musicals.

She had to take action, and that meant one thing.

‘Daniel?’

What else could she do? It was a potentially embarrassing situation, but there was no way that she could go back to sleep until the offending creature was got rid of.

‘Daniel?’ she called softly, grabbing her dressing gown and tying the cord as she ventured into the living room.

‘Are you asleep?’ she said, rolling her eyes at her own stupid question. It was three o’clock in the morning, what else would he be doing?

‘Daniel?’

He murmured something as he floated up from subconsciousness. ‘Hayley?’

‘No. It’s Claudie.’

‘Claudie?’

‘Yes. I’ve got a problem.’

He sat up immediately, and scratched his head. ‘What is it?’ he asked, coming round and focusing on her.

‘There’s a spider in my bedroom.’

He chuckled.

‘It’s not funny. It’s enormous, and I can’t go back to sleep until it’s got rid of.’

‘You want me to deal with it?’

‘Yes please.’

‘Okay.’ Daniel yawned and pushed his blanket down, swinging his enormous legs off the sofa bed and revealing a pair of navy boxer shorts.

Claudie tried not to gasp. So that’s what Lily had been looking at with the most unangelic expression. Daniel caught her eye and she turned her gaze away quickly. He seemed to sense her discomfort because he reached for his jumper and pulled it on before standing up.

‘Come on then. Where is it?’

Claudie led the way back down the hall but stopped outside her bedroom door, pointing at the offending creature like a frightened child.

‘Jesus! It’s enormous. What do you expect me to do with that?’

‘Well I don’t know! Just get rid of it!’ Claudie screamed back at him.

‘Okay. Okay,’ he said, restoring a little calm to his voice.

Claudie dared to venture a little way into the room, her face crumpled in a mixture of horror and disgust. She didn’t dare watch, but felt compelled to all the same.

Before Claudie had time to wonder what Daniel was going to do, his fist had flattened it in one quick movement.

She screamed.

‘It’s dead!’ Daniel said. ‘What are you screaming for?’

‘That was horrible!’

‘Well what did you expect me to do?’

‘I don’t know. Not
that! Merde!
’

‘It wouldn’t have felt a thing, Claudie. It was so quick.’ He grabbed a tissue from the box by her bed and dealt with the mess quickly. But Claudie wasn’t watching. His words had triggered something inside her.

He moved through to the bathroom, placed the spider’s Kleenex shroud into the toilet and flushed. Then he watched his hands. All the time, Claudie was stood on the threshold of her room, as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to go back inside.

‘Claudie? What is it?’ he said, his voice low.

‘I -’ but the words were stuck in her throat. She felt utterly helpless. Her words wouldn’t start and her tears wouldn’t stop.

‘Hey!’ Daniel stepped closer and she was immediately wrapped in his great thick arms. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘I know.’ Over and over, stroking her hair, just like Luke had used to, but that just made matters worse. She couldn’t stop crying. She was spilling out all over the place.

And Daniel just let her. His hands stroking, his voice soothing. They seemed to stand there for ages, the semi-darkness and Daniel’s calmness having a hypnotic effect of her. But, somewhere amongst the brotherly hugging, a kiss occurred. Claudie wasn’t quite aware of it at first. A kiss on the crown of the head seemed harmless enough in the scheme of things. It was one of those cosy, comforting things that you did to children or pets. The trouble was, Daniel’s was beginning to travel. She could feel him kissing her ear, her neck, and then her mouth. And it had felt wonderfully strange at first because it felt so like Luke.

But it wasn’t Luke. It was Daniel.

She tried to push Daniel away but it was like attempting to move a wall with a knitting needle, so she tried to shout but her throat was still thick with tears.

There was only one option left. Her knee. His groin.

‘SHIT!’

Without a moment’s hesitation, Claudie ran into the living room and began picking up all his things. His shirts, his shoes, his bag. It didn’t take long.

Opening the front door, she threw the lot out into the damp night. How could he? How could he have crossed the line and taken advantage of her like that? He’d spoilt everything.

‘JEEE-SUS!’ she could hear him cursing in the hallway.

‘GET OUT DANIEL!’ she yelled, aware that she had probably woken her neighbours up.

‘Claw - deeee,’ he whined, hobbling through to the living room, his body bent double with pain. ‘I’m sorrr - eeee.’

‘Too bad,’ she said, her voice quiet but infused with a steely quality she didn’t quite recognise as her own.

‘I want to ex -’

‘Well
I
don’t want you to,’ she interrupted, watching as he staggered slowly towards the door, her eyes still stinging with tears.

‘I’ve got nowhere -’

‘Too bad,’ she cut in, slamming the door behind him and double bolting it. If he had any sense at all, he’d hitch the first available ride home and not bother to call again.

She walked back through to the living room and, to vent some of her anger, flung the covers from the sofa bed and folded it back up into itself. She wanted no reminders of him in the morning.

She couldn’t believe it. She’d truly thought she had a friend in Daniel when all the time he was using her. Her head pounded with the indignation of it all. But not only that. In a way, she felt as if she’d failed. Somehow, within a year, she’d succeeded in loosing both brothers, and she couldn’t help feeling responsible for it all somehow.

Slumping into the armchair, she stared into space, completely numbed by what had just happened. If she’d had any idea, she would have preferred to have slept with the Goliath spider in her bedroom. This wasn’t how she wanted things to turn out.

She sat until her body started to feel the cold. Heaving herself out of the chair, as if she had just aged fifty years, she went back to bed. Although she felt exhausted, she knew she’d never be able to get back to sleep now.

She twisted her body into knots as she tried to get comfortable. What was it Mr Woo had told her to do in times of stress? “Imagine beautiful place where you feel safe”. Claudie closed her eyes and tried to visualise one.

A place with no mountains. No spiders. And definitely no Daniel.

‘Kris! Am I glad to see you!’ Claudie said, ushering her friend into the kitchen and closing her door before old Mrs Kettering, who was pottering around in the yard, could question her about the noise the night before.

‘Right, what the hell happened?’ Kristen’s scowl was a terrifying sight to behold first thing in the morning.

‘Can we have a cup of tea first?’ Claudie suggested somewhat timidly.

‘Claudes, I know
something
happened, otherwise you wouldn’t have phoned. And I can’t see any evidence of Daniel, so you might as well just come out with it.’

Claudie tried to ignore her, making a show of filling the kettle and opening cupboards for mugs and teabags in an attempt to put off the moment when she’d have to confess to Kristen what had really happened. She’d telephoned her instinctively, for a little bit of support, but, now she was here, she just felt confused and embarrassed.

‘Claudeee!’ Kristen had her arms folded across her ample chest, and was looking every inch a school marm.

She put a big spoonful of sugar into her mug and half a one in Kristen’s before she began.

‘Daniel tried to kiss me.’

‘I just knew it!’ Kristen cried. ‘He couldn’t keep his hands to himself could he? It’s a good thing he had the sense to leave or he’d have
me
to deal with.’