SORROW WOODS (19 page)

shouldn’t be hassled. She says there are plenty of other people in town that the press will be

interested in. I have no idea what she means, but I hope she’s right and that they don’t bother us.

She pulls our jeep-type car up to the side of the road that people walk on, nodding towards a glass-fronted building. It looks like a small house in the middle of a parking lot.

“That’s the salon,” she says. She nods further down the street to where people are milling

along a concrete path on the side of the road that sits in front of a towering building. “And that’s the mall where you get your clothes from and things like that. It has lots of different shops inside that one building.”

I nod. I know what malls are from reading my books. I can’t wait to see inside. I’ve imagined

these sorts of places all of my life and now I’m actually going to be able to see and go in them. I get out of the car, opening the door all on my own and follow Angela to the entrance. She smiles at me and pushes the door open. The blast of cold air from the machine above the door skims over my

skin, making me shiver as I step out of the heat and into the salon.

“Good morning, Angela,” says a woman from behind the desk. She has her black hair pulled

tightly back into a ponytail on the top of her head and her face is plastered in a thick layer of something orange. Her lips are as red as blood.

“Hi, Hannah. This is Serena.”

I stop staring at the black and white floor and all of the mirrors that hang on the walls and

turn back towards the girl. Hannah stares at me and looks me up and down before smiling kindly at me. I smile back.

“Hi Serena, it’s good to see you,” she says.

“Hello,” I respond, not really knowing what else I’m supposed to say.

“So, I hear you’re here for the works, is that right?”

I nod. “Yes, please. I think I’d like my hair cut but not short, just the frizzy ends gone. And my legs and armpits are hairy. Also, I’d like some colour painted onto my nails please, if that’s alright?”

She smiles, revealing a set of almost too-bright white teeth. “Excellent. That’s exactly what I

want to hear. Let’s sit you down then, shall we?”

I follow her to a small, black and silver chair and sit down in front of the mirror. She runs her hands through my hair. “You have beautiful hair and lovely colouring, but the ends of your hair are dead.”

I nod. “How much will you cut off?”

She holds her pointing finger and her thumb a short distance apart. I can handle that.

She lifts my hand and examines my nails, then bends down in front of my face and pushes at

my eyebrows with her thumbs. She rubs her hands down my legs and hums a slow melody whilst she

does it. After a few minutes, she stands up and turns towards Angela.

“She’ll be in here for hours. Do you want to leave her with us?” Hannah asks.

“No,” she shouts. We both look up at her. She shakes her head and clears he throat. “Sorry, I

just, erm, this is her first time out of the house and I don’t want to leave her yet.”

I look at her in the reflection of the mirror as a woman who looks vaguely familiar walks into

the salon and smiles at us.

“Serena,” says Angela, “this is my Sister, Carol. She’s your Auntie.”

Carol bends down in front of me. She has the same green eyes as us, but her hair is a darker

shade of blonde and slightly longer than Angela’s.

“Hello, Serena. We’ve missed you,” Carol says to me.

“Hello,” I say.

She doesn’t wait for me to say anything else. She just smiles and touches my arm in a kind,

gentle way and stands up. “Right,” she says to Angela, “I take it you want me to go shopping?”

Angela nods. “Serena, would you mind standing up so Carol can get a look at you to try and

figure out what size you are?”

I do as I’m asked and watch two pairs of green eyes roam up and down my body.

“What about her feet?” Carol asks.

“She’s got my pumps on, but they’re a little bit too big for her. Let her try yours on. You’re a

size smaller than me, aren’t you?” asks Angela.

Carol nods and slips her pumps off. I pull my feet out of Angela’s shoes and slip them into

Carol’s. They fit perfectly.

“Size six then. What about panties and bras and stuff? Will she need them too?” Carol asks.

Angela nods. “She’ll need everything.”

Carol turns to me and sighs. “What sorts of clothes do you like, Serena? Or shall I just get

you some of everything?”

I think about all the pictures that I’ve seen of girls in magazines and the clothes they wore. “I like dresses and skirts and pretty tops with no sleeves. I like shorts and vests too though and pumps.

Oh, and those sandals that have that thing that goes in between your toes. I like to swim and run, and I think I need some clothes to wear in bed.”

“Flip-flops?” she asks.

“That’s them,” I say.

Carol pulls a phone from out of her bag and grins. “I’m going to need some help. I’ll see you

in about four hours. I’ll take the majority of the stuff back to your house, but I’ll bring a few bits back here so you can change into your nice clothes. It’ll go with your nice hair and stuff.”

“Thank you,” I say.

“Yes,” sighs Angela, “thank you, Carol.”

I watch Carol walk out of the salon, still chattering away on her phone and turn to Angela.

“Was that okay? I mean I know things cost money and you’ve already done my bedroom.”

She holds up a hand. “Trust me,” she says with a smile, “I absolutely love the fact that I’m

getting to spend money on my daughter and you absolutely need new clothes.”

“Sit back down then, madam,” says Hannah, “we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

She wasn’t kidding either. It’s been four hours since I walked in here and they’ve only just finished with me. I look up in the mirror and notice my eyebrows first. When she ripped that piece of wax

across them I could have cried, but I love how she’s shaped them over my eyes. It’s sort of changed the look of my face completely. I still can’t figure out how something as simple as your eyebrows can change your whole face, but I don’t care. I love it.

Hannah put a little bit of make-up on even though she said I didn’t really need it, so now I

have a light green mixed with a champagne colour that glitters across the top of my eyelids. She also put a coat of mascara on that makes my lashes look all separated and long. My lips have a shiny pale pink lip-gloss on them and sparkle when I smile.

She washed my hair in the most delicious-smelling coconut shampoo and rubbed it into my

scalp. It made me shiver and tingle all at the same time. She’s chopped my hair but it still hits the bottom of my back, and then dried it with a hairdryer before using something hot to curl it. It now falls in gentle waves from the centre of my head.

I cried out in pain when she used the wax strips on my armpits and my legs but it was worth it,

I think. I see my smooth legs as I look down past my white dress that pulls in at my waist, making my breasts look bigger and rounder. I wriggle my feet and stare at the sparkling flip-flops.

“I love it,” I smile. I spin around, making the bottom of the dress whirl out around me,

“although the straps on this dress feel weird.”

“You’ve probably never worn a halter-neck before, Serena,” says Hannah. “You’ll get used to

it.”

I pull a pair of sunglasses onto my face and push them up into my hair like Hannah has been

showing me. I catch sight of my bright red fingernails as I do so.

“That’s right,” laughs Hannah, “you’ve got the hang of it now.”

Angela just stands stock still and stares at me. I stop turning and look at her. “What’s the

matter? Don’t you like it?”

She shakes her head and then nods. “I love it, Serena. You’re just so stunning that I’m a little

bit shocked, that’s all. I knew you were beautiful and you were beautiful before you came in here, but now you’re absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous.”

I grin at her. “Thank you for bringing me here and paying for this. It’s very kind of you.”

She laughs and rubs at her eyes. She pulls a tissue from out of her bag and dabs her cheek

with it. “Let’s go show your Father. I think he’ll be even more gobsmacked than I am.”

“What does ‘gobsmacked’ mean?” I ask.

She laughs. “It’s an old phrase I picked up from your grandmother. She used to live in

England and I believe they use it quite a lot. The word ‘gob’ is another word for mouth. It just means you’re speechless. Quite a strange phrase really, but it makes me smile and sometimes feels more

appropriate than anything else.”

We climb into the car. I have to tuck my dress underneath my backside when I climb in to

make sure I’m not sitting on my knickers. I feel like a real girl; like the ones in my books when they get ready to go to a party.

As we drive back along the coastal road, Angela’s phone rings. She plugs it into the unit in

the front of the car and then I hear Auden’s voice filter through the black squares on the door where the music comes from.

“Hello girls,” he says.

We both smile and say, “Hi.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” says Auden. “I’m sure I won’t recognise you.”

“You won’t,” says Angela. “She looks stunning.”

“I’m sure she does.” I can hear him smiling as he talks.

“I know you’re driving so I’ll speak to you when you get back, but I just wanted to tell you

that we have a visitor.”

“He’s there?” asks Angela, sounding surprised.

“He’s here with me now. We’re in the kitchen,” he responds.

“Keep him there. I want to talk to him.”

Kaiden

I was supposed to be telling them the reasons why I haven’t responded to their letters or why I

haven’t called. I wasn’t supposed to drive to their house and walk into their kitchen, and I certainly wasn’t supposed to agree to wait so that Angela can speak to me. I sit down at the breakfast bar and twirl my phone in my fingers, wondering why I’m being so stupid.

“Angela will want you to take it. You know that right?” asks Auden.

I shrug. “I don’t want it. I didn’t do it for that.”

Auden smiles at me. He knows who I am and what sort of guy I am, and yet he’s still here

trying to shove this envelope into my hands.

The difference I see in him since the last time we were together shocked me when he first

opened the door. I knew that they were depressed since the disappearance of Ayla, but I guess I

hadn’t noticed just how much it had physically changed them. Seeing him standing bare foot in a

pair of jeans with a plain white t-shirt on, I can see why all the women in the street go all gooey-eyed when they talk to him. Even though I’m a guy, I can still appreciate an attractive man and Auden

Scott is the most attractive man I’ve ever met. He shouldn’t sit in his glass office all day at his desk; he should be in a catalogue or on a poster or something.

He sits down opposite me and pushes his hand through his light brown hair, looking refreshed.

I hadn’t noticed before just how tired the Scotts looked. I guess when you see someone looking the same way for so long, you just get used to it. But now that she’s back, he looks ten years younger.

“Has she settled in alright?” I ask.

He sighs. “It’s difficult and awkward at times. We’re strangers really, when you think about

it. Angela and I are adults and we’ve been prepped for this, so we know how to handle. But Ayla, I mean Serena, acts like she’s been snatched all over again. She doesn’t know us. She doesn’t know

how to act in this world and it’s confusing for her. It’s confusing for us. We’re worried that

everything we do is wrong and that everything we say to her is the wrong thing. But overall, she

seems to be handling it fairly well. She’s very strong.”

I nod. I remember the way she was when I spent those three days with her and how she was

a week ago when I last saw her.

“She’s the strongest person I’ve ever met,” I tell him truthfully.

He looks at me and nods. “Could I ask what was it like when you were with her for those few

days?”

I take a deep breath. “In a way, it was amazing. Imagine going back in time and living

without computers or televisions or the convenience of fast food and all of the stress that modern-day life brings with it. They were oblivious to anything bad happening in the world. They just lived. It was as simple as that. And it was amazing really to do whatever you wanted and not have to worry

about anything except surviving. It was an eye opener, that’s for sure. They should make naughty

kids at school go and live like that for a few weeks. They would soon be begging to come back home with promises of good behaviour.”

Auden smiles.

“It changed me,” I confess. “
She
changed me.”

“What was she like?” he asks softly.

“Incredible,” I say quickly, remembering the hike that she forced me to go on and the

swimming we did in the lake. “She did all the chores, fixed their house, and washed their clothes by hand. She killed a chicken for their dinner and I watched as she plucked and chopped it. I can still remember the smell of the blood as it ran over her hands and arms. Also, she made me hike up this huge mountain and then swim about five miles and, even though I play all kind of sports and

consider myself to be fit, it nearly killed me. Serena and Elodie weren’t even out of breath. I even think they were going easy on me, so God only knows what they were like when they weren’t

slowing down to make sure someone was keeping up with them.”

“I guess it could have been much worse. All those horrible things I’ve thought about over the

years,” he says, shuddering. “I convinced myself she was dead because I couldn’t bear the thought of her being raped or beaten or sold in the drug trade or anything else equally as horrible.”