The Girl in Between by Sarah Carroll

Author:Sarah Carroll [Carroll, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

GLASS TOWER

Ma’s not back with the gas or dinner yet. I’m out in the backyard and it’s dark now. But it’s actually not, cos I brought out fairy lights.

I finished my brick castle the other day. I fished a big plastic sheet out of the canal and used it to cover the ground. Then I got shopping bags and spread them out and hung them to the outside of the walls. So the castle is almost completely waterproof now.

I took the cushions off the couch and brought in a towel as a blanket. But the best part is the fairy lights. I fed them in and out of the holes in the crate that I used for the roof. So now when you lie in the brick castle it’s like you’re looking at the sky in some exotic place where the stars aren’t white, but pink and green and blue. Like Greece or Portugal.

I bet Ma will want to sleep in here. Though it’s a little cold. I’d better bring down my duvet.

I’m just going up the stairs when I hear Ma at the front door. I jump back down the steps and sprint through the basement. I try to open the lock but I’m not doing it right cos I’m hurrying too much.

Ma will think it’s hilarious when I tell her that Caretaker’s been nicking my coins.

When I finally do get it open, I pull too hard and the door comes flying back and I almost fall over. ‘Ma, guess what?’ I say and I grab the door to steady myself. ‘Remember I said I thought the mill was haunted cos–’

But that’s as far as I get. A bag of spiders explodes inside me. They race through my spine and up my neck and sink their fangs into my brain.

It’s him. Monkey Man. He’s here. At our Castle.

‘Heya, love,’ Ma says and the smell of beer chokes me. She kisses me wetly on the forehead. He’s standing behind her with another man.

‘Ma, what are they doing here?’ I ask.

This is our Castle. Our home. We’re safe here. I’m safe here. Away from the alleyways and the doorways and the cans and the fighting and the shouting and the hiding and the hunger and the cold and the dark and the scary nights. She’s not allowed to bring them in here. She promised.

Monkey Man steps up into our home like he owns the place and stands there looking around. The other guy’s real tall but skinny. His clothes are all too big for him. He looks like a scarecrow with glasses and straw hair.

‘Ma,’ I say, ‘what are ya at?’

But Ma doesn’t bother answering me. She hasn’t brought any gas, neither.

Monkey Man whistles like he’s making the sound of something falling real fast from the sky. ‘Look at this place,’ he says. ‘It’s bleeding massive.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Ma says, real proud. ‘I call it the Castle.’

I look at her with daggers. I can’t believe she’s doing this. Why is she showing them our home?

‘Ye have this whole gaff to yerself?’ he asks.

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