Gone Missing by Jean Ure

Author:Jean Ure
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2007-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

six

It was kind of a weird evening. We started off by looking in the fridge, but there wasn’t anything much there, just a hunk of mouldering cheese and a festering mess of something we couldn’t identify in a plastic pot, so we ended up opening a can of ravioli we found in the cupboard, and did some bits of toast. I watched television while I ate, hopping madly through the channels in case there was any news about me and Honey, but there didn’t seem to be. I guessed it was still too soon. I once read that you had to be gone forty-eight hours before you were officially classed as missing. I wondered if Dad would even have contacted the police yet or whether he would be fuming at home, waiting to chew me out. Of course, he might still be at Auntie Claire’s and not even know that I had gone. Honey’s mum would be asleep, and even when she woke she’d just think that Honey was round at my place. I thought that perhaps, after all, Honey had been right and Sunday was a good day for leaving home.

Halfway through the evening the baby started up again. Honey cried, “Oh, the poor little thing!” and went rushing off in a frenzy to see to it. I went on channel hopping. Babies weren’t my scene, so if Honey wanted to play nursemaid that was fine by me. Just so long as I didn’t have to! A few minutes later, she reappeared, bringing the baby with her.

“I changed it,” she said.

I said, “What for? A different model?”

“Its nappy,” said Honey.

She sat down next to me, on the saggy sofa. I zapped to yet another channel.

“Sooner you than me.” Secretly, I thought it was quite brave of her. Catch me changing babies’ nappies! I guess I would if I had to, but it wouldn’t exactly fill me with joy.

“If this was my baby,” said Honey, “I wouldn’t go off and leave it.”

“People have to be allowed to get away sometimes,” I said.

“Not just to go off with a bloke.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with it?”

“Trusting someone like Darcy?”

“She seems to have managed OK so far.”

Honey looked at me, reproachfully. “She went out and left it!”

“Only for a couple of hours. If people can go out and leave dogs, I don’t see why they can’t go out and leave babies.”

“Because babies aren’t dogs,” said Honey.

“Ho! Well. That’s a brilliant observation,” I said.

I zapped back again, through the channels. Honey retreated, with her bundle, to the far corner of the sofa. I’d obviously upset her.

“You don’t have to get all in a huff,” I said. I leaned across, trying to think of something nice to say about the baby. Nothing came to me. “It’s not very pretty,” I said, “is it?”

“Poor little thing,” said Honey.

“It’s actually quite ugly.”

“That’s all the more reason for loving it!” Honey cradled it, protectively.

I shook my head and went back to my channel hopping. Honey had always had a tendency to croon.

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