White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick

Author:Marcus Sedgwick
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little Brown
Published: 2010-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

This is How I Disappear

We sat in the Lover’s Seat and fried.

The sun was beating down just as it had been for days and days.

‘So what’s with your boyfriend then?’ I asked Rebecca. She seemed needled.

‘He’s not my boyfriend any more.’

I nodded.

She stared out to sea. Then she turned back to me.

‘So what’s with your mother then?’ she asked.

I changed the subject.

‘How about an ice-cream?’ I said.

‘You’re always asking me questions. I want to ask you one. What’s with your mother?’

I got cross. I shouted and told her to mind her own business.

I stomped about a bit, and it got even hotter. I stared down over the cliff edge at the hard beach and the blue water, and after a while I stopped being angry.

‘I’d love an ice-cream,’ Rebecca said then. ‘But I don’t have any money.’

I fished around in my pockets and found nothing useful.

‘Never mind,’ I said, ‘I know where we can get some.’

‘What does that mean?’ she said,

I didn’t answer, but put out my hands to pull her up.

‘Come on,’ I said, and lead the way, twisting down a little track to rejoin the main footpath.

I took a branch of that and we were walking down the lane that leads to the Hall. It’s a very pretty lane with cottages dotted here and there like you see on cheap boxes of toffee.

And there was one cottage I was interested in especially.

At Rose Cottage there’s usually a table outside in the summer where they sell things from their garden.

It was there, with some jars of jam and bundles of runner beans.

I stood by the table, and Rebecca joined me.

‘Vegetables?’ she said, but that wasn’t what I was interested in. On the table next to the stuff was an old coffee jar with a slot in the lid to put the money.

An honesty box.

I looked through the front windows of the cottage. No one was visible.

‘Check the lane for me,’ I told Rebecca.

‘What?’ she said.

‘Just check the lane. Is it clear?’

‘Yes, but…’

Before she’d finished I swiped the tin and stuck it under my T-shirt.

She stood looking stupid by the table.

‘Come on,’ I hissed.

‘You…’ she said. It was kind of funny. ‘You can’t do that.’

But I was halfway down the lane and she was still at the table. I picked up speed and Rebecca began to follow me at last.

As she did, some little old dear came out of the cottage.

‘Can I help you?’ she asked Rebecca, who was left stranded.

She must have mumbled something to the old girl and then she walked away, trying to catch up with me, but I was out of sight and running then, and I didn’t stop till I was outside the shop, clutching just enough money for two big ice creams.

1798, 10m, 22d.

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