Chapter 2
I opened my eyes and saw my reflection, talk about weird; I looked like my own sister, if I had one.
I tried to take it all in. The blond hair; eyes made wide with makeup; cheeks making me look like I was blushing a bit; lips shiny pink and feeling a bit sticky. Then there were the clothes; the black skirt and white top; the whole thing made me look, well erm, so very girlie!
I sighed. I wasn’t happy with this, but what could I do? Short of running away, I would have to be this person that I wasn’t, if you know what I mean.
‘Do you like?’
I turned to Claire, who had a slight smile on her face.
‘I look — strange.’
‘You’ll get used to it.’
‘I hope not. Are you sure I can’t speak to Dad?’
‘Not at the moment; he promised to ring me on my mobile as soon as it was safe. Now it’s time for us to go. Here is a bag for you.’
She passed me a black small shoulder bag made of leather.
‘It has essentials in there.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like makeup, purse, tissues — stuff like that.’
I shuddered slightly as I put the thing on my shoulder.
‘Come on, let’s go. Do you want to use the toilet?’
‘Not really.’
‘Well try anyway, as we have a long way to go and I don’t know if we’ll be able to stop much on the way.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘It’s a surprise; leave your bag on the bed and then pop into the toilet. While you are sorting yourself out, I’ll pack the rest of your new clothes for you in the case.’
I reluctantly went to the toilet, shut the door and sat down.
To say I felt strange would be an understatement. Sitting there, I could see my reflection in the mirror, over to the side. I was fast becoming more than a little bit fed up with all that was happening to me.
I thought about my dad; was he worried about me? He must be, otherwise he wouldn’t have suggested disguising me like this; and what about Claire; was she Dad’s girlfriend? Different questions kept popping into my mind. How was I going to pretend to be this girl Melanie, no Melissa? She was nothing like me. I wondered what my best friend Georgina would think of me if she saw me like this — I bet she would laugh...
‘Melissa, have you finished yet.’
‘Coming.’
I couldn’t wee; I had too much on my mind. I stood up and pulled the panties up, then washed my hands, avoiding looking in the mirror again as I felt more than uncomfortable looking at that stranger.
I went back into the bedroom; Claire was just finishing packing some stuff in a case.
‘Is that my case?’
‘Yes dear,’ she replied as she closed and pushed down the catches.
She picked up my case and asked me to carry a few bags — including my new shoulder bag out.
It was quite warm outside; Claire locked the front door and we headed out to the sleek, shiny BMW.
After putting the bags in the boot, we got into the car. As soon as Claire switched the engine on, the air conditioning kicked in and I felt more comfortable. The car quietly moved away from the curb and we were soon on a motorway, doing about 70 miles an hour. Music was playing — ABBA again, I think. I tried to work out where we were going by the signs. We were heading west on the M4 towards Exeter, that’s all I knew.
‘Can you tell me where we are going now?’
‘It’s a surprise, but we are going to the West Country; that’s all I’m telling you for now so be patient.’
‘Can we have the radio on?’
‘Erm…no; I get distracted when they start to talk, that why I only like music on when I’m driving.’
I sat back and watched the scenery go by.
I looked at Claire out of the corner of my eye. She was very pretty for someone quite old. I wondered again if she and my dad really did have a ‘thing’ going on. She had been a bit cagey when she mentioned it before. If they were serious, would I like her as a mum? Not sure really as I love my mum more than anything, even though she wasn’t with us anymore.
I must have shut my eyes; when I woke up, it was starting to get dark. I immediately felt the need to use a toilet.
‘Claire, I need to use a loo.’
She looked a bit annoyed for some reason.
‘Didn’t you go when we were at home?’
‘I couldn’t.’
She thought for a moment.
‘Okay, I didn’t want to stop because there is always a chance of being recognised, but looking as you are, we should be alright. There’s a motorway service station about ten miles up the road, we’ll stop there.’
We were soon pulling into the services. It was the usual type, with McDonalds, Burger King, another restaurant run by the service station owners, a shop selling expensive food, mags and other stuff and most importantly, of course, it had a toilet!
As soon as we stopped, I quickly opened the car door and then felt myself being grabbed by the arm.
‘Hang on, don’t rush; you will draw attention to us. Wait a sec and I’ll come with you.’
I got out of the car and shut the door. I was almost dancing now, what Georgie always called the pee dance.
‘Okay,’ said Claire, ‘let’s go — and walk please, don’t run.’
‘But I’m dying to go!’
‘Alright, we’ll walk fast; give me your hand.’
I reluctantly let her lead me by the hand. It made me feel like I was six or something.
After what seemed like a year, we arrived at the toilets. Claire whispered for me to go to in and be quick...I slipped in a cubical, bolted the door, sat down and let go with a sigh of relief.
After I had finished, I went outside to wash my hands. Claire was there waiting for me.
‘All done? Good.’
‘I’m hungry.’
‘Are you…okay, we have time to have a quick bite; what do you fancy?’
‘Nuggets with curry source.’
‘Right, McDonald's, it is.’
Soon, I was biting into my first nugget. Things didn’t seem so bad, now that I had been to the toilet and was able to feed my face. As I munched, I began to realise that I should be more worried about being found out. In all the rush of finding the loo and then getting something to eat, I had clean forgotten how I was dressed and looked. I casually glanced around me to see if anyone was noticing me and just saw people doing their own thing and not paying a blind bit of attention to me. I relaxed a bit. I think that even my best friends would have a problem recognising me like this!
I was sucking up some Coke in a straw when Claire picked up her bag and pulled out a bottle of pills, unscrewed the cap and shook it in her hand.
‘I almost forgot, you have to take two of these.’
‘What are they?’
‘Your dad said that you went to the doctors last week and had a blood test.’
‘Yes.’ I said, remembering the injection with a shudder. I hate injections and the doctor must have taken an arm full out of me — well that what it seemed, anyway.
‘Well the results came in and the doctor said that you were a bit anaemic so you need iron tablets. Before your dad left, he asked me to get a supply and make sure you take them.’
‘They won’t send me to sleep, will they?’
‘No, silly, they will help you to get some iron in your blood; lots of people take them, even athletes and footballers; I did when I was pregnant.’
‘Well,’ I thought, ‘if athletes and footballers take them, it must be okay.’
I was in the girls’ football team at school and took the game seriously.
I swallowed the brown pills and washed them down with some coke. I could feel them go down my throat — not a very nice feeling!
We finally finished the meal and then got up to leave; going through the crowds, we went past the shop. I glanced in and noticed that there were quite a few people l
ooking around it.
I suddenly thought of something.
‘Can I get a paper? I want to see how my football team, Chelsea are doing.’
‘Erm…no time,now, we’ll get a paper in the morning, if we have time.’
It was a shame because I really wanted to see if there was anything about my dad in the papers.
Before too long, we were back in the car, ready to continue with the journey, but before we started, Claire looked at me.
‘I think we need to touch up you war paint.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Your makeup needs a bit of a touch up, especially your lips.’
‘Do I have to?’
‘Yes, you need to get used to doing it yourself, so open your bag and let’s see if you can do it yourself in the vanity mirror.’
‘But it’s getting dark.’ I protested, ‘no one will see me.’
‘No buts, you need to practice.’
I opened the bag reluctantly, almost as if I expected a snake in there or something and saw the lipstick, tucked down the side. Pulling it out, I took the cap off. It had a sort of wand thingy in there and it sucked slightly as I pulled it out of the tube.
‘Okay, let’s see if you can put the lipstick on yourself.’
‘ME!’
‘Yes you Miss and don’t shout, ladies don’t do that.’
I pulled down the visor and there was a little mirror; it was lit up and I could see my face, quite clearly. Most of the makeup had stayed put, but my lipstick had worn off, maybe ‘cos of eating and drinking.
With slightly shaking hands, I put the stick up against my lips and traced around.
Claire looked at me carefully.
‘Hmm, not bad; you’ve gone over a bit too far in the corner.’
She wiped some of the excess lipstick off with a tissue and then looked again.
‘Yes, that’s fine for a first attempt. The rest of your makeup isn’t too bad. Well done Melissa, I’m proud of you!’
I smiled at that but secretly hoped that I wouldn’t have to get too good at makeup in the near future, enough of that when I had to use it to hide all the cracks in my face when I got older.
The journey continued. It was getting quite late now and Claire mentioned that we wouldn’t be getting to our destination for several hours.
‘Why don’t you shut your eyes and sleep for a while. I’ll wake you up later.’
I yawned, it had been a long day.
‘Okay; night, night.’
I thought that I would have trouble sleeping, but obviously not, because when I woke up, dawn was breaking and we were no longer on a motorway. In fact, we were on a little winding country lane.
‘Where are we?’ I yawned, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
‘Hello, sleepyhead, decided to wake up?’
‘Yes but are we there yet?’
‘Nearly, just about a mile to go.’
I sat up a bit at that; wondering where we were and where this mystery destination might be.
The road got a bit rougher from there on and soon we were going along nothing more than a rutted track.
I couldn’t see where we were because each side of the road had high hedges. We didn’t pass any other traffic and it seemed that the track wasn’t used much, as there were weeds growing in the middle of it. Through gaps in the hedges, I could see hills and fields but not much else.
Just then, the sun rose and it started to feel a bit hotter. We went around a left hand bend and then right hand one. Suddenly, the view opened out and I gasped as we pulled up outside what looked like an old ivy covered cottage. But that wasn’t what made me gasp; it was the view; because the cottage was on the side of a hill overlooking a lovely sandy bay and beyond that lay the deep blue sea that reached over to the horizon.
‘Welcome to Cornwall, Melissa!’