CHAPTER THIRTY
THE LODGER
It was Saturday and I stayed home all day. I knew Albert Smith would be livid when he found out that I’d been rescued. He probably had his friends, the ones who had followed me from the park, watching the house, just waiting for the opportunity to kidnap me. Occasionally during the morning I peeped out of my bedroom window. People passed by on their way to the shops or whatever it was they had to do but I saw no suspicious characters hanging about. Once I saw a car drive down the road to the end, turn round and drive back but I decided it was someone looking for a particular house. I didn’t see the car after that.
In the afternoon Dad decided to go to the football match at the local ground, where our home team was playing an important game against our rivals in a local derby. I made an excuse that I was feeling tired, which was the truth: I hadn’t yet recovered from my ordeal. I was careful not to show my wrists, which were swollen and sore. Mum said she had some shopping to do and went out with her trolley that she always took shopping and gave me cause for shame. How can you have a mother who wheels a trolley to the shops? I asked her why she didn’t take the car and she just said she had never been very confident in the traffic and anyway it was hard to park in town.
I stayed at home, reading the book on Mars that I hadn’t got very far with, what with all the events of the past few days. The radio was on in the background so I could follow the Test Match. The rest of the England batsmen had failed miserably and India led the first innings by more than a hundred runs. England had just started their second innings and so far all their wickets were intact. I was engrossed in my book, sitting in the arm chair, reading about the so-called canals that Giovanni Schiaparelli had discovered on Mars in 1877, when there was a ring at the door. I jumped. My immediate thought was that Albert Smith had come to get me. He had seen my parents go out and had guessed that I was alone. My heart started beating like a drum. I moved across to the window, being careful not to show my face, and peered through the lace. The figure standing on the doorstep was the very last person I expected to see. I rushed out of the room and headed for the front door, as if the caller might turn away and disappear in a few seconds.
I flung wide the door and greeted the figure with a huge smile of welcome.
‘Sonia! How on Earth did you get here?’
She looked a bit bewildered and I was soon to learn why. I led her into the sitting room and she ploncked herself down in the armchair I had been sitting in. She was dressed in a white blouse and tartan skirt and her red hair was tied back in a single plait. She carried a small red handbag which she draped over the arm of the chair. She sat back in the chair and looked at me through her round glasses.
‘A most curious thing…..’ she began. ‘You won’t believe it Bill.’
‘I’m ready to believe anything, dear,’ I said. ‘Go on, tell me.’
‘My father put me on a plane to Canada late on Wednesday night.’
‘That much I know. He told me himself.’
‘Really? You know then that he wanted me out of the way for a month while he made big plans for our future.’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘I arrived at my Aunt’s house in Toronto on Thursday morning. The first thing she did was to take away my passport and my money. She said that was my father’s instructions. I can tell you, I was mad about it. She kept following me around as if I was likely to run away, as if I could without money and a passport. I was worried about my job. I knew my father was not going to tell Mrs. Rogers anything.’
She stopped and looked at me with a mixture of respect and gratitude.
‘Early this morning the strangest thing happened. First I should tell you that last night I thought about Michu and I kind of asked for her help. Well, this morning someone called at my Aunt’s house and asked to see me. My Aunt was so suspicious and at first she wouldn’t invite the man in.’
‘What did he look like?’ I asked.
‘He was very small and thin, and the odd thing was, he said he knew you.’
‘Priam,’ I said. ‘He is Michu’s father.’
‘Wow!’ said Sonia.
‘And he gave you a parcel,’ I said smiling.
‘How do you know that? You’re spoiling my story!’
‘Sorry! Go on.’
‘He gave me a parcel and told me to unwrap it. When I did, there was nothing inside. Then he made me feel it and it was there but invisible. He asked me if I wanted to go home and I said, ‘yes and no.’ Then he said, ‘yes, you want to go to see Bill but not your father. I know.’ Well, you can imagine how confused I was. He actually knew what I was thinking!’
‘That is the gift that all Martians seem to have,’ I said.
‘He led me out into the garden, much to the annoyance of my Aunt. He told her calmly and sweetly that he only wanted to see the roses, they were so beautiful. So she went inside the house and watched through the window. Then he held out the invisible parcel, shook it and there appeared a big bubble, like the one you told me about. He said I need do nothing, that the bubble was programmed and would take me home. I hardly had time to think and I was whisked into the air, inside the bubble. It must have got here in only a few minutes. The next thing I knew, I was in the churchyard at the end of your road and the bubble was nowhere to be seen. And here I am!’
‘I will believe anything after this Sonia. Michu is a marvel!’
‘I will never be able to thank her enough, Bill. And Priam.’
‘It’s wonderful to see you. I was so worried about you, and so was Mrs. Rogers,’ I said.
Sonia’s face clouded over. ‘Of course now I can’t go home.’
‘Your father would have a pink fit if he saw you were back.’
‘What shall I do?’
‘Stay here, Sonia. We have a spare room and Mum won’t mind. We can tell her your father had to go away and you didn’t want to stay in the house on your own.’
‘If it’s not too much of an imposition,’ she said doubtfully.
‘Of course not! But there are other problems.’
‘Like what?’ asked Sonia.
I then told her what had happened to me since we had last met on Wednesday morning after my meeting with her father. I told her of my concern for her and how I had gone to her house to look for her and had broken in. I could see the admiration in her eyes. When I got to the part where her father had discovered me under the bed and had hit me and then thrown me in the under-stairs cupboard, she showed great sympathy for my situation. I told her how I had talked to Ben on the phone and how they had rescued me and she clapped her hands with excitement.
When we both realised again what a mess we were both in we became serious.
‘How can I go to work?’ said Sonia gloomily.
‘And how am I to leave this house?’ I said in the same mood.
We sat for a while. I was desperately trying to think of a plan. We could leave the town for a while, I thought. Then I had a brainwave.
‘We’ll put on disguises!’ I cried.
Sonia looked doubtful. ‘If they see us leave the house, even in a disguise, they will know it is us.’
‘Mmmm,’ I mused.
‘It could work though,’ she said, brightening up.
‘I acted an old man in the school play once,’ I said. ‘Everyone said how good I was.’
‘I could wear a wig and stuff pillows in my clothes to make me look fat,’ suggested Sonia. She was getting excited about my idea.
‘There’s a problem, Sonia. If there is someone watching the house, he will see two old people go out but won’t have seen them go in. That will make him suspicious.’
‘I’ve got it!’ cried Sonia. ‘We can escape through the back fence with our disguises in bags and then, calmly and slowly, we can walk down the street and knock on your door.’
‘Sonia, you’re brilliant! What a cool plan.’ We can spread the word that my mum’s long-lost aunt and uncle have come all the way from Australia to spend a we
ek, or two weeks with her.’
‘Mr. & Mrs. MacDonald from Sydney!’ said Sonia dramatically, getting up from the chair and bowing.
‘How’s your Australian accent?’
‘Terrible!’ she said with a mock groan.
‘It can’t be as bad as mine sport.’ I tried the accent with little success, which made us both laugh. It was good to laugh: it released some of our tension.
At that moment, Mum came back from shopping. She parked her trolley in the hall and came into the sitting room, finding Sonia and me bending over with laughter.
‘What’s the joke about?’ she asked.
‘Nothing Mum,’ I said. ‘Meet Sonia.
‘We met the other day dear. Hello Sonia.’
‘Hi, Mrs. Steadman,’ said Sonia, holding out her hand.
‘By the way Mum, do you by any chance have an aunt and uncle in Australia?’
‘Not that I know of. I did have an Aunt in Canada but I haven’t heard anything about her for years. She’s probably dead by now.’
‘I wouldn’t bank on it. She might suddenly appear on the doorstep and tell you she has come to spend a month with you, and bring her old husband too!’ I could hardly keep a straight face. Sonia had her hands over her face to hide the laughter.
‘Heaven forbid!’ cried my mother, looking horrified. That was too much. Both Sonia and I burst into laughter and we laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks.
Poor Mum, she tried to share the joke but could hardly know the reason why we thought it so funny.
‘Mum, don’t go. I want to ask you something,’ I said, trying to be serious. Sonia was wiping her eyes on her handkerchief.
‘Mum, can Sonia stay here? Her father is away and she gets scared in the house on her own. She can use the spare room. I’ll move some of those old things into my room. Is it okay?’
‘Of course,’ she said. ‘She’s welcome.’
‘Thanks Mum, it will only be a few days.’
She went to the kitchen to put her shopping away.
There was another ring on the front doorbell. Sonia and I looked at each other in alarm. I leapt up and peered through the lace curtain.
‘It’s Ben and Tim.’ I was relieved.
I let them in. They were surprised to see Sonia and they were even more surprised when she told them how she had travelled from Canada.
‘Put a call through to your Michu and ask her to send another bubble over. I fancy a weekend in the Bahamas,’ joked Ben.
We sat round the small table in the bay window of the sitting room and went over the situation facing us. Albert Smith was too quiet: he had to have something up his sleeve, just what it was we could only guess. Tim said he had seen a car parked at the end of the road with two men inside, sitting smoking cigarettes. I told the boys of my idea of using disguises to go in and out. We had another good laugh but they both said it was a cool idea and agreed to find some good costumes for us, if the shop was open on Sunday morning. Until then, Sonia and I were advised to stay at home, but be careful not to get up to any mischief. Sonia and I beat both boys over the head for their cheek.