Authors: Robert Swindells

Tags: #Juvenile Nonfiction, #Action & Adventure, #Family, #Juvenile Fiction, #General, #Horror & Ghost Stories

Abomination (13 page)

‘Come on, Marfa, quick!’

The thought that I’d be rescued too hadn’t entered my head but I didn’t hesitate, following this thin, dowdy stranger out the door and down the path to where another stranger sat in the driving seat of an ancient car whose engine was idling. The last thing I saw as acceleration slammed me back in the seat was Mother on the doorstep looking like someone beholding the end of the world.

59. Scott

I was halfway up the hill when this beat-up Mini came down, trailing smoke. It was the clapped-out noise that made me look, and for a split-second my eyes locked with Martha’s. I thought,
They’re off. They’re taking her away and I don’t know where
. I meant, her folks. It wasn’t till the car had passed and I was staring after it that I realized it wasn’t theirs, and that the three people I’d glimpsed were all women.

That was Saturday. It’s Monday now and I’m sitting on a bench in the park thinking about Martha, trying to cheer myself up counting the good things.

One, the kid’s not in a cage, he’s with his mother.

Two, Martha’s not in that awful house. She’s with the sister whose sad torn cards she hoarded all those years.

Three, it all seems to have happened without anybody learning the Dewhursts’ secret so they’re not in trouble, which is how Martha wanted it.

Four, she’s away from Pritchard and Stamper and all those other donkeys at school.

Which leaves me. I can’t pretend I’m happy, because Martha’s gone and I love her. Oh, I know what Mum’d say. You
can’t
be in love, Scott. You don’t even know what it means. Well, she might be right in a way. Maybe I don’t love Martha the way Mum loves Dad or I love Mum, but I love her just as
much
. There’s different
sorts
of love that’s all, and the more sorts the better if you ask me because you can’t have too much love.

Are you thinking about me, Martha?

60. Martha, Mary, Jim, Annette

Thin, dowdy stranger. That’s Mary all right. Nothing like the swashbuckling adventuress I’ve pictured all this time. Turns out she’s been just as miserable as me. Moving on from town to town, working long hours at deadly jobs for bad pay, always looking for something without knowing what.

She knows now, or so she says. It was Jim. Jim, who used to be called Abomination. Annette reckons Mary’s a different person now she’s got Jim. He’s absolutely gorgeous, but he’s hard work. He can only do baby things so he’s not at school yet, but all sorts of people are helping him. Mary’s teaching him to talk. She reads him about ten stories a day and chats to him by the hour, and he’s starting to chat back. What kills me is the way he lets me cuddle him as though I never was his gaoler, but that’s how little kids do love, isn’t it? Unconditionally. He even cuddles me back, which is far more than I deserve.

I’ve started at a new school but it’s dead easy ’cause I wear bought clothes like everybody else. I don’t get Raggedy-Ann any more. Some of the kids call me Ma, but in a friendly way. There’s not much money so I’m not going on the school trip here either, but I’m not the only one and anyway I don’t care.

I miss Mother and Father. I know that sounds like a lie but it’s not. They did a wicked thing but they thought it was right, and now they’ve lost everybody. They’ve never tried to make me go back and I wouldn’t go if they did. I expect they know I’m all right with Mary, that the pair of us will sin our way through this world and spend eternity together, somewhere a bit warmer. I sent them a card with my love and no address but I expect it’s in the bin, torn in two.

I’m looking forward to Wednesday. It’s Annette’s half day off and she’s promised she’ll show me how to surf the Net. You know – the Internet.

Guess who I’m going to e-mail first.

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Swindells
left school at fifteen and worked as a copyholder on a local newspaper. At seventeen he joined the RAF for three years, two of which he served in Germany. He then worked as a clerk, an engineer and a printer before training and working as a teacher. He is now a full-time writer and lives on the Yorkshire moors.

He has written many books for young readers, including many for Random House Children’s Books.
Room 13
won the 1990 Children’s Book Award and
Timesnatch
won the Junior Category of the 1995 Earthworm Award.
Abomination
was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and won the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. His books for older readers include
Stone Cold
, which won the 1994 Carnegie Medal, as well as the award-winning
Brother in the Land
. As well as writing, Robert Swindells enjoys keeping fit, travelling and reading.

NIGHTMARE STAIRS
by Robert Swindells

I’m falling - falling down steep, narrow stairs - if I hit the bottom asleep, I know I’ll never wake
.

Every night Kirsty wakes up screaming. Every night she has the same terrible nightmare - of falling downstairs. But does she fall? Or is she pushed?

Then Kirsty discovers that her grandma died falling downstairs and she begins to wonder: is the dream hinting at a dark secret in her family? She has to know the truth. But tracking a murderer is a dangerous game, and as she delves into the past, Kirsty uncovers a secret more terrible than anything she can imagine.

A terrifying read from one of today’s master storytellers.

WINNER OF THE SHEFFIELD CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD FOR BEST SHORTER NOVEL

‘Cleverly put together - funny as well as gripping’
Sunday Times

ISBN: 978 0 552 55590