Beyond Goth girl’s startled upside-down face, off into the distance on the other side of Cross Road, Biggar, I thought I saw a tiny bluebird with Norman’s face perched on the highest branch of a tree. Then the pain got so intense that I wasn’t sure of anything except that right there and then could be the moment I died.

43

Norman

FIRST RULE OF COMEDY:
Always have a backup plan.

I MUST HAVE been practicing for longer than I thought, because when I got up to get a glass of water, due to feeling a bit sick from all the chocolate and crisps I’d eaten, I nearly couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the time again. It was 5:31 p.m., and the last time I’d looked it had been 2:07 p.m. I couldn’t believe how fast time had gone and I wasn’t even close to coming up with a whole new routine, which is what me and Jax had decided I needed. Also, Mum wasn’t back and, even though she had said six, it was six at the latest. So that only left half an hour before it was going to be later than the latest she’d said.

By the time 6:01 came and there was still no sign of Mum or Leonard, I found out that maybe I wasn’t as brave as I’d started to think I was. Then at 6:10 I remembered I had my phone so I could just call Mum. But then at 6:10 and two seconds I realized that I didn’t have Leonard’s number programmed into my phone, which is probably something me and Mum should have thought of before she left. So the next thing I thought to do was call Mum’s phone because of Leonard having it and because her number is programmed in. Plus I know it off by heart anyhow. But it just went straight to voice mail and because I didn’t know what else to do and I was starting to get a bit worried I called it again straightaway. It went to voice mail again but at least it was nice to hear Mum’s voice.

I tried to stay as brave as I could, but it got harder and harder the later it got and I didn’t even have any chocolate left to make me feel better. When it was an hour later than the latest Mum said she’d be back I thought I should try talking to Jax again, but he didn’t talk back at all that time. Not even one little hey, loser, which you might not think a person would look forward to hearing but I would have.

I went over to the window for the millionth time, hoping to see Mum and Leonard coming up the street together. Or even separately from different directions. But the only people I could see were a couple of dodgy-looking guys in pulled-up hoodies who looked like they were up to no good. They kept turning around to look up and down the street and then, all of a sudden, one of them stared right up at the window to where I was kneeling on Leonard’s window-seat bed. I dropped down straightaway, because the last thing I wanted was a couple of gangsters coming after me, and my knee banged into something hard, which turned out to be Leonard’s laptop. Which then gave me the idea to try to find his phone number on there somewhere, which I think might have been synchronicity, so maybe Jaxy was still talking to me after all.