Chapter 15
Sadie waltzes into the bedroom, her arms laden with clothes. She dumps a bundle of T-shirts and jeans on the end of the bed. There are jumpers and a coat too.
‘Don’t say I don’t do anything for you. Check out this haul,’ she says, looking pleased with herself.
Dutifully, I peer at the pile of items. I’m sitting cross-legged, propped against the headboard, reading a Smash Hits magazine I found on Sadie’s bedside table.
There’s an article about Duran Duran, which initially gave me heart palpitations.
The Sing Blue Silver Tour continued without me!
Everyone obviously bought the story about the genital herpes.
But somehow, I can’t summon any effort to care.
That’s my old life, and this is now my reality.
‘What’s all this for?’
‘You! It’s your new wardrobe. You can’t keep wearing the same T-shirt and jeans. And besides’—Sadie wrinkles her nose—‘they’re starting to smell.’
I reach over and pick up a light-blue T-shirt and finger the alligator logo. It looks expensive and brand new. ‘Did you go shopping for me?’
I find that hard to believe. I haven’t seen or heard any of the women who live in this flat go outside.
Unless they do when I’m asleep. Anything’s possible.
They seem to like staying up late. Sadie herself keeps very strange hours.
I’ve never seen her sleep. She seems to have given up her bed to me.
I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open ever since the conversation in the lounge about how they needed blood.
That freaked the hell out of me, and they saw that it had and didn’t say anything more.
So I still don’t know what they’re planning to do with me.
I’m starting to think all of them have escaped from a mental hospital.
The police and the prison psychiatrists will be very interested, I’m sure.
So I’m taking a lot of mental notes when I’m not sleeping or complaining.
The other day, I asked for a notepad and pen, saying I wanted to jot down some song ideas.
But Sadie gave me a funny look, and after that, I forgot that I’d asked for it in the first place.
‘No, they’re from the guy upstairs. He said he didn’t want them.’ Something about the way Sadie says this makes me perk up my ears. There’s a guardedness to her tone.
‘A friend?’ I ask casually.
She shrugs and averts her eyes, but not before I catch a flash of pain. Oh, he’s hurt her somehow. The thought of it instantly brings out my protective side, though I don’t know why. She’s nothing to me.
‘Did something happen with him? Is he your boyfriend?’
Sadie flops into the small armchair by the window and looks glum. ‘Not anymore. I was seeing him,’ she admits. ‘But it got ... messy. We had a fight.’ She chews her bottom lip distractedly.
‘Not because of me?’ I ask. If this guy knows I exist, then maybe I have a chance of being rescued.
She shakes her head. ‘No, it was about something else.’
Oh, damn. No luck there then.
‘Maybe you’ll patch things up,’ I say hopefully.
‘I don’t think so. It’s definitely over. But look in the left coat pocket.’
Hesitantly, I put my hand into the pocket, expecting a mousetrap to go off or something. It’s the kind of sick joke she’d play. But my fingers touch plastic, something spongy, and cool metal. Slowly, I draw out the object and discover it’s a red Walkman with orange earphones.
‘I thought you might like to listen to some music. There should be a tape in there, but I don’t know what it is.’
I flip open the cassette holder and chuckle when I see what the tape is.
Sadie cocks an eyebrow. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘It’s Rio, by Duran Duran.’
She giggles. ‘No way! I didn’t know Tim liked them. The sly devil. He was always going on about Roxy Music and Simple Minds and said that Duran Duran was poncy.’
I frown at that. ‘Poncy! They’re not poncy.’
‘Yeah, I don’t feel too bad stealing his Walkman now!’
‘What? You stole his Walkman?’
She shrugs. ‘It seemed like recompense for what he said to me.’ Again, the pained look.
I don’t press her for details on that. It was obviously something mean. This Tim guy sounds like a right knob.
‘Well, if that’s his attitude, you’re better off without him.
’ I press play on the Walkman, put on the earphones and the catchy intro to ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ starts playing softly.
‘Oh, I love this song,’ I say and can’t help smiling.
I tap my foot, itching for her to go now so I can lose myself in the music.
‘Me too,’ agrees Sadie with a nod. ‘“Hungry Like the Wolf” is the best song on the album.’ Wow, she must have good hearing to detect it from all the way over there!
‘I’ll leave you to listen in peace.’ She pushes up off the chair and strolls to the door. When she reaches it, she throws me a glance. ‘Oh, I forgot to say. You’re getting coq au vin for dinner.’
My stomach rumbles hearing that. If I have to eat another peanut butter sandwich, I’m going to vomit all over the bedclothes in protest. New clothes, Duran Duran, and coq au vin. This is turning out to be a great day!