Is There Anybody There?

  For Tom

  Contents

  Chapter 1 Scared

  Chapter 2 It’s Not a Party

  Chapter 3 Is There Anybody There?

  Chapter 4 Accident?

  Chapter 5 Pictures of Tom

  Chapter 6 Shadows

  Chapter 7 Bonfire Night

  Chapter 8 Nobody There

  Chapter 9 All the Time

  Chapter 1

  Scared

  I’m scared.

  I admit it. I’m scared.

  Walking home from school in the dark, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn but there’s no-one there.

  A shadow moves in a doorway. That’s all it is. A shadow.

  I’m still scared.

  The others think it’s all over. “He’s gone,” they say. “Sorted.”

  I know different.

  I’ve got proof.

  Chapter 2

  It’s Not a Party

  It all began last Halloween. Mum was working the evening shift in A and E. I was going to have a quiet night in. Watch TV. Maybe make a start on my history project. Maybe not.

  Mum said, “I don’t like leaving you on your own, Scott.”

  “Why not?” I said. “You’ve done it before.”

  “Not on Halloween.”

  “Halloween is no big deal. I’ll be fine.”

  “Jaz’s mum says Jaz hasn’t got any plans for this evening,” she said. “Why don’t you ask her round?”

  Jaz and I, we like the same music, the same movies. And I knew Mum would wear me down in the end. So I called her.

  Mum went off happy.

  I just had time to put on a clean shirt and run a comb through my hair before the doorbell rang. I opened the door.

  “Hi, Scott,” said Jaz. “I brought Mo with me. Is that OK?”

  It was not OK. Mo is like bad news waiting to happen.

  “It’s not a party, Mo,” I told her.

  “I can see that,” she said, looking past me.

  Then Lee turned up. He was zig-zagging his bike from one side of the road to the other. In his hand he had a DVD.

  “Got it at last!” he yelled. “Planet of the Undead! This one will blow your socks off!”

  He dropped his bike on the drive and slid past me into the living room.

  “Come on in, girls,” he said. “You’re just in time for the big picture.”

  We got some drinks and nibbles and sat down to watch.

  Half an hour later I hit the ‘off’ button. Even Lee had stopped laughing by then. I’d sat through some rubbish horror with him in the past but Planet of the Undead was the worst yet.

  Jaz had her head in a cushion and Mo was pretending to be asleep.

  “So! What do we do now?” said Lee. “Send out for a pizza?”

  “There’s a pizza in the freezer,” I said. “If you really want one.”

  “Not that much,” he said.

  “I’ve got a better idea,” said Mo.

  “Better than pizza?” said Lee.

  Mo didn’t answer. She was fishing in her bag. Then she held up a pack of cards.

  These weren’t playing cards. As Mo began laying them out in a circle on the table, I saw they were marked with all the letters of the alphabet, plus the words YES and NO.

  “It’s Halloween, right?” said Mo. “The night when ghosts walk and witches ride and all that stuff. So why don’t we try and magic up a real, live ghost or two?”

  “Ghosts?” I said. “In this house? You’ll be lucky!”

  “Who believes in ghosts anyway?” said Lee.

  “I don’t – but I’m still scared of them!” Jaz grinned.

  “So this is just a bit of fun – right?” said Mo. “Got a wine glass?”

  “In the kitchen,” I said. “OK, I’ll get it.”

  When I came back, someone had turned off most of the lights. There was just the lamp in the corner. Mo took the glass and turned it upside down in the middle of the table.

  “Now what?” said Lee.

  “Now we all sit round the table,” she said. “We each put one finger on top of the glass. And we wait.”

  Chapter 3

  Is There Anybody There?

  It was kind of spooky, sitting there in the half-light. Waiting for something to happen. I kept telling myself it was OK. There are no ghosts, right?

  It was still pretty spooky.

  “Maybe I will have that pizza,” said Lee.

  “Sit down, Lee!” said Mo.

  He sat down.

  “Put your finger back on the glass,” she said. With Mo, it’s always easier to do what she says.

  The moment Lee touched the glass again, it began to slide around the table.

  Mo said, “Is there anybody there?”

  The glass shot across the table and stopped at NO.

  Jaz giggled.

  “Oh, very funny, Mo,” said Lee. “You almost had us going there.”

  “It wasn’t me,” she said. “It was all of us together. It takes more than one person to make the glass move.”

  “Says who?” I said.

  “Says anyone who’s ever tried it,” snapped Mo. Like she was some sort of expert. “We all agreed we don’t believe in ghosts. Right?” she said. “So when I said, ‘Is there anybody there?’ the answer we got was NO.” She looked round at us all and smiled. “But what if we decided the answer was going to be YES? Shall we give it a try? Just for a laugh.”

  I shrugged. “Why not?”

  “I’m up for it,” said Lee.

  Jaz wasn’t happy, but she nodded. “OK.”

  “Let’s make it more interesting,” said Mo. “Let’s give our ghost a name.”

  She turned to me. “Scott, what do you think we should call it?”

  “Me?” I asked.

  “Just think of a name,” she snapped.

  “OK… Let’s call him Tom,” I said.

  “Jaz!” said Mo. “Think of a number, between 16 and 40. We don’t want our ghost to be some little kid or some horrible old man.”

  “21, then,” said Jaz.

  “So our ghost is called Tom,” said Mo, “and he was 21 when he died. Let’s make it not too long ago. How about World War Two?”

  We’d been doing World War Two in history.

  “A bomber pilot!” Lee said suddenly. “The plane’s coming back from a raid over Germany. There’s an engine on fire. The crew have bailed out, but the pilot has to stay at the controls so the plane doesn’t crash on the town. He saves the town, but he goes down in flames.”

  Next to rubbish horror films, Lee loves war movies.

  “OK,” said Mo. “Got that, everyone? Right! Fingers on the glass. And think of Tom.”

  I stared hard at my finger resting on the glass. The glass didn’t move. It wasn’t going to.

  “Think of Tom!” Mo said again.

  I was wishing I’d just settled for a night in on my own when I heard Jaz catch her breath. The glass was on the move again.

  “Don’t let go!” cried Mo. “Think of Tom! Is there anybody there?”

  The glass slid sideways and stopped at the card marked YES.

  “Yes!” shouted Lee. “Result!”

  “Shut up,” said Mo. She asked the glass, “Who are you?”

  The glass slid off again.

  It went to the U. Then to NO.

  “U NO.” I laughed. “You know! Of course we know.”

  “Look,” cried Mo. “He’s texting!”

  “We are texting, Mo,” I said. “We made him up. Remember?”

  Mo gave me a nasty look. “Tom,” she said, “can you spell your name for us?”

  The glass picked out T, then O, then M, faster than any of us could spot where the letters we
re, because they weren’t in any sort of order.

  “This is scary,” said Jaz. “I don’t like it.”

  “Next question,” said Mo, ignoring her. “Tom, when did you die?”

  The glass spelled out the letters:

  N O T D E A D

  “He doesn’t know he’s dead,” said Mo. “I think you often get that with ghosts.”

  “He’s not dead,” I said, “because he was never alive.”

  The glass was on the move again.

  U R

  “You are! He’s texting again!” cried Mo.

  U R

  S O

  R O N G

  Mo grinned.

  “He’s talking to you, Scott,” she said. “He’s telling you, you are so wrong.”

  “I don’t like this,” said Jaz. “Let’s stop.”

  “We can’t stop now,” said Mo. “Tom, why are you here? What do you want?”

  The glass spelled out

  T O L I V E

  “To live!” said Mo. “He wants to live.”

  The glass began sliding all over the table, faster and faster. Jaz cried out, “I’m not doing this any more!”

  As soon as her finger left the glass, it spun off the table, flew through the air and smashed on the floor.

  “Wow!” said Lee.

  Jaz was crying. Mo put an arm round her.

  “I’ll take you home,” she said.

  She gave Lee and me a nasty look, like this whole stupid game had been our idea, not hers.

  * * *

  After the girls had gone, I cleared up the broken glass. Then Lee and me had that pizza. I didn’t bother with the oven, just bunged it in the microwave. Not a good idea.

  Then Lee went off on his bike. I watched him ride away, into the dark.

  Chapter 4

  Accident?

  I knew if I went to bed I wouldn’t sleep. So I sat up waiting for Mum.

  She was late. It’s like that in A and E, weekends and holidays. There’s always a rush late evening and there’s never enough staff.

  Several times I thought I heard her moving about the house. I thought she must have come in and I hadn’t noticed. But there was no car on the drive.

  Once, I found the front door wide open.

  I shut it and went round every room in the house, checking all the doors and windows.

  I still had a feeling I wasn’t alone.

  When Mum came in she found me watching TV, but I had one eye on the window and the other on the door.

  The first thing she said was, “Why aren’t you in bed?”

  “I wasn’t sleepy,” I said.

  “Why have you got all the lights on?”

  “Are they?” I said. “Sorry.”

  I wasn’t going to tell her I’d been scared. Scared to turn the lights off. Scared of going to bed alone in an empty house.

  “You’re late,” I said.

  Then it was her turn to say sorry. “I was just getting my coat on,” she said, “when they brought in a boy who’d been knocked off his bike by a car. As soon as I saw who it was, I knew I had to stay.”

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “It was your friend Lee. The driver said he swerved right out in front of him. There was nothing he could do.”

  I said, “Is he dead?”

  “Dead?” she said. “No, of course not. But he was lucky the car wasn’t going any faster. And why wasn’t he wearing a helmet? As it is, he’s got a broken nose and a broken arm. But he was awake and talking to us. He was going on and on about someone called Tom.”

  “Tom?” I said.

  “He said he’d seen him,” said Mum. “He said the accident was Tom’s fault, for stepping out in front of him. He told me to tell you to take care.”

  She looked worried. “This Tom – is he someone from school? Has he been bullying you? You would tell me, wouldn’t you?”

  “Of course I would, Mum.” (Not!) “Don’t worry,” I said. “I can handle it.”

  * * *

  I went round to Jaz’s as soon as Mum let me out of the house next morning. Mo was already there.

  “I hope you’re pleased with yourself, Mo,” I said. “You and your pal, whoever he is. Lee could have been killed last night!”

  “What are you talking about?” said Mo.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know!” I said. “You set this up! And we fell for it. And now Lee’s in hospital.”

  “Lee’s in hospital?” said Jaz.

  I told her about the accident. And what Lee said, about Tom stepping out in front of him.

  “Lee saw him? That is just so spooky!” said Mo.

  “Like you didn’t plan it?” I said. “Who was it? Some mate of yours, kitted up like a World War Two bomber pilot? Bet you had a good laugh when you saw the ambulance carting Lee away!”

  “Shut up a minute!” yelled Mo. “Take a look at this.”

  I grabbed the bit of paper she was waving. It was a picture of a man in a flying jacket.

  “Jaz drew it,” said Mo. “This morning. Before I even got here,” she added.

  I looked at Jaz. They’d had plenty of time to cook up a story between them. But Jaz isn’t like that.

  I said, “You drew this before Mo got here?”

  Jaz nodded. I believed her.

  “She’s seen him too, Scott,” said Mo.

  Jaz draws pictures of people. It’s what she does, all the time, in lessons or watching TV or waiting for a bus, whenever. And she’s good. I mean, really good.

  “I had this dream,” Jaz said. “When I woke up, I drew that picture. I kind of knew it was him.”

  “You mean Tom?” I said.

  Jaz nodded again.

  Mo folded up the picture and put it in her pocket. “We won’t say anything,” she said. “We’ll show the picture to Lee and see what he says, OK?”

  Chapter 5

  Pictures of Tom

  Lee was still in the hospital but they were going to let him out later that day.

  The nurse said they’d given him a brain scan and found nothing there.

  “I mean, nothing to worry about,” she said, after we all fell about laughing.

  He still looked pretty bad. The broken nose had come with a side order of two black eyes. I’d have taken one look in the mirror and stuck a bag over my head. But I’m not Lee.

  “You should have seen me, guys!” he crowed. “It was just like in the movies. I went head first over the handlebars – rolled over the bonnet of the car – then splat! I’m flat on my back and he’s vanished into thin air!”

  “You mean Tom?” I said.

  “I saw him! Did your mum tell you? I saw our ghost!”

  “You don’t believe in ghosts,” I said.

  “I do now! I’ve got to, haven’t I?” he said.

  Mo chipped in. “Take a look at this.” She showed him the picture Jaz had drawn.

  “That’s him!” said Lee. He looked from Mo, to Jaz, to me, then back again at Mo. “Where did you get it?” he said.

  “Jaz drew it,” I said.

  “She’s seen him too,” said Mo.

  “Only in my dreams,” said Jaz.

  “You’re kidding!” said Lee. “In your dreams? That is just so – wow!”

  “Are you sure it’s him?” I said. “This is the guy that made you swerve in front of the car?”

  “Sure I’m sure. He stepped right out in front of me,” said Lee.

  “How did you know it was Tom?” I asked.

  He thought about it. “The flying jacket. The boots. He wasn’t old, but his hair was cut like my grandad’s. And he had this dinky little moustache.” Lee ran a finger across, like he was drawing a pencil line under his nose. “He just looked like he’d stepped out of some old war movie.”

  “And what made you think he was a ghost?” I asked him.

  “The road was empty,” said Lee. “Then he was there, in front of me. Next minute he was gone. And the driver of the car didn’t see him.”

>   I said, “Maybe he was too busy watching you going head over heels.”

  “Scott thinks I set the whole thing up,” said Mo.

  “No way!” said Lee.

  I still didn’t buy it.

  As we were coming away, Jaz said to me, “I saw him, too! In my dreams. What have we done?”

  I said, “We fooled around with a stupid pack of cards. You had a bad dream. That’s all.”

  “What about Lee?” she said. “He recognised Tom from my picture.”

  I said, “You know Lee. He spends half his life watching horror movies. Someone steps out in front of him. Next day Mo shows him a picture. And he kids himself he saw a ghost.”

  “And that’s all you think happened?”

  “That’s all,” I said.

  * * *

  Three days later the phone rang.

  “Scott?” It was Jaz.

  “What is it?” I said. “What’s wrong?”

  “Can you come round?” she asked.

  “Give me ten minutes,” I said.

  I was there in five. That’s how worried she sounded.

  She’d been drawing more pictures. The walls of her room were covered in them. The rest were on the bed and over the floor.

  They were all pictures of the same man she’d drawn after that first evening. The man the others said had to be Tom.

  “I can’t get him out of my head, Scott,” she said. “I close my eyes and he’s there, even before I fall asleep. When I sleep, I get these dreams.”

  “Good dreams? Bad dreams?” I asked.

  Jaz shook her head. “I don’t know!” she said. “I can never remember. All I know is, when I wake up, I have to start drawing again.”

  I said, “Have you told Mo?”

  Mo started this. It was all down to Mo.

  “I’ve texted her,” said Jaz. “Left messages. She’s not answering.”

  Chapter 6

  Shadows

  I looked for Mo in all the usual places. The shopping mall. The music shop and the cafes.

  I even tried her house.

  Her mum said she thought she’d gone to the library.