Three Hours(47)
‘Two princes out for a stroll together.’
‘A couple of regular brothers having a latte together.’
‘You had the latte and I had the choco frappuccino,’ Basi reminded him.
‘That’s right. Remember her face?’
‘Course.’
*
In the shed, Basi thinks Ratty is making scuffly noises, telling Basi he’s there with him.
‘Her eyes were bright blue, Ratty, and her skin was like caramel, and so was her hair, like a princess; like the station was her palace. Her face was all shiny with tears and she said she was sorry but I don’t know why she said that.’
And then after he and Rafi had spoken on the beach about the princess in Milan station, he’d felt a bit calmer, and Rafi must have thought that meant he was all right because he took him to Miss Price. And they spoke really quietly so all he could hear was the sea shouting. Miss Price held his hand but he tried to pull away and still be with Rafi. Then Rafi said, ‘It’s a Have-To-No-Arguments, okay?’
Rafi had only said ‘It’s a Have-To-No-Arguments’ twice on the Journey. Have-To-No-Arguments means Rafi is talking for Baba and Mama.
Basi nodded but that can mean you understand, not that you agree. Mr Lorrimer says he is a slippery character. And he thinks he was being slippery then.
Rafi kissed him.
‘You are as brave as a Barbary lion,’ Rafi said. ‘And a Bengal tiger.’
‘Brave as Sir Lancelot,’ Basi said. ‘And the little mouse in The Gruffalo.’ If he could just keep thinking of more brave people and animals, on and on, Rafi wouldn’t leave him.
‘Brave as Odysseus,’ Rafi said. Basi tried to think of another brave person or animal, but he was being too slow.
‘Brave as Basi Bukhari,’ Rafi said. ‘I love you, Little Monkey.’
Then he turned and ran back to the cliff path.
Miss Price held his hand and asked if he’d like to stay with her or go and be with Mrs Cardswell and all his friends. And he thinks he said he’d like to be with his friends, or maybe he didn’t say anything, because he was listening to the sea shouting at him.
And then Miss Price took her hand away from his because Milly was wheezing, like she couldn’t breathe properly. She took off Milly’s life jacket to check her coat pockets for her puffer. His hand felt lonely and afraid.
Wa-hush, Wa-hush, Wa-hush.
Miss Price called to the teachers, ‘Does anyone have Ventolin?’ But the wind and the sea were too noisy and then Miss Price shouted, ‘A CHILD NEEDS VENTOLIN!’
Wa-hush, Wa-hush, Wa-hush.
People falling from the boat and the monsters in the sea holding on to them and pulling them deeper and deeper and not letting them back to the air. A little girl fell in wearing armbands, and her mama and baba both jumped in after her and they drowned as well. Rafi held on to him, really tightly, and didn’t let him go. When people were pushing hard and he thought he was going to fall into the sea, Rafi held on to him.
Wa-hush, Wa-hush, Wa-hush.
He could see Rafi walking quickly up the cliff path.
He ran after him but nobody noticed because they were all helping Milly.
The cliff path was slippery and he was worried about so many things. He was worried about Miss Price being cross with him for running away and not telling her first. She’d never been cross before but she’d never shouted before either. Maybe she wouldn’t even know, because everyone else in his class was with Mrs Cardswell, their form teacher, and she probably thought he was with Mrs Cardswell too. And he was worried about Milly, but then he remembered that Lucas always has an inhaler in his coat pocket, and one in his trousers pocket too, because his mother says she’s a worrywart, so Lucas would give Milly his inhaler. Mostly he was worried about catching up with Rafi, because he was going as fast as he could, faster than he’d ever run before, but Rafi was running too, and getting smaller and smaller. He shouted at him but the wind just stole his words away before they got to Rafi.
He got a stitch in his side and it was hard to run in the life jacket, because he couldn’t move his arms very well. The snow was blowing against his face, the cold was biting his cheeks and the trees by the path were all twisted and bent over because the wind had hit them so much.
He got to the gate and had to climb it because it was locked. It was covered in snow and ice and his feet kept slipping and his life jacket made him clumsy and his stitch really hurt. From the gate, he saw a light on inside Junior School and he thought that Rafi might be inside.
He ran towards Junior School across the slippery car park, past all the teachers’ cars which had snow over them and looked like snow cars. Through his classroom window he could see Rafi! He knew Basi would be frightened of the sea so he’d waited for him!
He ran towards Rafi but when he got closer to the window he saw the man inside was much taller than Rafi. The man’s back was towards him, so he couldn’t see his face. He had a big gun and belts of bullets and at any second he might turn round and see Basi looking at him through the window. He imagined Rafi saying to him, Duck down and keep still, Basi, still as a statue, then find somewhere to hide.
He ducked down and tried to take off his yellow life jacket, because it was too easy to spot, but he couldn’t undo it in woolly gloves, so he took his gloves off and they fell on the snow. Then he managed to take off his life jacket.