NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 17

It's amazing what you can find when you clean a room, money you lost from weeks ago, heirloom jewellery that can rake in a cool million, rent receipts to prove Matron Caine a liar. However, in my case it's just eight bus tickets hidden in a section of my purse I'd never look in. I don't have to twist Hazel's arm. She agrees to it on the spot. Maybe I should've bargained better because she's wearing the yellow floral, says the sun will make her stand out amongst the other girls on the beach. Well, we both know what I think. But I hold all my objections close to my chest and put Cave Beach before me like a pair of sunglasses.

We step out onto Florence Street, Hazel looking like ripe fruit dipped in blood and I like midnight. My face tightens at the smell of the ocean. It's just two blocks away to our left but has become a private beach, to accommodate a string of resorts I had the pleasure of experiencing only once. Today its well-bolted invisible gate forces us to veer right. We walk past the hospital and fire station and head down Granderson Street. The school is quiet when we amble by; the library even quieter. In contrast, groups of officers at Leer Island Police Station are scampering to their cars. Sirens blast off as they dart across Sherland Street and speed up Lillian Street.

This is exciting, like one of my novels coming to life. But stifled curiousity, or perhaps a frightened Hazel, does not let me follow them. Instead, we swing down Lillian Street and stop at the bus station, which is just opposite to Bophus Brothers Bank. I press the button at the side of my phone for the time and am grateful to see nine fifteen. Those fake bitches are probably up to their necks in customers, hopefully most of them angry. By the time any of them go on a lunch break, I'll be long gone. That's just how I prefer things to be. If I can avoid those evil women for the rest of my life, I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen.