Rare Sight

Chapter Three

He didn’t ask his mum any more about Georgia and she didn’t raise the subject herself. He did his maths homework after dinner, but couldn’t concentrate on the French essay he was meant to write. He gave up and sat in front of Eastenders, which he hated normally, glad for once of the easy distraction.

His mum looked up from her book when he got to his feet at nine o’clock. “Are you off to bed already?”

He nodded. “Yeah – I’m knackered.” He bent to give her a kiss and she hugged him.

“About Georgia…” she said.

He shrugged. “Yeah?”

“Well, it’s a bit complicated.”

“Yeah?” he said again.

She looked away. “Yes… Well, she and Gideon … I told you they were close? Well, they got into trouble – they were always getting into trouble. Daring each other to do things – and the dares got more and more dangerous.”

“Like what?”

“Oh… they’d stand on the railway tracks when the train was coming and wait until the last possible moment to jump out of the way; or they’d hold their breath underwater in the pond – you know, the one over at the old quarry – and they’d time each other to see who could do it the longest. She used to come home covered in blood.”

“Blood?”

“Yes – you can get nose bleeds if you stay underwater for too long; the pressure isn’t good for you.”

“Is that how she died? Doing a dare?”

His mum went quiet. “It looks like it. Although I think she’d got involved with some bad people.”

“What kind of bad people? D’you mean drug dealers or something?”

“I don’t really know… But she came home really late one night. We shared a room and she’d gone out through the window after bedtime – she was always doing that – but when she got back, she insisted on getting into bed with me. She was frozen and shivering.”

“Where’d she been?”

“I don’t know – she wouldn’t say. She just said she and Gideon had been to see someone. Then she said she’d done something terrible, and could I forgive her. I asked what, but she wouldn’t say. She seemed really scared. Two days later, she was dead.”

“You mean this person killed her?”

There was a long pause, then his mum shook her head. “No – I don’t think so. I mean, there have been times I’ve wondered, but… there was nothing to suggest that. And Gideon said her death was an accident.”

“How did she die?”

“She was… buried in dirt at the old quarry – she and Gideon had been daring each other to climb the sides of one of the pits and the soil had given way and fallen in on her; she was buried alive. By the time Gideon had dug her out with his hands, she’d suffocated.”

There was silence.

“That’s horrible,” said Joe at last.

“I know.”

He went over to hug her and she started to sob really loudly. He kept an arm round her until she’d stopped. She wiped her eyes on a tissue from her pocket, then smiled at him. “Sorry, love – silly of me, after all this time.”

“That’s all right. I shouldn’t have made you talk about it.”

She shook her head. “You have a right to know about your family. I should have told you sooner really.”