The Recruit

2. Sister

Some kids were happy to have one games console. Ash Ryan had every console, game and accessory going. He had a top of the range PC, a BluRay player, an iPhone 7+, a plasma widescreen TV and a surround sound system in his room. He never looked after any of it. If something broke he got another one. He had eight pairs of Nike trainers. A top-line hover-board. A £600 racing bike. When his bedroom was in a mess, it looked like a bomb had gone off in Toys R Us and other stores. Ash Ryan had all this because Delia Ryan was a thief. She ran a shoplifting empire from her armchair while she watched daytime soaps and was vomiting from the chemotherapy she was receiving. She didn't steal, herself. Delia took orders and passed them down to thieves who worked for her. She covered her tracks, never going near stolen goods herself and switching mobiles every few days so the police couldn't trace her calls.

It was the first time Ash had been back to primary school since his last day as a pupil before the summer holidays. A
few mums stood at the gate nattering.

"Where's your mum, Ash?" someone asked.

"Off her stomach,"Ash said sourly. There was no way Ash was covering for her after she'd kicked him out of the flat. He saw the other mums exchange glances.

"I want Medal Of Honour for Playstation," one of them asked. "Can she get it?"

Ash shrugged, "Course, half price, cash only."

"Will you remember, Ash?"

"No. Give us a bit of paper with your name and phone
number and I'll pass it on."

The gaggle of mums started jotting things down. Trainers,
jewellery, football shirts. Ash stuffed the papers into his hoodie pockets.

"I need it by Tuesday," someone said. Ash wasn't in the mood.

"If you want to tell my mum something, write it down. I
won't remember."

The kids all started coming out. Nine-year-old Leaf was
last out of her class. She had her hands tucked in her baseball jacket and mud on her jeans from playing football with the boys at lunchtime. Leaf had long chocolate hair, a little lighter then Ash's raven hair, but she kept asking her mum to let her dye it ginger. Leaf was on another planet to most girls her age. She didn't own a single piece of makeup. She'd microwaved her Barbies when she was five and hadn't touched one since. Delia always said if there were two ways of doing something, Leaf would always pick the third one.

"I hate that old bat," Leaf moaned, when she got near Ash.

"Who?" Ash asked.

"Mrs Reed. She gave us sums. I did them in about two minutes, and she made me sit still for the rest of the lesson waiting for all the dumb kids to finish. She wouldn't even let me go to the cloakroom and get my book."

Ash remembered Mrs Reed had done the same thing when she was his teacher three years earlier. It was like getting punished for being clever.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Leaf asked.

"Mum's asleep."

"She's not supposed to sleep on her drugs until after the operation."

"Don't tell me," Ash said. "What can I do about it?"

"How come you got home early enough to pick me up?"

"Got in a fight. They sent me home." Leaf shook her head, but she couldn't help smiling. "Another fight. That's three this term, isn't it?" Ash didn't want to talk about it.

"What do you want first?" he asked. "Good news or bad
news?"

Leaf shrugged. "Just tell us."

"Your dad's indoors. The good news is Mum gave us money to get take-away. He should be gone by the time we get home."

They ended up in a ramen store. Ash got a double chicken meal. Lauren only wanted an ice cream and a Coke. She wasn't hungry, so she got handfuls of little soy sauce and salt packets and made a mess on the table while Ash ate. She tipped out loads of salt, soaked it with soy sauce, then shredded the paper wrappers and stirred it all up.

"What are you doing that for?" Ash asked.

"As a matter of fact," Leaf said acidly, "the entire future of western civilisation depends upon me making a smiley face with this soy sauce."

"You realise some poor git has to clean all that up?" Ash said.

"Not my problem," Leaf sassily shrugged.

Ash tucked in the last mouthful of his noddles and realised he was still starving. Leaf had hardly touched her ice cream. "You eating that?" He asked.

"Have it if you want. It's all melted."

"This is all we've got for dinner. You better eat something."

"I'm not hungry," Leaf said. "I'll make toasted sandwiches later." Ash loved Leaf's toasted sandwiches. They were mad: she got Nutella, honey, icing sugar, golden syrup, chocolate chips. Whatever sweet stuff was going, all poured on thick. The outside was crispy and the hot gloop was about three centimetres deep in the middle. You couldn't eat one without burning your fingers.

"You better clean up afterwards," Ash said. "Mum blew her stack last time you made them."

When Ash turned into his street, it was nearly dark. Two guys came out from behind a hedge. One of them grabbed Ash and knocked him against a wall, pulling his arm tight behind his back.

"Hello, Ash," he said, his mouth up against Ash's ear. "We've been waiting for you." The other guy grabbed Leaf and stuck his hand over
her mouth to stop her screaming.

Ash's opinion of his own intelligence hit an all-time low. While he'd been worrying about getting in trouble with Mum, school and maybe even with the police, he'd forgotten something: Ursula Dean had a sixteen-year-old brother. Paul Dean hung out with a gang of crazies. They were kings of the estate where Ash lived: smashing up cars, mugging people, getting into fights. If another kid saw them he'd look down at his shoes, cross his fingers and be happy if all he came away with was a slapped face and his money taxed. A good way to upset the gang was to beat up one of their little sisters.

Paul Dean grazed Ash's face along the bricks. "It's your turn now, Ash." He let go of Ash's arm. Ash could feel blood dribbling down his nose and cheek. There was no point struggling: Paul could snap him like a twig. "Scared?" Paul asked. "You ought to be." Ash tried to speak, only his voice didn't work and the way he was trembling seemed to answer anyway. "Got money?" Paul asked. Ash took out the rest of the forty pounds.
"Nice one," Paul said.

"Please don't hurt my sister," Ash begged.

"My sister has eight stitches in her face," Paul said, pulling
a knife out of his pocket. "Lucky I don't go round hurting little girls, or your sister might have ended up with eighty." Paul sliced off Ash's cords on his hoodie. Then he cut the zip off of it, and slashed his tracksuit bottoms.

"This is just the start, Ash," Paul said. "We're gonna be seeing a lot of each other."

A fist smashed into Ash's stomach. Giovanni had hit Ash a few times, but never that hard. Paul and his henchman walked off. Ash crumpled up on the ground.

Leaf walked over to Ash. She didn't have much sympathy for him. "You got in a row with Ursula Dean?"

Ash looked up at his sister. He was in a lot of pain and ashamed of himself. "She got cut by accident. I only meant to scare her." Leaf started walking away. "Help me up, Leaf. I can't walk."

"Crawl then." Leaf went a few more paces before she realised she couldn't abandon her brother, even if he was an idiot. Ash stumbled towards home with his arm round Leaf's back. It took all her strength to hold him up as they continued on their way home.