Mum yells, "We've been given a second chance! I don't care how it happened or who gets hurt! I'm not going to suffer the loss of a child again!"
I can't hear Dad's reply, but it seems to do the trick. Mum doesn't shout after that, though I hear her crying later. I hear Dad crying too.
The next morning, Dad calls me into his study. He has Art on one knee, a picture of Annabella on the other. He's looking from Art to the picture and back again, chewing his lower lip. He looks up when I enter and smiles - a thin, shaky smile. Tells me we're leaving. Immediately, this very night.
"We're going on holiday?" I ask, excited.
"No. We're moving house." Art tugs at Dad's left ear. Dad ducks his head and chuckles at Art. "Your Mum doesn't like it here any more," Dad says quietly, not looking at me directly. "Annabella died here. You went missing. Art... well, she doesn't want anything else to happen. To Art or to you. She wants to go somewhere safer. To be honest, I do too. I'm sick of city life."
"But what about school?" It's the first question to pop into my head.
"The hell with it," Dad laughs. "You don't like it that much, do you?"
"Well... no... but it's my school."
"We'll find you another." He fixes Art in his left arm, then extends his right and pulls me in close. "I know you haven't been happy here. Mum and I have been thinking about it. We're going to move to a place we know, a village called Paskinston. The children will be very different there. Nicer than city kids. We think you'll be happier, maybe make some friends. And you'll be safe. We all will. How does that sound?"
"Good. I guess. But..." I shrug.
"It's for the best, Kernel," Dad says and hugs me tight. Art laughs and hugs me too, and that's when I feel sure that Dad's right. Everything's going to be better now.
My last glimpse of the city is when I get into our car late that night. I don't know why we don't wait until morning - Dad hates driving at night - but I haven't had time to ask. It's been a rush, packing bags, going through all of my toys, books, comics, clothes, records, choosing what to bring and what to leave behind. Dad says we'll get the rest of our belongings sent on later, but I don't want to leave anything precious behind, just in case. I bombed all of the planes in my bedroom at 9 o'clock. Mum and Dad helped me. We destroyed them completely. It was cool! Even Mum enjoyed it.
As we're getting into the car, Dad asks if I want to play a game with Art, to keep him quiet. I say sure. So he makes me sit on the floor behind Mum's seat, with Art between my legs, and he drapes a blanket over us. "Pretend Art and you are fugitives. You're a pair of vicious, wanted criminals and we're sneaking you out of the city. There are roadblocks, so you have to hide and be quiet. If you're found, you'll be sent to prison."
"Children don't get sent to prison!" I snort.
"They do in this game," Dad laughs.
I know it's just a way for Mum and Dad to keep Art - and me - quiet for some of the journey. But part of me thinks it's real. The fact that we're leaving so quickly, at night, in secrecy... I hold Art tight in my arms and whisper for him to be quiet, afraid we'll be caught by whoever's after us. I feel like crying, but that's because we're leaving home. I've never lived anywhere else. It's scary.
Mum checks that Art and I are OK before getting in the car. She lifts the blanket and peers in at us. We're parked close to a street light, so I can see her face pretty well. She looks worried - maybe she's sad to be leaving our old home, like me.
"Take care of your brother," she says softly, stroking Art's left cheek. He gazes at her quietly. "Protect him," Mum says, her voice cracking. Then she kisses my forehead, replaces the blanket and we set off, leaving behind everything I've ever known. Paskinston's a sleepy place, with a couple of tiny shops, a crumbling old school, a stumpy, ugly, modern church, and not much else. It's in the middle of nowhere, miles away from any town or city. Power cuts are common. Television and radio reception is poor. Cars are mostly ancient wrecks. The sort of place where you expect to find loads of old people, but in fact most of the villagers are youngish parents and their children.
We've been here almost a year. It's not a bad place to live. Quiet and clean. Lots of open space around the village. No pollution or crime, and people are very relaxed and friendly. A few commute to cities or towns, but most work locally. Quite a few are craftspeople and artists. We don't get many tourists in Paskinston, but our artisans (as Dad calls them) supply a lot of tourist shops around the country. Musical instruments are the village's speciality, traditionally carved, lovingly created and packaged, then expensively priced!
Dad's got a job painting instruments. It doesn't pay very well, but you don't need much money in Paskinston. He's happier than he ever was in the city, finally able to call himself a real artist. Mum helps out kids with learning problems, and does some teaching in the school when one of the regular teachers is off sick. She's happy too, the happiest I've seen her since Annabella died.
Mum and Dad never talk about the time Art and I went missing. It's a forbidden subject. If I ever bring it up, they change the topic immediately. Once, when I pressed, Mum snapped at me, swore and told me never to mention it again.
And me? Well, I'm OK. Dad was right. The kids here are nicer than in the city. They chat to me at school, include me in their games, invite me to their houses to read and play, take me on day trips into the local countryside at weekends. Nobody bullies me, says nasty things to me or tries to make me feel like I'm a freak. (Of course, it helps that I don't mention the secret patches of light!)
But I still don't fit in. I feel out of place. It's hard to talk freely, to join in, to behave naturally. I always feel as though I'm acting. Most of the kids in Paskinston were born here or moved here when they were very young. This is the only world they know and they believe it's perfect.
I don't agree. While I'm certainly happier now than I was in the city, I miss the cinemas and museums. Except for not having any friends, I liked being part of a big city, where there was always something new to see or do. The village is nice, but it's a bit boring. And although the kids are nicer to me, I still haven't made any real friends.
But it's not that important because I'm not miserable any more. I'm not sure why, but I don't feel lonely these days. I'm happy just to be with Mum, Dad and Art. Especially Art. He might only be a baby, but I love dragging him around with me, explaining the world to him, telling him about books, television and life, trying to teach him to speak. He should have started by now, but so far not a word. Dad and Mum don't mind. They say Einstein was older than Art is before he spoke. But I don't think Art's an Einstein - he likes tugging ears, biting people and burping too much to be a genius!
Art's all I really need from the world right now. He keeps me company better than any friend ever could. As Dad once said when I was lonely and he was trying to cheer me up, "Who needs friends when you have family?"
To get to school, I have to pass the witch's house.
The "witch" is Mrs. Egin. There are thirty-seven families and six single people in Paskinston, and everyone's on friendly terms with everybody else. There's a real sense of community. They all take an interest in and see a lot of each other, chat among themselves when they meet in the street or at church, hold big parties every few months to which everyone comes.
Except Mrs. Egin. She lives by herself in a dirty old house and almost never has anything to say to anybody. She comes out for a long walk every day and to draw water from the well. (There's running water in Paskinston, but Mrs. Egin and a few others prefer to get theirs from an old well in the centre of the village.) But otherwise we rarely see her. She spends most of her time indoors, behind thick curtains, doing whatever it is that witches do.
I'm sure she's not really a witch, but all the kids call her the Pricklish Witch of Paskinston. Some of the adults do too!