so, and I think your dad is going to be real mad when he finds out.”
I’m sure I locked it.
“Do you want me to go check? It can be our little secret?” I notice a little bit of corned beef stuck between her yellow teeth.
“We’re not allowed to open the back door,” I say, remembering the bad man with the knife.
“It will only take me a minute. Otherwise, when they find out you didn’t lock it, you’ll get in such big trouble. I’m only thinking of you.”
I don’t want to get in trouble. “Okay.”
I watch as she takes the keys, unlocks the back door, then walks down to the gate. I can’t see what she is doing, but when she comes back, she says that I had locked it properly after all. I knew I had. I do not like Susan.
She starts to lock the door. I see her put the key in the hole, but then she stops. “Do you like Dairy Milk chocolate?”
“Only if it doesn’t have nuts or raisins in it.”
She smiles, and I stare at the corned beef in her teeth again. Maggie says that it is wrong to stare at people’s imperfections, but I can’t stop my eyeballs from looking at what they want.
“See, I brought a big bar of Dairy Milk with me today, one of those giant ones, but then I realized I couldn’t possibly eat it all by myself. Do you think you could help me?”
I love Dairy Milk. I like putting the little squares on my tongue and sucking on them until all the chocolate melts away inside my mouth. I nod, hoping she won’t change her mind because I’ve been so unfriendly all day long.
“Thank you, you are a good girl. It’s no wonder your mum loves you so much. The bar is in my bag. Why don’t you go on through and open it for me, while I make sure this door is properly locked.”
I walk into the phone room and find the chocolate straightaway. I open it, careful not to tear the purple paper or foil, then snap off a little bit and pop it in my mouth. I think about what Susan just said, about Maggie loving me, and I realize that I love her, too, and that makes me feel happy.
It’s late when the shop finally closes, and I am tired and hungry. Maggie has promised we’ll get fish and chips for dinner, as soon as all the money has been counted and put away.
“Cod and chips, my favorite,” says John. I look over at him and he pulls a codfish face, so I do too. Both our mouths are open, our lips like the letter O, and then we smile at our silent Mary Poppins joke. Maggie doesn’t smile because she doesn’t think it’s funny, even though it is. She says we’ve made so much money today that I don’t have to sweep up tonight, we’ll do it all tomorrow.
Susan leaves through the front door, she says that it is quicker to get to her bus stop that way, and Maggie locks it behind her. Susan was invited to stay for supper but said no, and I’m glad. I still don’t like her, despite all the chocolate she let me eat, and fish and chips is what the three of us do. As John always says, we don’t need nobody else.
Maggie helps John count the money behind the counter. I can hear the adding machine going clickety-click. I decide to build a fort in the shop while I wait, dragging some of the leather stools together, and laying the newspaper pages that have come down from the walls over the top.
It all happens so fast and the sound is so loud.
The car crashes through the front of the shop, almost smashing straight into my fort. Time stops for a tiny moment. I look at Maggie and John behind the counter, both their mouths are wide open, staring at the blue car, and I realize that my mouth is open too. I think we must all look like codfish now. Maggie’s eyes are awful wide, and she is shouting something at me, but I can’t hear her; the sound of glass smashing and car doors opening is all too loud. My eyes are staring at the two men with masks on their faces getting out of the car, but then my ears remember how to work and I hear Maggie.
“Run, Aimee!”
So I do.
I run behind the