There is a young man standing on Alix’s doorstep. It takes a moment for Alix to realise who it is and then she says, ‘Oh! Harry! Hi! How are you?’
Harry is their next-door neighbour’s son. Alix has known him since he was a child, but now he’s an adult, in his last year at university, and she hasn’t seen him for a long while.
‘I’m good. How are you?’
‘Not bad. Everything OK?’
‘Well, no. I just got back, and Mum’s out and she won’t be back until, like, this evening. And I haven’t got a key. She said that you might have a spare?’
‘Oh,’ she says, turning behind her to look at the console where she keeps things like neighbours’ keys. ‘Yes, I think actually I do, hold on just a second.’
She feels through the drawers in the console, but they’re not there. ‘Come in,’ she says. ‘Come in. I think they might be in the kitchen.’
Harry follows her through the hallway and stands awkwardly in the entrance to the kitchen while she goes through more drawers. Eventually she finds them, in an envelope with her neighbour’s name scrawled on it. ‘Aha!’ she says triumphantly. ‘Here they are. I think you were about ten years old when she gave us these. It’s when you were off on your American road trip. Remember that?’
‘Ha,’ says Harry, taking the envelope from her outstretched hand. ‘Yes, I do. And thank you.’
‘No worries at all.’ She leads him back down the hallway and then, just before they get to the door, she remembers something. ‘Oh, Harry. By the way. You and your brother went to Queen’s Park High, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, we did.’
‘And you’re how old?’
‘I’m twenty-one.’
‘So, do you remember two sisters at your school – Erin and Roxy Fair?’
She studies his face carefully as he forms his response. ‘Oh, shit, yes. I certainly do,’ he says with a wry smile. ‘Roxy was in my year. She was insane.’
‘Insane?’
‘Yes. Scary as shit.’
‘Oh, that’s interesting. In what way?’
‘Just scary. You know. Hard. Aggressive.’ Harry cocks his head and looks at her. ‘Wait,’ he says, ‘do you know her?’
‘No. No, I’ve never met her. I know her mother though.’
‘Right.’
‘Apparently Roxy left home when she was sixteen.’
Harry throws her another look. ‘Left? Or ran away?’
‘Ran away? Why do you say that?’
‘I don’t know. There were a lot of rumours about her. About both of them. About their home life. Like, dark stuff.’
‘Like …?’
‘I dunno. Abuse, I guess? The older one, Erin. She was so weird. Literally the weirdest person I have ever met. I never spoke to her, but I would see her around, with these really dark brown eyes, and she was so thin. You know, apparently, she never ate solid food. That’s what I heard. Never in her life. Only soft food.’ He tips the envelope from one hand to the next and then beams at Alix. ‘Well, thanks for the keys. I’ll get them back to you later. In case we need them again in another eleven years from now. See you.’
‘Yes,’ says Alix, closing the door as he leaves, ‘see you.’