Free Away With the Fairies by Jenny Twist Page A

play!” Another pause. “All right, I'll ring round, but Ben, please come home.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, but June could still hear. “I'm really frightened.”
     
    By five o'clock Dad and Mum had searched the whole house cellar to attic, twice and called all the neighbours and all Lucy's friends. Now Dad was talking to the police station, his voice a bit squeaky and cracked, nothing like his normal voice at all.
     
    June was still sitting in the kitchen in front of the cold fish fingers when the policeman came. He was a nice policeman, with a kind smile and he sat opposite June, leaning forward with his arms on the table and asked her the question she had been waiting, in mute terror, for someone to ask. “Do you know where Lucy is?”
    June shook her head, looking down at the fish fingers, which seemed to stare back at her reproachfully. It wasn't exactly a lie. She had no idea whether the place in the wall was actually Fairyland or even if it was actually in the wall.
    “When did you last see her?”
    The policeman's eyes crinkled at the corners. June thought he probably had children of his own.
    She shook her head again. Then forced herself to speak. “This morning, after breakfast.”
    The policeman looked up questioningly at Mum.
    “It would have been about eight o' clock,” Mum said. Her eyes were red and sore-looking. June felt a horrible sinking in her stomach.
    The policeman turned back to her. “And what was she doing?”
    “She was staring at the wall.”
    Mum bent forward. “Lucy suffers from petit mal. She often goes into a trance.”
    The policeman frowned and looked concerned. “It's not serious,” Mum hastened to add. “Most people grow out of it. But it's why we weren't too worried at first. She quite often goes off into a corner somewhere and goes into a trance.”
June was surprised. As far as she knew Lucy only did it in the bedroom. She'd never seen her go into a trance anywhere else. Maybe Mum had never noticed.
     
    “Did she say anything about what she was going to do? Where she might be going?” The policeman was smiling his kind smile again, and suddenly she couldn't bear it any more. “She's gone to Fairyland.” The words came out all in a rush. The policeman went on smiling. He didn't even seem surprised.
“That's what she always says,” Mum said, “when she comes out of a trance. That she was looking at the fairies.”
    The policeman nodded, as if it was the most natural thing in the world that Lucy should have gone to Fairyland. But he didn't ask her any more questions after that. He and Mum went out of the room and June was left on her own in the kitchen, wondering when the plain van would come.
     
    ****
     
    After a while, when nobody came, she got up and scraped her plate into the bin, fish fingers, tomato sauce, chips and all. Feeling strangely liberated, she went out of the kitchen. The policeman had gone and so had Dad. Only Mum was left, sitting forlornly by the phone, her eyes red and swollen, still sobbing. Suddenly the phone rang and she jumped, then picked it up. “Hello, Wainwright residence.” Pause. “No, no news. They're searching now.” She gave a little sob. “Ben's out with them, but they told me to stay by the phone, in case...in case...” she broke off and began to cry in earnest. “I'm sorry, I can't...can't seem to...” She gulped. “Sorry,” and put the phone down. June dithered in the doorway. She wanted to run to Mum, but she knew how much she hated anyone to see her cry. After a moment she went upstairs.
    Now the cat was out of the bag, she might as well see what she could do before the van came. Maybe she could get Lucy back somehow. Stop Mum crying.
    She sat on Lucy's bed opposite the torn bit of wall-paper, closed her eyes and tried to remember exactly what Lucy had said when she was explaining how she made the picture come.
    “You've got to squinch up your eyes,” she had said, “and then sort of squinch sideways.”