Free Dead Gorgeous by Malorie Blackman Page A

about the fifty millionth time she’d heard the same joke! They stood in silence for a few strangely unawkward moments. Nova continued to scrutinize Mr Jackman. She usually knew
what to make of the guests within five minutes of spotting them. The arrogant, the shy, the considerate, those with something to hide, the pompous – it didn’t take her long to suss them
out. But Mr Jackman was different. Strange that he should now decide to talk to her – especially after Nova’s earlier conversation with Miss Dawn. This was the most he’d said to
anyone in the hotel since he’d arrived, as far as she knew.
    ‘Are you here for a holiday or are you still searching?’ she asked.
    ‘Still searching,’ replied Mr Jackman. ‘I never stop. I never will.’
    Nova waited and wondered if Mr Jackman was going to continue. It wasn’t like having a conversation with anyone else she had ever met. Usually you could tell by what was said, and how it
was said and the way the person looked, just where the conversation was going and whether or not it had finished. But not with Mr Jackman. With him it was all guesswork.
    ‘I’d better be getting back,’ she sighed.
    Mr Jackman nodded, moving past her to sit on the bench she had just vacated. Nova glanced back at him. What was it Miss Dawn had said? ‘We all need friends’? She wondered why Mr
Jackman had suddenly decided to speak to her. Maybe Miss Dawn was right. But it wouldn’t have surprised or upset her to learn that Mr Jackman had forgotten about her already. He had himself
and his quest and he didn’t seem to need anything else.
    Nova headed back to the hotel. Why worry about Mr Jackman? He was old enough to take care of himself. He certainly didn’t need her help for anything. But as Nova took one last look at him,
it occurred to her that she’d never seen anyone look so lonely. Or quite so alone.
     
15. Mr Jackman
    ‘I need your help . . .’ Mr Jackman stared straight ahead but his thoughts were light years away in long ago. ‘D’you hear me? I need your help.
It’s in your hands now. I’ve been everywhere. This is the only place left. And I’m not leaving. Not until I find you. You shouldn’t have gone. It wasn’t your fault, I
know that. It was my fault. I drove you out. That’s why I’m not leaving. But you have to help me.
    ‘You have to.
    ‘You just have to . . . ’
     
16. Nova and Rainbow
    ‘Rainbow, stop picking at your food and eat it properly.’
    ‘My name is Raye,’ Rainbow amended tersely. ‘And I am eating.’
    Mum frowned down at Rainbow’s dinner plate. ‘Eating what exactly? Air?’
    ‘Food!’ said Rainbow. ‘And I’m fifteen, Mum, not five.
    I don’t need you to tell me to eat my food. You’ll be picking up the fork and feeding me next.’
    ‘Raye, ten minutes ago you had a dollop of mashed potato on your plate, along with two sausages and baked beans – and none of them have moved,’ said Mum.
    ‘I’ve eaten some beans,’ argued Raye.
    ‘No, you haven’t.’
    Raye glared at Mum. Her voice dropped an octave as she mockingly said,’ “I put it to you, Rainbow Clibbens, that you had one hundred and fifty beans on your plate at the start of the
meal and there are still one hundred and fifty left.” What did you do, Mum? Count them onto my plate so you could count them all off again?’
    Nova slowly chewed on her sausage as she listened to her mum and sister argue. It was the same almost every meal time.
    ‘Raye, I didn’t stand in this hot kitchen all afternoon making you dinner for the fun of it.’
    ‘Here we go.’ Raye tutted and raised her eyes heavenwards. ‘“I spend all day in this kitchen, and do you appreciate it? Hell, no!”’
    ‘Don’t be so cheeky.’
    ‘Stop bossing me about then.’
    ‘I’ll stop when you start eating. Or should I get your dad to have a word with you?’
    Raye savagely pronged a sausage before stuffing the whole thing into her mouth in one go. ‘Satisfied?’ she