Free Alice Next Door by Judi Curtin

each painted one fingernail. It took us about half an hour to get all of them done. We were slowed down quite a bit by the fact that security guards chased us out of three shops. You’d think we were ‘undesirables.’
    Of course, even I knew there was nothing terribly cheeky or bad about trying on nail varnishin shops, but without Alice, I wouldn’t have dared. That was the great thing about Alice. When I was with her, I became a better person. I was braver. And funnier. And happier. Life was so much more fun when she was around.
    We looked at CDs for a while, then jewellery and clothes. The afternoon went much too quickly. We got the bus home at half four, because I knew it would soon be dark. I also knew that if I wasn’t home by dark, Mum would go to the tennis club to look for me. And if I wasn’t there, she would go into totally, absolutely , crazy panic-mode. She wouldn’t stop to think anything sensible, she’d just presume that I’d been kidnapped or murdered or something.
    Once, in a shop, Rosie slipped out of sight for a moment and Mum nearly lost her reason. She screeched on the top of her voice. ‘Rosie! Rosie! Oh my baby, what’s happened to you?’ Two shop assistants came running, thinking someone was dead. Then Rosie appeared from behind a rackof dresses. Mum picked her up and smothered her with big, wet, slobbery kisses. ‘Oh, baby, baby. Where were you?’ I thought I’d die of embarrassment, and even Rosie who should have been too young for that looked a little bit uneasy. Then, as if it wasn’t quite bad enough, Melissa, with her uncanny knack for being around during my most embarrassing moments, appeared with one of her meanest buddies. They both laughed out loud, and then Melissa whispered to her friend. The only words I could hear were ‘… mad mother …’ I felt like shouting at her. ‘ I know she’s mad. But it’s not my fault. Why blame me? Do you think I picked her out of a catalogue?’ But of course I didn’t. I just put my head in the air and pretended not to care. (Even though of course I did. Very much.)
    *  *  *
    When we got home, Alice took the bag with the things we’d bought, and sneaked around the back of the house to wait for me to open mybedroom window. I let myself in the back door, and ruffled my hair a bit to make it look like I’d been running around the tennis court. Mum was in the kitchen as usual. She seemed to live there – like some kind of enchanted princess, condemned to a life of endless drudgery. She was straining some potatoes.
    ‘Oh, Megan, you’re back. It will be dark soon, and I was just starting to wonder about you. Did you have a nice time?’
    I nodded. ‘Yes, it was fine. I might go again tomorrow.’
    Mum looked up this time, and smiled at me. ‘Well, that is good news. Now will you please mash these potatoes for me?’
    I thought of poor Alice standing in the garden in the cold, waiting for me to let her in my bedroom window. ‘OK, Mum, but I’ll just run out and put my racquet in the hall cupboard.’
    Mum took the racquet from me before I could protest. ‘It’s OK, I must go check on Rosieanyway. I’ll put your racquet away for you. And when you’re finished the potatoes, will you empty the dishwasher, and set the table please? Dad will be home soon.’
    I didn’t want to arouse her suspicions by arguing. It must have been twenty minutes before I got to my room. I opened the window, and gave the signal whistle. There was no reply. I whistled again. All I could hear in reply was the rustling of the trees at the end of the garden. Then I whispered as loudly as I dared. ‘Al, Al. Where are you?’
    Still nothing. This was awful. Where could she have gone to?
    I climbed out of the window, and ran to the bushes where Alice was supposed to wait for my whistle. She wasn’t there. I suddenly began to feel a sense of panic. Where could she be? I ran around the garden, whispering her name as loudly as I dared. At last I found her