Free Keeping it Real by Annie Dalton Page B

on the sofa and howled. “Oh, Mum I’ve missed you—”
    Then I gave up even trying to put so much pain into words, and just cried and cried.
    After a few minutes, I covered my face with my hands. I wasn’t supposed to be doing this! This was supposed to be beautiful, like in movies!
    I quickly wiped my eyes. “I had it all planned out - no, I did!” I told her half laughing, half crying. “I was going to be incredibly calm and bathed in light and you’d be like, totally awed but at the same time really, really happy to know I’d gone to a better place. And I have, Mum,” I sobbed out. “I have such a beautiful life - this is just so much harder than I ever…”
    I had to stop to take deep breaths.
    “Guess I just wanted to impress you, huh?” I said with a teary giggle. “Guess I’m not quite as angelic as I thought!”
    I blew my nose. After a while I said, “I see Des got round to repainting the flat. He did a good job.”
    I didn’t care if I was wittering. Why would you need to impress your mum? It was enough to be with her, smelling hyacinths and nattering about nothing. Finally I felt able to leave her, but only because I knew I’d be coming back.
    Holding my breath, I tiptoed into the room I used to share with my little sister. This room too had been freshly repainted. Our old twin beds had gone. Jade was asleep in one of those smart pine cabin beds with built-in shelves underneath. Her bed covers were pastel pink, like her curtains, with a cute fairy motif.
    I completely understood why they did it. It must have been painful for them coming into this room every day, seeing that empty bed. Humans don’t live for ever. They have to find a way to move on.
    I softly climbed up the short ladder and lay down on my side next to Jade, so I could look into her face.
    “Hi, Fluffyhead,” I whispered. “I bet you feel like the princess of Park Hall in this bed, yeah? I love the fairies.”
    With her elfin eyelids and little pointy face, Jade looked quite a lot like a fairy herself. She’d grown in the eighteen months I’d been gone. She was going to be a daddy-longlegs like her big sister. Yet just now she seemed touchingly small and vulnerable.
    Her limp little hand still smelled of warm wax crayons like I remembered. I stroked it gently. “I can’t stay now, Jadie, but I’ll be around for a few days, so I’ll come and see you again, I promise.” I plonked an angel kiss on her cheek. “Love you!”
    “Love you, Mel,” Jade murmured in her sleep.
    I gasped. I was so shocked, I beamed myself straight down into the street without even trying, and just started walking.
    A guy was trying to start his rusty old banger. Across the road, the Minimart was open. A van was delivering bread.
    I walked past everything in a daze.
    First Sky, now Jade!
    Two humans had heard me talking. OK, Jade was my sister, so there was a strong link, but Sky was wearing headphones!!
    Suddenly it was like I’d been struck by lightning. I literally looked up at the sky, as if this amazing revelation had been dropped from a passing plane!
    “So that’s why the Agency couldn’t send me till I’d had my birthday,” I breathed. “Omigosh, I’ve got to tell Lollie!”
    I fumbled in the pockets of my parka and called her on my dinky Agency mobile. There was a click and a hiss and I heard Lola’s singsong message. “Talk to the phone cos the face ain’t home. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP!!”
    “Lollie!” I shouted into my phone. “I’m outside my old flats! I know! Listen, I’m going to road-test our survival guide for real. That’s my mission, Lollie! Michael said I’d figure out what I had to do when I got here and I just did! I’m going to teach my mates every cosmic survival technique in our book! Woo-whee, isn’t that totally amazing!!”
    When I got back to the house, I went to fetch myself a bowl of cereal and came back humming. I found Brice and Jools in the TV room.
    “You’re perky,