Come to Harm Read Online Free PDF

understand.”
    Fancy smiled again at that. “I’m here for keeps this time,” she said. “No matter what, I couldn’t take Vi away from her granny. And speaking of Vi, it’s chucking out time. Can I watch for her out the front?”
    â€œOf course,” said Keiko. “But … no matter what ?”
    â€œHa!” Fancy said. “I thought you understood me.”
    _____
    They stood side by side in the bay window and looked down at the street.
    â€œThat’s Janice Kelly. I was at school with her. I bet she looks up. Yep, there you go. Hi, Janice.” Fancy waved to the young woman. and Keiko raised her hand shyly too. Janice Kelly gave Keiko a tight smile. In the distance a shrill bell sounded and almost immediately a faint bubbling chirp began, like far-off geese.
    â€œShe’s a friend of yours?” Keiko said.
    â€œSchool’s out,” said Fancy, and pressed her cheek against the glass, craning up the street. Keiko pressed her face to the other pane. “Janice? She’s all right. They all are really, I suppose. Now, that—look quick—that’s Craig McKendrick, in the ironmongers.” A boy in a grey overall came out of the shop across the road, looked into the window for a moment, shook his head, and went back in.
    â€œMr. McKendrick’s grandson?” said Keiko.
    â€œHis nephew!” Fancy wagged her finger, laughing.
    â€œJust like this morning,” Keiko said. “I thought the man called Malcolm was Mrs. Poole’s husband.”
    â€œNo!” Fancy turned towards her, eyes like eggs. “You didn’t say that, did you?” she asked, but then seeing Keiko’s brow crumple, she hurried on. “It doesn’t matter really. It’s just that Mr. Poole died not long ago.”
    Keiko put her head in her hands, but Fancy spoke fiercely.
    â€œNo! It’s not your fault. Somebody should have told you.”
    Down on the street, gaggles of little children were beginning to tumble past, weighed down by the enormous satchels sliding down their backs.
    â€œPoor Malcolm, though,” said Fancy.
    â€œHe didn’t hear me,” said Keiko. “He wasn’t there.”
    â€œOh, so you haven’t met him? Maybe I should tell you …”
    â€œI’ve seen him,” Keiko said. “He seems … very nice.” They glanced at one another, not smiling.
    â€œHave you seen his brother?”
    â€œIs he … like Malcolm?”
    â€œGod no, not hardly,” said Fancy. “Poor Malcolm.” She sighed and then pulled away from the window slightly. “Here she comes. Check the state of her hair.”
    A thin girl, one of smallest ones, with hair the same bright brown as Fancy’s but springing out behind an elaborate hair band, was hopping down the street, the middle one of three, all hopping and holding hands tightly as they bunched and surged.
    â€œThey’re coming back to my place,” said Fancy. “I said they could do face-painting if they were good.” She let herself out of Keiko’s flat, bounded down the stairs to the street, and stood hopping in front of the three little girls, making them laugh.
    Across the street, behind the net curtain in the flat above the hardware shop, Mr. McKendrick stood looking over towards the Pooles, watching.

five
    Keiko, walking back through to the kitchen to wash the cups, threw a grape up in the air and ducked with her mouth open. It bounced off the bridge of her nose and fell back onto the table. She put it in between her lips and sucked it in, then coughed it back out of her windpipe and bit it in two before it could damage her any more.
    â€œ Chucking out time ,” she said out loud. “ Check the state of her hair. Since that weirdo niece stopped coming. ” That was what she had been pining for: good, natural, idiomatic English that would stop her sounding like a schoolgirl.
    â€œ I