Fragile Lives Read Online Free PDF Page B

there blood all up the walls?’
    â€˜Are you going to be sent to jail?’
    â€˜Sorry to hear about your mum.’
    â€˜How come you’re living in that kids’ home. Thought that was just for …’
    George didn’t hear the rest of the sentence. He headed out into the crowded corridor, dragging Paul with him and got them both cans from the machine, then settled in the tiny alcove next to the radiator to drink them.
    â€˜Thanks,’ Paul said. He opened the can and drank half of it without stopping.
    â€˜They’ll forget all about us in a few days,’ George said with more confidence than he felt. ‘We’ll just be like chip paper.’
    â€˜Like what?’
    â€˜Like … Oh, never mind. They’ll just forget about us.’ It had seemed to make more sense when Rina had said it even though Tim still had to explain that chips used to be wrapped in newspaper so yesterday’s headlines were just tomorrow’s waste paper. George had got what she meant; he didn’t think Paul was in any mood to even try.
    Lunchtime, he figured, would be the worst, but there wasn’t a lot they could do to avoid that. Too young to be allowed off campus and too high profile at the moment for the staff to take their eyes off them for too long, there was no chance even of sneaking into an empty classroom. George suddenly felt very vulnerable and terribly alone.
    â€˜Come on,’ he said, chucking his part-empty can in the bin. ‘We better get back.’
    Obedient, Paul followed. George sighed. He knew that Karen had sometimes found it hard, being the responsible, reliable sorting-everything-out one. He figured he was getting to understand what she’d meant.
    Rina had known Andrew and Simeon Barnes since she had first come to live in Frantham. Andrew was a journalist, though generally of the magazine article persuasion rather than newspapers, writing articles on finance that were then franchised to many of the major weekly and monthly journals. It was a living, though not necessarily what Andrew wanted, but it fitted in with life with Simeon and, after all, his brother, Simeon, was a very different story.
    â€˜How is he?’ Rina asked, unsurprised to have run into Andrew in Frantham’s tiny general store; the owner insisted it was a supermarket but Rina had long ago decided that was far too vulgar a term for so old-fashioned and classy an establishment.
    â€˜Oh, Simeon is all right. I’m just checking things out ready for our shopping trip. Evan rang to say he’d rearranged some of the lines and you know how Simeon is.’
    Rina nodded.
    â€˜It’s good of Evan to be so understanding.’
    â€˜Good customer relations,’ Rina said wisely, ‘and anyway, he is a very pleasant man.’ Privately she thought it likely that Evan was not only keeping a good customer happy but also, having experienced it once, avoiding the embarrassment of a hysterical Simeon scaring away potential new ones. Simeon loved his fortnightly shopping trips but could not deal with unexpected change. Provided Andrew explained it all to him in advance, he could cope. Just.
    â€˜I’m glad I saw you, though,’ Andrew continued. ‘I’ve got Simeon’s list. I was going to just drop it through your door.’ He fished in the pocket and brought out several sheets of neatly folded, lined paper covered in Simeon’s tiny, obsessively neat writing.
    Rina took them. ‘More than usual,’ she commented.
    â€˜Yes. I’m sorry about that. Look, if you don’t have the time, I quite understand.’
    â€˜Don’t be silly. I’ll do my usual and send him some comments. In fact, maybe you can ask him to look out for something in particular for me? If you think he’s up to it.’
    â€˜Oh, I know he’ll be glad to. Anything for you, you know that. What do you have in mind?’
    â€˜Lights,’ Rina said,