The Memory Game Read Online Free PDF Page A

worried about where his other hand is going.
    If I had
anything in my stomach I’d throw up over the pair of them.  I’m totally
stalking him from now on and if there are any ghost powers I will learn
to use them on him.
    I think about
watching them some more but then realise that it’s actually a bit creepy. The
rules are different now, I suppose, but I don’t really know what they are
anymore.  Just suppose I followed Ingrid home now and watched her take a
shower, would that be wrong?  After all, she wouldn’t have a clue I was
there and it’s not like I could jump on her, so would it matter? But now I
think about it, I realise that those are exactly the reasons why there’s no
point in following her home. I start to wonder about Bethany Willis
again.  If she can see me and hear me, can she touch me too?  It
would be nice, to feel someone’s skin on mine again.  Not in a pervy way… definitely not with Bethany Willis anyway, but
some contact with someone would help to fight this feeling that everything that
once made me is slowly drifting apart.
    The school bell
rings and Ingrid jumps away from Matt.
    ‘We should go
in,’ she says, tucking her blouse back into her skirt.
    ‘Meet me later?’
he asks.
    She chews on her
lip and looks at him thoughtfully, her eyes wide.  Oh God, she looks so
good when she does that it almost kills me again. 
    ‘Don’t go!’ I
shout. I know she can’t hear me but I can’t help it.
    ‘Ok,’ she says
finally. ‘What time?’
    ‘Are you
completely stupid?’ I stamp my foot at her.
    As I do this,
she looks in my direction. My heart skips.  She’s heard me? Is that all it
takes, for me to really need something to make it happen? But her eyes are
blank and they’re not seeing me at all. My stomach lurches at the realisation.
    ‘About seven?’
he says. ‘I’ll call for you.’
    ‘Where are we
going?’ she says as she swings her bag onto her shoulder.
    Matt shrugs.
‘I’ll think of somewhere,’ he grins.
    They both go in
separate directions for their next lesson and I just stand there in the rain on
my own.
     
    School is empty now.  In a
way, it feels dead too with none of the kids here, like the blood that moves it
has drained away.  I’m sitting at my old desk thinking about Ingrid and
Matt. Maybe sitting isn’t the right word.  My form is sort of folded as if
I’m sitting but I don’t think I’m actually on the chair, rather, around it. The
classroom is in darkness now already, even though it’s only just after five.
Through the huge window I can see the endless stream of blurred headlights on
the main road that runs past the village as people make their way back from
work. Most of the people on that road don’t live in our village, they just
drive on past to places that are far more exciting.  I suppose they’ll be
home soon in their warm, orange living rooms with steaming mugs of tea and
telly.  They’ll be able to hug and laugh and argue and eat beans on toast
and won’t give any of it a second thought. Right now, Matt’s mum will be
rushing about for him, making him something nice for tea, and he’ll sit there
eating it, thinking about what he’s going to do with Ingrid later, like it’s
really ok. I still can’t believe he’d do that to me; I thought we were best
mates.
    Suddenly, a
shadow moves across the window. Quick and quiet like a wraith. I’m thinking
maybe the caretaker, but even though I only saw it for a second, it seemed too small
and thin to be Mr Allen. I get up and go to look out of the window.  It
looks like a kid – I can’t see who but they have a short jacket showing their
skinny legs and a too-big rucksack slung across a shoulder. Still hanging
around school after five?  No after-school clubs here; a rural school is
too badly staffed for that sort of torture so the kids go home at three. 
That makes the person still wandering around a saddo or a ghost.  I’m going with saddo .  I can’t
pop from place to