Lost Girl – Girl Found 3. Missing

The girls watch as the firemen do their thing, only to discover that Olivia is missing ...

Claudine and Cathy stood on the opposite side of the street, shivering as lights flashed and the fire service did its thing.

“Your friends didn’t seem very happy at having to leave,” Claudine observed, her hands shoved as far into the tight pockets of her jeans as she could get them.

Cathy shrugged. “Not my problem. They’d have been less happy if they’d burnt to death, don’t you think?”

“I didn’t think of that,” Claudine agreed.

“Don’t suppose they did either,” Cathy said. “Ken and Brenda did offer us somewhere to stay if we needed it, though.” She shook herself and stared across the road at the doorway to their house. “Ooh! Where’s Olivia? She should be out by now.”

Water gushed down the front steps as fire fighters, covered in sooty grime, marched in and out, dragging their hoses and calling to one another. However, although they brought several people out, from the other flats in the building, many of them coughing and confused, Olivia wasn’t one of them.

Cathy didn’t even get to speak to the Crew Commander until she saw the hoses being rolled up.

“Is there anyone else in there?” Cathy asked.

“No. My men made sure of that. Why?”

Cathy could feel herself beginning to tremble. “My, er, sister is missing.”

“Your sister?” the Crew Commander asked, showing concern.

“Yes. Olivia. She was the one who discovered the fire.”

“She was? And you say you haven’t seen her since—?”

“Since she sent Claudine and I back upstairs to get everyone out of my flat.”

The fireman smiled. “She sounds like a sensible girl, but I’m afraid I haven’t seen anyone other than those who were brought out by the team. All of them have either gone elsewhere or to hospital. I’m sure if she’d been in there, we’d have spotted her. Perhaps she left before we got here. You were already here then, weren’t you?”

“Um … yes, but we didn’t see her leave.”

The Crew Commander rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I doubt she’s still in there, but I’ll be having a last look round shortly, if you don’t mind hanging around.”

The minutes dragged by as she and Claudine waited for the return of the Crew Commander and when he did, the two girls ran across to speak to him.

“Was she there?” Cathy asked.

The Crew Commander shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “She must have left before we arrived. She wasn’t in the house.”

Cathy’s heart sank. Oliver was big enough and old enough to look after himself, but what didn’t make any sense was why he had left without saying anything? Why hadn’t he waited for them and made sure they and the others got out okay? After all, he was the one who was most concerned for everyone’s welfare …

“When will we be able to go back in?” Cathy asked.

The Crew Commander chuckled. “Not yet, certainly,” he told her. “You might be wise to try and find somewhere else to stay for tonight. There’s definite smoke and water damage … possibly structural damage too. It may well be unsafe. Not to mention the fact it’s going to smell bad.”

“Oh God!”

Cathy grabbed Claudine’s hand and led her across to the other side of the road.

“What’s wrong?” Claudine asked.

Cathy started to cry. “Olivia’s disappeared,” she sniffed. “I don’t know what to do.”

“She wasn’t there?”

“No.”

“Well where would she have gone?” Claudine asked.

To Cathy, Claudine’s question was like asking someone who’d misplaced their keys, “Where did you have them last?” How stupid was that? If Cathy knew where her brother had gone, she wouldn’t have said what she said.

There had to have been a problem. Something must have happened to have made Oliver just up and leave. She knew she hadn’t seen him for some time, but she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t have walked out on something like the fire.

Then something dawned on her: Claudine hadn’t said, “Where would he have gone?” but “Where would she have gone?”

Changing the ‘he’ to a ‘she’ made all the difference. Trying to find ‘him’ would have been the devil’s own job, but she was confident that finding ‘her’ was a different matter altogether.

Cathy shook her head. “Of course! Claud? You’re brilliant!” she said and grabbed her flatmate, pulling her tightly to her and planting a big kiss full on her lips.

“Oh … er … wow!” Claudine said, startled. “You haven’t done that before.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, girl,” she said with determination. “I think I know where to look.”

There was a loud 'ringing' in Olivia’s ears and it didn’t seem to want to stop, but she pressed on. She had no idea how long she’d been walking and worse still, no idea where she was. She vaguely recognised some of the places she passed, but she didn’t know where she might have recognised them from.

She stopped momentarily and looked about her, coming to the conclusion that the only thing she could say for certain, was that she was on a darkened street she didn’t recognise, with absolutely no idea which direction she should go to get to somewhere familiar.

The darkness frightened Olivia. As she continued to walk, she realised she was heading into town, however, which town she didn’t know. Some places did have an air of familiarity about them, but why or where from, she didn’t know and as the number of people around her increased, the more frightened she became.

The people were mostly in good spirits, though noisy, as they walked from one place to another. Some couples passed, huddled together in secretive conversation, while others passed in groups of threes, fours or more, most of whom paying her little or no attention, but there were others who stared at her, almost as if they knew her when she walked past, some even turning and watching her.

‘What are they staring at?’ she wondered. The more it happened the more she became sure that there must have been some misunderstanding, some mistake. ‘I don’t know them.’

Her head throbbed almost constantly and although it wasn’t really painful, it was beginning to cause concern. She cautiously touched an area at the back of her head and winced as her fingers came into contact with a large lump.

A young man stopped in front of her, his eyes going wide.

“You’re that bird, aren’t you?” he said, his spotty, pock-marked face breaking into a grin that spread almost from ear to ear.

“What?” she demanded, the fear rising by several notches.

“Hey!” he shouted. “It’s Kenzi.”

The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by a group of adolescent boys, all of whom were leering, edging closer.

“Where’s Bo?” a second youth asked and began laughing.

The group closed in a little further.

“Hey, do you and her, like, kiss and stuff?” another asked, to whoops from the rest, causing them to edge in even closer.

Balling her fists, Olivia screamed at the boys, thrusting her fists down by her sides and stamping her foot. “Leave me alone!”

The boys all roared with laughter.

“Just go away!” she yelled. Pushing her way through them, she ran off down the street and didn’t stop running until her chest hurt too much to continue.

Stopping at a busy main road, she looked about her. As luck would have it, this part of town was familiar. It was the sea front. She could smell the fresh, salty air above the smell of the heavy traffic, which sped past in both directions. To her left, some of the souvenir shops with their brightly coloured sticks of rock, huge lolly pops and other sweets adorning their windows. To her right, hotels, guest houses and squares with neatly manicured lawns.

Just on a corner, she spotted somewhere that brought back some very clear memories; memories of Knickerbocker Glories and sunny days paddling in the sea with her sister. She remembered sandcastles when the tide was out and Orange Maid ice lollies.

She entered the café, still somewhat out of breath and began looking about her. Everything was just as she remembered it. Tea served in clear glass cups and large, thick, stone-white cups with frothy coffee that her mother would drink. Even the seats and tables were still red vinyl and Formica as they had been when they used to come down to the seaside.

‘How long ago?’ she wondered, thinking that for her, it seemed like only yesterday.

“What can I get you, miss,” said a young girl from behind the counter. She had a distinctly swarthy, Mediterranean look and sound about her and her long almost black hair hung down to her waist.

“Er …” Olivia replied, not knowing what she was supposed to order.

“Aren’t you—” the assistant began.

“No.”

The girl looked unconvinced. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Olivia said, suddenly brought back to the present and running from the group of boys, just minutes before. “I was chased by some boys.”

“You come with me,” the assistant said, walking down behind the counter and lifting the flap at the end. “This place is normally for staff, but you come and sit here. I’ll bring you a coffee and you can stay until you feel safe again.”

“Thank you.”

Olivia sat at the table round the corner and out of sight of the main thoroughfare. Moments later, the assistant brought a steaming cup of frothy coffee, smiled and placed it in front of her.

“You’ll feel better after this,” she told her.

“Thanks,” Olivia said, returning the girl’s smile.

As the waitress left, Olivia saw someone sitting at table opposite the one she was shown to. She looked familiar, but then, much she’d seen on her way down seemed that way, though she wasn’t quite able to place it. This girl was no different, but was staring right at her.

She smiled and the girl smiled back, which made Olivia blush slightly—as did the girl.

“Sorry,” Olivia said, nervously, for no other reason than she thought she ought to say something, but couldn’t think of anything else with that throbbing in her head.

The girl at the other table did exactly the same.

Olivia stood and moved towards the other girl and realised she’d been looking in a mirror, seeing her own reflection reflecting her own movements.

“Oh wow,” she muttered, looking closely at the reflection, as if seeing herself for the first time.

Sitting back down at her table, she realised she hadn’t even recognised herself in the mirror and that bothered her. It wasn’t that she didn’t recognise herself, but she’d never worn clothes like the ones she was wearing and had no recollection of putting them on.

Staring into the mirror across the other side of the room, she wondered how her mother had ever allowed her to wear such clothes. The leggings she wore left little to the imagination and her hair…

How long had she been letting it grow?

She felt she looked good—better than good in fact, but it didn’t make any sense. Somehow, the memories she had of being on the beach with her mother and sister didn’t belong to her. Whilst she remembered much about the times when they were all together, didn’t include her, but then nothing seemed to be making any sense at all.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, feeling the long, straight hair brush like whispers across her face, a feeling she couldn’t remember from before. It was nice and she was sure that she should have remembered something like that.

She heard the traffic noise increase as the door to the café opened. The voices of a couple of women suddenly became apparent as the door closed and the sound of the traffic receded.

“You sure this is the place?” one said.

“Positive. This was her favourite place.”

Olivia sat back in her chair, keeping out of sight. Perhaps these women knew she’d be here like that group of spotty youths had known her earlier.

“How long are you planning on waiting here?” one asked.

“As long as it takes.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Don’t worry,” the second one said.

That one simple sentence rang bells in Olivia’s mind. There was recognition there; something about the tone of her voice seemed as familiar as the café did.

‘If only I could remember…’

To be continued…