Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [47]
‘It’s all right. It’s me. I mean . . . it’s really me,’ he said.
Warily, Anusha returned to the edge.
‘It wasn’t me. Whatever happened, it wasn’t me.’ He knew he wasn’t making much sense but how could he explain? ‘I was in the seagull. Something else took over my body. I know it’s not possible, but that’s what happened. You have to believe me.’
‘Stay there,’ she called, her voice cold and hard. ‘I’ll get help.’ And she disappeared from view.
‘No! Wait! Don’t go. Please.’
Zaki waited, hoping she had heard him. She reappeared and cautiously looked down. Zaki felt a wave of relief; somehow he had to make her understand that he hadn’t been responsible for his body attacking her.
‘I’m not coming down there,’ she said flatly.
‘Please, Anusha, it’s OK now – really – I’m not going to do anything.’
‘You just tried to kill me with a great big rock!’
‘No – no I didn’t.’
‘You bloody did! If it hadn’t been for that seagull, I’d be dead!’
‘I – was – the – seagull! That was me!’
It was hopeless. How could you explain something as crazy as this? But she’d seen the hawk in the classroom, knew that he had made that appear.
‘Look,’ he struggled to make it sound logical, ‘it was like the hawk, only this time I left my body.’ He watched her face, watched doubt and distrust losing their grip. ‘It really wasn’t me that attacked you.’
She took a big breath, lifting her shoulders then dropping them as she huffed the breath out.
‘Well, you do sound more like you.’
‘Where did the gull go?’ asked Zaki.
‘I don’t know – I didn’t see. When you fell over the edge it seemed to hang in mid-air and then it was off.’
‘That’s when it happened. That’s when I went back. I thought I’d killed my own body and I was going to be stuck as a seagull for the rest of my life, and the next I knew, I was back in my body.’
Zaki got shakily to his feet.
‘Wait,’ called Anusha, ‘I’ll come and help you.’
Zaki sat back down on a large, flat stone; he still felt very giddy. Anusha came down the slipway to join him. She stopped a few feet away. Zaki raised his head and tried to smile. Would she trust him?
‘You look really rubbish,’ she said.
‘I feel rubbish.’
‘What about your shoulder?’
He hadn’t thought about his shoulder, which, in itself, was odd since the fall should have made it worse. He tried it now. There was no pain. In fact he could even lift his arm above his head, something he had been unable to do that morning when he was dressing. He prodded his collarbone. Nothing. It was as though he’d never fractured it.
‘It’s fixed.’
‘How fixed?’
‘I don’t know how, but it seems to be fixed. It’s gone and mended itself.’
‘I don’t think bones can grow that quickly.’
‘This one has. Look.’ He waved his arm wildly.
‘OK, OK. No need to go crazy. I don’t suppose you could have lifted that rock you wanted to brain me with if it had still been broken.’
‘I was the seagull, remember?’
‘I know, I know – it’s just that this swapping bodies stuff is a little difficult to get my head round.’
‘How do you think it feels when it’s your body?’
Anusha looked thoughtful. ‘If you were the seagull, then who was in your body?’
‘I don’t know.’
She studied him carefully, as you might study a dog that sometimes bites.
Zaki stopped trying to smile and looked down at his feet.
Anusha swung her rucksack off her shoulder and came and sat beside him on the stone. Now it was Zaki’s turn to be puzzled.
‘Why are you here?’ he asked.
‘Because I’ve decided to help you get cleaned up instead of reporting you for attempted murder!’ She took a water bottle and some tissues from her rucksack.
‘What I meant was, why aren’t you at school? How did you know where I was?’
‘Simple – I followed you. Let me see your face.’
‘Ow!’
‘Don’t make a fuss. It’s not deep.’ She washed the cut on his cheek.
‘Followed me from where?’
‘The high street. I was on my way to school. I saw you get out of the van. At first I thought I’d catch you up, but then