The Concrete Grove

“I know. Weird, eh?” She smiled again. “What did you say your name was?”

“Tom. Tom Stains. I’ve been running…” He glanced down at his legs, lifting his arms away from his body in an almost apologetic manner.

“Yeah. Whatever.” She glanced along the street, dismissing him.

“What’s your name? I should take you home; get you back safe and sound to your parents.” God, he sounded like an old man.

“I’m Hailey. I live a few streets away. I’ll be fine.” She pushed away from the wall, but stumbled a little. Steadying herself, she grinned. “Or maybe not.”

“Come on, Hailey, let’s get you home. I’m sure your parents will be worried.” He took a step towards her but did not touch her. It wasn’t appropriate, not now. She could walk by herself, unaided, and if he grabbed her she might get the wrong idea — or he might.

“Mum. It’s just me and Mum. But, yes, she will be worried. She worries about me all the time round here. It’s not like where we used to live.” She turned and began to walk along the street, her strides slow and uncertain.

“I see.” Tom fell into step alongside her, ready to catch her if she stumbled but not willing to offer his arm unless she asked. “Just you and your mother, eh?” Something turned inside him, like a key in a lock or a tumbler falling into place: some hidden mechanism within the chambers of his heart. Tom didn’t believe in fate or destiny, he clung to no god. But there was something about these events, a sense that the picture was not what it seemed. Beneath the surface, under the facade of reality, something was happening, changes were taking place.

Unbeliever that he was, Tom was confused to think that the steps he was taking now were in fact the beginning of some kind of journey. The destination was unclear, the aim unknowable, but he had willingly taken a turn off the beaten track and allowed himself to be led astray.

Somehow these thoughts failed to trouble him. In fact, he felt more alive than he had in years. Tom couldn’t remember the last time he had embarked upon anything that might be considered an adventure.

CHAPTER THREE

NIGHT WAS FALLING in slow shades as they walked along Grove End, past the dark hulk of the primary school, and headed towards the Grove Court flats. The long nights were drawing in. It would soon be Christmas. Tom hated Christmas.

He was so aware of Hailey strolling along at his side that he could think of nothing else, not even the things he hated. He knew that Helen would be expecting him home to prepare dinner, but he could barely even picture her face. All he could see was the girl.

Tom realised that after the initial near-sexual thrill he’d experienced his feelings towards Hailey had faded to something more like fatherly concern. The girl was in some kind of trouble, that much was certain. He didn’t believe her story about fainting and not knowing how she came to be lying unconscious at the side of the road, half a mile away from where she’d been roaming.

“Just down here,” she said, as if she were deliberately trying to break into his thoughts. She turned, smiled, and then faced forward again. Her strides were now long and even. She seemed much more in control than when he’d first found her. Perhaps he should just leave her here, close to home, and be on his way?

No. If she had been accosted, as he suspected, that would be a foolish thing to do. She was a young girl and it was growing dark. He was duty-bound to accompany her at least to her front door.

There was also the voice at the back of his mind, the soft, purring one that suggested if the girl was this pretty, then her mother must be beautiful. There was no father around, and she might be so grateful that she invited him in for coffee…

Tom laughed softly.

“What’s wrong?” Hailey glared at him, her blue eyes flashing in the growing dimness. “What you laughing at?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It was nothing. Just a silly thought I had, that’s all.” He smiled at her and hoped that she couldn’t see through his mask.

Hailey coughed, and then glanced slowly around, as if she were looking for someone. “I don’t like it here. The closer you get to the centre, the weirder it feels. Don’t you feel it? It’s like something in the air — a gas, or something.”

Tom was confused. He didn’t know what she wanted him to say. “This is a run-down area. There are people here who you don’t want to meet after dark. That’s all.”

Several lights had come on in the front rooms of houses and flats. Television light shuddered like a submarine’s lamps through thin curtains. Tom knew what the girl meant. This was a strange place, especially after dark. That was why he didn’t like coming here, why he wished he could run the other way… any way, just not deeper into the estate.

They turned right onto Grove Mount and then crossed the road. There were two cars parked alongside each other at the mini roundabout at the end of the street, young drivers leaning out of the side windows to make some kind of exchange. Tom thought it was probably a drugs deal, but it could be something worse. He’d heard rumours of all kinds of things changing hands down here, and lethal weapons being given to kids who were stupid and desperate enough to use them.

“Which number is yours?” He tore his gaze away from the illicit transaction — although, part of him reasoned, it couldn’t be that illicit if it was being carried out in plain view. Another, more cynical voice replied: it’s more a case of nobody giving a damn. The air was turning cold, and his legs prickled with gooseflesh.

“Number eleven,” said Hailey, slowing down. “Just here, the one on the corner.” She approached the squat block of flats — a two-storey building with a grass verge outside its spiked metal railings.

“You’ll be fine from here. I’d better get back… my wife will be wondering where I am.” He pulled back, away from her, taking a few backward steps across the footpath.

“No, come in and meet my mum. She’ll want to thank you for helping me.” Her smile was impossible to ignore; he felt his own come to life in response, as if it were a bloom flowering in sunlight. “Just for a minute.”

Tom felt his legs move towards her, dragging his resistant body behind. He had the feeling that he might regret this, but still he followed her through the gate and along a narrow concrete path. He didn’t try too hard to leave her and go home.

“It’s here somewhere…” Hailey fished inside her blazer pocket and produced a set of keys. She opened the main door to the flats and walked inside, clearly expecting him to follow.

Not knowing what else to do, Tom paused for a moment to glance both ways along the street, and then he quietly stepped inside the building. The external darkness gave way to a smoother, duskier darkness inside the building. Hailey didn’t bother to turn on the lights as she ghosted across the ground floor. She opened a door and turned towards Tom, smiling. “Come on up.” Then she walked through the doorway and Tom was forced to hurry before it closed.

They climbed the stairs without speaking, their footsteps echoing on the tiled treads. Tom felt apprehensive. Would her mother really welcome him or would she think that he was some kind of pervert in his daft shorts and sweat-stained T-shirt? “Maybe I…” But he didn’t finish. Hailey had reached the landing and was opening another door; this one let out light as it swung wide, and Tom could do nothing but follow.

The hallway was clean but narrow. At one end there was a glass fire door — presumably this led out onto one of the tiny balconies Tom had seen from the street. He stayed a few steps behind Hailey, wishing he’d just turned and walked back down the stairs. But it was too late now; he’d gone too far to risk looking like a fool. An even bigger fool, he thought as he glanced again at his bare legs.

As he watched, someone walked quickly past the other side of the glass door. Then, abruptly, they returned and crossed in the opposite direction. He waited for them to do an about-face and repeat the pass, but nothing moved. For some reason he felt a prickle of fear across his back; his muscles tensed, an involuntary reaction.

Then one of the doors in the hallway opened.

“Hailey! Where have you been?” The woman standing in the doorway was beautiful. Tom stared at her,