The Thirteenth Read online

  “Well, sorry to say I won’t be at your party to hit your precious piñata, unlucky for me, not,” Delta responded sarcastically. “But I will be there soon to come and taunt you in your amazing new job as the sexy librarian.”

  “Thanks mate. Well, I won’t keep you. I’m sure your Chihuahua needs a walk or a credit card is in need of using. By the way, if you want to know what to buy me, a big handbag would be great. I’ll explain why when I see you.”

  The line went dead. Delta was the worst person Val knew for just dropping the line. She never ever said goodbye.

  She put her mobile back in her pocket, trying to remember what she had been doing before the call. “Ah yes, the book.”

  She turned to go back to the shelf, but soon realised that she wasn’t even sure which aisle she had been in when she found the book. Val felt slightly annoyed with herself, but she had the whole summer to look for the book; unless someone bought it, it wasn’t going anywhere.

  Val spent the next few minutes exploring the shop trying to get her bearings, eventually finding her way back to the front of the shop. That was when she noticed the water cooler. It seemed slightly dated and Val wasn’t sure how long the water had been there. She made a mental note to stick to her bottle of juice for now.

  Making her way around the counter she noticed for the first time how very old it was and how the wood smelt as though years of beeswax had been caringly applied. It was obviously very good quality. Having a builder for a dad made her notice these things. There was a door behind the counter, which she assumed led to Wallace’s office. One of the many keys would probably fit the lock, although she wasn’t really interested in entering as it had a huge PRIVATE sign on it. She had spotted the toilets near the back of the shop so felt she knew all the places that really mattered.

  Grabbing a duster from the cleaning box behind the counter she set about cleaning, and imagining what tomorrow’s family-organised, eighteenth birthday disaster would be like. In a lot of ways she was actually looking forward to turning eighteen, not just for the freedom it brought, but because she felt ready, and had a strong feeling that her time was coming.

  The hours seemed to drag. Although a few people came in to browse, she achieved very few sales: not exactly what she wanted for her first day. She tried to stay positive and hoped that tomorrow, when she would be a more mature sales woman of eighteen, would be substantially better.

  Val locked up at exactly five, as Wallace had instructed; she didn’t want to find him hiding behind the street sign waiting for her to come out five seconds early. As she stepped out onto the pavement, she felt the same strange sensation that she had felt that morning, as if she was being watched. She looked around her, but there was only what she assumed was the usual rush hour hubbub of people and traffic.

  Then it hit her: pain, so hard and intense that it made her fall to her knees in the doorway of the shop. She wanted to scream but nothing would come out. It was as if God himself had sent a lightning bolt out of the sky and scored a bull’s-eye.

  While Val crouched, trembling in the doorway, she was very aware that no one was trying to help her; they looked from the corner of their eyes but moved on quickly in the bustle of passers-by. After a few minutes, Val knew that she had to stand up or she was going to miss her bus. Leaning on the door, she pulled herself to her feet, perspiration pouring down her back. What was happening to her?

  She began to walk slowly towards her stop. She couldn’t miss her bus; it was the last one that went anywhere near her house. As she made her way down the road, people made it even more obvious that she was behaving oddly, and probably looking strange. One woman was kind enough to pull her screaming toddler onto the other side of the path.

  Val eventually managed to get to the bus stop where she lowered herself shakily onto a graffiti-covered green plastic bench. An elderly woman sitting at the opposite end stared blatantly at her. Val threw her a smile, at which point the woman tutted in disgust, stood up and walked towards an elderly gentleman, obviously looking for protection from the weird, sweaty girl.

  Val really didn’t care; she was in too much pain. All she knew was that she needed to get home and quickly. So much for growing up! All she wanted to do was fall into her mum’s arms and be looked after. She was breathing deeply as she got onto the bus and the conductor frowned at her as she took her ticket, then watched her closely as moved as far back as she could. Val imagined this was more in concern for his upholstery than for her well-being. She fell onto a vacant seat, trying not to attract too much attention to herself, although that was quite hard as she now felt as if she had just climbed out of a swimming pool.

  “Come on, come on,” she murmured under her breath. Val couldn’t remember a time in her life when she had been more desperate to get home. She stepped off the bus, knowing she was nearly home and finding the reserves of strength to increase her pace to a slow trot. She had never felt so elated to see her street. Outside her house, she gave a last burst of energy and charged across the grass towards the front door crying out, “Mum? Dad?”

  The overwhelming feelings she had been keeping in during her journey home now came flooding out. She called out again and banged on the door to no avail, then collapsed weeping onto the front step convinced that she couldn’t move another inch, but no one was coming to let her in, so she was going to have to.

  She managed to stand and pushing her key into the front door, every movement causing another wave of pain. The door swung open. Val stumbled into the hall, then collapsed, and still there was no answer to her cries. “Mum, please, I need you.”

  Making a huge effort, Val pulled herself up and staggered towards the kitchen. On the table was a note; she was so disorientated that she could hardly make sense of it.

  ‘We have decided to go out; your dinner is in the microwave. See you later honey, love M & D’.

  “No!” Val whimpered. She couldn’t believe this was happening. What should she do? Call an ambulance? No, that would be ridiculous. She just needed to get to bed, and it would all be OK when Mum got home. She climbed the stairs slowly, then made her way down the landing to her room. She went straight to her bed and fell onto it, facedown, unable to take off her clothes or pull the covers over her. Within minutes she slipped into a restless, troubled sleep.

  Her dream was so vivid that she could actually see the fog, feel the damp ground and smell the trees. The scene was the same as before, but this time, instead of being blown back by the powerful light, the woman seemed to move through it. Val could see a circle of men and women holding hands. There was a small break in the circle. The man and woman on either side of the gap seemed to be waiting for her. She reached out to grab their hands, as if she was the missing link.

  As she reached for them she heard a wailing bleep coming from behind her. The noise stopped her from grabbing the woman’s hand and she felt as if she was being pulled backwards. The din was getting beyond a joke as she turned towards it in anger.

  “Oh my God, the pain!” Val shouted, waking up as she fell off the bed and hit the floor. It was unbearable. She felt like her flesh was on fire. Jumping clumsily to her feet Val felt slightly foolish; it was her eighteenth birthday and she had started it by doing something she hadn’t done since she was six years old.

  The pain was so intense she wasn’t sure if she could ignore it any longer. She needed some form of painkiller. She had also decided to tell her mum and dad about her arm, even if it meant a visit to the dreaded doctor’s; she simply couldn’t go on like this. Val rubbed her arm forcefully in the hope that it would help and headed downstairs.

  “Happy Birthday!” Sue and Mike chorused. They were standing with their arms spread wide to welcome their little girl on her very special birthday. When Val failed to respond, Susan’s expression changed and she began to lower her arms.

  “Dear me, Val, you look terrible. Are those the clothes you were wearing yesterday?”

  Val looked down. Her mum was right; she hadn
’t even changed. “Mum, Dad, I have got loads to tell you. Just let me change, OK? I think I might need to see a doctor.”

  Val turned and started to go back upstairs. Susan was about to follow when Mike grabbed her arm. “She said she will tell us when she comes down, give her some space. She is eighteen now.” Susan nodded in agreement, but wasn’t happy.

  Val made it back to her room where she grabbed some clothes before heading to the bathroom and turning the shower on. Pulling her top over her head, she peered into the steam-hazed mirror. Was that dirt on her arm? She looked harder, as she walked towards the mirror. As she got closer, she rubbed the steam that had formed and nearly passed out with the shock.

  There was a huge black mark on her arm. Val rubbed it vigorously. It was not only massive; it was a tattoo and not just any old tattoo. It was exactly the same as the zodiac circle she had seen in the window of that man Shane’s parlour, and on the book in the shop. Then she realised that this one was slightly different: inside the circle was another symbol that wasn’t on the others.

  It was a sort of a backwards ‘y’ with a dot in the centre. As Val took in the enormity of what she was looking at, she heard her mum’s voice calling up the stairs.

  “Everything OK, Val? Do you need any help?” This was the last person she wanted to see her new acquisition.

  “No I’m fine. I will be down in a few minutes, Mum,” Val answered.

  “OK honey, I love you.” Susan’s voice was shaky. Val knew her mum was worried and if she saw this, she would become hysterical. Val jumped into the shower pumping the soap onto her hands, trying in a vain attempt to scrub it off. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. This even beat being kissed, aged ten, by Barry Green a.k.a. Mr Halitosis behind the bike sheds.

  This was supposed to be one of the best days of her life, what was going on? Suddenly she was scared and for the first time in her life she knew she would have to deal with this alone. Her parents would never believe her if she told them a tattoo the size of a saucer had miraculously appeared overnight. Maybe this was what being an adult was all about.

  Val jumped out of the shower, her arm now sore from the scrubbing. Throwing on her jeans and a long-sleeved Superman top she hurried downstairs.

  “OK, what’s going on? Why do you need to see a doctor?” Mike demanded, hoping to get an answer before Susan over-reacted.

  Val had to think quickly. “I was feeling a little unwell, dodgy kebab, but after that shower I’m feeling a lot better.” Please buy it, she thought, smiling from ear to ear. “Come on, where are my presents?”

  Mike and Susan looked at each other. “You had us scared, Val. Don’t do that again, OK? And why eat a kebab when I had left you dinner?” Susan clearly didn’t entirely believe what Val was saying, but it was Val’s birthday and at least she seemed OK now, and that was what really mattered.

  Within a few minutes, they were all looking at the many presents Val had received and, for now, she knew she was home and dry.

  “OK family, got to go, working girl and all.” Val kissed her parents as always and made a dash for the door. Mike unexpectedly grabbed Val’s arm and her heart almost stopped beating.

  “Give me a hug. You are still my little girl, you do know that, don’t you?” As he wrapped his arms around Val, the pain in her arm became torturous.

  “Don’t be late tonight. There is a lot to do before the party, OK?” Susan called, but Val was gone.

  She ran down the road with tears burning in her eyes. Wiping them briskly, she managed to compose herself. The last thing she needed was it getting back to her mum that she had been seen blubbering in the street.

  By the time Val got onto her bus, her arm had finally stopped hurting so much. She sat down, unable to watch the world go past today as she had other things on her mind. Luckily for her, the local vagrant didn’t feel like sitting next to her and moved a seat further down. ‘How thoughtful,’ she said to herself. ‘Now I can only smell him.’

  When she arrived at her stop, she leapt confidently from the bus. She knew exactly where she was going next. She ran across the road, then stopped when someone sounded their horn about an inch from her head. The driver of a red ford truck was about five feet away from her and glaring furiously at her. Val smiled and mouthed an apology, but kept moving across the road. “Focus Val,” she told herself.

  As she got closer to the tattoo parlour, she felt a pang of apprehension. Was she doing the right thing coming here, and what could he do to help her other than recommend a good plastic surgeon? It was already too late; her legs had carried her to the front door and straight into the arms of Shane Walker.

  “Hello again. Wow, two days on the trot. I will be thinking you want a tattoo if you keep coming.” He smiled but his expression changed when Val started to cry. “Hey, what’s wrong? Come inside.” For some reason, Val knew that this man, as enormous as he looked on the outside, was gentle on the inside. She walked in with him, crossing a black and white chequered floor, and sat down on the barber-style chair he offered her.

  “What’s so wrong that you have come to a stranger crying?” Shane asked.

  “This appeared on my arm last night.” Val lifted her sweater sleeve to reveal the tattoo.

  “Wow, that’s some seriously good art work, I have to say. I couldn’t do better myself. So, apart from being grounded for life, what’s the problem?”

  “I don’t know how it got there.” Val’s eyes filled up again. “It’s my eighteenth birthday today and I woke up with this.”

  “Well I have to be honest with you, you aren’t the first person to wake up with a tattoo on an important birthday.” He made drinking motions with his hand.

  “No, I wasn’t drunk. That’s not supposed to happen until tonight. This has just appeared out of nowhere, you have to believe me.”

  Val was so intense that Shane knew she believed what she was saying.

  “OK, let me have a good look.”

  Val lifted her sleeve once again to reveal her tattoo and Shane put on his gloves and looked at it more closely. “This is strange. Sorry, what’s your name?”

  “I’m Val. Sorry that was rude of me.” Val blushed.

  “Don’t worry.” He smiled reassuringly. “This is a normal zodiac circle, but I don’t recognise this symbol in the middle. Do you?”

  “No.” Val looked blankly at it.

  “OK, let me take a transfer then I will find out some more information for you if you want.” He waited for some sign of agreement.

  “Yes. Thank you…”

  Shane placed the clear paper on Val’s arm and had just started to copy the image when they heard a clock chime.

  “Oh no! What time is it?” Val looked around hunting for a clock.

  “It’s nine. I’ve finished. You can go, but come back later. OK? I will see what I can find out and should have something for you by then.”

  “I’m late again so pray that my boss isn’t at work. Thank you, Shane. I will see you later.” Val’s eyes started to fill up again. Shane touched her arm and smiled, and all of a sudden Val didn’t feel quite so alone. She hurried onto the road, looking this time for traffic, and sprinted all the way to work with her fingers tightly crossed.

  She arrived to find the shop in darkness. This was excellent; Wallace must still be away. Finally, something was going her way. Hopefully this would have a snowball effect on the rest of the day.

  She unlocked the many locks on the front door. This was how she imagined it must have felt trying to break into Alcatraz. She then chuckled to herself as she entered Wallace’s date of birth into the alarm, listening as its beeping came to an immediate halt.

  She seemed to have packed a lot into the morning, and it was still only just after nine o’clock. She was warm after her frantic rush to the shop so she went to the water cooler and poured herself a cold drink, not caring today how old the water might be. It tasted great.

  Just then, her mobile began ringing; it was Delta
.

  “Hello crazy Yank chic,” Val chirped down the phone.

  “I’m not singing so don’t hold your breath. Happy birthday and all. Get anything good?”

  Val looked down at her arm and felt the irony. “Where are you, Delta? We need to talk as soon as possible.”

  “Italy. Why? What’s wrong? You sound odd.”

  Val didn’t want to tell her over the phone; she would never understand. “Don’t worry I will call you in a few days, when you get here, and we can catch up on everything then. OK?”

  “Fine. Did you get my present?” Delta asked.

  “No. Did you post it?”

  “Oh, was I supposed to do that bit myself? Isn’t that Maria’s job? Not to worry, we can go shopping when I get there.”

  “OK, speak to you…” The line went dead before she could say ‘soon’ and Val was alone again. She put away her phone and stood looking around the shop. What to do now? The book. Yes, she needed to look for the book with the picture of the zodiac circle.

  Val walked impatiently up and down the aisles, looking for the book. She knew it hadn’t been sold as to date, she had made a total of four sales and the book hadn’t been one of them. That didn’t mean it couldn’t have been stolen, although that would just be very bad luck. Once again she looked at her arm, ‘Let’s not tempt fate,’ she thought.

  Val ended up spending most of the morning and early afternoon looking for the book, in between attempting to polish. Just as she was beginning to lose the will to dust one more thing, the doorbell rang and someone entered. Val got her bearings and made her way to the front of the shop.

  “Hello,” Val said, greeting the young blond woman with a smile.

  “Hi. I hope you can help me. I’m looking for a first edition James Joyce ‘The Dubliners’ for my fiancé. It’s his birthday soon and I’ve heard that if anyone has it, you do.” Val tried to give the impression that she knew what the girl wanted, although really she didn’t have the foggiest clue.

  “Please feel free to browse while I go and see if that book is in stock.”