Faye's Diary

Chapter 12: Running Away

When we got to the councillors office, I folded my arms and sighed. I would much rather be at school with Jamaal right now.

“Will I be going back to school after this?” I asked Mum.

“It depends if you want to or not. You may want to now, but when we get out you probably won’t.”

“What do you mean, we? You’re not coming in!” I said.

Just then, my name was called. Mum stood up. “Um, we’d like to see Faye on her own please Miss Baskerville, if you don’t mind.” So Mum sat down again with a huff.

The room that I was led into was big and airy. It had pictures stuck all over the walls; hundreds of them. Some of them were really good; others were obviously done by little children. There was one wall that was still blank. It was a peachy colour that made me feel nauseous.

Most of the pictures were of big families together, but some were of parks and gardens and meadows and even houses and streets. None of them had labels to say who had drawn them and most of the time it was hard to tell whether they had been done by a boy or girl.

Just then the councillor walked in. “Hi, my name is Karen and I am specially trained to dealing with children and young people with family issues. What is your name then?”

I didn’t take my eyes off the wall; I was still studying all of the pictures. There was one that had obviously taken days. It was of a beach scene. There were no people in it, no indications of a life at all, just a beach.

Karen saw me looking at all the pictures and said, “This is my favourite one.” She pointed to an A4 sized picture of an elastic band that had been snapped. No hand to say who had done it, no indication of why it had been done, or how. It was just a red, broken elastic band lying on a white table. I didn’t answer her, knowing that she would explain to me anyway.

“All of these pictures have been drawn by all of the people we have helped here. When you have finished your sessions then you will draw one too. You have to draw something that is either important to you, or symbolizes something important. Maybe something that you have talked about with me?”

“So you and this person talked about elastic bands?” I said, confused.

“No, but we talked about his anger problems, and at the end, he said that he felt like an elastic band. When he was here, he would be stretched and stretched, in other words, he would learn to control himself. But when he got back home he said that the band was being released. But when you release it, it doesn’t go quite back to its original position; it has stretched a little bit. He said that at the end of all of his sessions, it felt like the band had snapped, meaning he had broken the habit forever.”

I looked up at her. “How old was he?” I asked her.

“Fourteen,” she said. And then, “You don’t look like you want to be here.”

I clapped my hands and said sarcastically, “Wow, well done. All your hard years of training has really paid off.”

She ignored me and said, “Where do you really want to be Faye?”

“I thought you didn’t know my name.”

“You’re not answering my question. Where do you really want to be?” Karen said.

Ever since I had arrived here, I knew that I wanted to leave, but I had only just realised that I actually had no idea where I wanted to be instead. Did I want to go home? Did I want to go to Prayer Street? Did I want to go back to school? I didn’t know.

“I- I- I want to be, somewhere.” I said. Then, realising how stupid that sounded, I said, “Do you know where Prayer Road is?”

“Prayer Road? It’s about two or three streets away. Why?”

My eyes grew wide and my mouth fell open. “Two or three streets away? How do you get there?” I said.

“You go down that road and then you turn left. Keep going until you see the sign. Anyway, why do you want to know? Do you want to talk about it?”

I looked at her as if she was stupid. “If I wanted to talk about it then do you not think that I would have done before now? I don’t want to talk about it; I want to go there!”

“Well, we can’t just take you there out of the blue. We’ll have to book an appointment and your Mum and some other workers will have to go with us. I’ll see if we can go next week, okay?”

“No, not okay,” I then turned and ran out of the room. Karen caught my arm but I wriggled free and carried on running. I ran past Mum in the waiting room and down the stairs.

I kept going until I was outside and then I ran down the street but around to the right, not the left as Karen had instructed. Soon, as I had expected, Karen, Mum and two other men came running down the street and turned left to Prayer Road.

“How dare you just let my daughter run away when I left her with you? What did you say to her to make her go? And how do you know she went here?” Mum was shouting furiously at Karen. They had slowed down now, out of breath whilst the two men had gone on in front.

“I’m terribly sorry, really I am! But we have had this happen several times before and the children are always found within an hour,” Karen said.

“Well, that is lovely for you, but I swear to you, if she is hurt, I’ll be suing you for every penny you have got!” Mum said. When Karen didn’t reply, Mum said, “What is even on Prayer Road that you think my daughter might want to see?”

“Nothing really. There are a few houses dotted around, businesses, and oh my! I know! There is...”  But at that moment, a huge Double Decker bus went rumbling past, blocking out any sound that would have been heard. When the bus was gone, Mum and Karen had already turned the corner.

I got out my phone and checked the time. I decided to wait for an hour to let things calm down before I went to Prayer Road. I sat down on the pavement and began to daydream.

A while later, I was brought back down to earth when my phone rang. It was Mum, of course. I didn’t know whether to answer or not. I looked at the time and saw that it had been half an hour.

“Hello, Mum?” I said tentatively.

“Faye? Faye, where the hell are you?” Mum was obviously crying.

“I can’t say. Go home, I’m ok, honestly. I’ll be home once I have done what I have to do.”

“Faye Baskerville, you tell me where you are right now or I’ll, I’ll- I’ll, do something bad!” If this had been any other situation, I would have laughed, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood at the moment.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. Where are you? Where are Karen and the other two men?” I said.

“How do you know there are two men? Where are you Faye?”

“I know because I saw you all running out of the office, but where are they?”

“I am at home with Karen and the two men are still looking as far as I know. Just tell me where you are, please Faye! I promise I won’t tell anyone!”

“I’ll be home in a while Mum, I promise!” I said, and I put the phone down. As soon as I did do, I shoved it into my pocket and I ran. I ran down the street and to the left. Down to Prayer Road.