The Wall Between the Worlds Read online

  The Wall Between

  the Worlds

  Book 3 of

  The Bridges Trilogy

  Ruth Fox

  The Bridges Trilogy

  by Ruth Fox

  available from Hague Publishing

  The City of Silver Light

  Across the Bridge of Ice

  The Wall Between the Worlds

  THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD

  Book 3 of The Bridges Trilogy

  The moral rights of Ruth Fox to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2020

  Hague Publishing

  PO Box 451

  Bassendean, Western AUSTRALIA 6934

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.haguepublishing.com

  ISBN 978-0-6485714-6-9

  (Smashwords Edition)

  Cover: The Wall Between the Worlds by Ruth Fox

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One: Actions and Reactions

  Chapter Two: Bridges

  Chapter Three: At the Treehouse

  Chapter Four: Making Connections

  Chapter Five: Contact

  Chapter Six: The Next Day

  Chapter Seven: The Wall

  Chapter Eight: Higher Frequencies

  Chapter Nine: Sharna’s Discovery

  Chapter Ten: The Birds

  Chapter Eleven: Search and Rescue

  Chapter Twelve: The Battle Begins

  Chapter Thirteen: A Tree Grows in the Park

  Chapter Fourteen: Mr Jackson

  Chapter Fifteen: The Day We’ve Been Waiting For

  Chapter Sixteen: Building Bridges

  Chapter Seventeen: Parting Ways

  Thank You For Reading

  About the Author

  Hague Publishing

  Acknowledgements

  Wow. I began The Bridges Trilogy over a decade ago, with a half-formed idea and a kind-of impression of where I thought it would go. Now it’s complete and I still can’t believe it’s done!

  First and most importantly, I’d like to thank Hague Publishing. What a wonderful experience creating these books has been. Thank you for making the process enjoyable and for helping hone the world of Cassidy Heights and Shar.

  Thank you to Mum and Dad for encouraging my writing, buying me notebooks when I was twelve, helping me to save for my first laptop when I was eighteen, and teaching me everything both creative and practical in life.

  Thank you to Conan, my husband and partner in all things.

  Thank you to my boys for the constant reminder of why I do what I do.

  Last, but by no means least, thank you to my readers. I really can’t express what it means to have shared these books with you.

  Prologue

  Sharna looks nervous.

  I’m wondering what she has to be nervous about – she’s not the one facing the Beige Mile. I call it that in my head. It’s not Green, and it’s not as dull, or as dingy as the one in the prison in that Stephen King movie, but it’s just as scary.

  The phone beeps and she jumps. I wonder what’s up. I mean, I’ve got to know her pretty well lately, with all the time I’ve been spending sitting outside the reception office, waiting to see Mrs Hildebrand. Sharna is a monitor, which means she helps out in the office during lunch times, filing and organising papers, and typing up papers, and putting papers in pigeonholes instead of sitting outside chatting about the latest magazine quiz like normal girls.

  Sharna doesn’t have a whole heap of friends and likes to keep to herself. She has a habit of talking over the top of other people. And she’s got this whole thing about the environment. She knows everything there is to know about endangered pandas and she has stickers on her bag for WWF and Greenpeace.

  I’ve never been a good student like her. But, somehow, lately I’ve been even worse than usual. I’m coming down here almost every day. Even so, it doesn’t get any less scary, the more often you do it. The only good thing is that while I’m here, I’m not in Maths, or Science, or English, or any subject that involves books and teachers asking you questions. Books give me a headache, and not knowing the answers to questions just makes me feel stupid.

  Sharna checks the phone – she’s not allowed to answer calls from outside lines, but it must be one of the teachers in one of the staff rooms, because she picks it up.

  ‘Yes, of course, I’ve got all of that right here,’ she says into the phone. ‘I’ll pass it along to Mrs Hildebrand. Okay. Okay. Not at all.’

  She drops the phone, tapping the finger of one hand on her desk while riffling through some papers with the other. ‘I know Alice put it here somewhere . . .’

  The door to Mrs Hildebrand’s office opens and some kid comes out. He’s wearing a brown jumper that doesn’t fit properly and his long blond hair – not longish hair, like mine, but actually down to his shoulders, I’m not kidding – is tied back with an elastic. He’s tall and thin and his skin is just-seen-a-ghost pale.

  There’s lots of new kids at school lately, since a couple of the high schools got damaged in this massive snowstorm a few weeks ago, and their students ended up coming here. But something about this guy is just . . . weird.

  ‘Alice left me some forms for your guardian to sign, Aaron,’ Sharna says, looking up. ‘Just . . . ah, crap. Just a moment, okay? Everything’s a mess . . .’

  Aaron smiles politely.

  ‘I . . . well, here’s a pen. If you can write down your address, I’ll post them to your . . . your guardian . . .’

  Aaron takes the proffered pen, but she sucks in a little breath when his hand touches hers.

  ‘They’re in the drawer,’ he says.

  She looks up, puzzled.

  ‘The papers,’ he clarifies. ‘You put them in the drawer.’

  ‘Oh – I did, too.’ She pulls out the correct papers and gives Aaron a bemused smile. ‘How did –’

  The phone bleeps again, and she picks it up, giving me a chance to survey this newest new kid. I wonder if he’s Swedish or Icelandic or something. He speaks strangely, like he’s been taught English by a Professor of Language or something – every word precise and properly formed.

  He turns and I don’t look away quickly enough. He sees me watching him.

  His eyes. They’re really, really blue. They’re creepy. No one has eyes like that.

  ‘Mikhal?’ Sharna says, breaking into the moment as she puts the phone down, still not looking at me. ‘That was Mrs Hildebrand. She’s ready to see you now.’

  I gulp.

  She looks up at me. ‘Hey, Mikhal, thanks for inviting me to your party the other week.’

  ‘Did you have fun? You danced with Jake, right?’

  She smiles. ‘Oh. Yeah, it was good to go out for once . . . anyway.’ She nods towards Mrs Hildebrand’s door. ‘It’s okay. She’s in a good mood today.’

  I laugh. It comes out short and sharp. I know she’s just trying to make me feel better, but sometimes I wish she wouldn’t. It’s like she thinks I’m a decent person at heart. And I’m pretty sure she’s going to be disappointed when she finds out I’m not even close.

  Chapter One:

  Actions and Reactions

  ‘Mikhal,’ Mrs Hildebrand says. ‘Please, sit down.’

  I’m already
sitting. I know which chair I’m supposed to sit in – the one on the right of the desk, not the left. Mrs Hildebrand wears glasses and she’s partly blind in one eye. If I sit on her left she has to turn her whole head to see me. I’d rather keep a few papers and her PC screen between her gaze and me if I can.

  She sighs. ‘As much as I like you as a person, Mikhal, I’m getting a little sick of seeing you.’

  I nod.

  ‘This isn’t about the incident with Andrew,’ she says. ‘At least, it’s not just about that incident, though it’s the most serious one so far. Andrew’s going to need stitches, and fighting with another student – whether it’s on school premises or not – will not be tolerated.’

  ‘He deserved it. He told me –’

  She holds up a hand, cutting off my explanation. ‘I don’t want to hear that he started it, Mikhal.’

  Since I was about to say exactly that, I shut up.

  She rubs her temples. Obviously, she doesn’t care what had really happened. Andrew deserves every bit of pain and blood – and painful stitches – for what he said to me. We’d been put in a group together for music class. Mr Jackson told us to come up with a three minute composition, which we’d be recording in the next lesson.

  ‘I need to be on the drums,’ he said, whacking me on the shoulder with the drumstick. ‘And you, Miky, you should sing. You’ve got the most girly voice out of all of us.’

  I bristled as he kept it up, tapping me on the head, the ears, the arm. ‘I’m not going to sing in front of the class.’

  ‘Why not? Because you’re so shy and retiring? Just do it.’ Whack, whack, whack.

  ‘I’d rather be on the drums, since you suck at them so much,’ I said, grabbing the drumstick off him. He was still holding it tight, and as I wrenched it, it snapped.

  ‘Ooooh, Mr Jackson’s not going to be happy! You’re going to have to pay for it. Oh well. It’s not like your mum can’t afford to.’ He said this casually, turning away. ‘Either that or she could get you a replacement out of one of the charity bins!’

  Everyone around us who’d heard what he said laughed, because just like they all know my mum and dad are solicitors, and good ones – good enough to have a decent amount of money – they all know Mum has been doing charity work lately, running around the Salvos stores and supermarkets. Cassidy Heights is a small place. Almost everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

  I’m not an angry person, usually, but when he said that, I saw red. When I was a little kid, I didn’t know our family was any different to anyone else’s. I didn’t give a crap about the size of people’s houses or whether they had an indoor pool or not. Nobody else seemed to care that much, either – if Jake or one of my other friends wanted a swim, or wanted to play the Playstation on a big screen, they’d just come over to my place. If we wanted to kick a ball around, or pretend to be secret agents, or whatever, we’d go to their places. Andrew was one of those friends, too.

  But I realised, when I got older, that this stuff actually did matter. People can wish they had what you had, and can hate you for having it when they didn’t.

  And since the snowstorm a few weeks ago, I realised they hate you even more when you try to help them out. It’s so stupid. I know money doesn’t come from nowhere. You have to work hard for it, like my mum and dad do.

  All this went through my mind as I looked at Andrew’s stupid face. He was my friend, but in that moment, it really didn’t seem like it. He wasn’t even laughing like the others.

  During the snowstorm, the roof of Andrew’s parents’ house had collapsed. They’d lost a lot of their clothes and Andrew’s computer and stuff. They had trouble with the insurance – his dad was late with some payments last year or something – and though the electricity had been put back on, they couldn’t pay all the repairs, so they didn’t have running hot water yet. Mum had taken a box of clothes and canned tomato soup over to their house, since she knew his parents so well from all the sleepovers and birthday parties we’d shared as kids.

  And, obviously, Andrew wasn’t exactly grateful. That hard-eyed glare he gave me told me he thought it was somehow my fault. I didn’t know how I could prove to him I wasn’t just being arrogant.

  So I hit him.

  And I guess that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or the straw that split his lip, or something, because here I am, back in Mrs Hildebrand’s office for the seventh time since, well, since I started counting the times I’ve been sent here.

  ‘It’s about your overall performance at school. Mr Jackson has good reports about your work in Music, but you don’t seem to want to apply it. Your class-work is sloppy. You don’t get good marks on your assignments. You rarely do homework. You do want to pass, don’t you? You don’t want to be kept down?’

  ‘No,’ I say. I don’t. I really don’t.

  ‘Well, at the rate you’re going, you’ll be lucky if you don’t fail.’

  My shock shows in my face. I know, because her gaze instantly turns softer. ‘Look.’ She pushes her glasses up and leans forwards. That gaze I was avoiding settles right on me. I shift uncomfortably. ‘Mr Jackson has put in a good word for you, and it’s not impossible. There are programs for young people like you at TAFE. You might want to consider an alternative program – something in technology studies, or an apprenticeship –‘

  ‘No!’ It just bursts out. It’s Mrs Hildebrand’s turn to look shocked. ‘I – I mean – I’m not a – I’m not slow. I don’t have a learning disability or anything.’

  ‘I’m not saying that you do,’ she says carefully. ‘I’m just suggesting that you might benefit from doing something outside of school, something to balance the load, you see?’

  I don’t, not really.

  ‘If you can find something that you’re interested in, something to focus on, and you’re willing to work at it, I think it will really help you.’

  Oh.

  ‘It won’t mean you don’t have to do your schoolwork, okay? But if you enrol in a vocational program, we’ll be able to negotiate credits.’

  I sigh. ‘Okay.’

  ‘Do some research,’ she goes on, satisfied that I’m taking her seriously. ‘Find something you can be passionate about. We’ll take it from there. Okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ I say meekly. Mrs Hildebrand is satisfied. She smiles.

  ‘Now, I’ve also arranged for you to work with a student tutor in your class. She can act as your mentor and make sure your work is up to standard.’

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Don’t look so worried. I just think it might be easier for you to work with someone your own age during class time. Now, I don’t ever want you in my office again, Mikhal. You’re too smart for this.’

  ***

  ‘Miky!’

  I dodge to one side. I know that voice well enough to know that the best response is to duck and cover. Sure enough, Keira the whirlwind dives past me, just missing me with her backpack. Keira Leichman isn’t big, but she likes to hit people more than girls usually do. I’m all for equality of the sexes, but not when it involves me getting clobbered over the head.

  ‘Where were you in History? You left me alone with Mr Morris and his droning voice, and I didn’t have anyone’s folder to scribble on. It was boring.’

  There are birds in the trees on the other side of the bus shelter. Heaps of them, and they’re loud.

  ‘The Andrew thing . . .’ I mutter.

  ‘Oh.’ The light goes out of her face. Keira’s got a history with Andrew – they went out for a bit, but Andrew was an idiot, and they broke up pretty quickly. He’s not her favourite person, either. ‘You’re not getting suspended, are you?’

  Keira’s changed; I realise. She’s always been energetic, but she used to be kind of flaky. During the snowstorm, though, she broke her ankle. She spent a couple of weeks out of school after that. When she came back, her ankle had healed completely – like it had never been broken at all – and there was something . . . deeper about he
r.

  And I had plenty of time to notice. She’s been spending a lot of time with my mum, helping out with this charity drive stuff. She still laughs and jokes. She still runs around like a crazy person. But now she does it with a purpose.

  ‘No,’ I say, and she sighs with relief. The birds screech even more loudly.

  ‘So, anyway, you have to meet my friend. He’s staying here for a while.’

  She grabs my shoulders to spin me around. ‘Hey! Aaron!’ she yells in my ear.

  Aaron. Yep, it’s the boy I saw at the reception desk. He looks just as strange and out-of-place in the school grounds as he did there. But when he sees Keira he smiles, and it’s a real smile; I can tell he’s happy to see her.

  ‘Aaron, this is Mikhal, he’s awesome. Mikhal, this is Aaron.’

  ‘Hi,’ I say, holding out a hand. He shies away like I’ve moved to hit him, and I’m thinking – wow, has word of my violent explosion spread that far already?

  Keira doesn’t notice. Or if she does, she does a good job of hiding it by changing the subject. ‘You’ll have to go to Mikhal’s place and play Revenge of the Living Dead on the 50 inch plasma,’ she tells Aaron. To me, she says: ‘He’s totally into zombie shoot-em-ups.’

  ‘Great,’ I return, faking the enthusiasm. Suddenly, though, I’m hit with a wave of loneliness. It’s ages since I’ve hung out with Keira and everyone. ‘Hey, we should go to the mall. A few rounds at the arcade would be great.’

  Keira looks at Aaron. ‘We’ve gotta go,’ she says slowly, and I can tell she’s being careful. ‘But some other time, right? I’ll be at your place on Saturday, anyway. Your mum has more charity stuff to sort.’

  ‘Yeah. Okay.’

  My whole plan to avoid going home and dealing with the fallout from today’s explosion evaporates as they vanish into the crowd.

  ‘Hey, Mikhal.’

  I turn around and find Sharna Devon standing behind me. ‘Oh, hi.’ I edge away. I don’t really want to talk to her. I’m not in the mood for a lecture on the threats to the Great Barrier Reef.