Page 13 - My Home on the Earth

until their parents or bus arrive, she thought. One boy caught her attention and she tried not to stare, but he stood out from the others. Unlike other children, he wasn’t wearing a regular school uniform so his shabby appearance struck her as odd. He stared back at her, and she turned aside to gaze at the waiting crowd. Then the enormous train rumbled past. As the barriers lifted, Cara searched for him, but he’d disappeared. She dismissed him from her mind and led Elise through the approaching surge of shoppers, past Boots and into Clary Lane where Annetta had her nail salon.
A clanging bell rang out as she opened the salon door. Annetta popped her head around the adjoining room and called out: ‘Take a seat, girls. Your grandma called me to expect you.’ Cara sat down and picked up a magazine. Its contents didn’t interest her so she gazed out of the window as Elise nosed around at the bottles of nail polish. Sitting on the pavement, three doors down, outside the mobile phone shop, was the same boy. Out of curiosity, she peered through a display unit to get a closer look. His face and unusual hairstyle puzzled her as she watched him. For a moment, he stared directly at the salon and she jerked back.
Cara shuddered. The boy’s presence was giving her a distinctly uneasy feeling. Maybe her imagination was getting the better of her, but she had the strong urge to escape from him as soon as possible, preferably without him seeing them leaving the shop and getting into Grandma’s car. For all she knew, he could be with
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