Switchers by Kate Thompson

know? And I’m nervous about what’s happening.’
    ‘So you want me to come along and hold your hand?’
    Kevin looked crestfallen, and suddenly Tess didn’t know why she was putting up such a resistance and being so unkind. She lay back on the pillow to think about it, and Kevin sat quietly, glancing at her from time to time in his nervous, sideways manner.
    Tess realised as she lay there that there was nothing to think about. If she refused and sent him away, she would never know what it was about and whether her gift had given her a part to play in some scheme or other. She would have to live with that uncertainty for the rest of her life. No matter how crazy it seemed, she had to go. There was no choice.
    She sighed and threw back the covers. A look of delighted surprise crossed Kevin’s face. He turned away quickly so that she wouldn’t see it, but she could still see the way he felt by the spring in his step as he crossed the room. She pulled on her jeans on top of her pyjamas, and then two sweatshirts, a thick jumper and two pairs of socks. Then Kevin waited in her room as she crept downstairs, feeling like a burglar in her own house, to get her down jacket and gloves.
    Back in the bedroom, Tess hesitated. Whatever anxiety she had about the risk she might be running for herself was nothing compared to the feeling that gripped her now. For some reason she knew beyond any doubt that she would not be returning to that room before morning, and that her parents would have to face the shock of coming in and finding it empty. She felt sick, but there was no longer any question of turning back. With hands that trembled more from tension than from cold, she searched through the drawers of her desk for some notepaper that her aunt had given her for Christmas. The she sat down and picked up her pen.
    The paper had delicate impressions of swans in blue and gold. Kevin leaned over her shoulder as she wrote. ‘Nice paper,’ he said.
    ‘Shh.’
‘Dear Mummy and Daddy,’ she wrote. ‘I have to go away for a little while. I’m sorry, but I can’t explain to you why. But you must trust me, just this once. Don’t send anyone to search for me. It would only be a waste of time. I promise that I will take care of myself, and you must promise me that you will do the same and not worry too much. I will be back as soon as I can. Love you with all my heart, Tess, XXXXXXXX’
    ‘Yuck,’ said Kevin. ‘“All my heart.”’
    Tess swung on him. ‘Shut up,’ she said, in a vicious whisper. ‘Shut your filthy mouth. Just because you haven’t got anybody.’
    He shrugged and turned away, and Tess was sorry, because she realised for the first time that it was true. He had nobody. Nobody at all.
    She pinned the note to her pillow and took a last look round the room. Then, side by side with Kevin, she walked to the window.
    The two owls swept away again over the city. Kevin led the way back towards Connolly Station, but instead of returning to the flats, he headed for a small patch of wasteland in the same area, where houses had been demolished to make way for some new building project which had never materialised. They overflew it once or twice, checking out the area, and then they began to descend.
    There was a crowd of young men gathered around a car a couple of blocks away, but they were not close enough to be a danger. The owls flew a little lower over the wasteground again and, to Tess’s horror, her sharp night eyes saw that the whole area was swarming with rats. There was a high chain-link fence around the plot, but nonetheless the local people had managed to turn the place into a dumping ground for their rubbish. Mainly it was large things, old couches with the stuffing hanging out, broken TVs and fridges and mattresses with bulging springs. But there were black plastic bags there as well, spilling out their contents of empty tins and vegetable peelings and tea bags. A perfect breeding ground for rats.
    As the owls