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CHAPTER THREE

Midnight

Patience worked hard on her designs all day. By the time she had finished, it was half past eleven at night and everyone else in the office had gone home. There was no one to take her designs to George Hedare at the factory. Patience decided to take them to him herself.

She didn’t have much time, so she took a taxi to the Hedare Beauty factory. She tried a door but it was locked. She looked at her watch. ‘Oh no! It’s almost too late,’ she thought.

She shouted as loudly as she could, ‘Hello? Is anyone there?’ But there was no reply.

Then she saw some lights at the back of the factory. She walked towards them and found another door. Luckily it was open. Patience went in.

She could hear people talking in a room not far away. She walked towards the room.

‘I don’t care if women get terrible headaches when they use Beau-line,’ Dr Slavicky was saying. ‘I can live with that. And I don’t care if women can’t stop using Beau-line. That will make me very rich! But I don’t want to destroy women’s faces. I won’t do it.’

Patience looked into the room and saw a video screen. On the screen there was a woman’s face. It was an old face, with lots of lines. Then, slowly, the face began to change. It became younger and younger. The lines disappeared. But the face continued to change. It became hard like a stone. The skin began to crack.

Patience turned and ran. She crashed into a table.

‘Who’s there’ shouted Slavicky.

Patience ran as fast as she could. A door opened and two men came out. Their names were Armando and Wesley. Their job was to protect George Hedare, and they went everywhere with him.

Patience hid behind a big machine.

‘Come out,’ Wesley called. ‘It’s OK. We only want to ask you a few questions.’

‘Oh good. That’s OK then,’ thought Patience. She came out from behind the machine. ‘I’m sorry. I think I’m in the wrong.’

Bang!

A bullet from Wesley’s gun hit the machine beside her.

Patience dropped her designs and ran. Bullets flew past her as she ran through the factory. She came to a pool of dark water. There were lots of metal bridges over it, but there was no way out to another part of the factory. Patience looked up. Above her were several huge pipes. Maybe she could find a way out up there.

She climbed inside one of the pipes and began to move down it on her hands and knees. Then, suddenly, she reached the end. It felt like the edge of the world. Far below her was a fast river. And between her and the river were 200 metres of nothing.

Suddenly she heard a terrible noise. A huge wall of water was coming up behind her. Armando and Wesley had opened the pipes! The water crashed over her, throwing her down, down, down into the river below.

Everything went black.

Patience’s phone was ringing. She woke up. Then she sat up and fell off the cupboard!

‘What’s happening? Why was I on top of the cupboard’ she thought. Her arms and legs were black and blue and her dirty clothes were all over the floor.

Patience’s machine answered the phone. It was Sally. ‘Where are you, Patience’ she said. ‘Hedare is very angry - and Tom called. He said you didn’t meet him at the cafe. I’m worried about you. Please call me.’

‘I’m not late for work already, am I’ she thought. ‘What time is it?’ She looked at her clock. 1.50 p.m. It was the afternoon already and she’d only just woken up! How was that possible?

She heard a miaow. The cat with golden eyes was sitting there. It was watching her.

‘It’s you again,’ said Patience. ‘I think there’s something very strange about you.’ She read the address on the cat’s neck.

‘I’m going to take you home, cat; Now.’

A fifty-year-old woman opened the door.

‘Are you Ophelia Powers’ Patience asked. ‘I rescued your cat and now it won’t leave me alone.’

The woman looked at Patience. ‘I think you should come in,’ she said.

Patience went into the living room. There were cats everywhere. Ophelia brought her a cup of tea.

‘Midnight,’ said Ophelia.

‘I’m sorry? What?’

‘Her name’s Midnight. She’s an Egyptian Mau. There aren’t many cats like her. She can do special things.’

‘You mean that she suddenly appears and frightens people’ asked Patience.

‘Things like that,’ said Ophelia. ‘You seem worried about something. Do you want to talk about it?’

‘I’m sorry. I can’t. I’ve got to get to work. I’m really late.’

‘Then I think you should come back,’ Ophelia said. ‘Come when you want to. I’m always here.’

‘What’s wrong with you’ shouted Hedare. Patience was sitting at her desk.

‘I needed those designs at midnight. But they didn’t arrive. And now you can’t even remember where they are. You can’t remember?! I’ve never– Are you even listening to me, Philips?’

‘No. You’re a lot more interested in all this than I am,’ replied Patience. She was drawing in her book. Hedare quickly took the page from her. It was a funny picture of him: fire and smoke were coming out of his head. Hedare threw the paper on the floor and walked away angrily.

Patience was frightened. ‘What have I done’ she thought. ‘That wasn’t me. That was a different person.’

‘Mr Hedare, wait’ she called. ‘I’m sorry.’

Hedare turned around. His eyes were cold. ‘“Sorry”? Is that all? “Sorry” isn’t enough.’

Patience suddenly became the other person again. ‘Let me explain it better,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry for every minute of my life that I’ve worked for you. You’re a terrible boss. You only think about yourself and your money.’

Hedare spoke coldly. ‘Take your things and go,’ he said. ‘Leave this company immediately.’

Patience became herself again. ‘What just happened’ she asked herself.

‘Wait, Mr Hedare’ she shouted. But Hedare didn’t stop.

Sally came up and put her arm around Patience. ‘Well done’ she said. ‘That was so cool!’