‘Yes of course.’ My heart thumped low in my belly as she went back into the classroom and re-emerged a few seconds later clutching a piece of paper. It fluttered in the breeze as she handed it to me, and it took me a few seconds for my eyes tomake out what was on the bright white sheet. But when they did, my stomach flipped over.
On the paper Flynn had drawn a large purple square, with green scribbles underneath it, and blue scribbled above. A yellow scribble sat in the top right corner. But it was what was inside the box that my eyes focused on.
Flynn had drawn three crude figures. One had long orange scribbles around its head which I took to be me. One was smaller with blond hair and our hands were joined so I guessed that was Flynn.
The third one, though, was what I assumed had piqued Miss Hardcastle’s concern. The figure was drawn higher than the others, almost as though it was floating above it. It was scribbled entirely in black, and even though Flynn’s drawing skills were rudimentary, when I looked back at the stick figures of me and him, we both had tears in our eyes.
My hand had started to shake and I handed the piece of paper back.
‘Sorry, I don’t know where that’s come from,’ I said, forcing a smile.
Miss Hardcastle tipped her head to the side and nodded. ‘That’s okay. I just wanted to make you aware in case… well, in case there is anyone else in his life that he might feel a bit fearful of.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Not that this always means that. Often it can just point to an overactive imagination, but we always like to mention it to parents, just in case.’
‘Yes, thank you. That’s very kind but I’m sure it’s nothing. He probably just wishes he had his daddy around like his friends do.’
Miss Hardcastle smiled sympathetically. ‘Yes I’m sure you’re probably right,’ she said. ‘Well, thank you for your time, Ms Vickers. I hope you don’t mind me showing you this.’
‘No, of course not. Thank you,’ I said, backing away. As soon as the young teacher had turned back to the classroom I turned and scurried away, keen to get out of there as quickly as possible.
I walked the rest of the way to work on autopilot, my mind. My breath came fast and I stopped just before I reached the office to calm myself down. I leaned against a wall and took a couple of deep breaths.
I wished I’d asked to bring Flynn’s drawing with me so that I could look at it again. Had I overreacted? It had seemed obvious to me at the time that the purple square represented the bandstand, and that the three figures were me, Flynn and a man… his daddy? I thought back to the only time I’d ever taken Flynn to the bandstand, the place he was conceived, back when he was a tiny baby. His reaction had been so strong I’d never dared take him back there again. But what if something in his subconscious remembered it? What if he’d somehow made the connection between the man he saw in the house and the bandstand? After all, Nick had come to me through some sort of portal – God,listento me – that only seemed to work there.
Maybe the time had come to take him back and see whether the portal was still there – because what better person would there be for Nick to visit than his own son?
I was about to let myself into the house when a voice stopped me in my tracks. I turned to find my neighbour leaning over the fence.
‘Hello,’ I said, surprised. We’d spoken a few times over the last few years, but we barely knew each other, and I could count on one hand the number of times she’d stopped me to say hello.
‘Hello, Emma. I was just wondering how you were?’
‘Me? I’m good thank you. You?’
She tilted her head. ‘I’m fine thank you.’ She looked at the front door then back at me and I wondered whether she was going to say anything else. I’d just decided that she wasn’t when she spoke again.
‘It’s tough isn’t it, when they’re little?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Kids,’ she said. ‘I mean, it was hard enough with the two of us to get up in the night or taking the kiddies to endless parties, but it must be even harder on your own.’
‘Yes. It can be.’
She nodded again, slowly. ‘Well, you must let me know if you ever need anything. Any help or just a night off.’
‘Oh. Thank you.’ I couldn’t have been more surprised if the Queen had turned up on my doorstep.
‘I know we haven’t spoken much, but I’ve seen you with your little boy,’ she continued. ‘It’s lovely to have children around the place, it can be so quiet.’
Oh. Was this just a long-winded way of telling me Flynn was too noisy? But surely not, he wasn’t a rowdy boy.
‘I’m sorry if—’ I began, but she cut me off.
‘I was beginning to think the house was bad luck you know,’ she said.
‘Oh? Why?’ She had my attention now.
She waved her hand through the air. ‘Well, you know. The couple who lived here last seemed to argue all the time and eventually they divorced and sold the place. And the couple before that – well, they were lovely, but they never had children either, and then she died. Cancer, I think it was. So sad, she was such a lovely girl.’
