Shay frowned. “He’s a fully-grown man, he doesn’t need to tell people where he’s going. He might’ve had a hook-up somewhere. I don’t know.”
“His phone is still here, and this is Seph we’re talking about. If he had a date,” I refused to use the phrase hook-up, “don’t you think he would’ve told you about it.”
There was another pause from my brother before he nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.” Shay stood up, stretching his six foot something build, and squinted at me. “You’re really bothered about where he is, aren’t you?”
“It’s weird that he’s not about, or told anyone where he’s going.”
Shay put down the controller. “I’ll go and have a look for him. He can’t be far.”
Two hours later and we were none the wiser where Seph was. We’d checked the outbuildings twice and all of Callum’s barns and stables; Eli had walked to the pub in the village to see if he was there, but they hadn’t seen him since he’d fallen through the door after Max’s wedding.
“I’ve been through his stuff,” Payton announced as she came into the kitchen where we were congregating. “And I phoned his neighbour – he hasn’t been back home.”
Marie sat down with a cup of tea. Out of all of us, she’d been the least worried, still was.
“Has he gone missing before?” Immy was still trying to defrost her feet from the snow. She’d been out to the treehouse across the garden, thinking that Seph might’ve gone there for some reason.
He hadn’t.
“You couldn’t lose Seph if you tried,” Jackson said. Teddy was sitting on his knee, fascinated with his dad’s hair. Vanessa was curled up beside him, half-asleep although it was only five in the afternoon.
Marie put the tea down on the side table. “Seph did go missing when he was seven. Ava and Payton were at a birthday party and it was only Grant and Seph in the house. When I came home, Grant asked where Seph was – he’d thought he’d gone to the party too because he hadn’t been seen for so long.”
“Where did you find him?”
Marie smiled. “In the loft. There was a toy car racing track up there that had been Callum’s and Seph had been desperate to get it down to play with. He somehow managed to get up there and then the loft door closed. You can’t undo it from the inside.”
There was a moment of silence. A couple of people took a sip from their drinks. Payton nibbled on a biscuit.
“You think we should check the loft?” It was Shay’s suggestion.
Marie picked up her tea again. “In a minute.” Then she sighed. “I suppose we’d better go and see if he’s locked up there. He might be hungry.”
26
A hand painted mug – from Callum to Wren
Seph
There’sa lot to be said for spending time in solitary confinement, eight hours of it. I’d forgotten what it was like to be truly hungry, not starving, because, well, I wasn’t starving, but hunger pains like I forgot existed. I’d also forgotten what it was like to spend time just with me.
The loft had electricity and it was insulated, so there was no chance of freezing. In fact, it was warm enough to consider putting a bed up there and moving out of the cabin.
There was also half my childhood. Mum didn’t like throwing anything away, so it was where the old toys went to retire and half of our schoolbooks were kept, and our reports.
I’d gone up there in search of a photograph album of a holiday when we’d all been together with the Green cousins. It was Martha’s Vineyard, and we’d spent a summer there, with Dad flying over a couple of times to spend a week and a long weekend.
We’d half run wild, enjoying the freedom a safe place could be, and having other people there who got us. Max, Jackson and Claire were all older, I think Max was definitely at university by that point, and I seem to remember him having an issue when two girls turned up at the house at the same time – he’d been sleeping with them both and had no idea they were friends. I also think it was when Jackson lost his virginity, but he’d never confirmed that.
I’d wanted the photos, but they were buried somewhere in an almighty pile of stuff and as I’d searched, I’d gotten lost in our history. The ladders to the loft blocked the corridor below, directly in front of Claire’s room, and I didn’t want Eliza running out into them, so I’d lifted them up and the hatch had closed.
It had been more than twenty years since I’d last been up there, looking for the racing track that had been Callum’s, and I forgot that when you closed it from the inside the catch caught and you were stuck. It was a fault my parents had never corrected, probably because they’d never needed to.
The hunger, warmth, trip down memory lane, and slight feeling of abandonment led to me taking an afternoon nap, one that was rudely interrupted by Jackson climbing into the loft and swearing at the amount of stuff that was there.
“Do you think you can quieten down? You’ve just interrupted a fucking awesome dream.”
Jackson paused and frowned at me. “What the hell are you sleeping on?”
