‘Oh come on, please.’
‘No. Go to school.’
I was not Micah’s au pair but he seemed to think I was. Or at least he thought he could use my flat whenever he wanted, to hide out when he should be at school. But when Micah bunked off, it was me who got the blame. I had a suspicion that Bernie’s wife, Jan – nice as she was – had been forced into welcoming me into their annexe. She’d had plans to convert the garage into a gym before I landed on their doorstep, so I didn’t want to give her any excuse to get rid of me. I couldn’t risk losing this flat, even though it was tiny and cramped.
Micah scowled at me and I scowled back, but good-naturedly because he was a nice lad really and I saw something in him that reminded me of myself. A fluttery anxiousness that made me want to look after him.
‘The thought of going to school is worse than it’ll actually be when you get there,’ I told him, as I got on my bike. ‘It’s never as bad as you think.’
‘Is that how you feel about work?’
‘Totally,’ I lied, because while I didn’t dislike work it was always a bit of an effort. ‘I’m working with Tara later. If you come by after school, I’ll give you the key and you can hang out at mine all evening.’
Micah gave me a dazzling smile. ‘Thanks, Steve,’ he said.
‘It’s Stevie,’ I said with an overexaggerated sigh. Micah had been thrilled when he discovered my friends and family all shortenedStephanie to Stevie, and he delighted in giving me his own version of my nickname.
‘Okay then, Steve.’
‘It’s Stevie,’ I called over my shoulder as I rode off down the drive and out of the automatic gates. ‘Stevie!’
*
Tall Trees residential home was surrounded by a low hedge, a red-brick wall, and absolutely no trees, tall or otherwise. It was a large building shaped like an L with the long bit of the L parallel to the road and the gravelled car park, which I’d long ago learned not to cycle across, at the front. I locked my dripping bike up in the empty rack, and took my helmet and my shopping-bag-covered rucksack into the staffroom.
‘You’re late,’ said my boss, Blessing, hurrying past the door to the room with a pile of clean towels as I peeled off my wet outer layer. Then she stopped, and grinned at me. ‘Here.’
She threw me a towel and gratefully I caught it and wiped my face.
‘It’s still raining then?’
‘Actually it’s stopped.’ I squeezed my damp ponytail with the towel then hung it over the door of my locker while I got out my clean uniform tunic.
‘But …’
‘Bus,’ I said wryly. ‘And puddle.’
Blessing raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re on the bottom corridor today. They’ve all had tea, but they’ll need you to help get them up for breakfast. Then when you’re ready and if the rain’s holding off, can you take Mr Yin out into the garden? He wants to see if the peonies have flowered yet.’
‘Will do.’
I finished buttoning up my tunic, tidied my hair, shut my locker, and hurried off to the bottom corridor.
‘Morning, Val,’ I sang as I went into the first room. ‘How are you today?’
‘I wish I was dead,’ said Val who was ninety-five, and who spoke her mind without hesitation. ‘Can’t even get a proper cup of tea in this rotten place. Is it too much to ask for an Earl Grey of a morning?’
I grinned at her. ‘Ready to get up?’
‘What’s the point?’
With a flourish, I pulled two little Twinings sachets – like the ones you got at a hotel breakfast buffet – from my tunic pocket and waved them at her. ‘Would you get up if I promised to make you a cup of Earl Grey?’
Val smiled at me suddenly and uncharacteristically. ‘You know what you are?’ she said. ‘One of the good ones.’
I busied myself filling her little kettle so she didn’t see the tears that had sprung into my eyes at her kind words. Just about anything made me well up these days. Tears were never far away now.
‘Right then, shall we get you out of that bed?’ I said, falsely jolly. ‘What would you like to wear today?’
