‘I can’t see her wanting to go back to the hostel,’ I said. ‘Surely she’ll stay with me this time.’
‘I’d have thought so. It’s a horrific thing to have happened on her birthday but at least we know she’s eighteen now.’
Jed didn’t need to expand on that as I knew exactly what he meant. As a minor, Zoe must have had some sort of contact with social services and us giving her a place to stay without being registered carers might have been a challenge,but it surely wouldn’t be an issue now that she was officially classed as an adult.
One of the police officers we’d seen earlier brought Zoe back through to reception. ‘Zoe doesn’t want to go back to the hostel and tells us you’ve offered her a safe place to stay.’
‘If that’s still okay,’ Zoe said, looking at me with wide eyes.
‘Of course! The offer was on the table for whenever.’
The police officer nodded. ‘She’s worried about her belongings so I’ve offered to accompany her while she collects them, and then she can go home with you.’
‘I haven’t got much,’ Zoe said. ‘It’s my books I’m worried about. She’s already destroyed one of my library books. The library staff were so nice about it but, if she destroys others…’
‘We’ll get your stuff,’ I reassured her, ‘and if anything’s happened to it in the meantime, we’ll replace it. Don’t worry.’
What was left of the evening passed in a blur. Griff wasn’t at the hostel and all Zoe’s belongings were thankfully still intact. Back at the flat, Zoe had a bath while Jed went to collect a takeaway. We ate at the dining table and it was good to see Zoe tucking in although hard to see her wincing in pain every so often.
Jed took the plates through to the kitchen and my heart melted when he returned with a birthday cake covered in lit candles which he must have picked up when he went out for the food. Seeing the astonished expression on Zoe’s face before she smiled widely, it took some effort to hold it together. After blowing out the candles, she said she hadn’t had a cake on her birthday since her granny died so Jed lit the candles for a second time and reminded her to make a special wish. She rolled her eyes at him but, considering the pause before she blew, I suspected she was making that wish.
Jed left shortly afterwards and I gave Zoe a pair of my pyjamas as, with her permission, I’d put her clothes through the washing machine. I made up a bed for her on the sofa while she went into the bathroom to change.
‘There’s a glass of water for you on the coffee table,’ I said, ‘and I’ve put a torch on there too. You might want it if you wake up in the night needing the loo. It’s pretty dark in here. Anything else you need?’
‘A bedtime story?’ she suggested, before laughing. ‘It’s okay. I’ll read my own.’
‘Okay. Happy reading and I hope you sleep well.’
‘Tara!’ she called as I moved away. ‘Thanks for doing this, especially when I’ve turned you down several times.’
‘It’s my pleasure. And I know that you saying no wasn’t personal. It just wasn’t right for you at the time.’
I left her to read, led Hercules to his crate, then settled into my own bed with a book. What an evening! I hoped the police had managed to find Griff and arrested her but at least I knew Zoe was safe here. Hopefully she’d be willing to stay longer than tonight.
Before I switched my light off, I looked over at my beautiful flowers in a vase on the dining table. It was just as well I’d decided to give it a few days before I composed that email to my parents as Zoe had just jumped up the list as my number one priority. Despite the terrible circumstances which had brought her to my door this evening, I felt a rush of excitement that she was here with me, safe, and willing to accept my help. Hopefully the next step would be accepting a job and making her first tentative steps towards her dream of working in a bookshop. It was horrendous what Griff had done to her and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy but Pollyanna’s approachwas to find a positive in even the darkest situation and the positive here was that Griff’s despicable behaviour could actually end up making the most incredible difference to Zoe’s life.
39
TARA
Jed and I would have spent Sunday together but we agreed it was best for me to stay home with Zoe. Jed took Aaron up to Newcastle to spend the day with Erin instead. Aaron and Lucy had spent a fair bit of time together with them sharing a house and he’d been conscious that Aaron and Erin hadn’t had the same bonding opportunity.
While Zoe slept, I spent the morning in my crafting space on the mezzanine level packaging up some Cobbly Crafter orders and needle felting.
‘How did you sleep?’ I asked when she joined me at lunchtime, still wearing pyjamas and with a blanket draped round her shoulders.
‘Best sleep in years,’ she said, rubbing her eyes. ‘I heard Hercules early on but I fell back asleep. It’s so quiet here. The hostel isn’t.’
She asked what I was doing so I told her about my passion for crafts and my online side business, showing her some examples of what I made.
‘What are these for?’ she asked, picking up a large bag of polystyrene craft balls.
‘They’re used for various crafts but I’ll be using them at The Friendship Pod Wednesday night. We’re making needle-felted sheep but needle felting isn’t a quick craft. Two hours is too tight for it, especially when the activity isn’t the main purpose of the session – the time to chat and make friends is. Those balls give us a way to cut corners. Instead of spending ages rolling up a ball of wool fibres and stabbing it all into place with one of these barbed needles, we take a ball and stab the fibres into that.’
There was a loose craft ball on my desk so I grabbed it along with some of the wool I’d been working with and demonstrated before passing her a ball I’d created purely from needle felting.
‘Big weight difference,’ I said as she held one in each of her hands, ‘but ultimately the same appearance. Some call it cheating but I see it as an alternative method. I rarely use the balls myself but I do recognise the value of using them to produce crafts quicker.’
