‘It did. Survived it.’
She made the sound of a small laugh in her throat but kept her mouth closed.
‘And what about your week? … Was it OK … too?’ I said.
She frowned slightly, thinking.
‘Survived it,’ she said.
‘Good,’ I said. ‘We’ll just have to survive next week too.’
‘And the week after that,’ she said.
‘Andthe one after that.’
‘And the year will be over before we know it,’ she said. ‘And it’ll be a better year. I really think … I really think I’ll be better.’
I heard myself make the sound of a laugh in my throat, just like her.
‘I’d better let you keep revising for another wee while and then call it a night, OK?’ she said.
‘OK.’
As she was about to close the door she stopped and half turned back.
‘I straightened it this morning,’ she said. ‘My hair. Maybe that’s what’s different.’
‘That must be what it is,’ I said.
Then she closed the door.
28
‘King. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K …’
‘Kyah!’ said Ronan.
‘K. Great,’ said Mr McCoy, sitting in front of his son and smiling over at me enthusiastically as I stood, open mouthed, in the doorway. ‘A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I …’
‘Eye-ah,’ said Ronan.
‘I. Great. A, B, C …’
Mr McCoy continued until Ronan had vocalised each letter of the word ‘king’.
‘He’s speaking!’ I said. ‘Ronan! You’re speaking!’
He began to laugh, almost smugly.
‘Out of the blue,’ said Mrs McCoy, standing behind me, ‘he was making a lot of sounds over the weekend, different sounds he hadn’t made before, but it was only yesterday with the tutor that he started articulating.’
‘She ended up staying an extra hour just to make sure she wasn’t imagining things,’ said Mr McCoy.
‘Said she’s never seen anything like it, that she’s going to have to move a lot faster to keep up with him,’ said Mrs McCoy, laughing.
‘That’s unbelievable,’ I said. ‘Making everyone keep up with you as usual, Ronan.’
‘And we told the tutor how Buddy Time had been going and, hands up, that was our mistake, Brendan,’ said Mrs McCoy. ‘We thought it would be a good thing for you to do the vocabulary stuff but the tutor said it’s best if it’s you two simply spending time together as friends and nothing else.’
