‘Well done, you – you did it, you went out and met someone new. That’s great. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t hit it off, it was your first date. I mean, no one really hits it off on a first date…’ Sophia trailed off and looked out of the window. ‘Only a select few at least. I think I’ll…’ She stood up. I looked at her away with her own thoughts. ‘I’m just going to get dressed.’ She stopped and rested her hand on my shoulder. ‘I’ll skip that tea. Everything okay with you, though?’
‘Yes, all good. Except…’
‘What?’
‘Well, I’ve got these concerns about the neighbour’s child. I think they are mistreating him.’
Sophia looked appalled. ‘Oh God, really, how?’
‘Well, I don’t know exactly. I just know he cries, like all the time.’
‘Really? I never hear it?’
‘I don’t know, maybe my ears are predisposed to it, so there’s the crying and I’ve noticed that they don’t let him outside, ever, and the couple argue loads, and I have seen the mum being a bit too physical with him, you know, grabbing him and pulling him back inside. I don’t know, something about it just doesn’t feel right.’
Sophia nodded. ‘Sure. I get it. What do you want to do?’
‘Well, I’m going to call social services this morning. Get someone to go over there and check it out.’
I saw a small frown form across Sophia’s forehead. She swallowed. ‘Social services, wow, okay. Well, if you think that’s best. Let me know how you get on.’ She patted my shoulder and left the room, I couldn’t help noticing with a slight hunch.
I left the house half an hour early so I could get to the café in the mews and order my favourite coffee.
It had been a while since I had been in there, and when I entered I couldn’t see any sign of Heather. I approached the counter and a young man with dark hair asked me if he could help me.
‘Erm, is er, Heather here?’
‘Umm.’ He looked confused for a second. ‘Oh, dark hair?’
‘Yes.’ I nodded at his vague description.
‘Oh, she left.’
‘What, for good?’
‘Yep, she left last week, gone home to…’ He scratched his head. ‘I dunno, somewhere.’
‘Oh.’ I felt myself deflate at the prospect at having to describe my exact coffee to this young man who wasn’t showing much promise at retaining information.
‘I’ll just take a bottle of water and a chocolate twist,’ I said glumly, already mourning the lost coffee.
I left the coffee house and collided with someone.
‘Oh God, I’m so sorry…’ I trailed off. ‘I…’
Instantly, I recognised the woman as my neighbour. The very woman I was about to contact social services over.
She stopped and looked at me, and there was a flash of recognition in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but then she walked on.
For a second afterward, I wanted to run after her and ask her if everything was okay, but I stopped myself. I had seen and heard too much already. Even the nicest-looking people could be abusive, and I knew I couldn’t take any chances.
I arrived at college just after 9 a.m. for my seminar at ten. I knew I needed to make the call, and so I took my phone out of my bag and hit the phone icon from the website and waited to be connected.
I sat on the grass ten minutes later feeling slightly bereft and wondering if I had done the right thing.
‘Hello, Regi, fancy seeing you here.’ Will stood over me, and I shaded my eyes from the sun. I realised as I looked around, I was in the spot we had first sat in together.
‘How are you?’
I felt a simmering in my gut, I couldn’t stop thinking about the phone call I had just made to social services. It felt like a huge thing, and I needed time to process that. And now Will had arrived, looking rugged with his shiny, bright eyes.
He got himself settled just to the right of me; not directly in my eyeline, nor directly beside me.
‘I’ve got no lessons to teach until eleven, so I thought I’d come in and get ahead of myself. How about you?’
‘I… I…’ I was thinking about my breath and how I needed to calm myself down. I settled for, ‘Me too.’
‘It’s a gorgeous day, isn’t it? We’ve been really lucky with the weather.’ The sun was behind me and Will smiled at me with a slight squint. I wondered if I should move. ‘Did you manage to sign up for the exhibition?’
‘Yes, I did.’ I felt the tightness in my chest evaporate slightly. ‘I signed up the other day – I’m really looking forward to it.’ I thought about the photos on my phone and the notebook I had been filling with ideas and I realised I really was looking forward to getting stuck into a project.
‘Great, you can stay behind after hours if you like – they are keeping the art rooms open until ten from now onwards.’
‘Oh right.’ I thought about all that space and time to create, away from the hustle and bustle of normal college hours. It sounded idyllic. ‘That would be great, actually. I could start tomorrow.’
‘Yeah, do it – make the most of the space and time.’
‘Yeah, I think I might.’
‘Hey, listen, I’m going to shoot because I was going to give myself a bit of extra time to prepare for this lesson.’ Will stood up. ‘Take care, Regi, and I’ll see you soon, yeah?’ He lifted his hand in a small wave.
I was expecting him to talk about a drink again, but he didn’t. I wondered why he didn’t. But then I thought it didn’t matter because all the while Will had been talking, I hadn’t thought about breathing. My chest felt lighter, and for a few glorious minutes, everything had felt… normal.
21
Now
Back at the house that evening I began to sense an
