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She’d been quiet in the car on the school run this morning, Instagramming all her friends with a dramatic picture of the hole in her parents’ bedroom ceiling. He had no idea what she was saying but could see several rows of smiley, scowly, frowny and other emoticons.
Then a thought struck him hard. They’d taken Jade to a child psychologist back then. The woman had put her night terrors and sleepwalking down to her fears at starting at her new school, and predicted they would stop when she settled in and started making friends. The psychologist had been right, that was exactly what happened.
Now Jade was in her early days at another school.
Was the pattern repeating itself?
It made sense.
A flash alert for an incoming email from Chris Webb caught his eye, distracting him, and he opened it.
No luck with that old boy with the pipe, I’m afraid. I went on a Photos forum to see what I could find there – it seems that what usually happens is that photographs get misfiled – but they don’t disappear completely. Not like your chap has. Don’t know what to suggest. You sure he wasn’t a ghost?
25
Wednesday, 16 September
‘Dad, can I invite Charlie as well as Niamh to my birthday party? We will still have it, won’t we?’
Pulling the Range Rover away from traffic lights, after he had collected her from school, Ollie reached out and squeezed Jade’s arm, lightly. ‘Of course we’ll still have the party, my lovely.’ Then he shot her a glance. ‘Charlie – who’s that?’
‘My friend,’ she said, very matter-of-factly. ‘She’s nice.’
‘A new friend?’
She nodded and looked down at her phone, her fingers moving rapidly on the keys.
He was pleased that she looked a lot happier this afternoon. In fact it was the first time in the ten days since she had started at St Paul’s that she seemed like her old self. ‘Is she at school with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, that’s great. Of course she can come to your party. You can invite anyone else you like from the school, too.’
‘There might be two other girls,’ she said, then looked solemn. ‘But I’m not sure if I really like them, yet.’
‘Well, you’ve got time, over a week still.’
She was focused again on her phone and barely nodded acknowledgement. Then after a few moments she said, ‘Charlie’s mum works for a vet.’
‘OK.’
‘Her mum knows a labradoodle breeder – and can you believe it, Dad? They’re expecting a litter next week. Can we go and see them, can we? A puppy could be my birthday present, couldn’t it?’
‘I thought you wanted a new iPad?’
‘Well, I do, but I’d rather have a puppy, and you said we could have one.’
‘How do you think Bombay and Sapphire would get on with a puppy?’
‘I’ve been reading about it, Dad. I know exactly what to do.’
Ollie smiled. He believed her. When she was eight, Jade had had two gerbils and she had doted on them, keeping their cage immaculate. She had even trained them to go through a mini gymnastics course she had set up on her bedroom floor, and she and her closest friend, Phoebe, had invented gymnastic awards which they’d presented so seriously to them.
Jade had also trained them, much to his and Caro’s amusement, to come downstairs on their own. She explained, in the very serious ma
‘OK,’ he said. ‘Your mother and I will need to work out some time when we can go to see them – isn’t there another breeder having a litter also?’
‘Yes, but that’s not for ages.’
‘I thought you said it would be in about a month?’
‘I did, Dad. That’s what I mean, ages.’
Ollie was kept hanging on by Cholmondley. He half wondered if it was deliberate, and the pompous little man was paying him back for not returning his calls this morning.
After several minutes he laid the receiver on the desk, leaving it on loudspeaker, and began to check his emails. The first was from his regular te
So did you unpack your te
He’d had a weekly game with Kaplan at the Falmer Sports Centre, on the University of Sussex campus, for the past ten years or so.
Prepare for a thrashing
Ollie typed back.
In your dreams!
came the reply. It was followed immediately by another email from him.
Btw, check out a guy called Dr Nick Vaughan in Queensland, Oz, doing interesting research work in macular degeneration. Might be interesting for your mother. B.
Ollie replied, thanking him. His mother had recently been diagnosed with early-stage macular degeneration, but whether she – or his father – would take any notice of anything he sent them, he doubted. They were far too conservative in their views. Their doctor was always right, so far as they were concerned; they weren’t interested in anyone else’s opinion.
They weren’t interested in the new house, either, and that made him sad. He would love them to come down and see the house, and see how well he had done in life, but he doubted they ever would. Before moving in he’d suggested his parents should come for a visit. ‘Too long a journey,’ his father had replied, bluntly. ‘And your mother can’t really travel now, not with her eyesight.’
She had never travelled when her eyesight had been perfect, either. Neither of them had, although they could have afforded to. His father had earned a decent living as the works manager of an engineering plant and his mother had been a primary school teacher. Instead, every summer throughout his childhood, for their a
Their parents might not have travelled but their children had. Janis was in Christchurch, New Zealand, married with four children, and Bill was in Los Angeles, living with his boyfriend, and working as a set designer. It had been a couple of years since he had seen either of his siblings, there was quite an age difference between each of them; none of them had been close. That cold and distant relationship he’d always had with his parents was a big part of the reason he tried to keep a closeness with Jade.
Despite his misgivings, he typed out an email to them both with a link to Dr Nick Vaughan’s website, and sent it. They wouldn’t take any notice, but it was duty done.
Then the pe
O’Hare.
‘Hello? Hello? HELLO?’ A disembodied voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Then he realized with a start it was coming from the phone receiver.