by M K Farrar
“I’m sure it was an accident. Let’s get inside so I can get some food on. I don’t know about the both of you, but I’m starving.”
That was a lie. Her appetite had completely fled at the sight of the broken pots, but she needed to feed Ollie and Haiden.
“How does spaghetti bolognaise sound?”
She felt bad she was feeding them yet more pasta, but she’d found a packet of reduced mince in the discount aisle in the supermarket and could rustle up a fairly decent spag bol out of that and some basic canned tomatoes and a couple of other simple ingredients.
“Sounds great to me,” Haiden said, giving her a smile, and something relaxed inside her.
“Spaghetti, yummy!” declared Ollie.
She laughed and pushed the front door shut behind them, closing herself off from the view of the mess outside. She’d need to clear them away so Ollie didn’t go cutting himself on them, but she couldn’t handle doing that now.
Instead, she went into the kitchen and busied herself with getting dinner started. The after-school club always gave Ollie a snack, but he was still ravenous by the time they got home. She wished she was able to pick him up at three-thirty and bring him home for dinner, just like a lot of the other mums did, but she needed to work. She could hear him now, making superhero fighting noises with his toys as he played in the living room.
Within minutes, she had the water boiling for the pasta, and the mince browning off in a pan. She’d throw in some onions, garlic, and celery, and then some tinned tomatoes and a stock cube for some extra flavour. It was a good, healthy meal and one she could rely on Ollie to eat heartily with no complaints.
She sensed someone behind her and glanced over her shoulder to find Haiden leaning against the kitchen doorframe.
“Oh, hi. I didn’t know you were there. Can I get you a drink or something?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks.” He straightened. “Please, tell me if I’m stepping out of line, but I’d like to go and clear up the mess while you’re making dinner.”
“I can’t ask you to do that. You’re a guest.”
He shrugged. “I’m happy to do it. I’d rather help out than sit around feeling useless.”
“You must have schoolwork to do.”
“Nothing that won’t wait until after dinner.”
She exhaled a sigh of gratitude. “Thank you.” She fished around under the sink for a dustpan and brush, and a carrier bag for him to put the broken ceramic in. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he said, flashing a set of white teeth.
She’d forgotten how good it felt to have someone else around to help with things. She’d been so used to doing everything on her own that she’d just accepted that was the way it was going to be. She watched his broad shoulders as he left the room, carrying the pan and carrier bag, and then turned back to the meal she was making. The sound of scraping and tinkling of broken porcelain filtered through to her from outside.
She didn’t know who had broken the pots, but she could make some reasonable guesses. The worst part was that she wasn’t going to be able to replace them any time soon. There was no way she could afford the extra money, though hopefully that would change over the next few weeks when the money from hosting would start to trickle in. There were more important things she needed to buy before worrying about pot plants, though, such as new clothes for Ollie, but hopefully she’d be able to siphon a little off to replace the pots eventually.
With the pasta and sauce ready, she dished it up into bowls, making sure Haiden and Ollie had the bigger portions. Haiden came in from outside and went to the sink to wash his hands.
“You have no idea who might have broken the pots, then?” he asked as she placed the bowls, together with knives and forks, on the small kitchen table.
“No, not really. I expect it was kids messing around. Maybe they kicked a football into the garden and knocked them down, and then grabbed the ball and ran off, not wanting to get in trouble.”
“Hmm, maybe,” he replied.
The pots hadn’t looked like they’d just been knocked over, though. She thought to how angry Rachelle had been earlier, and also Stephen’s reaction at finding Haiden here on Sunday morning. Would either of them stoop to something like that? Stephen had broken plenty of things when they were together and had been fighting. He’d put holes in the walls, and smashed picture frames, and had even ripped up a book she’d been reading when he’d wanted to get her attention. Maybe he’d come to try to see her, but when he discovered she wasn’t in, he’d broken the pots in frustration, though she would have thought he’d have known she’d be at work. She should probably call him and demand he tell her the truth about it, but her stomach shrivelled at the thought of having to make any kind of contact with him that didn’t involve arranging visiting times for Ollie.
“Thank you for cleaning up the mess, though,” she told Haiden. “I really do appreciate it.”
He flashed her that perfect white smile again. “No problem.”
She called Ollie to the table, and they sat down to eat. Ollie wolfed down the first half of his meal then proceeded to talk non-stop at them both, telling them about every little thing that had happened at school, though he missed out the part about Felix biting him. Haiden joined in where he could, dropping in comments like ‘wow’ and ‘no way’ whenever Ollie took a breath long enough to allow anyone else to get a word in. Haiden had been right when he’d said he hadn’t been a boy long ago either. He seemed to fit in easily around Ollie, and Ollie had warmed to him quickly.
A little ball of happiness swelled inside her at their company. Even though she knew it wasn’t a permanent thing, it felt good to break up the monotony of it being just the two of them.
She tried not to let the image of the broken pots, Stephen’s anger yesterday, or the teeth marks on Ollie’s shoulder spoil her mood.
Chapter Nine
That evening, she sat on the closed lid of the toilet seat while Ollie took his bath. He played happily with the plastic bath toys, tipping liquid soaps and shampoos into various tubs and mixing them together to make potions. Each time she caught sight of the crescent moons of teeth marks in his shoulder, anger flashed bright through her.
This wasn’t the first time Felix Hurst had been involved in something like this, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. He was known for picking on the other kids—especially ones smaller than he was. He’d shoved Ollie down the hill at school the term before, though he’d insisted it had been an accident when he’d been trying to get past, and Ollie had reluctantly agreed.
She was convinced if Felix had anyone else as a mother, things would have been dealt with far more strictly by now. Rachelle had far too much control over things at school. It wasn’t as though she was any kind of governing official who’d been voted into her position. She was just another mother who had muscled her way into a job that no one else even wanted, and then used that job to intimidate and bully other parents. The problem was that she got the job done, and she raised critically needed funding for the school. With government budget cuts, teachers were struggling to have the most basic of provisions in class. The kids barely had glue sticks and colouring pens, never mind the bigger stuff like tablets and laptops for IT. Whatever she might think of Rachelle and her son, she did a good job of raising money to keep the classrooms supplied with those kinds of things, and no one wanted to upset her enough to make her no longer want to help.
Still, those teeth marks in Ollie’s shoulder stirred a pot of anger inside Kristen.
She felt like biting Felix herself, so the kid knew exactly what it felt like. She didn’t think he’d go around biting any more smaller kids if he knew someone bigger was going to come along and dish back to him exactly what he served out.
Immediately, she experienced a pang of remorse at the thought. She was an adult. A mother who worked at a school. She couldn’t be thinking such things about one of the pupils. The boy was only six years old—almost
seven—after all. He was still only a small child. No, the people she needed to be angry with were Rachelle and the headteacher—both for not coming down on Felix hard enough. They were all treating him as though he was just making mistakes, not being violent and assaulting another child. It was one thing his doing this kind of thing when he was six years old, but what would happen in a few years when he went to secondary school, and he got bigger and stronger? If someone didn’t teach him right from wrong, he was going to end up in real trouble, and maybe even causing another person some permanent harm. They weren’t doing the boy any favours by pandering to him.
“Ready to get out now, kiddo?” she said to Ollie when he’d been in the bath long enough. “You’re turning into a prune.”
Ollie laughed and held up his wrinkly fingers, and she pulled out the plug. Taking a towel off the rack, she half wrapped him in it and lifted him out of the bath. He was getting big now, and someday soon he’d be too heavy for her to be able to do this.
“Come on. Let’s get you into some pyjamas.”
She steered him out of the bathroom and towards his bedroom. They met Haiden on the landing as he was coming up the stairs, and she saw the student’s gaze land on Ollie’s shoulder, where it had become uncovered by the towel. He frowned slightly, and the idea that he might think she was responsible for the mark jolted through her.
“He got into a fight with an older boy at school,” she explained quickly. “The boy bit him.”
The lines in Haiden’s forehead furrowed. “A boy bit him? Children shouldn’t be treating each other like that at school.”
She gave a tight smile. “That’s what I said, too. The other mother wasn’t happy with me, though. She thinks I’m over-protective, and that Ollie over-reacted.”
Haiden gestured to the mark. “That clearly wasn’t the case. You should always stand up for your son.”
Warmth blossomed within her. It was nice to have someone around she could bounce things off, and not feel that she had to silently turn everything over in her head all evening.
“Thanks. I agree.” She turned her attention to her son. “Come on, Ollie. PJs and then bed.”
She stifled a yawn at the suggestion of bed. It had been a long day, and she didn’t think she’d be far behind his bedtime either.
KRISTEN JERKED AWAKE, her heart racing.
Someone was in the room with her. Ollie?
She stared into the darkness, the only light the red glow from the LED clock. Pushing herself to sitting, she gasped. A male figure was standing at the end of her bed.
“Haiden?” She kept her voice low, just a hissed whisper, not wanting to wake Ollie—who was apparently still sleeping in his own bedroom. “What are you doing? What’s wrong?”
But he didn’t respond, and instead remained standing in the same position, looking down at her on the bed. His chest was bare, and all he wore was a pair of boxer shorts. She gathered the duvet around her, huddling the sheets closer to her chest. Did he know what he was doing? He must be sleepwalking. She’d found Ollie sleepwalking on a number of occasions, more often than not lurking around in the hallway after trying to find the toilet, but he’d always been at least a little responsive, answering her questions, even if the answers didn’t always make sense.
It was eerie seeing Haiden like this, just standing there, staring down at her. Cold prickles of goose bumps rose across her arms, even though she was still snug in bed. She couldn’t just leave him there. She was going to need to try to get him back to bed.
A fresh trickle of worry went through her. He was over six feet tall, and if he put up some kind of a fight and didn’t know what he was doing, he might accidentally hurt her. She’d hate for that to happen, especially if it woke Ollie, and he was to find her, and then try to deal with Haiden.
No, she was overthinking things. The man was just asleep. There was no reason to think he’d hurt her in any way.
She was glad she’d started wearing a little more to bed now that she had Haiden living with them. Previously, she would have just slept in an old t-shirt and knickers, but she’d taken to wearing a pair of jersey shorts as well. Not that she thought Haiden would have any idea what she was wearing right now—he didn’t even seem to know where he was.
Kristen threw back the bedcovers and climbed out of bed, all the instructions she’d heard over the years about how to deal with sleepwalkers running through her head. It was important not to startle him or try to wake him; she remembered that much, at least. She just needed to gently coax him back to bed.
“Haiden?” she said again, keeping her voice soft. “You’re in the wrong room. Shall we get you back to bed now?”
He still didn’t respond, so she reached out and touched his arm.
That got his attention. His head jerked towards her, and she gasped and stepped back. It was the suddenness of the movement that had made her jump. He was still staring at her, but she had the feeling he wasn’t seeing her at all. Kristen let out a shaky breath. She didn’t know why this was freaking her out so badly. It was only Haiden.
She tried again, putting on the cheerful singsong voice she used when she was trying to coax Ollie back to bed. “Come on, Haiden. Let’s get you back to bed.”
Something had got through to him, as he finally took a step.
“That’s right. This way.” She shuffled backwards, not wanting to turn her back on him. She was tempted to take his hand to try to lead him, but she didn’t want to touch him.
He kept coming, however, and she was able to exhale a sigh of relief as she guided him down the hallway and to the spare room that was now his bedroom. She stood out of the way as he pushed past her and got back into bed, curling up on his side.
Cautiously, she reached over and pulled up the duvet, covering his bare shoulders. She remained standing over him—their positions reversed—watching and waiting to make sure he wasn’t going to get out of bed again. But his breathing had slowed, his shoulders gently rising and falling, and she was sure he was fully asleep once more.
She backed out of the room and gently closed the door behind her.
Well, that had been weird.
She went back to her bed and climbed back into the spot she’d vacated, the mattress and blankets still warm. It was quarter past three now, and her heart was still racing from the strange experience. She wasn’t sure she was going to get back to sleep again, and she dreaded the thought of the next day and trying to function at work.
Was Haiden a chronic sleepwalker? She felt sure it was something that should have been mentioned to her. Though she felt kind of awkward about it, she was going to have to bring it up with him in the morning. She needed to know if this was going to be a regular occurrence—not that she could do much about it, of course. She dreaded the idea of lying awake every night, anticipating the creak of the landing floorboards as a heavy male foot pressed down on them. Him coming into her bedroom, rather than anywhere else in the house, was strange, too. Had his subconscious told him to come in here for some reason? She guessed it was better than him having gone into Ollie’s room. It would have frightened the little boy, and at least she was better equipped to deal with it.
Tossing and turning, she willed her mind to shut off, but now she was worrying about Ollie and the incident at school with Felix. That wasn’t something that was just going to go away either. Unless they had the good fortune of Rachelle moving to a different area, and Felix changing schools, they were going to be spending every day together for the next five years. And she didn’t want to change schools either. They were really lucky to be in the catchment area they were in. Despite her being pregnant when they’d bought the house, she and Stephen hadn’t even considered school in the local area because that had all felt so far away. It was sheer luck that meant Ollie automatically got to go to a lovely little school on the outskirts of town. Plus, her job was there, and they were able to walk every day.
Having to change schools just because of one bully didn’t seem fai
r at all.
Chapter Ten
The following morning, she was foggy-headed due to lack of sleep, barely focusing as she set out the cereal and milk for breakfast. She’d tossed and turned for a good hour and had last seen the clock at five a.m. before she’d eventually got back to sleep. Then, before she felt like she’d slept at all, her alarm went off at seven.
That had definitely not been a good night’s sleep, and she hoped Haiden wasn’t going to make a habit of sleepwalking. It was hard enough having a five-year-old who liked to creep into her bed in the middle of the night, without worrying about a grown man. The whole point of having an adult here instead of a child was that she hadn’t wanted to worry about the responsibility of looking after them.
Ollie emerged into the kitchen, all tousled hair and sleepy eyes, still wearing his batman pyjamas.
“Good morning, kiddo,” she said, trying to make her voice bright so he couldn’t see how tired she was. She didn’t want him to worry. “Sleep well?”
“Uh-huh,” he replied, automatically walking up to her so she could give him a hug, pressing him to her body and kissing the top of his head. He might have lost that wonderful baby smell a long time ago, but she still loved how he smelled after he’d been sleeping.
“Good.” She released him. “Now go and sit down, and help yourself to some cereal, and I’ll put some toast on for you.”
“Will you pour the milk?”
“Of course, I will.”
She put the bread in the toaster and set about finishing making her tea, and she made a cup for Haiden as well. She was going to have to mainline caffeine today if she was going to make it through. Creaking from upstairs, and the sound of the toilet flushing, let her know that her houseguest was up. She poured the milk onto Ollie’s chocolate hoops and added some to the brewing tea as well.