When Will There Be Good News?

by Kate Atkinson

  But then she stirred in her sleep and for a moment he was so choked he could hardly speak. Then he found his voice and stuck his hand in the air and shouted louder than he’d ever shouted in his life, or would ever shout again, “Over here, I’ve found her, she’s over here!”

  And he lifted her up and held her as if she might break, as if she were the most precious, miraculous, astonishing child ever to walk the earth, and to the first person who reached them, a police constable, he said, “Look at that, not a scratch on her.”

  And Scout

  was the name of their dog. “I couldn’t remember for the longest time,” she said. She put both hands over her heart, like bird wings, as if she were trying to keep something inside her chest. “Scout,” she said to Reggie. “He was such a good dog.”

  “Totally, Dr. H.,” Reggie said. “Totally.”

  “Bow-wow-wow, whose dog art thou?” she said to Sadie, and to the baby she said, “A carrion crow sat on an oak, sing heigh ho, the carrion crow, fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho,” and to Reggie she said,

  “A little cock sparrow

  Sat on a tree,

  Looking as happy

  As happy could be,

  Till a boy came by

  With his bow and arrow,

  Says he, ‘I will shoot

  The little cock sparrow.

  His body will make me

  A nice little stew,

  And his giblets will make me

  A little pie too.’ ”

  And Reggie said,

  “Says the little cock sparrow,

  ‘I’ll be shot if I stay,’

  So he clapped his wings

  And then flew away.”

  And they both clapped their hands and the baby laughed and clapped his hands too.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks are due to the following for their assistance and information (I’m sorry if any of it came out wrong once I got my hands on it):

  Martin Auld, Malcolm Dickson (Assistant Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland), Russell Equi, Detective Superintendent Malcolm Graham (Lothian and Borders Police Service), my cousin Major Michael Keech, Dr. Doug Lyle, Detective Superintendent Craig Naylor (Lothian and Borders Police Service), Bradley Rose, Detective Superintendent Eddie Thompson (Metropolitan Police Service), Dr. Anthony Toft, and, last but not least, my cousin Timothy Edwards for the title.

  I have played a little fast and loose with the geography of Wensleydale and also that of Southwest Edinburgh. Apologies — artistic license and so on. I have never seen a horse in Midmar field, but that doesn’t mean that there will never be one.