Broken: A traumatised girl. Her troubled brother. Their shocking secret.. Rosie Lewis
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Название: Broken: A traumatised girl. Her troubled brother. Their shocking secret.
Автор: Rosie Lewis
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Биографии и Мемуары
isbn: 9780008242817
isbn:
About twenty minutes later she climbed, rosy cheeked, through the net and pulled Archie by the hand to the house. ‘She wants to show me how to draw a cloptikler,’ he said with a wry smile as they came into the house.
‘Oh, brilliant!’ I mouthed a thank you over the top of Megan’s head. He gave me a slow eye roll and shook his head, the sort of reaction I’d expect from someone much older. I tried to remember being nine years old. Shy and home-loving, I knew I wouldn’t have coped with such a momentous move the way Archie seemed to have done.
I realised then what Joan had meant when she said that Archie was an unknown quantity. Was it possible that he possessed enough resilience to cope with what the last few days had thrown at him, without the tiniest crack in his composure? As I stood at the sink washing up, my eyes drifted back to the trampoline at the end of the garden. Bobbi was still there but her movements had slowed. She was bouncing lethargically, without the faintest glimmer of enjoyment on her face. All alone, she looked completely bereft.
Abandoning the saucepan I was holding, I was about to go outside and talk to her when Megan shot past me, back into the garden. ‘Bobbi, we’re back!’ she yelled, running towards the trampoline with her arms in the air, jazz hands shimmying all the way. Bobbi’s expression brightened. She ran over and parted the net for Megan to pass through, and the pair stood grinning at each other.
‘Here we go again,’ Archie said, trudging past me. I laughed, but again I was struck by the sense that his words mismatched his age. It was as if he were acting a role, one he didn’t have much heart to play.
‘Archie, just a second. I thought I might sort your clothes out now. Are you happy for me to go through your suitcase? Or would you prefer to do it yourself?’
He shrugged. ‘Not really. You can do it. Not my rucksack though, I can do that.’ He went to the door but then stopped and turned. ‘Thank you, Rosie.’
A slow shiver ran across the back of my neck as I watched him walk down the path. I took to mashing the boiled potatoes, trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling away. I puzzled over my reaction. I couldn’t quite fathom why his apparent maturity should make me feel so uncomfortable.
His sister’s struggles were clear to see. Bobbi was in ‘flight’ mode, so that she literally couldn’t keep still. I told myself that, being that bit older, Archie had perhaps managed to devise better coping strategies in dealing with the stress.
At a little after half past four, when I put the cottage pie in the oven, there was still no sign of their play fizzling out. I decided to make the most of the time by sorting through their clothes to see if anything needed to be washed. When children arrive in placement I usually wash most of their clothes straight away, only holding a few items back to retain the comforting smell of their home. I carried their suitcases into the kitchen and set them down in front of the washing machine, but when I opened them up, the fresh scent of washing powder rose to greet me. Joan had washed everything. It was a lovely, welcome surprise.
I watched the children from the upstairs window as I put everything away in their room. They were still playing happily and I began to feel quietly confident that the placement would be manageable, and that everything was going to work out just fine.
‘But I’m still hungry-y-y-y, Rosie,’ Bobbi whined an hour later, after making short shrift of two helpings of cottage pie. I could tell she was full because her voracious gorging had slowed to a sort of lethargic nibble, but she didn’t seem able to admit to herself that she had had enough. ‘I am, I am, you know, Rosie.’
‘There’s plenty of food on its way to your tummy,’ I said cheerfully from across the table. ‘You need to give it a chance to go down.’
Reluctant to concede defeat, she was still sitting at the table five minutes later as I rinsed the plates under the tap in the kitchen. Crouched on her haunches on the chair with her knees touching her chest, she kept dropping her head to the table and making loud groaning noises. ‘Give it a rest, Bobs, you’re doing our heads in!’ Archie shouted from the other side of the room. He was sitting on the floor with a mixed box of Lego and Duplo in front of him. Megan was sitting on the other side of the box, Mungo resting his chin on her leg.
I squirted some washing-up liquid into the sink and turned the hot tap on, vaguely aware though my back was turned of Archie’s approach. ‘Come on, Bobs,’ I heard him say cajolingly. ‘Come and play.’ The yelp came seconds later. I spun around and saw Archie cradling one of his hands in the other, his face contorted with pain. Behind him, Bobbi was looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
‘What happened?’ I looked from one to the other. Across the room, Megan wrapped her arms around Mungo’s neck, looking startled.
‘Nothing. S’okay,’ Archie mumbled, though his cheeks were chalky white.
I strode over and drew his forearm towards me. A row of small, angry looking welts had bubbled up across the back of his hand. ‘Oh goodness, Archie, she bit you! That must really have hurt.’
‘It’s nothing,’ he snapped, snatching his hand away. ‘It’s okay, Rosie, don’t worry,’ he added as he walked back across the room, his polite tone recovered. My gaze fell disapprovingly on Bobbi. She stared up at me, a trace of the gloating smile still on her lips.
‘We don’t bite in this house, Bobbi,’ I said firmly. I pulled out a chair and sat next to her. She sprang frog-like onto the next chair. ‘Did you hear me, Bobbi? We use our mouths for eating food, not biting people. Now, would you like to play Lego with the others? Or you could help me with the washing-up.’
‘But I’m so hungry-y-y-y,’ she moaned, banging her head down on the table again.
I winced. ‘Bobbi, do you know what? I don’t think you are hungry right now. I think you’re worried that you might feel hungry later.’ She stilled and turned her head to the side so that one ear rested on the table, the other pointed upwards. ‘I wonder if that might be because there wasn’t always enough food for you at home,’ I added softly.
She lifted her head and looked at me. I leaned closer, my head level with hers. ‘It’s good to know they’ll always be enough food for you at Rosie’s house, isn’t it?’
She frowned, her fair eyebrows knitting together. After a moment she nodded, her mouth offering the faint glimmer of a smile. I stood up and held out my hand. ‘Great! Now, how about we go and play with that Lego?’
At that moment, Megan charged across the room. ‘Mummy!’ she shouted, breathless with enthusiasm. ‘We need to put our pictures up in our rooms. Can I have some of that sticky stuff?’
Having used the prospect of playing Lego to tempt Bobbi away from the table, I hesitated for a moment. Thankfully, Megan’s excitement seemed to be infectious. ‘Can I as well?’ Bobbi asked, her eyes brightening as she looked at Megan. Mungo wagged his tail excitedly, though I noticed that he was keeping his distance, staying a few feet away. Archie crouched next to him and stroked his head.
‘Of course you can.’ I gave them each some Blu Tack and followed them upstairs. ‘Stay in your own rooms!’ I called out from the bathroom. ‘I’ll be out in a minute.’
‘We will, Mummy!’ Megan СКАЧАТЬ