Gift of a Family. Sarah Morgan

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       CHAPTER THREE

      KAT paid the babysitter and then tiptoed upstairs and peeped round the door of the bedroom.

      ‘You can come in,’ a sleepy voice said from the bed. ‘I’m not asleep.’

      She slid inside and sat on the bed, wincing as she sat on a plastic boat. ‘Well you should be asleep, young man!’ She moved the boat and added it to the pile of toys in the box by the bed. ‘It’s really late.’

      ‘I wanted to stay awake until you came home.’

      She winced, wrestling with the guilt that went hand in hand with single motherhood and the need to earn a living. ‘I got held up at the hospital.’

      ‘Lots of people having accidents.’ He nodded wisely. ‘Did you fix them?’

      She smiled at the question. ‘I did my best. How was your day at summer camp? Did you meet anyone nice?’

      Because it was the summer holidays she’d been forced to find Archie somewhere to go during the week, and fortunately she’d found a wonderful children’s ‘camp’ run by a team of teachers from the local primary school. Given that Archie would be attending the same school from September, it had seemed like an ideal solution.

      ‘I did magic.’

      ‘What sort of magic?’ Unable to resist touching him, she smoothed his hair gently, thinking that in the dark like this, snuggled in pyjamas covered in boats, he still seemed like her baby. But she knew he was growing up very fast and she was making the most of every single moment. ‘How did you get to be six? Tell me that. Last time I looked you were still a baby.’

      ‘Magic.’ Archie looked at her, his eyes huge. ‘Did you know that I can make myself invisible whenever I want to?’

      ‘Really?’ Kat looked impressed. ‘Wow, I bet that’s really useful.’

      He nodded. ‘I did it today in camp. Twice.’

      She lifted a hand to free her hair and it tumbled in waves over her shoulders. There was a frown in her eyes as she listened to him. ‘Are you having problems making friends, sweetheart?’ She’d worried like mad about uprooting him but Archie was such a friendly child she’d assured herself that he’d soon settle in. ‘Who did you eat lunch with?’

      ‘A boy called Thomas.’ Archie sighed. ‘He turned me into a chatterbox.’

      Knowing that her son never stopped talking, Kat hid the smile. ‘How did he do that?’

      ‘Well, he kept talking to me so I had to talk back instead of listening to the captain.’

      Kat smiled. The summer camp was run along the lines of a ship with a ‘captain’ and ‘mates’. They were obviously very creative.

      ‘And did the “captain” tell you off?’

      Archie shook her head. ‘Not once I explained I’m not normally a chatterbox. Anyway…’ he stifled a yawn ‘…camp is different to school. No one tells you off. It’s cool.’