Cath Staincliffe - Towers of Silence

“Well, it doesn’t usually, not in Manchester. It’s not cold enough.”

“It always has snow in pictures.”

“Yes. Like it’s always sunny in the summer.”

She sat upright and narrowed her eyes. “But it is.”

“Do you think so?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

Can’t be bad, a child who remembers all her summers like that.

“Are you going to make any New Year’s Revolutions?”

I laughed. “Resolutions.”

“What are they?”

“Things you want to do, things you want to change.”

“What like?”

“Well, some people stop smoking or start going to the gym.”

“What can I do?”

“You don’t have to do anything.”

“If I wanted to, though?”

“Okay. What would you like to do next year that you haven’t done this year?”

“Get a kitten?”

I raised my eyebrows, kittens aren’t an option.

“I don’t know really,” she said. “Are you doing any?”

I considered the question.

“Oh!” She flew off the swing and darted into the house and returned a couple of minutes later with an envelope. “I did this.” She thrust it at me. It said Mummy on the front in a big red heart.

Inside was a green card with a cotton wool snowman and a red robin stuck on the front. Inside Maddie had drawn a picture of our house with a face at each window, all smiling. “There’s you and Tom, “ I said. “That’s Ray with the ‘tache and beard. Is that Laura?”

“Yes, and Digger,” she pointed.

“And that’s me.”

“Your nose is a bit big but it went wrong there.”

She had written Happy Christmas and New Year . The rest of the card was covered with kisses and I love yous.

“That is lovely, come here.”

She screwed up her nose anticipating a kiss. I gave her one and a hug. “And I love you, you know.”

She nodded and returned to the swing.

“Would you, then? Make a resolution?” She swung up her toes pointing skyward, hair falling towards the ground behind her.

“I don’t think so. I like things pretty much as they are. Maybe my resolution will be to remember that more often.”

She gave a grunt which signalled I was talking rubbish again and swung higher. I watched her for a while, drinking in the sight. When she slowed and stopped I walked over to her. “Come on then,” I said. “My turn. Give us a push.”

I watched the tree rock above me and the warm lighted windows of the house dip in and out of view, and felt Maddie’s small hands press on my back and her giggles ring round the garden. And I swung higher and higher.

Cath Staincliffeis an established novelist, radio playwright and creator of ITV’s hit series, Blue Murder , starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis. Cath was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Best First Novel award for her acclaimed Sal Kilkenny series, and for the Dagger in the Library award in 2006. Her latest stand-alone novels all focus on topical moral dilemmas. She was joint winner of the CWA Short Story Dagger award in 2012 for Laptop . She is a founding member of Murder Squad, a group who promote crime fiction.

www.cathstaincliffe.co.uk