Janina Matthewson - Of Things Gone Astray

There was a brief silence.

‘Could you confirm your post code, please?’

ROBERT ARRIVED HOME JUST AS Mara and Bonny were getting out of the car.

‘Dad!’ said Bonny. ‘Did you know that lions can’t purr and we get to have pizza for dinner even though it’s not a Friday or a birthday? But not shop pizza; Mum’s going to make it. I would be sad if I were a lion that couldn’t purr. I wish humans could purr.’

‘You’re home early and oh my god, you’re not going to believe it,’ said Mara.

‘What?’ said Robert.

‘Just, just wait. A bit. Bonny, do you want to play a game while your dad and I cook dinner?’

‘Can dad not play with me?’

‘Not this time, pal,’ said Robert, staring curiously at Mara.

‘So,’ she said once she and Robert were alone in the kitchen. ‘So, I may have pulled her out of school.’

‘What?’ said Robert. ‘Why? Where are we going to send her?’

‘I know, oh I know, but honestly, I can’t even—’

‘Jeepers, Mara, breathe.’

Mara closed her mouth and glared at him.

‘Just, what happened, OK?’

‘All right. So, I get there, and everyone’s acting super nice, you know, would you like tea and a biscuit, like the school is a little old woman luring you into her house before she bakes you into a pie.’

‘I think she’d probably get more than one pie out of a whole human.’

‘And then they sit you down and start talking and it seems like they’re being nice, but halfway through you think, “hold on, you think I’m a idiot” and “fuck right off”, but you don’t want to interrupt them, because you’ve a mouth full of tea-dunked biscuit and it’s just not necessary to show people the inside of your mouth when it’s all coated in brown.’

‘But what did they say?’

Mara sighed and leaned forward with her elbows on the bench and her face in her hands.

‘OK, OK. So, apparently, a few weeks ago, when they took the register, instead of saying “present” like all the other children, Bonny got up, climbed onto her chair, and sang “Go Your Own Way ” .’

‘Great song.’

‘And I mean, she didn’t just sing the chorus, she sang the whole song.’

‘Well, it’s not long, once you’ve taken out all the guitar solos. Unless she sang those too.’

‘I didn’t ask. Anyway, the next day it was “Short People ” .’

‘Hey, that’s our song. She and I play it together. Well, I play the actual song and she plays a rather Dadaist solo. And sings, obviously.’

‘Well, her teacher’s only five foot tall, so I doubt it went down particularly well.’

‘That’s a bit rude of her; she’s still much taller than Bonny.’

‘Next it was “The Only Living Boy in New York”.’

‘Ooh, she’s been listening to your music.’

‘After a week or so, the other children started copying her.’

‘Typical. That’s exactly how indie trends become mainstream.’

‘Apparently it now takes an average of an hour and twenty minutes to take the register.’

‘Yeah, but it’s an hour and twenty minutes of pure joy. Well, assuming the other children are OK at carrying a tune.’

‘I think they’re more worried about cutting into valuable learning time. Anyway, they told her she couldn’t sing in class and she asked them why and they said because class wasn’t an appropriate place to sing and she asked them why not and obviously they’d started a never-ending discussion, because she’s a child, isn’t she, so they tried to cut it short by saying that if she ever answered the register with a song again she’d have to stay in for playtime and she wouldn’t be allowed to read or play with the toys, and she just cried and cried and all the other children cried, so they asked me if we would punish her at home for doing it so they don’t have to punish her at school and make all the children cry.’

‘Bloody hell. Bloody hell! They were going to … a school was going to tell a child she wasn’t allowed to read? Because she sings, she’s not allowed to read?’

‘I’m not telling her she can’t stand on a chair and sing, Rob. I’m not ever telling her that.’

Robert put a hand on the back of Mara’s neck and began massaging the base of her head.

‘I think we shouldn’t start off by letting her have a holiday.’

‘No. I think you’re right. I guess I’ll home-school her until we’ve found somewhere else.’

‘How will you meet your deadlines?’

‘I’ll have to work that out, won’t I? I don’t have anything due till the middle of next week.’

‘We have the best kid, Mara.’

‘The best.’

She sighed and pulled out the chopping board.

‘How was your day?’

‘Oh,’ said Robert. ‘Fine. You know. Nothing as dramatic as this.’

The day no longer seemed real to him. The impossibility of his work having actually vanished was far more real than his memory of it having done so. He wondered if he’d imagined it. He’d go back to work the next day and it would all be as normal.

JAKE SAT AT THE KITCHEN table and did his homework without being asked. He started reading a book his teacher had said was good. His dad came in and looked in the cupboards. He looked in the fridge. He took out the leftover chicken from the night before and made soup. He defrosted bread rolls. He asked Jake about school and nodded as Jake talked. They went to the living room and silently watched some reality TV.

Jake blinked a couple of times as he looked at his dad. He seemed unclear, almost blurred. It was as if Jake was looking at him through a faint mist.

When Jake went to bed there was a card on his pillow. It had a picture of Spider-Man on it. Inside, below the printed message, it said, ‘Love you. Sorry. Dad.’

CASSIE WAS EXHAUSTED. THE TIDE of people that had surged around her after the discovery of her roots had baffled and broken her.

Her mother’s panicked screams had first brought security running. Then there had been medics, and a call over the loudspeaker for a doctor that resulted only in a seething crowd of curious onlookers.

All attempts to prise Cassie out of the floor had failed. The roots that her feet had become looked small, but they were strong and seemed to run deep. It wasn’t until Cassie was shaking with hysteria that someone saw fit to move the people on. They had brought some screens, like the kind you see in hospitals, and placed them around Cassie so she was protected from the curious stares. Cassie had forbidden her mother from spending the night behind the screens with her, but she was sure she was somewhere around. The nearest chair, probably.

The relief at being alone, or at least feeling alone, was dizzying. The freedom to think hit her like a drug. There was one thought that she had been frantic to return to: where was Floss? Cassie had checked the flight details until she had them by heart, and then gone on checking them. She couldn’t have been wrong.

And Floss must have been on the plane. If she had missed it, there were hours in which she could have let Cassie know what had gone wrong and how it was being fixed. She had been coming. She had been coming to Cassie.

Cassie didn’t doubt Floss’s intent to be there. Floss loved her. Floss would do anything to be there. It was not possible that Cassie could love Floss with so much of herself and Floss not love her back. It was not possible that the tether connecting Cassie to Floss went only in one direction.

Floss was coming. She was coming and Cassie was determined to be waiting for her.