“I can’t believe we’ve all been grounded,” Claire said. “It’s so unfair.”
To emphasise her point she picked up the pillow off her bed and threw it on the floor and then stamped on it, glumly, while somehow also glowering at the others as if it was all their fault. Finally she collapsed back onto her bed and then rolled over backwards until she was sitting up against the headboard, which was kind of a weird thing to do but she did it anyway just because she could and no one could stop her.
“We’re not grounded, Claire,” Ethel said, from her perch on the window ledge. “You’re the only one that’s grounded.”
“What are you all doing up here then?”
“I’m doing my homework”, said Tina, who was sat at the desk they all shared but only she ever really used.
“Well that’s just stupid,” Claire declared.
“I’m doing a handstand, said Daniel, upside down and up against the wall.
“No you’re not,” Claire declaimed. “It doesn’t count when you lean against the wall. That’s cheating and you know it. Everyone knows it.”
“And I’m gloating,” said Ethel, as she leapt from the window ledge onto her bed and then from her bed onto Tina’s bed and then onto the other window ledge on the other side of the room without ever touching the floor.
“Floating, more like!” said Daniel as he backflipped out of his handstand and onto his feet.
“Shut up, Daniel,” Claire exclaimed. Then she straight up shouted, “And that wasn’t a backflip at all! You just sort of fell over.”
“No one said it was a backflip, Claire,” Tina said.
“Someone did,” Claire claimed. “I heard them.”
“No you didn’t,” Ethel said. “No one said anything about flipping backflips. Except you!”
“I still heard them,” said Claire. “In my head. I heard them quite clearly in there.”
“Heard who?” Tina, Ethel and Daniel all asked in eerie simultaneity.
“Them!” Claire shouted. “The one’s I can always hear.”
“Maybe it was Mum,” Tina suggested.
“Or Anna and Oya,” Ethel shrugged.
“Or the dolls,” said Daniel.
But it wasn’t them, was it, Claire? It wasn’t any of them at all.
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Notes:
1. Written on February 13th, 2025
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