“How was your father?” Agnes asked the children when they’d got back from the beach.
“We don’t know,” said Tina.
“He wasn’t there,” said Ethel.
“He was gone!” said Daniel.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“We mean he was gone,” said Daniel.
“He wasn’t there,” said Ethel.
“Well where was he then?”
“We don’t know,” said Tina. “Maybe he swam off after the mermaid.”
“Maybe the crabs ate him,” said Ethel.
“Maybe he went to the moon!” said Daniel, italicising things excitedly. “To live with Nanny!”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s very likely,” Agnes said. “Maybe he just went for a walk.”
“But all his stuff’s gone too,” said Tina.
“Even that robot he was building out of that dead doll and one of the lodger’s old phones,” said Ethel. “It was like he hadn’t been there in months.”
“It was like he’d never been there AT ALL!” said Daniel, boldly. “Even the cave was gone!”
“The cave wasn’t gone at all, Daniel,” Ethel said.
“But imagine if it was!” he replied. “The cave and the crabs and the beach and the sea and the sky and the moon and the night and the day! That’d explain everything then.”
“Well, I’m sure he’ll turn up somewhere,” Agnes said. “There’s no need to worry just yet.”
“We’re not worried, Mum,” said Tina.
“We’re not worried at all,” said Ethel.
“Maybe he’s gone to live in an abyss,” said Daniel, who liked the word abyss quite a lot. “Maybe he’s gone to live in an abyss on the moon!”
The three of them ran off to play on the swing, and Agnes was left alone with Claire. Claire hadn’t said a word since they’d come back from the beach. She was simply sitting there at the kitchen table, petting the cat with one hand and brushing her hair with the other with such concentrated intensity the whole house crackled with static and barely suppressed fury.
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Notes:
1. Written January 8th, 2024
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