Free Cuckoo by Julia Crouch Page B

too-big outer clothes. She compared them to Anna, who looked as if she fitted everything completely, from her skin outwards to her pink Puffa jacket. Her hair looked impossibly thick and shiny next to their long rats-tails, which Rose had earlier tried to comb out. She had met with such screams and resistance that she had given up. Looking at Yannis and Nico, the word that came to her was ‘waifs’. Poor waifs and strays.
     
    ‘Got some new children, then?’ Her neighbour Simon bounded up with his usual contingent of Labrador and two elfin children. Rose often bumped into him on the way to school, and he usually went back with her for coffee after. He was a writer and took the domestic role in his marriage to Miranda, who was a high-flying barrister well on the way to becoming a judge. Rose liked Simon very much.
     
    ‘These are Polly’s kids.’ She called them over. ‘Nico and Yannis, come and meet Liam and Effie and their dad, Simon.’
     
    ‘Come and pull the trees!’ Anna said to Simon’s children. Only Nico lingered as the others pelted back across the muddy field.
     
    ‘Who’s the dog?’ he asked, standing with his arms folded to show that he knew he was too old for the little kid stuff.
     
    ‘Trooper,’ Simon said. ‘Here, throw this for him,’ and he handed him a beslobbered ball. Nico took it and charged off with the dog.
     
    ‘Great lad,’ Simon said.
     
    ‘They’re a bit wild,’ Rose whispered.
     
    ‘So she turned up, then?’
     
    ‘Last night.’
     
    ‘When do I get the honour? I’m terrifically excited,’ Simon said. He had been a great fan of Polly’s back in her heyday, and ever since Rose mentioned she was coming, he had been on tenterhooks waiting for her arrival. He dressed up his anticipation with manly irony, but Rose could see through it.
     
    ‘She’s pretty blasted, I’m afraid. It’ll be a day or two before she emerges. I was quite shocked when I saw her.’
     
    ‘She’s lucky to have a friend like you, keeping the fans away,’ Simon grinned.
     
    The children had run on ahead and were playing a game of catch that seemed to involve the dog in a central role.
     
    ‘We go back a long way, me and Polly – since we were seven. See this? Blood sisters.’ Rose showed him the scar on her index finger.
     
    ‘I did that, too, when I was about six,’ Simon said. ‘Can’t even remember the kid’s name now.’
     
    ‘We did ours when we were sixteen. After my parents moved away,’ Rose said. ‘Poll made up this elaborate ritual. We had to put on long dresses and be very solemn. And she wrote this special music for it.’
     
    ‘How did it go?’
     
    ‘Don’t ask me that.’
     
    ‘Very gothic, teenage and intense.’
     
    ‘I know. But back then it seemed so important. We’d been together so much and, with her mother being so ill, her dad off the scene, and my lot disappearing, it really was just us on our own. It seemed like we needed something to underline all that.’
     
    Simon took Rose’s finger and bent to look at the scar. ‘Quite impressive. Must’ve been a deep cut.’
     
    ‘Yeah, it bled for ages. Her scar is much smaller.’ She glanced over at the children. ‘Yannis, no!’ she yelled as she saw him push Anna over into a ditch.
     
    She ran across to help her, but when she got there, she saw that Anna was laughing like a drain.
     
    ‘Get up, Anna! Look, you’re all muddy.’
     
    ‘So?’ Anna said. She skipped off to catch Yannis and get her own back.
     
    ‘Little madam,’ joked Simon, who had crossed the field behind Rose. ‘So she’s in a bad way then, Polly?’
     
    ‘Yes. It’s almost as if the grief has stilled her. She needs a lot of looking after. I’m sure we’ll get the old Polly back eventually. I’m working on it.’
     
    ‘I’ve no doubt you are,’ Simon said, touching her arm.
     
    ‘And those poor boys,’ Rose said, looking over at Yannis and Nico. ‘They must be waiting for their mother to