Free Now Is Our Time by Jo Kessel Page B

the child of someone you were in love with. And if such a manual didn’t exist, then someone should goddamn write one!
     
    “Are you still her boyfriend?” Miriam persisted.
     
    Claire pushed her chair back, the legs squeaking against the wooden floorboards as she stood up. She moved towards the kitchen counter where Jonah had already clocked the presents he’d bought Miriam; two large white boxes still wrapped in cellophane sat next to the empty yellow Selfridges paper bag. One contained a game called Connect Four, the other was Twister.
     
    “Why doesn’t Jonah play one of these with you,” she suggested to her daughter, “whilst I clear up?”
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    Miriam was laughing uncontrollably as Jonah found himself in a spot of bother on the plastic Twister mat, contorting his limbs into ungainly, unlikely positions as he tried to fulfil the most recent ‘right hand on yellow’ instruction. Claire had shooed them into the lounge and he now found himself performing some weird yogic posture, head practically brushing the floor and his legs so wide apart his groin was starting to protest. His right hand was currently his ballast. If he moved it he would surely fall. Every word Miriam uttered was like a staccato beat swiftly followed by a peel of giggles. She was precariously positioned, also upside down, with half of her frame underneath Jonah’s. “You – look – like – a – wheelbarrow - that’s – missing - it’s - wheel,” she told him. Because she kept gulping for air in-between the giggles, she now had the hiccups too.
     
    “Watch out,” warned Jonah laughing, “I’m about to try moving.”
     
    His limbs buckled and balance failed him as he lifted his right hand off the mat. Desperate not to collapse onto Miriam he did a side roll away from her, his head landing wedged between two sofas. He lay there for a while, catching his breath as the two of them recovered.
     
    “I win,” said Miriam.
     
    She then hiccupped loudly, which began another round of the giggles from both of them.  It was at this point that Claire walked in and observed them, the giggles clearly contagious and the happiness on her face clear for all to see. She was brandishing an I-pad.
     
    “While you’re both in such great spirits,” she smiled, “I’ve got something else to show you that I think you’ll find even more amusing.”
     
    It was when Jonah dug his elbows into the floor to get up that he saw it. A little ceramic statue of a cross-legged Buddha sat on a small glass coffee table. Oh my God, she still has hers . They’d been at some Indian fair in a hot, Arizona grass field on a day off during one of the many tournaments to which Claire had accompanied him. A stall selling Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes had caught her eye. Some of them managed to be amazingly intricate and yet smaller than a thumbnail. Others were so gigantic you’d have needed a forklift to shift them. Claire had wanted him to buy two identical statues, about the size of her hand. “They bring good luck,” she’d promised. “You keep one with you at home and I’ll take mine back to the UK. And whenever we’re apart, our Buddha will bring us together.” He’d kept his faithfully by his beside till this very day. And now he knew she’d kept hers too. He was longing to take the Buddha into his hand and to tell Claire that he also still had his, but Miriam was here and Claire had already pressed play on the I-pad. A commercial for some new razor started. Claire clicked pause to freeze the image.
     
    “Right,” she positioned herself between Jonah and Miriam, as they all shuffled together, sitting on the floor. She explained to Miriam about how she’d had a sort of audition to be the TV Nutritionist for a well known morning show and that now there was a video of her online for everyone to see. “I’d rather I showed you this than