The Cold Cold Sea (18 page)

The children started to arrive, all keen to tell Katie about the half-term holidays. She listened to stories of Ian’s week at the Red Sea and Janine’s trip to New York. Her own break had been positively boring in comparison; a visit to her mother in Manchester where Katie had done some thinking about her almost-relationship with Mark. She had come to the conclusion that she was being silly - lots of people worked with their partners. They were both obviously attracted and if she didn’t act on it she’d probably always regret it. So a meal out and a candid talk were high on her agenda for this week.

But now it was the half-term leading up to Christmas, and her new theme of Families led rather well into the Christmas story. She had decided not to use the word ‘families’ too much, though, in case this antagonised Mrs Marshall.

Katie glanced round the little circle of faces. Most of the children looked pleased to be back again. All, in fact, apart from Hailey Marshall. The little girl seemed very down, slumped in her chair looking as if she had no energy left at all. Katie stared at her in dismay. The child seemed to have shrunk in the holidays - or maybe it was the punkish haircut. Had it really been necessary to cut her hair so very short? Was Mrs Marshall afraid Hailey would catch head lice at school? Surely not. And shouldn’t her father have returned by now? Another chat with Mrs Marshall was looming, Katie could feel it.

Pushing her uneasiness to the back of her mind, she smiled round the circle.

‘This term, we’re going to talk about important people. Who is your most important person, Julia?’

Julia thought, head to one side. ‘The Prime Minister?’

Katie concealed a smile. ‘Yes, he’s very important, but you don’t actually
know
him, do you? I meant who is your very own most important person?’

‘Mummy,’ said Julia promptly. ‘And Daddy.’

‘Good,’ said Katie warmly. ‘Ian? Do you have any other important people?’

‘Granny and Grandpa,’ said Ian.

‘Right,’ said Katie. ‘Hands up everyone who has a Granny or a Grandpa.’

The children all raised their hands immediately, and Katie smiled to herself. This theme was certainly interesting the class; even Hailey and Derek were gazing at her with rapt attention.

She knew from the school files that all the children had both parents living, and all but Sheila and Jamie lived in intact families. The class should be able to put together a whole list of ‘important people’.

‘My sister!’ called out Rebecca.

‘Excellent,’ said Katie. ‘How many people have a sister?’

Eight children waved their hands around wildly.

‘And who has a brother?’

Hailey was still following the conversation intently, and to Katie’s surprise, she raised her arm promptly. Katie looked at her, and Hailey caught her breath and snatched her hand back down again.

Katie frowned. Hailey didn’t have a brother. She quickly asked Martin about his brother, and the class went on to discuss their way through cousins, aunts and uncles, godparents and friends.

‘Right,’ said Katie when there was a little pause. ‘You can all go and draw a picture of your most important people. They can be anyone at all. Draw maybe two or three of your own VIP’s - that means very important persons.’

The children gathered paper and crayons and went to their desks. Katie sat watching as childish figures started to appear on drawing paper. Only Hailey was inactive, sitting staring into space. Katie looked at her in concern. She waited a few minutes and then went over and crouched beside Hailey’s chair.

‘Have you decided who you want to draw, Hailey?’ she said in a low voice.

Hailey looked at her, and Katie was struck, horribly, by the misery on the little girl’s face. She would have to find out what was making her look like this.

Hailey gave a sniff. ‘They’re not here anymore,’ she said, and Katie winced. How stupid. She hadn’t even considered that anyone might want to draw a deceased grandparent or the like. She patted Hailey’s shoulder.

‘That doesn’t matter at all, sweetheart,’ she said reassuringly. ‘You can draw anyone important, whether they’re still here or not.’

Slowly, Hailey bent over her paper. Katie went back to her desk, wondering if she should say something to the whole class. No-one else seemed to be having problems, though, and she decided to wait for the moment. There would be plenty of time to talk about death when they were further into the theme.

The children were working steadily and mostly silently when the classroom door opened. Katie looked up. One of the older girls came in and presented her with a note.

‘Mrs McCallum wants all the teachers to read this.’

Katie glanced at the piece of paper. The staff meeting about the school Halloween Party had been shifted from four o’clock to lunchtime. Good.

‘That’s fine,’ she said, accompanying the girl back to the door. ‘Thanks, Olivia.’

There was a crash, and Katie looked round to see Hailey’s crayon box on the floor. Hailey herself had gone as white as a sheet.

‘Hailey! What is it?’

Katie rushed over to the little girl, who was staring straight in front of her, eyes wide, looking as if she had seen a ghost. Martin and Rebecca were picking up the spilt crayons, and Katie bent over Hailey’s chair, hugging her and rubbing her back. The child was trembling. Dry sobs mixed with shivers shook her entire body. All at once Hailey gave a gulp and vomited on the floor beside her chair, splattering Katie’s shoes with half-digested cornflakes. The other children cried out and Hailey retched again, then leaned back in her chair, pale and shaking.

Katie stepped out of her shoes and went to the other side of Hailey’s chair, looking round the group with as reassuring an expression as she could manage. The children were silent now, staring unhappily at their stricken classmate.

‘It’s alright,’ said Katie, trying to sound calm. ‘Alison, would you go and find Nora Wilson, and tell her we need her here right now, please?’

The assistant ran, and Katie lifted Hailey’s small body and carried her over to the craft table, away from the other children. She sat the little girl on her lap and hugged her, trying to ignore the sour, sick smell on Hailey’s breath.

‘Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll be okay soon,’ she said, squeezing Hailey’s cold hands and hoping that it was true.

Alison came back with Nora, who took Hailey’s pulse and felt her forehead.

‘Hailey, do you have a pain anywhere? Your tummy?’

Hailey shook her head.

‘Looks more like shock,’ said Nora in a low voice. ‘What was she doing?’

‘Drawing,’ said Katie. ‘Nothing that would set off something like this.’

‘Hm, well, whatever’s wrong, I think the best thing is for Hailey to come with me and rest till break-time. Then we’ll see.’

Katie closed the door after Nora and Hailey, then turned to the other children.

‘Hailey will be fine, don’t worry. Back to work now.’

She lifted Hailey’s drawing and examined it curiously. There were three figures here, all drawn in Hailey’s usual childish style. The two larger ones were man and woman, though as the woman in the drawing had short brown curls it couldn’t be Mrs Marshall. Maybe this was someone who ‘wasn’t here anymore’. The male figure was tall and thin and could have been anyone. The third, smaller figure was unfinished, but wasn’t wearing a skirt so Katie assumed it was a boy. There was no sign at all of a pregnant mother or two babies.

Katie put the drawing into her desk drawer. She would ask Hailey to explain it later. And now she’d better clean up that sick mess, she thought dismally.
Not
one of the perks of being a teacher.

The children watched as she wielded the floor cloth, trying to keep her face neutral in spite of the cloying sick-smell. Of her own accord, Melanie opened a window to let in some air, and Amy ran for the can of air-freshener from the cloakroom. Katie was touched.

When the bell rang for break, she hurried along to Nora’s sick room, where Hailey was sitting on the bed, looking more like her usual self.

‘Feeling better?’ asked Katie, sitting down beside her.

‘Yes thank you,’ said Hailey politely.

Katie put an arm round the child’s shoulders. ‘Hailey lovey, what happened?’ she said, but Hailey shook her head.

‘I just went all shaky. And then I was sick.’

Nora came in with a damp cloth and wiped Hailey’s face and hands.

‘She’s much better now,’ she said to Katie. ‘I’m wondering if we should send her home. What do you think, Hailey? Want to go home for a sleep? That might make you feel better.’

‘I had a pill to make me better last night. I want to stay here,’ said Hailey firmly, standing up and pulling her skirt straight.

‘Right then,’ said Nora. ‘We’ll go back to the others now, Hailey. It’s break-time.’

The child nodded solemnly, and Katie, still puzzled, went along to the staffroom.

After break, she gave the children arithmetic worksheets and went round the room correcting their efforts in turn. Hailey seemed back to her own kind of normal now, finishing her first sheet with only two mistakes.

‘Well done you,’ said Katie, gesturing for Hailey to come up to her desk. She pulled the ‘VIP’ drawing from her drawer. ‘Tell me about your drawing, Hailey.’

Hailey remained dumb, twisting one foot round the other leg and staring bleakly at the paper.

‘This lady here doesn’t have babies in her tummy,’ said Katie carefully. ‘This isn’t Mummy, is it?’

Hailey shook her head.

‘Do you want to tell me who your important people are?’

Katie made her voice as gentle and persuasive as possible, but Hailey shook her head again, looking scared.

Katie patted her shoulder. ‘That’s alright, lovey, they’re
your
people. But Hailey, was it this drawing that made you sick this morning?’

Hailey stood with her head on one side. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘It was because – that girl – came in with the letter to show you.’

There was nothing Katie could think of to reply to this, so she sent Hailey back to her seat and went on with her corrections.

Before the staff meeting Katie cornered Mark, who was Olivia’s teacher.

‘I need a favour,’ she said. ‘Can you ask Olivia Bennet if she knows Hailey Marshall from somewhere? Hailey had an awful go of the shakes this morning and she said it started when Olivia came in.’

‘I’ll ask her,’ said Mark, sounding surprised. ‘But I honestly can’t think of any child less likely to give another the shakes than Olivia.’

Katie settled down as the discussion about the Halloween party started, but her thoughts kept wandering back to Hailey. She still felt as though they were missing something important. It was frustrating that Mrs Marshall wouldn’t volunteer any important information; they could only hope that Mr Marshall was more forthcoming.

Unfortunately, she was given no chance to talk to Hailey’s mother that afternoon. Mrs Marshall bundled the child into the car as soon as Katie mentioned that Hailey had been sick, and Graeme’s mum was waiting to ask about something, so all Katie could do was wave goodbye as the BMW exited the car park.

Back in her classroom, Katie lifted Hailey’s drawing and stood staring at it. Who were these people? And what was the connection between Mark’s pupil and Hailey’s shakes?

Mark was waiting in the staffroom when she went to collect her things. ‘Olivia barely knows of Hailey’s existence,’ he said.

‘Thanks,’ said Katie thoughtfully. ‘Maybe she reminded Hailey of someone from the past. If it was some painful, submerged memory I suppose it could have given her the shakes without her knowing exactly what was going on. She’s only five.’

‘Yeah.’ Mark stood up to go. ‘She doesn’t look it, does she? Okay, see you tomorrow.’

Katie took a deep breath and hurried after him. ‘How about trying the new Chinese place behind the golf club sometime soon?’ she said as they crossed the car park. ‘My treat.’

Mark’s face lit up. ‘You’re on. I’ve heard they do brilliant shrimps. Tomorrow night?’

Well, that hadn’t been so difficult, thought Katie as his car disappeared down the road. Maybe this was the start of something exciting in her life. She needed to stop worrying about her students so much, and this, whatever it turned into, might be the very thing to help her do just that.

‘Sir? Can you put your seat upright, please? We’re almost at Heathrow.’

The flight attendant swayed elegantly down the aisle, checking that the passengers were ready to land. Phillip groaned inwardly. The jet lag was always worse flying west to east. The flight from LA to New York had been bumpy, one adrenalin kick after another, and on this flight he’d had an aisle seat and both his neighbours had been up and down like yoyos. On the plus side he was almost back in England and his life was his own again. Guilt stabbed into him. He knew it hadn’t been the best thing, leaving Jennifer for so long, especially when she still wasn’t talking to her mother.

Green was visible below them now, and Phillip heaved a sigh of relief. That was England, and somewhere down there was his wife. If only Jennifer had agreed to come out to LA. Not that he regretted his decision to stay; it had been the right one for Gran. Those last few days with her had been unforgettable. She’d been alert, almost pain-free, and they’d sat together holding hands, looking at photos and pulling out memories. In a strange way, Phillip had almost enjoyed it. But she was gone now, and there would be no need for him to return to California in the foreseeable future. He could get his life back on track.

But the thought that his journey to Cornwall hadn’t even begun yet wasn’t a great start. There were no suitable flights to Newquay so he was planning to hire a car and drive down, but really he was too tired for such a long drive. It would be more sensible to crash out at a hotel now and continue his journey tomorrow. Then at least he’d be fresh for his reunion with Jennifer - and for the mysterious surprise.

He would phone Jennifer from the airport, and if she sounded alright, he would wait in London. Otherwise he would just take his time driving down. It was Tuesday, the roads shouldn’t be busy.