by Matt Shaw
Libby ran from the room.
“Calm down, you’ll upset her,” James said.
“I can’t believe you're not taking this seriously,” Cathy turned her attention back to James and the letter. “They want our children.”
“Not all of them,” James tried to make a joke of it.
The letter was from the couple who’d come round during the stormy weather. It detailed how they’d like to adopt two of Cathy and James’ five children. As a couple they’d never been able to have children of their own and it so happened their best friend was a lawyer and could draft up the adoption papers for free. The letter had even been written in such a way that it read like the couple were doing Cathy and James a favour by taking two children away from them as it would give them breathing space and a little more time for themselves.
“We should call the police.”
“And say what? They asked to adopt two of our kids? Or how they brought us some flowers as a thank you for letting them use our telephone? I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we will ignore the letter. They’ll get the message and go away.”
“And what if they don’t?”
“There’s a phone number at the bottom of the letter, I’ll call them up and say thanks but no thanks.”
“And you really think that will work? These people sent us a letter offering to take two of our children from us. You think that’s the behaviour of normal people? I’m telling you - these people are bad news. I got the feeling from the moment you let them into our house…”
“That again? I thought we were over that?”
“We were. And then they showed up again. Not just once but twice. Once to drop the flowers off and once to post the letter… You invited them into our lives! I told you to ignore the door but you had to answer it and - what’s worse - you had to let them in.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit?” James asked.
“I can’t believe you’re not!”
“Look - just leave it. If anything else happens, if they come back again… We’ll go to the police. Okay?”
Libby called in from the other room again, “Mum - I’m hungry!”
“Let’s just get dinner and forget about the letter. Like I said, they’ll probably leave us alone when we don’t reply to this. Trust me. Now… What’s for dinner?”
“We’re not done yet,” said Cathy. She folded her arms. “There’s something else…”
James sighed. He’d had a long day. All he wanted to do was come home, put his feet up, have some dinner, play some Playstation and maybe get a little coursework done and yet he had come home to a seemingly paranoid wife. He didn’t disagree that the letter was strange but - at the end of the day - that was all it was; a letter. It wouldn’t be the first letter he’d received and not replied to which hadn’t led onto anything else - certainly nothing as bad as Cathy was insinuating. He just wished she’d drop the whole damned thing.
“What is it?” he asked. He tried not to show any irritation in his voice. Cathy was already irritated and - if he spoke with the same tone - it would just result in fireworks between the two; and he really didn’t have the patience for that. Not tonight.
“I think they gave the girls some chocolate.”
“What?!”
“They came home yesterday with a box of chocolates each.”
“So?”
Cathy explained what the girls had told him - how they’d supposedly won the chocolates at school for doing well in their classes. She also explained how - whilst waiting for James to come home and whilst trying to take her mind off the letter - she phoned the school to have a word with them about it. She explained how she was going to suggest something which would have been a better alternative to give to the children other than chocolates.
“I don’t get it,” said James before Cathy had a chance to fully explain.
“The school told me they hadn’t given the chocolates to the girls. They agreed that it wouldn’t be a suitable incentive…”
“Okay…”
“Okay? They must have seen the children on the way home from school… Maybe on the way to school. I don’t know. But they gave the chocolates to the girls.”
“That’s crazy.”
“They dropped a letter into our house detailing how they want to adopt our children and yet you think them giving chocolates to two of them is crazy?”
“The kids probably shoplifted them!”
James didn’t mean his glib comment; he was just being a smart-ass and trying to show Cathy there were a number of ways the kids could have got hold of the confectionary. Cathy raised an eyebrow.
“Did you talk to them?” he continued before she started shouting at him.
“Not yet, no.”
“Well talk to them. Tell them you know the school hadn’t given the sweets to them. Maybe they’ll tell you where they really came from? If you want - I’ll go and talk to them.”
“I want you to talk to the police.”
“Honey, I’m not talking to the police. It’s stupid.”
“What if you talk to the children and they tell you they had been given the chocolates by those people? Will you go to the police then?” Cathy asked. “Strangers giving sweets to your own children - the children they want to adopt from us - enough of an alarm bell ringing for you?”
James didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. If the couple did pass the confectionary over to the children - especially stopping them on the streets to do so… It went without saying that that was a game changer and - yes - the police would have definitely been involved.
“How long is dinner?” James asked again.
“About an hour,” Cathy replied.
“Then I’ll go and talk to them.”
Before Cathy could say anything else, James walked out of the room to find Cleo and Kiah. They were sitting in front of the television, in the living room. Quinn was playing in the corner of the room and Misty and Libby must have been upstairs. Loki was asleep up on the sofa.
“Girls can you come through to the dining room please?”
“Is dinner ready?”
“No, just want to ask you something. Nothing to worry about.”
The girls begrudgingly followed James through to the dining room. He was the first to sit at the table. They sat opposite him. They both looked nervous - as though they knew they were in trouble. He smiled at them in an effort to relax them a little. If they didn’t relax they wouldn’t tell him the truth.
“What?” Cleo asked.
James squirmed in his chair. Sometimes the way she said things really wound him up. He couldn’t help but wonder whether she knew what she was doing or whether she was oblivious. He hoped it was the latter. He took a couple of seconds to shake it from his mind.
“So your mum’s been telling me you’ve been doing well at school,” James said.
The two girls instantly looked guilty.
“That’s really good. We’re proud of you.”
“Thank you,” Cleo took the lead as though she didn’t trust her sister to keep up with the lies that were about to come.
“And you got a prize? What did you get?”
There was a slight pause, “We got chocolate,” said Cleo.
“Chocolate? You do well at school now and they give you chocolate? That’s a bit strange, isn’t it? How come they give you chocolate now? Never got that when I was at school. We used to get little round stickers that were known as SuperBlobs. I think I’d have rather had sweets,” he said.
The girls didn’t say anything. They both just sat there red-faced. It was the look on their faces which told James Cathy was right - the sweets hadn’t come from the school.
“Anyway tomorrow - it’s supposed to be raining again - I just wanted you to know that your mum is going to drive you in, save you getting wet. I think she wants to have a word with the teachers too, for the chocolates. Probably to thank them, or something.”
Panic all over the girls’ faces.
“Shut up!” Cleo snapped at her.
James shot Cleo a look which shut her up. She folded her arms and sulkily slumped back in her chair. With her quiet, he turned to Kiah, and asked, “Why can’t she?”
Kiah looked at her sister almost apologetically. She didn’t have a choice but to continue with what she was saying, though. Not now she had blurted out.
“Well?” James pushed her for an answer.
“We didn’t get the sweets from school,” Kiah sighed.
“No? I don’t understand - why did you say you had then?”
Kiah went to say something but Cleo pounced on the question, “Because we bought them from the shop using our pocket money and mum doesn't usually let us.”
“Oh. Right. So you lied?”
Neither girl said anything. They knew they were in trouble. The question now was - how much trouble were they going to be in?
“You bought the sweets from the shop?” James reiterated.
They girls nodded.
“Well, okay then…” he took a deep breath, “… So how is school going then?”
Once again the girls’ faces reddened a deeper shade. James sighed. On the plus side - he’d been right about the chocolates. They hadn’t come from the couple. No need to get the police involved. Although he couldn’t help but worry the neighbours might be calling the police later in the evening when he’d tell Cathy he wasn’t going to…
“You won’t tell mum will you?” Kiah asked.
THURSDAY
Cathy was walking around the house calling out Loki’s name. She’d seen him in the morning, before she took the girls to school, but couldn’t recall seeing him since. Panicked thoughts racing through her mind; wondering whether he’d managed to get out the front door when they’d all left the house earlier. Had he sneaked out without them noticing? She’d already hunted around downstairs and - as she stepped into her room in the hope of finding him sleeping on the bed - she had searched upstairs too. No dog.
“Loki!” she called again.
Shit.
Cathy headed downstairs and through to the living room. She opened the patio door and stuck her head outside, into the garden. She called for the family pet again but - again - there was no reply. She didn’t recall letting him out the back in the morning but that wasn’t to say James, or one of the girls, hadn’t. It would have been possible for them to accidentally leave the dog out there, without thinking. No dog though.
Panicked Cathy stepped back into the house and closed the patio door again. She called out once more in the hope Loki would appear from a hiding place he’d holed up in. Nothing. Not even a hint of a bark anywhere throughout the house.
He must have snuck out the front, Cathy thought.
She left the living room, walked down the hallway and up to the front door. She pulled it open hoping to find Loki sitting there - a nervous (and sheepish) look upon his face having been shut out of his home. He wasn’t there. She tried to cast her mind back to the morning - had James taken him to the university with him? No. Of course not. He’d never done that before and - even if he wanted to - would the university have even permitted it?
Cathy turned back to the house and stopped in her tracks at the sound of a male voice from further down the road. She didn’t turn round. She didn’t dare.
“Are you looking for this little guy?”
Cathy recognised the voice. Jeff. Slowly she turned around. He was standing by his car with her pet dog tucked under his arm. She immediately noticed a white envelope in hand. He was walking over to her, a beaming grin on his face as Loki tried to struggle out of his grip. The man noticed Cathy’s expression; she looked horrified.
He jumped in with, “He was down the road looking lost,” he said. “I recognised him from the other night… Clearly shouldn’t be out by himself… Here… I’ll put him in your house for you… Pretty heavy for a puppy.”
“That’s fine, thank you, I can take him.” Cathy held her hands out, ready to take Loki who seemed more than happy to be taken by her, but Jeff walked right past her.
“Honestly - it’s not a problem.”
She followed Jeff up to her house.
“You’re lucky I found him. Cute dog like this - someone could have snatched him.”
“Yes. Thank you.” The words stuck in Cathy’s throat. Loki had never managed to get out of the front - at least not unnoticed - and she didn’t believe he had this time either. She wasn’t sure how they had done it but she honestly believed the couple had somehow got into the house and taken the dog. A perfect excuse to come back to the home and talk to the family. She didn’t know how they had done it and truthfully she didn’t care. She just wanted them out of her life once and for all.
“We were thinking about getting a dog. Thought about it after we found out we couldn’t have children…”
They reached the open door of the house. Jeff leaned into the house and dropped Loki into the hallway. Loki ran up the stairs and out of sight. Jeff turned back to Cathy - blocking her from getting into the house.
“So how are you guys anyway?” he asked as though he were catching up with long lost friends.
“What?” Cathy couldn’t believe the cheek of the guy. Did he really think they were friends? Did he really think he had a right to ask after the family? They were strangers. Strangers whom James happened to help out. Cathy wondered whether James would have helped them if he knew how… clingy… they were going to get.
“The family. How are you all? Keeping well I hope.”
“I’m sorry - I have to go… I’ve got dinner in the oven.”
“Oh, right, okay. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up.”
Jeff stepped to the side and Cathy took the opportunity to get into her house. She turned back to Jeff, with her hand on the door - ready to slam it shut.
“Thank you for bringing the dog back,” she said - trying to keep Jeff happy for the sake of being polite only.
“Not a problem. Oh - before I forget - I was actually coming by to drop this off.”
He held up the white envelope he had in his hand.
“What is it?” Cathy asked, in an almost aggressive tone.
“I had my friend draft up the papers.”
“The papers?”
“You got the letter we dropped off right? Our offer?”
“You need to leave,” Cathy hissed.
“Yeah, have to pick the wife up from work,” said Jeff. He raised the letter higher for Cathy to take. “So - yes - take a look at this and let me know what you think.”
“Are you actually insane? We don’t want it. We’re not giving our children up.”
“Why not? You have so many - not the biggest of properties… We thought we’d be doing you a favour!”
“Just… Leave us alone. Don’t come back here. If you do - we’re calling the police. Okay?”
Jeff didn’t say anything. He just stood there with the letter held out to Cathy still. Cathy shook her head in disbelief before slamming the door in his face. Jeff hesitated a moment before he slid the letter through the letterbox. He hesitated a moment before walking away - back towards his waiting car.
* * * * *
“You told him where to go. You slammed the door in his face. He’s gone. It’s dealt with.” James had walked into the house to find Cathy waiting for him, sitting on the bottom of the stairs with the home phone in her hand - fingers twitching to call for the police. “Just leave it.”
“It’s dealt with? How is it dealt with? Even after I slammed the door in his face, he still dropped the letter in as though there was still a chance we’d go with his scheme. Here is clearly a man who has not got the message… And the dog - he took the dog!”
“You said he returned the dog.”
“After taking him - yes. He took the dog.”
“How? It sounds like Loki got out. We should be grateful the man brought th
e dog back to us. A dog like that, anyone could have taken him… Look I’m not sure what is going on with you, and I’m here to talk about it if you want to, but you need to let this go. You told them we weren’t interested. Done deal. Gone. Finished. Drop it, just as I am sure they’re going to drop it too.”
“I’ll call the police myself then.”
“Oh Jesus, and say what exactly?” He mimicked her voice, “Hi, I’d like to report someone for returning my dog to me.”
“People are threatening our family - your children - and you don’t seem to care.”
“No. They’re not threatening my family. They asked - rather randomly I’ll admit - whether we would be willing to let them adopt two of our children. That’s not a threat. Bizarre, yes. Threat? No.”
“A restraining order.”
“What?”
“We can get a restraining order. Keep them away from our house.”
James fell silent. He didn’t know what to say. His wife was clearly worried about the couple but - to him - they were harmless. They hadn’t shown any threatening behaviour towards the family, they hadn’t been abusive to them - nor given any inclination that they could turn that way. If it weren’t for the letter they dropped in, asking for the legal right to take the kids, they would be yet another normal couple. Hell, after his time with them when he gave them shelter, he even thought they seemed pleasant.
“I just don’t think it’s necessary,” James said, eventually.
“You don’t think your children’s safety is…”
James cut her short, “Do not question me about the safety of my children. If you want to know, I think you’re being a little too paranoid about all of this. It’s bordering on the ridiculous…”
“They sent us a letter asking…”
He didn’t let her finish again, “I am well aware of what they did. Today, you told them where to go. You told them we weren’t interested. I am pretty sure we won’t hear from them again. If you want, I can even write them a letter tonight stating we’re not interested. I can get it in the post first thing, recorded delivery.” He took a deep breath, “I think, maybe, you should give the horror a rest for a minute.”
“What?”
