Grounded

by A. E. Radley

  She looked at the house, her anxiety rising to new levels, and briefly considered driving away. Suddenly, Henry’s face appeared beside her as the boy stood on his tiptoes to look in through the driver’s window. His hands gripped the indentations of the car to keep himself upright. This was why she was here. Olivia smiled and gestured for him to stand back a little. When he did, she opened the door with the intention of getting out. Henry, it seemed, had other ideas, as he climbed into the car and hugged her where she sat in the driver’s seat.

  “I missed you,” he declared, adjusting himself on her lap and looking at the interior of the car with interest. “I like your car.”

  “I missed you too,” Olivia admitted. She brought a hesitant hand up to brush some of his hair away from his face. “You need a haircut.”

  “Nope.” Henry shook his head and frowned.

  “No?” Olivia laughed. “You like looking scruffy?”

  Henry shrugged and climbed over the central console to the passenger seat, where he continued to investigate.

  “Hi.” Olivia turned to see Emily leaning gently on the open door. “Sorry. I tried to stop him, but the second he saw you he wanted to come and say hello.”

  “Mommy, I like Olivia’s car,” Henry told Emily with a nod of his head.

  “Yes, don’t touch anything, though, Henry.”

  Olivia frowned and quietly asked, “Why not?”

  Emily chuckled. “Because you have a very expensive and immaculate car, and I have a five-year-old with grubby hands.”

  “It’s just a car.” Olivia shrugged, still not seeing the problem.

  Emily laughed. “Come on, you two. Let’s go and eat.”

  Olivia got out of the car and retrieved her crutch from the back seat.

  “When will your leg be fixed?” Henry asked as he crawled back over the driver’s seat.

  “Around three months.”

  Henry looked up at her in shock. “That’s forever.”

  “Yes, it is,” Olivia concurred. Once he was out of the car, she closed the door and pointed to the handle. “Can you lock the door, Henry?”

  He frowned at her. “I don’t have a key.”

  “You don’t need one. Just press the handle and you’ll hear it lock.”

  Henry regarded her suspiciously, but stepped forward and pressed his finger to the handle. The doors locked, and a small beep sounded to indicate the alarm had been set.

  “Cool! I’m going to tell Tom!” Henry sprinted off up the path.

  Emily stood back and gestured for Olivia to follow him. Olivia paused for a moment and took a breath before starting to slowly move.

  “Nervous?” Emily asked.

  “Should I be?”

  “No, but it would be normal to feel apprehensive.”

  “Then, yes,” Olivia admitted.

  As it turned out, she didn’t need to worry. Tom and Lucy appeared on the porch, the perfect picture of a friendly young couple without a care in the world. They greeted her warmly, Tom complimented her on her choice of car, and Lucy took her coat.

  “I’m sitting next to Olivia at dinner,” Henry announced before racing upstairs.

  “No running on the stairs,” Emily called up after him. He slowed to an excited jog.

  Olivia watched Henry’s retreating form with a frown.

  “He has so many things he wants to show you,” Lucy explained. “He’s been very excited about your visit. We all have.”

  “Come through.” Tom gestured towards the living room.

  She walked through the doorway and quickly found herself being given the grand tour.

  “I’m sorry about the state of the house,” Lucy apologised. “As soon as I tidy something, Tom messes it up again.”

  “Hey, I think you mean Henry,” Tom pointed out with a grin.

  “Absolutely not. Henry knows how to put his toys away.” Lucy playfully tweaked her husband’s nose.

  While the house was small, it was also absolutely charming, and Olivia felt somehow jealous. Every room, no matter how small and tired, exuded happiness. She could tell that Lucy was very house-proud and did the best she could with limited means.

  Family photos lined the walls, and run-down furniture was covered with repurposed fabrics. The downstairs consisted of a kitchen, a living room, a small study, and a downstairs toilet. It took all of a minute to see the whole ground floor, but in that time Olivia felt at home and welcome.

  Lucy gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa and returned to preparing dinner. Tom offered her a variety of drinks, but Emily returned from the kitchen with a glass of water, already knowing Olivia’s preference.

  “So,” Tom said as he sat in an armchair, excitedly leaning in. “Tell me about the crash.”

  Olivia opened her mouth to answer, but stopped when Emily crossed the room and thwacked him with a backhand across the arm.

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to discuss it,” Emily suggested.

  “Oh, I don’t mind.” Olivia shrugged.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive.” Tom rubbed his arm. “I’m a pilot and I’m interested in learning about what actually happened.”

  “What do you want to know?” Olivia asked, to have something to say.

  Tom started to ask a question but stopped and turned his head towards the door. Henry reappeared and, after a moment of staring at Olivia’s cast, hopped up onto her good leg and showed her a piece of paper. She put her arm around him to steady him, and examined the drawing.

  “It’s a monkey factory,” Emily helpfully explained.

  “Where they make monkeys,” Henry added.

  “That’s very good.” She looked at the unidentifiable squiggles and tried to make any sense of them.

  Lucy called to say that dinner was ready. Henry hopped down and walked towards the kitchen.

  “Olivia is sitting next to me,” he reminded everyone loudly, just in case there had been any doubts.

  Olivia smiled. Tom offered her a hand and she gratefully took it.

  “Maybe we can talk about the crash later, when little ears aren’t around?” he asked as he handed her the crutch.

  “Absolutely,” Olivia agreed.

  “It’s good that you came tonight. It spurred Lucy on to make chicken pie,” Tom said as he walked her to the kitchen. “It’s the best you’ll ever taste.”

  * * *

  Olivia followed Emily up the stairs and looked around nervously. Being shown around the lower level of the house was fine, but upstairs she somehow felt as if she was trespassing. Emily opened the door to a bedroom and gestured for Olivia to go inside.

  Olivia looked around with a confused frown. The room contained a double bed with two mismatched single quilts on top, a small chest of drawers, and a tatty-looking wardrobe. A large plastic box of toys was hidden behind the door, and the bare floorboards by the side of the bed were covered by a felt play mat crisscrossed with roads.

  “You sleep here?”

  “Yes, that’s what a bedroom is.” Emily laughed lightly. “Henry sleeps here too.”

  “You share a bed,” Olivia commented.

  “Yes.” Emily reached under the bed, pulled out a plastic box filled with paperwork, and lifted it onto the bed.

  “Is that sustainable?” Olivia asked honestly.

  Emily took a deep breath. “Well, when he starts dating it might get problematic.”

  Olivia gasped in shock.

  “I’m kidding, Olivia,” Emily said with a shake of her head.

  “Oh.” Olivia realised she’d upset her and looked hesitantly around the room. She understood that Emily didn’t want to be reminded that her current living situation wasn’t ideal, nor maintainable.

  Emily lifted the lid off the plastic box and looked through a few pieces of paper.

  “Oh, wrong one,” she mumbled, then crouched down to look under the bed for another box.

  Olivia glanced at the open box and picked up a stack of papers held together by a rusty bulldo
g clip. She started to flip through them with interest.

  Emily heaved another plastic box onto the bed and looked at Olivia.

  “You know that could be considered rude?”

  Olivia paused mid-flick. She looked up, confused. “Should I stop?”

  Emily chuckled. “Well, it’s done now, but for future reference, you should’ve asked.”

  “Presumably it’s fine; otherwise you would’ve removed it from my hands by now.”

  Emily opened her mouth to argue the point but closed it again and laughed. “Yes, you’re right. You should still ask, though.”

  Olivia shrugged. She wasn’t about to be drawn into a discussion regarding etiquette when she had something much more interesting in her hands. “You wrote this?”

  “Yes,” Emily said indifferently. She lifted the lid off the second box and started to sort the various papers that had been haphazardly stuffed inside.

  Olivia looked back at the original box, having lost interest in Emily’s financial paperwork. “Did you write all of these?”

  “Yes,” Emily said without looking up. “Just a hobby.”

  Olivia placed the paper she had been flicking through on the bed. She leaned over the box and started to look through the other papers with interest.

  Emily sighed. “I thought we came up here to look for financial papers, remember?”

  “Tell me about these?”

  Emily frowned, but started, “I used to enjoy writing. When I was pregnant with Henry, I started writing television scripts. There was so much crap on TV, and I knew I could do better, so I thought I’d write my own shows.”

  Olivia carefully pulled each stack of documents from the box and analysed them before stacking them neatly.

  “When Henry got ill, there was a lot of time spent at the doctors, hospitals, and stuff,” Emily continued with a hitch in her voice. “And I carried on. It was a good escape. When I couldn’t afford a babysitter, and I had to take time off from work to watch him, I would sit beside him and write.”

  “You either write very fast or Henry was ill a lot,” Olivia commented. She took the last couple of documents from the box and placed them in her new pile.

  “What are you doing?” Emily asked.

  “Stacking them properly. The edges were curling,” Olivia explained as she began to methodically place them back into the box.

  “Doesn’t matter. No one reads them except for me.” Emily chuckled.

  “May I read one?” Olivia asked.

  “You don’t have to do that.” Emily smiled and shook her head as she returned her attention to the financial documents. “If I’d spent more time on this and less time on that, then maybe I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in now.”

  “Which one should I read?” Olivia asked, ignoring Emily’s deprecating words. “Which is your favourite?”

  Emily sighed again. “I don’t know; it depends what you’re interested in?”

  Olivia regarded Emily quietly, making it clear that she wasn’t about to be moved on from the subject. Emily shook her head and quickly flicked through the stack, looking for something.

  “This is my favourite, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually any good.” Emily handed her a stack of papers held together with string.

  “I’ll let you know what I think,” Olivia said as she flipped through the pages.

  “No, I’d rather you didn’t,” Emily said softly. Olivia frowned and Emily elaborated, “I have this dream, a fantasy really, that I’m good at writing. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I don’t want to know either. I never did anything with them, because sometimes it’s better to not do anything and fool yourself that you’re good at something than to have someone tell you you’re not.”

  Olivia bit the inside of her mouth nervously and furrowed her brow.

  Emily chuckled “I don’t expect you to understand, Olivia. I know it sounds crazy.”

  “But…” Olivia sighed. “What if you are good at it? But you never try…to make anything from it…”

  “That’s the gamble. I can either not show them to anyone, assume I’m a genius, and never be proved wrong. Or I can show them to someone and they’ll tell me how bad they are. Personally, I’d rather live in my dream world.”

  “You’re forgetting the third option, where you show them to someone and they agree you’re a genius.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Olivia.” Emily laughed lightly.

  “But—”

  “This paperwork,” Emily interrupted. “You want bank statements and loan agreements, right?”

  Even Olivia could tell that the conversation had moved on.

  “Yes, although I might as well take the whole box. It looks as if it could do with some organising.”

  When the door slammed, both women jumped and spun around. Henry stood there with red cheeks, fury in his eyes.

  “I’m not going, Mommy!”

  “Henry, I’m sorry, but—”

  “Olivia.” He ran across the room, grabbed at her legs, and hid behind her. “Don’t let them take me.”

  Olivia looked at Emily helplessly. “What’s going on?”

  Emily let out a deep sigh and opened her mouth to explain. Then Lucy opened the bedroom door and entered breathlessly.

  “I’m sorry. We were playing, and he asked outright when he’d have to see them again. I didn’t want to lie…”

  “Olivia, can I come and live with you?”

  Olivia looked down at his pleading face and then to Emily.

  “Henry’s staying overnight at his grandparents’,” Emily explained.

  “But I thought—”

  “They want to take him to the zoo first thing tomorrow. It’s easier logistically if he sleeps there,” Emily explained briefly, her eyes begging for help.

  Olivia turned around and looked at the young boy. “Henry, I’m sorry…”

  His lip began to tremble, and a little fist smacked painlessly at her thigh.

  Lucy crossed the room and picked him up. “We don’t hit people, do we?”

  Tears streamed down Henry’s face, and he attempted to turn away from Lucy.

  “I’ll take him,” Emily offered, stepping forward.

  “It’s fine. I’ll give you two time to finish up. This stuff’s important, Em.”

  Lucy left the room and closed the door behind her. Henry’s building screams echoed down the hallway as she walked down the stairs with him.

  Emily let out a sob and sat on the edge of the bed. She covered her mouth and shook her head. “Oh, God, what must you think of me?”

  “I must admit, I’m confused,” Olivia said.

  Emily bit her lip and regarded Olivia for a moment before taking the plunge. “You remember we spoke about Henry’s dad?”

  Olivia thought for a moment before nodding her head for Emily to continue.

  “Well, his parents are back in the picture.”

  “Yes, you mentioned Henry had been with his grandparents. Are these the same people who wanted to take Henry from you when he was a baby?” Olivia was aghast.

  “Yes, they…” Emily let out a deep sigh “Look, I wasn’t going to talk about all of this—”

  “You can talk to me.”

  Emily looked around the bedroom silently for a moment. “The last thing I wanted to do was tell you how my debts are causing even more problems.”

  “What do you mean?” Olivia tilted her head inquisitively.

  “They hired a private investigator to look into my life. They found out about the debts and the layoff. They said they knew of a job for me, and obviously I couldn’t say no.”

  Olivia was appalled. “They hired a private investigator?”

  “Yeah, and now they’re using it as leverage to spend time with Henry.”

  “That’s…” Olivia paused, shocked. “That’s despicable.”

  “Yes. And there’s not a thing I can do about it.” Another sob escaped Emily, and Olivia sat beside her. Uncertain of the protocol,
she placed a hand carefully on Emily’s thigh and patted softly.

  “Crown had suspended me. After the crash, they were in financial trouble. Seb, Henry’s grandfather, said he knew someone who could offer me a job. I couldn’t say no. I had no choice, Olivia. None. But now they’re making more and more demands on Henry’s time and Henry hates them. They aren’t horrible to him, but he knows something isn’t right.”

  “If staying overnight causes him to react like that, then they should let him stay home.”

  “It’s not the first time he’s reacted this way.” She chuckled bitterly. “They still take him. He was there just two nights ago. They keep coming up with excuses to have him.”

  The doorbell sounded, and Emily jumped to her feet. “They’re early.”

  Olivia stood and watched on helplessly as Emily attempted to dry her eyes. A loud scream from Henry filled the house.

  “They must see that he doesn’t want to go?” Olivia questioned.

  Emily dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and looked at her reflection in a mirror on the chest of drawers.

  “Well, apparently, they don’t believe in pandering to children.”

  Henry screamed again, and Emily met her eyes in the mirror. Olivia felt a wave of fury rush over her.

  CHAPTER 21

  Emily hurriedly followed Olivia down the stairs. She was surprised at the speed someone with a broken leg could move at, but it seemed Olivia was on a mission.

  Seb and Irene stood in the hallway looking very displeased with Henry’s screaming, which echoed from the living room. Seb noticed Olivia first; he looked at her curiously but remained silent. Emily stopped on the second to last stair and watched the scene unfold before her.

  Tom stood in the doorway to the living room. “Lucy’s just getting Henry ready,” he explained to Seb.