Page 62 of Butterfly

“I wish I’d told the truth from the start. You might not be here if I had.”

“It’s not so bad,” Ollie whispered. “I’ve been keeping busy, doing every class I can. I’m re-doing my GCSEs in maths and English, and it looks like I’m going to pass them this time round. The men on my wing are alright. I know who to avoid, and I’ve got friends…and Teddy, my cellmate.”

“But you shouldn’t be here. It isn’t fair.”

“I killed someone.” Ollie paused because it wasn’t justsomeone. “I killed Dad.”

“But he—”

“I killed him while he was sleeping, defenceless with no provocation. Stabbed him twenty times with a kitchen knife I kept in our room.”

Ollie froze, suddenly overly aware he was in a room full of children and shouldn’t be talking about his crime.

“Ishouldbe here.”

Leo shook his head. “You shouldn’t, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. My whole life, you were there for me. Now it’s time to return the favour.”

“What do you mean?”

Leo smiled. “I’m going to get you out of here, big brother.”

Ollie pressed his lips in an emotionless line.

“I know, I know.” Leo snorted. “Big promise, but I’m going to deliver.”

Maggie returned with what looked like the entire tuck shop cradled to her chest. “If you’re anything like Leo, you would’ve been too nervous to eat anything.”

She placed croissants, muffins, yoghurts, and fruit on the table. Ollie squeezed a croissant, noting how soft it was compared to the food on the wing. When he raised it to his nose, it smelled fresh, and his stomach stopped tumbling.

Leo snatched one up too. “Thanks, Maggie.”

“Yes.” Ollie flashed her a smile. “Thank you.”

He took a bite, pausing a second to appreciate the taste. Einstein looked over to him, granddaughter on his knee. He winked as if to say I told you so; the food really was so much better than on the wing.

They ate fast, not stopping until everything Maggie had brought over had been consumed. The yoghurts tasted of the flavour they had on the lid, the muffins were rich, even the banana, not bruised, reminded Ollie of how they weresupposedto taste.

Ollie pushed Leo’s promise to the back of his mind. It was well-meaning words with nothing to back them up.

He deserved to be in prison for killing their father, but maybe he didn’t deserve to be enjoying it quite as much as he was. Ollie still longed for freedom, missed the outside world, but that didn’t compare to the gift he’d been given in Teddy.

Leo brushed his hands free of crumbs when he’d finished the last muffin. “Now…” he said, glancing at the pot of pencils in the centre of the table. “I need proof.”

“Proof?”

“That you really can draw like that, and you didn’t just get someone else to do it.”

Ollie smirked, taking a pencil from the pot. “What would you like me to draw?”

“This banana skin,” Leo announced, lifting, then dropping it back to the plate.

“Prepare to be amazed…”

Another advantage to having a ‘child’ visit was the length of time. It wasn’t the standard forty-five minutes, but two hours forty-five.

Ollie had feared they’d run out of things to say, but that wasn’t the case.

Ollie drew, and Leo mocked his drawing despite it being the best picture of a banana skin in the room. They reminisced about happier times because there were some amongst all the awful ones, but even those good moments were tainted in Ollie’s mind; the dark shadow that had grown in him had been there every time he laughed and smiled.

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