Page 43 of Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
‘I know,’ he replies sadly, ‘but I only have fifty pence left. I spent the rest of my money on the lucky dip.’
‘That’s okay. You can have it for fifty pence if you like? I’m sure no one will mind.’
The boy shakes his head adamantly. ‘No, it says one pound so I must pay one pound for it!’ His voice is suddenly angry, and he looks like he might cry.
A few people look around to see what the noise is, so I hurriedly go to the front of the table and crouch down so I’m the same height as the boy.
‘I understand,’ I tell him gently. ‘You want to pay what the ticket says.’
He nods furiously.
‘If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone?’
The boy looks suspiciously at me. ‘Not supposed to keep secrets,’ he says.
I nod. ‘Yes, I know, but this is something quite magical.’
He looks at me with interest now.
‘You see this fifty-pence piece,’ I say, pulling it from my pocket and holding it up in front of him.
‘Yes.’
‘It was left on my bird table this morning.’
‘By a bird?’
‘I think so. And do you know what else?’
The boy shakes his head.
‘I think they knew I’d meet you today, so they left this for me to give to you.’
The boy stares at the coin. ‘Really?’
I nod. ‘That’s the secret – I think the birds on my table are magical birds.’
‘Magical birds?’ the boy repeats.
I nod. ‘Why don’t I give you this coin from the birds and then you can pay the proper price for the bear for your mum. No one other than us and the birds will ever know.’
The boy nods eagerly, so I pass him the coin, then I get up and head back around the table, where I make a great fuss of announcing that the bear is one pound and the boy has got the exact amount of money to pay for it.
The boy leaves the table with a huge smile on his face, and I watch him as he rushes over to his mum, who he proudly presents with the bear. His mum looks delighted, and then the boy points back at me while he’s talking to her. Then they both look back at me, and the mother smiles, and mouths the words,Thank you.
I feel myself tearing up, as I realise the boy reminds me of my Matt when he was that age. I turn away, pretending to check on Merlin.
‘That was a lovely thing you did there,’ Callum says, standing next to me. ‘You made them both very happy.’
I turn away from Merlin and shrug, blinking back my tears. ‘It was nothing.’
‘Actually, it wasn’t nothing,’ Jemima says, walking over to us. She comes behind the stall. ‘Robin is on the autistic spectrum,’ she says in a low voice. ‘He’s a lovely boy, but he sometimes struggles with communication. He likes things to be black and white, there are no grey areas with him.’
‘So when I offered to give him the bear at the wrong price, he didn’t like it?’
‘Exactly. You dealt with the situation very well.’
‘I didn’t really think about it, to be honest. It just seemed the right thing to do.’
