Page 53 of If I Could Say Goodbye
‘I promise I’ll tell him, just let me find the right time.’
She considers this and then gives me a quick nod.
‘Thank you.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ed
My phone rings, pulling my attention away from the Facebook analytics for our plastic-free hand sanitiser. I take the call, relieved to have something else to focus on.
‘Edward Jones,’ I answer.
‘Mr Jones?’
‘Yes, hello?’
‘Hello. It’s Mrs Park from Highbrook Junior School. I’ve tried to contact your wife but there was no answer.’
‘Oh, is something wrong?’
‘No, well, nothing serious, nothing to panic about.’
OK. Those words should never be uttered when you’re getting a call from your kids’ school. I’m putting this out there right now.
I panic.
‘Oscar has been in a bit of a . . . scuffle on the playground, and—’
‘Oscar has been in a fight?’
Right. So, I know that I shouldn’t have sounded proud just then. I don’t condone fighting, of course I don’t, but, well, I’ve always worried that Oscar might have trouble sticking up for himself and . . . I can’t help it, can I, if I’m proud that he’s got a bit of fight in him?
‘Not a fight as such.’
Oh.
‘Oh. So what’s happened?’
‘He’s punched a child on the nose.’
A smile creeps back on my face, but I correct it straight away. I know he shouldn’t have done that, but still . . . the smile reappears.
‘So he was sticking up for himself then?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘Oh, right. Sticking up for someone else?’
‘It seems that Hailey—’
‘Hailey?’ I catch my reflection in the computer monitor. Gone is the proud, slightly amused smile and instead my face is creased with concern.
‘Some of the children were saying a few unkind words to her. Hailey did the right thing,’ she is quick to reassure me. ‘She was walking away from the children, who have been spoken to, Mr Jones, so no need to worry there, but it seems that Oscar took it upon himself to hit one of the children.’
‘Hold on. How did Oscar hit a child who is older than him on the nose? He wouldn’t be able to reach, surely.’
‘Oh, the children were his peers.’
