Seven Days(73)

She doubted it. She thought he would frown, his lips pressing together, thin with anger. And then he would have to get rid of her body. Maybe he would cut it up into pieces which he could remove easily. Or perhaps he would drag her out in the dark of the night and discard her body in some remote place.

She shook her head. That wasn’t going to happen.

Because she had a plan.

Next to her Max twitched. His eyes opened. Slowly they focused on her.

‘Mummy,’ he said.

‘Max. Happy birthday. You’re three!’

Max looked at her for a while before a smile spread over his face.

‘I’m three!’ he said. ‘What comes after three?’

‘Four,’ Maggie said.

‘Will I be four tomorrow?’

‘No,’ Maggie said. ‘You’ll be four in a year.’

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘A year.’

And he would be. In a year, he would turn four, somewhere far from here.

Because finally she had a plan. It was going to hurt her, to take all the courage and determination she could find, but she would do it, one way or another she would do it.

She didn’t know what time the man would come. She guessed he would take Max when – if – he brought breakfast. He would know that this time she would have no doubts what he wanted, so he would not want to come down to the room twice.

Which meant she had to be ready. As soon as she heard the scrape she had to be able to hide Max in the bath. She had removed the wooden base and measured the space between the floor and the base; he would fit, just. Then she could put the base back and cover him. And then, when the man was here, she would take whatever advantage of his confusion she could.

First, though, she needed Max to learn his part in the plan.

‘Max,’ she said. ‘I have a new game for your birthday. It’s called hide and seek.’

‘What is it?’

‘You hide and I look for you. When you’re hidden you have to be very quiet. Want to try?’





2


She called Max over.

‘This is a really great place to hide. I’ll show you.’

She picked him up and put him in the bath.

‘Lie down.’ Max did as she said and she picked up the base. ‘I’m going to put this in place,’ she said. ‘It’ll be dark, but don’t worry. And then you stay quiet. Whatever I say, you have to be silent, OK?’

Max nodded. Maggie lay the base on top of him. A cursory glance would have shown it to be out of place, but it was something. The man would have to walk over to the bath to look and maybe that would be an opportunity for her. For what, she didn’t know. But for something.

‘Are you OK?’ she said.

There was no reply. Good. He knew to be quiet. It was ironic, but one of the results of living in the room was that Max was not scared of the dark. As a small girl she’d been terrified of sleeping without a light on in her room. If she ever woke up in darkness she would scream until her mum or dad came to her room and turned on a light.

Max had no such luxury. If the man switched off the light, the room was pitch-black until he switched it on again.

‘Max?’ She put on a deep voice, imitating the man. ‘This is the man speaking. Are you there?’

Max did not reply.

She stomped around the room. ‘Where are you, Max? I need to talk to you.’

Still no reply.

‘Max.’ She spoke louder, putting a threatening tone into her voice. ‘You’d better come out now or there’ll be big trouble. Do you hear me?’

There was a long silence. After a few minutes had passed, she walked to the bath and lifted out the base.

Max grinned up at her. ‘Was I good?’

She lifted him out and hugged him. A phrase her dad used to say when she was very young came to her.

‘Good as gold,’ she said. ‘You were good as gold.’





3


Maggie clicked a square red Duplo into place.

‘There,’ she said. ‘A Duplo birthday cake. Let’s sing you a song.’

She sang ‘Happy Birthday’. Max watched her, grinning, and she forced herself to smile back, but it was nearly impossible. She was too on edge, waiting for the scrape that would announce the man’s arrival.

Tears came to her eyes and she reached for her son. He laughed and jumped away, but she beckoned, both hands outstretched.

‘I need a cuddle, Max.’

She was sitting cross-legged and she got to her knees to reach for him. There was a sudden, sharp pain in her calf.

‘Ow!’ she said. ‘What is that?’

She felt under her leg and pulled out a yellow Duplo. It was upside down and the edge had dug into her flesh.

‘Mummy? Are you OK?’

‘I’m fine. These things are really hard, Max.’ She ran her finger along the plastic. ‘It’s a good job it’s not sharper.’

And then she looked at him.

‘Max,’ she said. ‘Max, my beautiful, beautiful boy. I think I may have an idea.’





Saturday, 23 June 2018


James


1


James woke up slowly. He lay on his back, looking up at the ceiling. It was stained with water damage. His eyes traced the patterns and he imagined the water dripping through into the room.