Footsteps In Ashbridge Episode 04
“I’m so sorry,” Duncan apologised.
He picked up the phone.
“It’s damaged, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t worry,” the young woman said, holding out her hand for it.
Her smile faltered a little when she saw the cracked screen.
“Accidents will –”
“I’ll have to go after my son.”
Duncan could see that Jamie had taken off and already turned the corner.
Goodness knows where he was heading – home was the other way.
“I’m Duncan McIvor. I’m on my lunch break – I work in the library.
“Come and see me in twenty minutes. I’ll pay for a repair or a replacement, whatever it takes.”
“Don’t . . .” she began, but Duncan didn’t wait to hear what else she was going to say.
He ran, dodging Saturday morning shoppers, and stopped at the corner.
Jamie could either have carried on, round to the right and the next corner, or crossed over to the park at the zebra crossing.
He focused on the park.
Yes, there was a boy about the right height, wearing a blue sweatshirt, standing still as if catching his breath, just inside the gate and screened by trees.
Was it Jamie? The boy began to run, elbows pumping, in Jamie’s characteristic fashion.
Duncan caught up with him near the swings.
“It’s OK, Jamie,” he said.
He knelt down beside him and gathered him in his arms.
“You heard the lady. It was an accident.
“You should have looked where you were going, but you couldn’t have known what would happen. We’ll sort it out.”
Jamie stopped sobbing.
“How?” he asked anxiously. “Will I give her my pocket money?”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Duncan suppressed a smile. “But when we see her again you must apologise, OK?
“Now, shall we have hot chocolate?”
“With marshmallows?” Jamie’s face brightened.
“Of course!” Duncan stood up and took Jamie’s hand.
As they made their way to the Duckpond Café, a voice called over to them.
There was Imogen waving to him from a group of people by the flower-beds.
She’d been invited by her best friend Chloe to attend her dad’s wedding and the bridal party was being photographed.
Chloe was in her bridesmaid’s dress and Imogen was looking very pretty in a pink dress.
The smile he didn’t see much of these days was lighting up her face.
He made as if to go over, but Jamie, shy as usual, tugged at his hand so he contented himself with waving back.
He’d have liked to have gone and congratulated the newly married couple, but he was bound to see them before long, given that Imogen and Chloe spent so much time together.
In fact, Chloe probably saw more of Imogen than he did himself.
Leaving Jamie at an outside table, he went in to order the hot chocolate.
This had been a favourite place to visit ever since Imogen was tiny, a baby who didn’t seem to need any sleep . . .
The memory was so strong that Duncan could almost see his wife and himself as they were 14 years ago, rocking the pram and drinking coffees to keep themselves awake after another sleepless night.
He shook his head to get the image out of his mind.
Some days it was still hard to believe that he was now a single parent to Imogen and Jamie, and it wasn’t easy, especially with no family nearby.
His mum and dad, now living back in Edinburgh, had had the children to stay for a fortnight and put them on the train home yesterday so that Imogen could attend the wedding.
Every second Saturday he had to work and childcare had to be arranged.
Imogen was at the age when she was with her friends most of the time.
So far she’d done as he asked and texted her whereabouts every hour or so.
It was different, though, with Jamie.
Very occasionally there was an arrangement with a classmate’s parents that Jamie spend Saturday with them, but usually he went next door to Mrs Patel.
The lady in her late sixties and the eight-year-old boy had become unlikely friends.
Duncan had wanted to pay her, but she would have none of it.
She enjoyed Jamie’s company, she said, and they spent the time making Indian sweets, playing cards and watching wildlife programmes.
But Mrs P was on holiday so Jamie had to go to work with Duncan today – luckily with the library being a public space it wasn’t really a problem.
Duncan passed Jamie his hot chocolate and sat down beside him.
Surreptitiously, he looked at his watch.
He’d said 20 minutes to the girl with the marmalade-coloured hair and half of that was already up.
Was she a newcomer to the area, he wondered, or just visiting?
To be continued…