Page 61 of The Square

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - ALEC

Charlie came backinside, shook his head at his brothers, and all four of them exited into another room. Some telekinetic brother thing, I reckon. Now it’s just me, Eliza, and a small human with eyes that look still a bit sleepy and also strikingly familiar.

“Mummy,” the child says, “are you making tea?”

“I was.”

“Can I have some?”

Eliza continues looking at me and after a moment says, “Of course, dear.” She goes to the cupboard and takes out a delicate-looking miniature teacup and equally miniature saucer. As she pours, I approach the small human.

“Hello, little one, what’s your name?”

“Alecandra,” she says. It stops me in my tracks.

“Alexandria,” her mother chimes in. “Trust me, I’ll see to it that she learns to get all the syllables out.”

“What’s your name?” the little one asks. She’s a bit tricky to understand, but she talks quite well, I decide. I know nothing about children, but she seems bright. I’m going to decide that she is.

“My name? My name is Alec, funny enough. Alec van den Berg.”

She laughs. “That’s a silly name.”

I laugh too. “Yeah, I suppose it might be. How old are you, Alexandria?”

“Mummy? How old is I?”

“You’re two, luv,” Eliza says, setting the tea onto the table. “Two going on twenty. Now take a seat in your chair. Use both hands.”

With some effort, Alexandria scrambles up into a chair and grips her tiny cup with her chubby little fingers. She attempts to drink and manages to spill as much as she lands in her mouth. Then she pours some tea onto the teddy bear she’s still holding. The whole exercise is an adorable fokken mess.

I step to Eliza, who bristles as I approach.

“Nice kid,” I say, my voice low.

“She is.”

“Nice place,” I note, looking around.

Eliza’s eyes go cold and dead. Without taking her glare off me, she says, “Andra, dear. Go see what your uncles are up to, will you?”

“I was supposed to hopscotch with that other man.”

“That other man has to go, luv. See if Uncle Theo wants to hopscotch. You know how good he is at it.”

Alexandria giggles. “He is pretty good!” she says, with a giddy enthusiasm that I don’t think I’ve ever felt about anything. And then she finishes spilling the rest of her tea everywhere and goes.

Once she’s gone—“Why are you three still here?” Eliza asks.

“We’ve been here for five minutes.”

“That’s about seven minutes longer than you’re welcome.”

“Hey, you lot brought us here.”

“Yes, well, in the absence of a plan, I’m not sure what we were supposed to do.” She throws a dish towel down, saying, “Goddamn it, Alec.”

“Don’t blame me. I didn’t ask for you to come after me. I was figuring it out fine on my own.”