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‘You don’t know Darcey-Mae very well, do you?’ he said, in a long-suffering tone of voice.
She didn’t, but she suspected Darcey-Mae took after her mother. ‘You’re right. But I do know if things aren’t right between you and your boyfriend or girlfriend, you can change your mind. That’s what happened between me and Harry’s dad. We changed our minds, and he wanted to be with somebody else. You don’t have to be Darcey-Mae’s boyfriend if you don’t want to, Oliver.’
‘But she’ll tell the dinner nans,’ he said, a note of panic in his voice she couldn’t understand.
‘What will she tell the dinner nans?’
‘That I’ve done something bad.’
‘And have you done something bad?’
‘No!’ he said, outraged.
‘Then there’s nothing to worry about. Darcey-Mae wouldn’t make things up.’
‘You really don’t know Darcey-Mae,’ he repeated, looking shifty.
Oliver fell silent and walked beside her, kicking a stone along the path beside her, rattling it off the stone walls on either side of the track. After a while he spoke again.
‘I liked being in your tent last night when we read the Titty book. Can I come and read that book again tonight?’
‘Of course you can, Oliver.’ Her heart went out to the little motherless boy.
‘I listen better than Harry, you know. He doesn’t like listening,’ he informed her smugly, making her feel rather less sympathetic.
‘Harry’s good at listening to stories when I read them,’ she said, even though it wasn’t strictly true.
She could see, to her relief, two figures waiting under a tree ahead of them. Matt had caught up with Harry — or Harry had run out of energy.
‘There they are! I knew Harry wouldn’t run off,’ she said, relieved.
‘He runs off at school. He hides from the dinner nans.’
‘He does?’
‘Yeah, he runs off and hides in the nature garden behind the trees.’
This was the first she’d heard of Harry running off at school. Ms. Lewandowska was quick enough to tell her about other things, so why had this remained a secret? ‘Why does he do that, Oliver? Do you know?’
‘Dunno. He says it’s quiet there. And the dinner nans are stinky.’
She knew how he felt. School could be a busy, overwhelming place, full of people and demands, like life. Sometimes it was good to get away from it all — lose yourself. Perhaps that’s what Harry was doing behind a tree in the nature garden.
When they caught up with Matt and Harry, everything was normal again.
‘Sorry, Mam,’ muttered Harry.
‘Everything okay?’ she asked Matt.
‘Fine. We had a chat, didn’t we, Harry?’
‘Yeah,’ Harry said, looking sheepish.
‘I think we’re all good now,’ Matt assured her, and they all set off up the valley again, pressing on through the little path between the fallen rocks which was the only way into the valley from the bottom end.
‘You might want to have a chat to Oliver about Darcey-Mae at some point,’ she whispered when the boys were far enough ahead they couldn’t hear.
‘Oh don’t! I’m forever talking to Oliver about Darcey-Mae throwing her weight about. Let’s forget about that now.’
