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“Don’t ask,” said Hope, marching out of the cupboard and then out of the classroom.
Ava watched her go. Honestly. The woman would strain the patience of a saint.
ALICE WAS SITTING at a desk, tongue sticking out of one corner of her mouth coloring in a picture. Ava thought how much she looked like her mother sometimes.
School was finished and Hope was taking care of some photocopying, leaving Alice sitting at her desk and waiting to be walked home.
“Is it weird?” Ava asked her.
Alice looked up from her coloring. “Is what weird?”
“Having your mom work at the school?”
Alice grinned. “I like having mum work here, it’s nice.”
Ava nodded and wondered how to get across what was really on her mind. “I can see how it’s nice,” she said carefully. “But I just meant, well, you see your mum all the time at home and then you see her all the time at school as well.”
Alice sniffed and nodded, going back to her coloring. “That’s good though,” she said.
“Is it?” asked Ava. She could see how protective Hope was of Alice and had wondered how Alice felt about things. Apparently, she liked it. Or she didn’t know different.
“It’s good because then mum’s not all by herself.”
“What do you mean?” Ava asked curiously. She really shouldn’t be grilling a child for information on her mother, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Well, my gran does her volunteering so she’s not at home and now my dad doesn’t live with us anymore, so if my mum didn’t come to school then she’d be on her own. Except for Rosie. But mostly Rosie likes to be outside.” Alice looked up. “You can’t be cross at Rosie for going to the toilet in your garden, you know, it’s only natural.”
Ava decided not to touch that subject, so she just nodded. She hadn’t gotten the answers she’d expected. It seemed like perhaps Alice was just as protective of Hope as Hope was of her daughter. “That’s a nice picture,” she said to deflect the situation.
“It’s a cat like Rosie except this cat is a doctor because that’s what she wants to be and you said we could be anything we wanted to be if we worked hard.”
“Huh,” said Ava, looking at the scrawls on the paper and trying to discern which exactly was the cat. “Is she a doctor for people or for other cats?”
Alice looked up at her and Ava felt the weighty stare, as though Alice thought she was quite unbearably stupid. “Other cats, of course.”
“Of course,” agreed Ava.
“How could she reach all the way up to see people patients?” Alice asked. “She’s only a cat.”
“Right.” Ava grinned as Alice went back to her picture.
Apparently she still had a lot to learn about children’s imaginations. But then, with Alice to teach her, she didn’t imagine it would take that long to learn.
“Do you like my mum?” Alice said, still coloring.
“What?” The word came out as a screech.
“My dad’s got a new girlfriend, her name’s Amelia and she’s really nice,” Alice said. “So I think it’s about time that mum found somebody, don’t you?”
Ava swallowed. “I, uh, don’t really think that’s any of our business.”
“That’s what grown ups say when they don’t want to talk about things,” said Alice airily. “I was just thinking that if you wanted you could find my mum a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It would be helpful and mum’s helpful at school to you, so…”
“Ah.”
Alice looked up again. “I think she doesn’t have time to find a friend because she’s looking after me all the time even though sometimes I stay with Gran or with my dad. But it’d be nice, wouldn’t it? Cos having friends is nice.”
Ava nodded weakly, aware that she was now very much out of her depth with this conversation. Alice bent her head over her paper again and Ava busied herself with some lesson planning. By the time Hope came back they were both silently working.
