jumper riding over his rounded belly. This kindness seemed at odds with the way they’d been so brutally snatched from their lives that Carly began to cry.
What did they want with them? It was all too much.
The tapping of the tree outside grew louder. The room grew smaller. Carly cried harder, fighting for breath as the ceiling pressed down.
She crouched low. She couldn’t breathe.
‘Don’t cry, Carly.’ Her sisters rushed to her side and each draped a thin arm around her neck, pressing their warm bodies against hers, and this made Carly’s tears flow faster.
‘The bear doesn’t want you to be sad.’ Leah reached for the teddy from the box and waved him in front of Carly’s face.
‘It will be okay.’ Marie stroked her hair. ‘I promise. We’ll be home soon and then we’ll go on holiday.’
‘Where to?’ Leah asked.
‘Disneyland probably,’ Marie said.
Carly knew it was wishful thinking. They were supposed to go to Florida last year but it had been cancelled because Dad was too busy with work and, although he promised they’d go away at half-term instead, they didn’t end up going anywhere.
‘See. Don’t cry, Carly. We’ll be on a plane on the way to meet Mickey Mouse soon,’ said Leah even though she was terrified of flying. This small act of bravery led Carly’s lungs to loosen. Oxygen began to flow around her body. The burn in her chest started to subside. She couldn’t give up. She wouldn’t give up. But while she waited for an idea to hit – the perfect plan to get them home – she could distract her sisters. Distract herself.
‘Let’s play a game while we wait to go home.’ She led her sisters over to the mattress and they settled down. Carly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. ‘We each have to name something in the room alphabetically. You start, Leah.’
‘Animal.’
‘There isn’t an animal!’ Marie said.
‘There’s a bear.’ Leah was cuddling the soft toy from the box.
‘If you can have that, I’ll have A teddy for my A,’ Marie said. ‘Carly? Your turn.’
‘Annoying sisters,’ Carly said but they all knew she didn’t mean it.
‘Now. B. Umm… bed! Kind of.’ Marie patted the mattress.
‘Broken glass,’ Carly offered.
‘Bars,’ Leah said flatly and Carly clapped her hands, drawing her sister’s gaze away from the window.
‘My turn to go first, C.’ Carly looked around the room. ‘This is harder.’
‘Not for me!’ Marie shouted. ‘Carly!’
Carly rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, I’m going for carpet.’
‘There isn’t a carpet!’ Marie shoved Carly.
‘There’s a dust carpet!’
‘That would be D then, silly. Pick something else.’ Marie’s eight-year-old logic was often skewed. How she rationalized things was often a source of amusement at home.
‘Okay then… crisps. Your turn, Leah.’
‘Clown.’ Leah began to cry. ‘I don’t like that clown, Carly. He’s watching us.’
They all stared at the graffiti on the back of the door. The clown’s eyes did seem to be fixed on them, his stretched mouth laughing.
‘I don’t want to play any more.’ The brief moment of lightness was gone.
‘Do you want some crisps?’ Carly remembered she hadn’t given the girls their tea. She rubbed her fingers together, still feeling the paper of the £10 note smooth against her skin, almost tasting chips drenched with salt and vinegar.
‘I’m not hungry.’ Leah lay on her side and began to suck her thumb. She hadn’t done that since she was three.
Time dragged. It felt like days since Carly had sat on her back step after school and felt the heat of the sun on her skin. The room was chilly with its bare walls and floors. Outside the last burst of sun streaked the sky orange as it began to dip, and Carly knew they’d grow even colder. One blanket wasn’t enough for them all.
Leah hugged her knees to her chest. Carly could see the goosebumps on her arms.
Marie sat cross-legged, spine rigid, staring at the door that never opened. Carly shuddered. That clown gave her the creeps too.
‘Come on.’ She stood and stretched out a hand to each sister. ‘Let’s warm up.’
‘How?’ Marie asked but she was already standing.
Carly raised her arm above her head and mimed spinning a lasso – ‘5, 6, 7, 8’ – the way she should have done in the kitchen earlier that day.
Tentative at first, the girls’ singing grew louder, stronger, as their feet shuffled across the concrete, hands on their hips. Momentarily it seemed to Carly they could have been somewhere else. Back at home with Bruno barking and jumping up, doing his own dog dance. Carly’s voice faltered