Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell Page 0,64

hello?”

Poppy looks up at her and says, “Do you think Dad would mind?”

“I don’t know,” she replies. “Do you think he’ll mind?”

Poppy shrugs. “He might. But then . . .” Her face is set with a slightly staged resolve. “. . . I don’t have to tell him, do I? It’s not like he tells me everything he does.”

“I don’t want to be responsible for you lying to your father, Poppy.”

“But I wouldn’t be lying, would I? I’ll just tell him we went for tea. And that is true.”

“Yes. That is true.”

“And it’s not as if he’ll say and did you do anything else? Is it?”

“It’s unlikely.”

“And he might not even be there. My cousin.”

“No. He might not. But I could give him a call. Just in case. Would you like me to do that?”

Poppy nods, once.

Laurel taps in his number and presses call.

Poppy’s steps slow as they turn onto the front path.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” she says.

“We don’t have to. It’s fine.”

But before they have a chance to change their minds, the front door is pulled open and Joshua is standing there in a hoodie and jeans, another young man standing just behind in a fluorescent green T-shirt and they’re both saying, “Oh my God. Poppy! Poppy! Come in! Come in out of the cold. My God, if it isn’t little Poppy!” and things of that ilk and Poppy turns briefly to Laurel, who smiles encouragingly at her, and they are both swept into the house on a wave of slightly manic hospitality and delight.

“So,” says Joshua, his hands in his pockets, bouncing up and down and beaming, “so you’re Poppy. Wow! Sit down, Poppy. And Laurel. Sit down. Please. Tea? Coffee? Anything?”

Poppy sits primly and shakes her head. “No thank you,” she says. “We just had tea and cake,” and Sam and Joshua look at each other and hoot and Joshua says:

“An English cousin! We finally have an English cousin. We already have a Canadian cousin, two American cousins, and a German cousin. And now we finally have an English one. Wow. And look at you. I can see my grandmother in you, so I can.”

Poppy smiles grimly, slightly overwhelmed.

“So, this used to be your house? Is that right?”

“Maybe,” she replies, looking around herself. “I can’t remember.”

“We should give you a tour, wouldn’t you say? What do you think?”

Poppy glances again at Laurel, who nods, and they follow Joshua and Sam through the house. Poppy is uncharacteristically quiet at first, peering nervously around doorways.

Joshua pushes a door at the top of the landing, “This must have been your room. Look, it still has the wallpaper.”

Poppy falters for a moment on the threshold and then she steps in, her eyes wide, her hands running across the wallpaper. It’s pale gray with a repeated pattern of pink rabbits and green tortoises on it, engaged in a running competition. The tortoises are all wearing sweatbands and the rabbits have on running shoes.

“I remember this wallpaper,” she says breathlessly. “The hares. And the tortoises. I used to see them running in the night. I’d stare at them and then I’d shut my eyes and they’d be running. Hundreds of them. Through my dreams. I remember it. I really do.”

“You want to see some more?” says Joshua, giving Laurel a knowing look. “There’s another room downstairs. I wonder if you’ll remember that, too?”

Quietly they descend back to the ground floor, through the kitchen and then down into the basement.

Poppy stops once more on the threshold, grips the outside of the door with her fingertips. She gasps and says, “I don’t want to go in there.”

“Oh, but it’s fine,” says Joshua. “It’s just a room.”

“But . . . but . . .” Her eyes are wide and her breathing is audible. “I’m not allowed in there. My mum told me never to go in there.”

Laurel touches her shoulder softly. “Wow, that’s an interesting memory. Why do you think that was?”

“I don’t know,” says Poppy, sounding vaguely tearful. “I don’t know. I just remember thinking there was a monster down there. A big, scary monster. But that’s just silly, isn’t it? There was no monster down there, was there?”

“Did you have pets?” asks Laurel. “When you were tiny? Do you remember having some hamsters?”

Poppy shakes her head slowly and walks out of the kitchen and toward the front door.

35

Laurel takes Poppy home after their visit to Noelle’s house. They walk in silence for a while. Laurel has never known Poppy to be so quiet.

“Are you OK?”