Читать книгу Sarah Lean - 3 Book Collection - Sarah Lean, Sarah Lean - Страница 34

DAD WAS WAITING FOR ME AFTER SCHOOL THE next day. I had to stand outside the classroom while he talked to Miss Steadman and Mrs Brooks. Miss Steadman kept looking through the doorway and in the end came out to give me a crossword puzzle. She smiled and closed the door behind her. I couldn’t do the puzzle.

Dad was in there for ages. And even then we didn’t go home. We had another appointment.

The doctor pressed my tongue down with a spatula, prodded around my neck, measured my temperature. He said he couldn’t find anything wrong with me and that Dad was doing the right thing by talking to the people at school. He was going to send a report to the school and they would contact an expert called Dr Colborn, a psycho or something like that.

Dad looked more worried when we left than when we went in. And it made me feel scared of Dr Colborn. I started to think that she was going to make me tell her that I saw my dead mum and then tell me it wasn’t true and make me say it wasn’t true. And worse, if I said it wasn’t true, it might make Mum go away forever and then I might never see Homeless again. Already I hated Dr Colborn.

We still didn’t go home. Dad said he needed to go back into work to catch up on what happened at a meeting. The bus dropped us outside H. Packaging. Five men were waiting outside, the top half of their blue overalls tied by the arms round their waists. They hardly lifted their heads as Dad passed.

“How did it go?” Dad said.

“You’re too late,” one of them said. “We’re out. All of us.”

Dad told me to wait. He slammed the door behind him and started shouting. Rain drummed on the metal roof. It sounded like a war had started. I covered my ears, but there was pounding and hammering coming from inside too.

Luke was waiting to speak to Dad when we got home, his voice was shaky, his eyes wide and glassy.

“A couple of blokes from your work came round. They said they wanted to speak to you. Has something bad happened?”

Dad hid behind his hands, rubbed round his face and took his time before he spoke. “They’ve all lost their jobs.”

Luke’s voice cracked. “Does that mean you too? Are we going to have to move again?”

“It’s not that …” Dad moved quickly, hooked his elbow round Luke’s neck, pulled him in.

“It’s OK, I’ve still got my job. It’s just I promised I’d look after them.”