‘It’s Daniel, isn’t it? We met downstairs in the shop.’ The man held up one of the newspapers and tapped his finger beside Daniel’s picture on the front page. ‘I didn’t mean to frighten you earlier.’ Daniel couldn’t remember anything about the face that had bent down and looked into his. ‘You were busy chewing things over. I understand.’ And the man smiled as though he could see right inside Daniel, at what he was really thinking.
Daniel watched the tops of his feet winking in their hospital slippers as he thought about leaving. But the nurse had vanished from her station, and abandoning his father with someone he didn’t know felt wrong, however ordinary the man might look in his suit, his dark hair flecked with grey. Like any businessman who had just stepped off a train.
‘Do you know my dad from work? Is that why the nurse let you into the ward? Are you an accountant like him?’
The man just smiled. ‘How’s your father doing?’
‘No change.’
‘No worse then.’ And the man grinned as though it was the best news in the world. ‘I’m sure he’s going to be fine, Daniel.’
‘Not even the doctors know that yet.’ Daniel took hold of his father’s hand quickly, afraid of having said something not meant to be heard.
‘It was a terrible thing to happen to you both. You must have been very scared down there in the dark.’
Daniel nodded and pressed his hands together, making his fingers click.
The man placed the newspaper down on the bed and Daniel shook his head at the headline.
‘It wasn’t a miracle,’ he said.
‘How do you know?’
‘Because what was the point if it was?’ Daniel glanced at his father’s pale face. Not a flicker.
‘Actually, I have a theory about that that I wanted to talk to you about,’ replied the man, producing a business card from the inside pocket of his jacket and holding it out between two fingers as slender as chicken bones.
Daniel reached forward and took the card. Written in fine black print was:
The Very Revd Samuel Lawson
‘I’m retired now,’ said Lawson. ‘But I’m very interested in speaking to you about what happened. If you turn the card over—’
But Daniel tore the card in half and threw the pieces at the bin. Lawson just kept staring at the boy, as if nothing had happened at all.
‘I think you should leave,’ said Daniel. ‘My dad isn’t into God. Neither am I. It was luck I got out, that’s all.’
Lawson shook his head. ‘I think you might have been rescued . . . saved, to go on and do things you could never have dreamt of being able to do before.’
‘I’ll call for the nurse,’ warned Daniel, stretching out a hand for the bell beside the bed. But, before he could reach it, a golden spot of heat blossomed suddenly behind his ribs, making him stop. It was ticklish, not uncomfortable or painful, but odd enough to make a hand fly to his chest in a panic and he looked up at Lawson to tell him that something was wrong. But the man was smiling, nodding gently as if he already knew. His body was straining slightly, the muscles around his eyes twitching.
‘The talent you have is very powerful, Daniel. I saw it downstairs in the shop, as bright as a star inside you. I can look right into a person and see things about them. That’s why I know what happened to you down there in the dark. I know you asked to be saved, that you whispered to the rock you were lying on and told it you wanted to grow up and be someone. I also know you scratched a word on it too, which none of the newspapers have mentioned. I wrote it down on the back of that business card after we met downstairs so you’d believe me.’ He gestured at the two pieces on the floor.
Daniel’s fingers pressed harder on his chest because he wanted to touch the wonderful golden heat inside him. ‘Who are you?’ he whispered.
‘A man with my own talents too. Daniel, there’s so much more to the world than people realize but I’m willing to show you everything I know. We have a chance to make the fit, you and I.’ He glanced at the door, head cocked as though listening to something outside the room. ‘I think I can show you what I mean, just a flavour, if you’ll let me.’
Before Daniel could ask anything more, Lawson’s face began to tighten and, as it did so, the boy felt the golden spot inside his chest expand, making him gasp, but not from pain because the sensation was too calm and gentle for that. He felt light-headed. Relaxed. All the tension that had been in his neck and shoulders melted away.
‘Can you hear them?’ asked Lawson, the muscles in his face twitching and his brow lit by a sheen of sweat. ‘Tell me if you can.’
Daniel nodded when he heard the distant sound of voices somewhere inside him. ‘Who are they? What’s going on?’
‘They’ll be here in a few minutes. They’re coming to see you and your father to tell you what’s going to happen next. I know that because your talent allows me to see and know things that my own gifts wouldn’t ordinarily allow.’
As the voices grew louder, Daniel began to feel dizzy. He started to panic. Shook his head. ‘I don’t like it. Stop it. Please. It feels too strange. I’m scared.’ As his fear grew, he felt the warm golden spot in his chest begin to dim.
Suddenly, the strain in Lawson’s face eased and the sound of the voices inside Daniel disappeared, and the heat in his chest vanished, leaving a cold dark spot.
Lawson was already picking up his briefcase and heading for the door as Daniel began to start thinking for himself again. Lawson turned and looked at the boy before he left. ‘Daniel, if we’re to make the best fit we can then it’s up to you. You’re going to have to trust me, open your heart to me. The fit can only work properly if two people want to work together. You and I have the chance of doing incredible things, perhaps even helping your father. That’s what you want most of all, isn’t it, to help him? Making a fit might be the only way. But it’s up to you to make it happen.’
The door closed with a thunk and Daniel heard Lawson’s footsteps ticking quickly over the tiled floor. Gradually fading. By the time they were gone, Daniel felt strong enough to stand, and he pulled his dressing gown closer and walked a few wobbly paces until he was bending down and picking up the two pieces of Lawson’s business card. He laid them face down on a small table in the corner of the room, spelling out a single word written in black ink on the back:
HELP
Daniel kept staring at the word on the torn bits of card because it looked like he had scrawled it there in his own hand for a second time.
Thoughts clicked and ticked.
He was only dimly aware of the door opening again as he put his hand to his chest, wishing for the cold, empty spot beneath his ribs to be warm again, wondering how Lawson had done that.
He thought he heard someone saying his name.
When a hand touched his shoulder, Daniel flinched and gripped the table. Something sweet and lemony prickled his nose as he looked round into the face of a middle-aged woman.
‘Daniel?’ she said with an American twang in her voice. He opened his mouth and then closed it. ‘Daniel, I’m Jane. Your aunt.’ But all he could think about was Lawson. About the questions he had for the man. ‘Daniel, what’s the matter? Are you feeling ill?’
‘Nothing. Please, I want to go.’ He swept up the pieces of Lawson’s card from the table into a cupped hand. But when he tried to walk away his aunt grabbed his arm, staring at him with grey eyes that looked like tiny rings of granite drilled through from the inside.
‘But I’ve just got here. Don’t you have anything to say to me? I’ve come from the other side of the world. From California. To look after you.’
Daniel thought about that.
‘But you and Dad hate each other. I’ve told everyone at the hospital that.’
His aunt glanced at the doctor and the nurse standing by the door and then took Daniel’s hand in hers. She squeezed his fingers and he squeezed back, but only because he wanted all this now to be a dream, so he could wake up.
But he didn’t.
‘I know you’re upset,’ said his aunt. ‘That we don’t know each other too well because of what’s gone on between your father and me. But I’m the only family you have. And right now you need someone looking out for you. So how do you feel about me taking you home? The doctors think you’re well enough. I bought you some clothes at the airport because I came here as soon as I landed. We’ll come visit your father every day, I promise.’ And she kept staring at Daniel, waiting for him to say yes as she felt his fingers squeezing harder and harder.