One week from when he had discovered the tree, Timi tried to speak to his baby sister Bisi. But, unlike the tree, he wasn’t able to give her what she needed, and she showed no signs of having heard him. Her little fists pawed the air and then her face screwed up as she began to cry.
Mum and Bisi had come home from hospital now. Timi thought he’d feel better now they were back, but, in an odd kind of way, he felt even lonelier than he did before. He was with his mum and Bisi more now, 46but his mum was so tired that he still had to go and stay with his auntie a lot. And Bisi was so small that there wasn’t much that she could do; all she seemed to want was to be with their mum.
‘It won’t be long before she’ll want to play with you,’ Mum said, bundling Bisi to her. ‘She’ll grow up before you know it. You can teach her all the things you know.’
Timi thought his mum might talk about 47his little garden and that he might be able to share that with Bisi, but she didn’t mention it.
It might have been, Timi thought, because he’d been asking every day for another small bag of compost. All of his plants had died from not being watered and he needed to start over again. He’d emptied out all the pots and washed them, ready to go. All he needed now was some compost. He already had some seeds he’d saved that he could use. But there was always a reason why they couldn’t go to the shop to get it. Yesterday they’d got close to leaving, but then Bisi had needed feeding again and, by the time she’d finished and had her nappy changed, it was Timi’s bedtime.
Then, Mum said that she needed Timi 48to be really, really good.
He needed to go stay with his other auntie over the holidays, who lived across the city. The auntie who had been looking after him had family coming to visit, but Mum still needed some help.
Timi had to go somewhere else for the time being.
‘Why can’t I stay with you?’ Timi asked. ‘I can help you look after Bisi.’
‘I just need a bit more time,’ his mum said. ‘To recover. Then we’ll all be together again. It’s just a short stay during the holidays, I promise. It’ll be over before you know it.’
It was a long journey. His other auntie came to collect him. They had to take three different buses and, as Timi sat on the hard seat that felt a bit like carpet, 49clutching his small bag of clothes to his lap, he felt very far from his home, his mum and Bisi. His auntie looked out the window and occasionally pointed things out to him. The buildings looked different to Timi. It was part of the city that he’d never been to before and, though he’d lived here his whole life, it seemed as strange to him as if he were in a different country.
50He knew he wouldn’t be able to return to the library and the tree while he stayed with this auntie. Maybe by the time he came back home, the library would have been knocked down to make way for the flats. Abi had talked about that happening on that first day they went there. And, even if the library was still there, how would the tree survive without water? It would need it more than ever now that it had grown so much bigger. Without Timi, it wouldn’t be able to flourish.
He had a little bed on the floor of the room he was sharing with his auntie’s son. His name was Isaac and he was a couple of years younger than Timi. He reminded Timi a little of the big-eyed boy who had been afraid, except Isaac had nothing to be afraid of and he smiled easily and 51laughed often.
He wanted Timi to play with him all the time, which was nice in a way, although Timi felt himself missing the stillness of the library and wondering, wondering whether the tree was still growing without him.
