One day, a few weeks after the holiday when Timi had stayed with his auntie and Isaac, he was on his way to the library to visit the tree when he spotted Abi and Mo on the street. They had not spoken to Timi much since he had said that he wasn’t going to come with them to the park that time.
They were across the road from him, with some other kids. They walked so closely together that it was hard to tell them apart. Timi heard one of them yell something loudly, but he didn’t look 68over at them.
He shrank against the shopfront and hoped that they hadn’t seen him. When he was sure that they would have passed him, he glanced across the road and saw that they had disappeared down the street.
He needed to get to the library to see the tree. It had been a few days since he’d been able to get away.
Timi still looked around carefully like he had done the first time he came to the library on his own. He didn’t spot anyone and when he went in, closing the door behind him, he felt a sense of calm rush over him as he walked over to the tree.
The trunk was thick and strong now, and textured so that Timi could fit his fingers into the pattern of holes upon the bark. He patted it and then went to the 69kitchen to fill the bucket.
He was lugging the first bucket of water back to the tree when he heard the sound of the door handle opening. He wasn’t sure what to do – whether to let the water fall from the bucket and pour out across the floor, or to hide, or what. So, he ended up freezing, the bucket in his hand, standing still exactly where he was.
‘What are you doing?’ said a voice that Timi recognised immediately. It was the same question that she’d asked him when she had first met him at the after-school club.
Abi was at the door with Mo and the other kids from the street.
All staring at him, while the bucket of water slipped from his hand and the water hit the floor with a splash. 70
