B backs in fast. Spilling cutlery from the trolley, not bothering to pick it up. The table’s piled high but there are no silver domes, not even a white cloth. Something big’s up. The kids find each other’s hands. B turns. Takes a breath, doesn’t want to say what’s coming next. He has to go away. They’ll have enough to eat — a last-minute thing — only two days.
Mouse steps back. ‘But you seem … afraid.’ Because he’s nervy, trembly, like a horse before a race.
Soli leaps in. ‘What’s happening? Where are you going?’
B holds up his hands, shielding his face.
‘What if there’s a fire?’ Tidge. Sitting calmly under the window, holding the doll. And he has a point, a good one.
‘Yes, a fire, we need a key!’ Mouse.
‘Imagine if we’re stuck,’ Soli insists, ‘we’ll burn to death.’
B looks from one to the other as if they’re the most morbidly strange children he’s ever met. He takes the key from his pocket with a deep, doubting breath. Wipes the back of his hand across his lips. ‘This can only be used in an emergency. You can’t go outside. For anything else.’
The kids nod, saucer-eyed.
B walks to the book and places the key carefully on it. ‘You’ll never see your mum and dad again if something goes wrong.’ He shuts the door behind him and instantly opens it again. ‘Whoops, I need the key to lock you in, don’t I?’ He laughs nervously — he never laughs nervously — and his lopsided grin is not quite right, it’s too stiffly in place with a wobble in his lip, a new tic. He snatches the key and backs out. Locks them in. It shoots under the door as if alive with a force of its own.
The kids stare. Hesitate. Lunge.
Soli wins. Of course. She holds the key to her chest and rises on her toes like a pint-sized Mary Poppins about to swoop off a clear foot from the ground — Tidge shuts his eyes and chants, ‘Please don’t sing, please don’t sing’ — then she drops to her heels with a defeated thud. ‘Mum and Dad,’ she whispers fearfully. ‘We can’t.’
‘I’ll mind it if you want,’ Tidge volunteers, all sweetness and light.
His sister looks at him like yeah, right.
Do not seek refuse in anyone but yourselves.