Carol had watched Dylan turn away from the procession with a note of concern. Where was he going? What was to become of the procession? She hesitated a moment – should she go after him and see what was going on? With a small sigh, she gathered her grandchildren and together they headed in the same direction as Dylan. She got as far as The Wood Oven, then saw him coming back at them. She was about to call out but he marched past, ignoring her. A figure further up the street came out onto the pavement. It was Imogen. Carol looked back in the direction where Dylan had vanished and shrugged. Something was going on between them, but she hadn’t a clue what.
‘Come on, let’s go down to the reservoir,’ said Carol. ‘Maybe the bear’s gone that way too.’
As they came into the car park for Heron Water, they all stopped, seeing something lying against one of the trees.
‘It’s the costume,’ said Phoenix.
‘We don’t have a straw bear,’ said Pepper sadly.
‘No,’ said Carol. She looked around for Dylan. Why had he dumped the costume?
‘You could do it, Grandma,’ said Phoenix.
She laughed. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Yes, you could. You made him. You can be him!’ said Pepper.
She really didn’t want to. It was heavy, that much she knew. But the kids were looking at her as if she might be SuperGran and save the day. And it would only be for a few minutes, while the ceremony took place.
‘What about you two?’ she asked.
‘We’ll be OK,’ said Phoenix. ‘Can we have some money for the cafe?’
Carol laughed. Gave him ten pounds. He hugged her delightedly then took Pepper’s hand.
‘Look after each other!’ called Carol as they ran off.
That’s decided then, thought Carol. She put on the costume and headed towards the water.
A few people saw her coming and smiled and waved. Parents leaned down to small children, pointing out the straw bear. The little ones looked on, wide-eyed, and gave half-hearted waves; part wanting to join in the fun, part terrified at the cone-headed, faceless straw creature.
Carol couldn’t wait to take the costume off. It was more difficult to move in than she had anticipated. She was about to head over to the yew tree and let the Spring Queen slay the bear so she could find her grandchildren and join in the festivities when she heard a shout from the other direction. It was a voice she recognized: James’s.
She glanced over, moving her head under the costume to try and get a better view. It was awkward – the slot in the straw for the eyes was not designed for her height, but she caught a glimpse of several men in what looked like an argument of sorts. Lorna was there too.
Something was wrong. Carol looked back at the tree. Maybe they could wait two minutes. She headed over to her husband and daughter, stumbling as she went.
As she got closer, she saw James had a bloodied face. She reeled, tried to move faster. Dylan was also there, she realized, and Imogen. What the hell was going on? Dylan was being held back by some of the other men. Was it he who had inflicted those injuries on her husband? Whatever for?
She was almost upon them when she felt a warmth on her arm.
Strange.
She tried to tilt her head, see through the slot. The warmth was getting uncomfortable now. Hot. Burning.
Then she smelled something. Smoke.
A rising sense of panic ran through her.
Carol’s death hit Lorna hard. It wasn’t until she lost her mother that she realized just how much she had taken her for granted in life. When the will was read, she learned she had been left everything. She was grateful that the two-timing bastard James hadn’t got a penny. Lorna thought carefully about how she would use her inheritance and perhaps always knew in the back of her mind that it would pay for her children’s schooling. She reconciled the thought that Carol hadn’t approved with the argument that her mother’s disapproval was only because she had planned to spend it on herself. Something that wasn’t now possible. That cruise Carol had been thinking of. Other cruises to follow, no doubt. Lorna booked one for herself and her family in memory of her mother, and they enjoyed three weeks in the Caribbean that Easter. It helped her grieve, she said, to do something her mother was passionate about.
Thankfully her mother had never known about the theft and Lorna used a bit of her inheritance to return the monies she’d taken from the PTA. Secretly, of course, no one needed to know it had been ‘borrowed’, and James agreed to keep it quiet. He had enough to deal with regarding his guilt over the affair. Another blessing: her mother had never known for sure that James had been cheating on her. Worse, that it was with a woman the same age as her daughter. Lorna vowed never to go to Imogen’s restaurant ever again.
At first, Imogen had wanted to involve the police. Rosie had been almost strangled, for God’s sake. It was a terrible event in a night of terrible events, but when she brought it up with Dylan, he shut her down. Their daughter also had her hands dirty, he said. He didn’t believe that Nancy would have done anything fatal and wouldn’t entertain a conversation that she might. For once, Imogen had no choice but to go along with what he said. Their own relationship was also under scrutiny and, after many painful late-night discussions, they both decided it was better to part. Imogen moved to the next village and Dylan, for now, took a small flat there too, so he could stay close to Rosie. She needed close parenting, he said, still unable to believe the way their daughter had attempted to humiliate Lara the night of the festival.
Nancy had expected to hear from the police after her attack on Rosie. But the days ticked by and nothing happened. Rosie wasn’t at school the following Monday and the restaurant was closed. James Whitman had taken indefinite compassionate leave and in fact never returned to Ripton Primary, instead accepting a new, more senior post some months later as an executive head in charge of a dozen schools in the next county. On the first day of school after the festival, Miss Young had had a talk with the class and Nancy was relieved at how she handled everything with care and sensitivity. Nancy had heard rumours that Miss Young was going to leave at the end of the year but a new head teacher was appointed and the gossip around the playground became that Miss Young had been asked to stay on.
Once, Nancy asked Lara what she meant on the night of the festival, that strange thing she’d said: ‘You don’t find out’, but Lara looked at her puzzled and said she didn’t remember. Nancy let it go.
Two days after the Straw Bear Festival, Nancy got a phone call from Martin that made her burst into tears with relief. Beth had come round. She was disorientated at first but every day she became stronger. The doctors expected her, in time, to make a full recovery.