Stephanie was valiantly striving to get recent events into perspective. She ate a few chips, and waved away Drew’s efforts to show sympathy. ‘It probably wasn’t just about Miss Milner,’ she said. ‘His mother died at Easter, as well. He told me about it, and said it made him think there couldn’t be a God after all. She was only fifty-five.’
Thea stared at her. ‘Blimey, Steph! When was this?’ The mention of God was no surprise. Stephanie had given a lot of thought to religion in the past six months or so.
‘Oh – just before half-term. I asked him if he was going home to Spain and he said there was no point, and then we just got on to it and he told me the whole story. He knows about Dad and the funerals. People often talk to me about death,’ she finished with a little sigh.
‘So Gabriella was the final straw for him,’ said Thea, a trifle briskly. ‘Do you think?’
‘I think he had quite a lot of worries, that’s all,’ said the girl. ‘One of the boys at school said something this morning – before we knew what had happened.’
‘What sort of something?’ asked Drew.
‘It was about Mr Rodriguez and me. Teacher’s little pet, and some people thinking it might be a little bit more than that. It was the look on his face as he said it – I could tell people had been talking about us.’
‘Oh Steph,’ moaned Thea. ‘Aren’t people awful!’
‘You saw how it was, yesterday. He was only being friendly. But he might have heard what they were saying and got upset about it.’
Drew caught Thea’s eye, and grimaced as if to say Now what do we do?
‘Poor man,’ said Thea weakly. ‘Everything just got too much for him.’
‘Maybe he and Gabriella will be together in heaven,’ said Timmy with a grin.
‘Yes, they will,’ Stephanie told him sternly. She gave her father a hopeful look. ‘Do you think they might be buried together in our field?’
Again Drew seemed to be out of his depth. ‘We’ll have to see,’ he mumbled. ‘But I dare say there’s a chance it could happen.’