Envy by Amanda Robson

Author:Amanda Robson [Amanda Robson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

108

Faye

A sharp, cold day. Children wrapped up warm after school. Arriving at the play park, I lift Georgia out of her buggy and carefully balance her little legs on the ground. She toddles off towards the slide, walking clumsily like a clockwork toy, waddling her body from side to side. Tamsin dashes to the roundabout. Too far apart for me to watch both of them.

‘Tamsin. Come with me. Let’s help Georgia on the slide first.’

I prepare for battle, but it doesn’t commence. Tamsin is not being awkward today. She smiles and runs to the slide. She climbs up the chute, slipping and sliding, fighting gravity, and meets her sister at the top. I hover anxiously as they sit snuggled close to one another and come down together, smiling and laughing.

‘Swing now,’ Georgia demands.

‘Swing now,’ Tamsin repeats with a giggle.

Tamsin gives Georgia a piggyback to the swings. I follow them. They sit on adjacent seats, and I can push them both at the same time. I watch the rise and fall of their flying bodies. When I was young, I remember being on a swing and thinking I was flying across the top of the world. A feeling of hope and exhilaration. I watch them and wish for a second I was a child again. A child who never made mistakes. A child who wouldn’t have grown up to let Jonah rub the base of her spine.

‘The bad lady is gone,’ Tamsin announces at the top of her swing. ‘She’s never coming back.’ There is a pause. ‘Ms Silverton says I will never see her again.’

‘Will I ever see her?’ Georgia asks.

‘Course not. She’s in prison.’

I stand pushing them, wishing I was swinging with them, Tamsin’s words singing in my head. The bad lady has gone and she’s never coming back.

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