Leaving Sophie Dean by Alexandra Whitaker

Author:Alexandra Whitaker
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Published: 2012-03-26T03:00:00+00:00

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But as it turned out, their friendship was cemented the very next day. Sophie was once again reading a magazine, glancing up so often to keep an eye on the boys at the swings that she kept losing her place on the page. It wasn’t a very interesting article—entitled “Coping Alone,” wouldn’t you know—but it must have held her attention for longer than she thought, because when she looked up again, the swings were empty, and a quick scan of the playground revealed nothing either. Panic surged, and she was already on her feet when she spotted Hugo squatting next to a parked car and peering beneath it. She started toward him, feeling relief until she saw that he was speaking to someone under the car, someone who could only be Matthew and who, since no part of him was showing, must have crawled under from the other side—the street side, the dangerous traffic side. “Matthew!” she shouted, running toward them now, banging her thigh on a fender as she barged between two parked cars and out into the street. All she could see of him were his legs poking out from beneath the car, where he was lying on his stomach, apparently trying to reach something. Then she saw the car coming. A car was coming, and in its path lay Matthew’s little red-corduroy-clad legs. The driver had her head down, not looking at the road, fiddling with something, not looking. Sophie stood with her eyes locked on the driver as the car bore down on her son, her mind like molasses, thinking slowly, word by emphatic word: She doesn’t see him. But Sophie didn’t move. She stood stock-still.

It was in a distant, dreamlike way that she registered a shout from somewhere, then someone hurling herself toward the car and smacking its hood in warning. There was a squeal of brakes, the driver was flung forward against her seat belt, the car rocked to a stop just before the little red legs, and the driver got out to help Florence—for it was Florence who had leaped into the street—pull Matthew out from under the parked car. He was clutching a clawing kitten. “I saved him! He was scared of that big dog, but I saved him!” Sophie observed the events as though at one remove. Numbly, she hugged Matthew and witnessed the driver’s departure. Dimly, she heard Florence say, “Hey, people freeze up. It can happen to anyone.” She submitted to Florence’s reassuring hug, gazing impassively ahead, seeing nothing there but her own inadequacy.

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