Run, Mummy, Run by Glass Cathy

Author:Glass, Cathy [Glass, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2011-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

‘A favourite of mine,’ the monk said, following her gaze. ‘Samyutta Nikaya, 1,10. Carry it in your heart, child. We shall be waiting for you.’

Chapter Eighteen

Radiant. The word echoed in her mind as she ran down the path and to the bus stop. ‘You look radiant tonight,’ she thought Mark used to say in the early days when he’d told her how beautiful she was and that he’d love her forever. Radiant. It was a term she thought he’d used, but now she struggled to remember.

The bus came exactly on time and, handing over the last of her change, she took a window seat. She looked out of the window as her fingers curled around the five-pound note in her pocket and tried to steady her breathing. Her heart pounded and she felt hot and cold at once; she tried not to think about what she was doing but to concentrate on the journey and getting to the school.

An hour later she counted down the stops; the bus slowed and she stood. Making her way to the exit she waited on the platform until the doors swished open. She stepped off and began, head down, towards the school. It was drizzling now, the light but saturating rain of late November. She didn’t have an umbrella, it had broken long ago and she’d never had the money to replace it. The wet quickly seeped through her headscarf, making her shiver with cold. She’d had nothing to eat all day and now wished she’d accepted the monk’s offer of a hot drink. It would have helped a little.

She checked her watch again. It was nearly five to three, she was early because the bus had arrived on time. Her calculations had allowed for it being late – she knew how erratic the services could be. Turning the corner to the school she looked anxiously in all directions, half-expecting to see Mark, which was ridiculous because he never left work early, even on a Friday, and never collected the children from school. She was safe at least until six. There would be plenty of time.

There was only one mother already waiting on the pavement outside the school gates, but Aisha took up her usual place, well away from where the other mothers would eventually congregate. With her hands in her pockets, eyes lowered, she prayed the classes would come out on time at three fifteen. Sometimes they were five, even ten minutes late, if they had been noisy, or the classroom had to be cleaned up after art class.

It would have made sense to have gone in and asked if she could take Sarah and James early, on the pretence of a dental appointment or similar. But she’d never been into the school, not even for parents’ evening; Mark had always insisted he went alone. Now if she went in on some pretext, they might suspect something, see her guilt and know, and she couldn’t risk it, not with so much at stake.

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