Safe and Sound by Philippa East

Author:Philippa East [East, Philippa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

BACK THEN

Prin and Jane are playing in the bedroom with the curtains closed. It’s August, and the hottest day of the year so far. It is midday and far, far too hot to play outside. Daddy has said that later, once the sun has gone down a bit, he will set the sprinkler up on the lawn. Prin is looking forward to that. She’s excited to show off her cartwheels to Jane. She can almost do them with her legs straight now. She has been practising.

For now, though, Prin and Jane are inside, playing with Prin’s dolls. Prin has a whole story in her head for them to act out, but Jane isn’t keeping up. She seems more interested in making the dolls sit upright, with their legs together and their skirts straight. ‘It doesn’t matter how they sit,’ Prin keeps telling her, but for some reason, it matters to Jane.

Despite the closed curtains, Prin is still hot. Both of them are wearing shorts and T-shirts, but even that feels to Prin like too much. The curtains aren’t really thick enough and the sun is slanting through, making the carpet warm under the window seat, close to where they are sitting. The air in the room is thick and muggy. No breeze. No air at all almost, it feels.

Prin picks up one of the dolls. She has a whole scene in her head, ready to act out. ‘Don’t!’ cries Jane, which is stupid, because it’s Prin’s doll, she can do whatever she likes with it. But Jane has just spent the last five minutes arranging this doll just so, and now she’s upset that Prin has barged in on all that.

Prin lifts the doll towards her. Jane makes a grab for it and gets her by the skirts. Prin is holding the doll by its soft head. Jane tugs, Prin pulls, both of them refusing to let go. It’s a hot, frantic tug-of-war.

Jane pulls again and Prin pulls back even harder. Then she hears it. A ripping sound. She looks down.

Jane is holding the doll in her hands.

And Prin is holding the head.

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