The Playdate by Louise Millar

Author:Louise Millar [Millar, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781451656671
Google: 9j3dD3x60hEC
Amazon: 145165667X
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Published: 2012-07-03T07:00:00+00:00

25

Suzy

The park was very quiet when Suzy arrived with the boys.

They had already been here after school, but Henry was so restless this evening, making strange squealing noises and jumping at the twins till they cried, that she decided to take them out again.

As they reached the play equipment at the far end of the park, she recognized the little girl hanging off the monkey bars, by the color of her long hair. It looked like dipped gold. Not like Nora’s red hair, of course. That would be pale strawberry blonde, her face sprinkled with freckles, her skin creamy white like Suzy’s.

The little girl was climbing up the monkey bars and leaning forward, attempting to reach the first bar. Her mouth hung open with concentration, her summer dress lifting up unselfconsciously to show underpants dotted with daisies.

Suzy looked around. The café had shut at 5:30 P.M., the schoolkids dispersed home for tea. Just a few dog walkers strolled across the empty football fields, one throwing a red ball for a greyhound that whipped across the park at breakneck speed. Henry ran to the far side of the play area and climbed on the pretend tractor, making growling noises as he turned the wheel. She could tell by how hyper he was when she picked him up from school that he was missing Rae. Rae was so good for him. Calmed him down.

The twins lay asleep in their stroller, their perfect little faces collapsed like old men’s, mouths loose, cheeks soft and drooping. Suzy put the stroller brake on, and kissed them both on the head, while watching the little girl.

Where on earth was her mother?

“Can you help me?” the little girl called.

“Can I help you?” Suzy replied, pointing at herself.

“Can’t reach it,” the child panted, trying again.

“It’s Hannah, right?”

The girl nodded.

“Hon, where’s your mommy?” Suzy asked.

“My mummy’s running,” the little girl said, waving her arm toward the other side of the park. “She wants to be thinner. She goes to Weight Watchers, too.” In the distance Suzy saw the back of a plump woman in black trousers and a white T-shirt jogging away from them, well out of shouting distance.

“Does your mommy leave you on your own?” she asked the little girl, incredulous. It would take a second to snatch the child. Even if the woman saw someone take her, she couldn’t run across the park quickly enough to stop it. A few seconds. That’s all it took to hurt a child for life.

“It’s OK, I’m a big girl now.”

Suzy sighed. “Well, hon, I’m sorry, I am not going to lift you up just in case your mommy doesn’t want you to do this. If you fell, she might be cross with me. But tell you what, you can ask her when she comes back.”

“OK,” said the little girl, jumping down. She ran past Suzy and began to climb up a ten-foot-high pole, using her bare feet to push her up the conical metal. “Where’s Rae?” she asked, looking down at Suzy with innocent brown eyes.

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