‘I need to talk to you about your dad,’ she said slowly.
Laurie frowned, then reached up to rub tears from her eyes.
Nina realised that her daughter was no longer looking directly at her. Her attention was directed over Nina’s shoulder.
With a heavy-bellied certainty that Rob was standing behind her, Nina turned.
She gasped and recoiled. Pain shot through her stiff neck.
The boy – that same boy from the hillside – was standing directly behind her, far too close. His arms were loose at his sides, but his proximity had connotations of an attack.
‘What the hell?’ Nina snapped. ‘Why would you sneak up on someone like that?’
The boy stared up at her, one eyebrow raised. He didn’t speak. He looked to be a similar age to Laurie. His limbs emerged from his baggy T-shirt like sticks from a bundle.
He must have been walking fast to have made it all the way around the inland hillock in such a short time, to approach them along the cliff path from behind.
‘Thomas!’ Laurie called out. Gently, she pushed Nina aside.
The boy gazed at Laurie impassively.
‘Thomas? It’s Laurie. Remember me?’
Thomas’s eyes narrowed.
‘We’re not from the island,’ Laurie said. ‘Well, obviously. I mean, there’s hardly anyone living here so it’d be weird if you’d only bumped into us now.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Thomas asked in a neutral tone.
‘Visiting Gran and Grumps.’ Laurie’s face flushed. She liked this boy. ‘My grandparents. They live here. You must remember me. I was here only the Christmas before last.’
Thomas’s eyes darted to Nina again.
Laurie waved a hand dismissively. ‘Mum’s never been to Hope Island before. My dad was born here. Rob Fisher.’
Thomas nodded slowly.
They stood in an awkward triangle. All of Laurie’s rage appeared to have evaporated, but Nina felt no relief at all. Thomas seemed immune to any sense of having interrupted them. There would be no opportunity to speak to Laurie about her father now.
‘Shall we keep walking?’ Nina suggested. She took a few strides along the cliff path, then turned. Behind her, the two children still appeared to be sizing each other up. Laurie shrugged and set off. After a moment Thomas caught up and kept pace alongside her. Nina continued and decided that she ought not to look back at them again. She heard Laurie’s light laugh. It sounded forced.
The woodland ended abruptly and now Nina could see all the way to the southern tip of the island. There, the land fragmented into enormous, slick rocks dipping into the water; the fractal image deceived the eye so that the precise coastline was impossible to identify. Nina saw a series of small bays with stony beaches and occasional small shacks. Nearer to where she stood, a dozen houses built on the slope were raised at their front ends to keep them horizontal. They were mostly identical weathered wooden buildings, nothing fancy, but it occurred to Nina that the views of the gulf from each of their porches must all be equally impressive and that they had been positioned carefully for precisely that reason, like cinema seats. For a brief moment, Nina fancied that the buildings were snapshots of a single house scudding down the hillside.
She listened for Laurie’s and Thomas’s footsteps, but heard nothing.
Turning, she found that the children were no longer visible, hidden by the outcrop of trees. She waited for more than a minute before retracing her steps.
She froze, just as the two children were frozen in a peculiar tableau.
Fifty metres away, Laurie was perched on the very edge of the cliff top, looking at the ocean below, the tips of her shoes protruding over the edge. Thomas was standing directly behind her, just as when he had appeared behind Nina on the path. His arms were outstretched so that his palms pressed against Laurie’s shoulder blades.
‘Laurie!’ Nina cried out, bursting into a sprint.
Laurie shook her head, but whether it was in response to Nina’s call was impossible to tell. The wind picked up, pushing against Nina as she ran, diminishing her cry.
‘Get away from her!’ Nina shouted. Drawing closer, she could see the taut tendons in Thomas’s scrawny arms. He was strong enough to push Laurie over the cliff edge, if he wanted to. Why didn’t Laurie turn around?
When Nina reached Thomas, she gripped his right shoulder and spun him away from her daughter. He recovered quickly, but his expression remained sullen and unashamed.
Laurie still didn’t turn to face her.
Nina reached up to put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, but the action was too like the boy’s. She clasped her hands together instead.
Finally, Laurie turned. There were no tears in her eyes but her cheeks were pink. Her eyes raised to look at Thomas, then dropped to the ground.
‘Get a grip, Mum,’ she said quietly.
Laurie set off towards the houses on the slope. Thomas followed and Nina brought up the rear, taking gulps of air and watching the boy for any sudden movements.
They came parallel to the edge of the woodland. One building at the top of the slope, hidden until now, was different to the others. Its horizontal pure-white slats reminded Nina of the Baptist churches she had seen alongside highways on the journey from the airport.
A woman hopped from its porch and headed directly towards Nina. She was carrying something in the crook of her arm. A baby. Now Nina could hear its wailing. The woman wore a pale, floral skirt that floated away from her and her long hair became a horizontal streak, making her appear lopsided as she navigated the grassy slope.
‘Thomas!’ she called out. Of course. The boy’s mother. ‘Come on in now. You haven’t eaten a thing all day.’
Thomas trudged sullenly towards the house without saying goodbye to Laurie.
The woman grimaced as the baby in her arms shrieked and pulled at her hair. She turned her attention to Nina and Laurie. ‘Lord! Laurie Fisher, is that you? Aren’t you a beanpole now! I’d give you a bear hug, but His Highness here wouldn’t allow it.’ To Nina, she said, ‘He’s been grizzling all week. I’d say it was teeth but a three-month-old with teeth? Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?’
Nina tried to shake off her earlier shock and offered a smile. She could barely remember Laurie’s first six months. Her brain had blanked it all out. When she had abandoned breastfeeding within the first week, Rob had been perfectly understanding about it; in fact, he had been pleased that bottle-feeding would allow him to be more hands-on, sooner than many of the other dads. The idea of something with teeth near her nipples was gruesome, but only slightly more so than the idea of breastfeeding at all.
‘I’m Laurie’s mum,’ she said, holding out her hand. ‘Nina.’
‘Marie Maddox.’ She laughed at the awkwardness of using her left hand to shake Nina’s right. Her wide face was freckled and the gap between her front teeth made her goofily likeable. ‘This little beast is Niall, and I guess you’ve already met Thomas. I love your accent. British, but not high-and-mighty, you know? So, you’re with Rob?’
‘He isn’t here, I’m afraid.’
‘Mine neither. Fallon works on the mainland, in haulage. It sucks, right?’
Nina paused. ‘Yep.’
Marie gestured at Thomas, who had almost reached the white house. ‘Fallon being away so much of the time is getting him down this year. Look at the slump in those shoulders. He’s been like that since the end of the semester. Still. You here for long?’