Everything We Keep by Di Walker (good story books to read txt) 📗

door opened, Agatha didn’t resist. She got in and sat, the wipers going back and forth, back and forth. The driver’s door opened, and she looked over.

Tully’s mother got in. She smiled at Agatha. ‘I’ll take you home. Katherine will be worried sick about you.’

She flicked the car into drive and drove away from the station.

41

Katherine and Chief flew out the door the moment Celeste pulled into the driveway. With the rain still pounding the ground, Katherine opened the passenger door and helped Agatha out. Celeste got out too and soon the three were in the hallway.

Katherine disappeared for a moment and returned with two towels. She handed one to Celeste and wrapped the other and her arms around Agatha. ‘Oh, you’re safe. I was so worried. I tried to call you, but your phone was in your schoolbag.’ She looked at Celeste. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’ Katherine held Agatha, rocking her gently. She could hear the small, low sobs coming from her and she wasn’t going to let her go.

‘She was at the station. In that shelter at the front,’ Celeste said. Katherine nodded.

‘I know the one.’

‘I was driving home, and I’d pulled up at the lights. It was just luck that I saw her.’

‘Perfect luck. Thank you.’

‘Did something happen today? At school? I saw her leave. Tully said she wasn’t her usual self today. All quiet and . . . ’

Katherine didn’t reply. She gave a small shake of her head.

Celeste’s hand moved to Agatha’s back. She gently rubbed it. ‘Tully told me and her dad everything, Agatha. I was wrong. Really wrong about you. I’m sorry.’

Katherine took in a deep breath and mouthed the words ‘thank you’ to Celeste who nodded. ‘I better go.’ Celeste opened the front door, turned and looked at Agatha one more time then left. Katherine stayed in the hall, hugging Agatha, rocking her, until she heard the car drive away. She stepped back and held Agatha’s face in her hands.

‘Now. I think you need to have a shower and get into some dry clothes. Then we’ll talk. Okay?’

Agatha shrugged.

‘No. No more silent shrugging. You know what the Commander would say.’ Katherine smiled.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Agatha said, wiping her face on the corner of the towel.

‘You have a shower and I’ll get dinner organised.’

Katherine listened for the sound of the water running in the shower and then went to the kitchen. She picked up her phone and dialled. ‘She’s home . . . Yes, so worried . . . I know it’s raining but . . . yes, good for the garden . . . but would you like to pop down for dinner? Don’t hurt that foot again . . . see you in a minute.’

Katherine got out the cold roast chicken and salad from the fridge and began to set the table. Chief was looking at her, eager for his own share of the chicken. ‘Just needed to call for backup,’ she said, dropping him a small piece of chicken that he caught in mid-air.

When Agatha emerged from her room, in dry clothes and her washed hair wrapped in a towel, she walked into the kitchen and stopped. There at the table sat Katherine and Rita. ‘I thought I would join you both for dinner. I brought something we may need.’ In the middle of the table sat the First Aid tin. ‘And just by chance, I happened to fill it today.’

Agatha moved to her spot at the table, ‘Thanks Rita.’ She sat down and looked at the plate of chicken and salad in front of her, then she turned her body on the chair, away from the diner.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Katherine asked.

‘I feel bad, sitting here, knowing what they’re doing. I think about it all the time. When I have a shower, when we go for walks. I think about this life I have with you and the life they have. And there’s nothing I can do about it.’ Agatha looked at Katherine.

‘Yet,’ Rita said, taking some salad from the bowl on front of her.

Agatha looked at her. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You won’t be this age forever Agatha. You might not be able to do anything yet but one day you will. One day. You just have to be patient.’ Rita gently pushed parts of the salad onto her fork.

‘But how will I know what to do?’ ask Agatha, turning back to the table.

Rita shrugged. ‘Do you need to know that now? Can it wait a bit?’

Agatha picked up the bread roll on the side of her plate and picked at it, putting small pieces in her mouth.

‘So, I shouldn’t worry about them, is that what you’re saying.’

‘No. Of course you’re going to worry about them. My boys are all grown, and I still worry about them. I bet Katherine worries about Lawson at times too. That’s what it’s like when you’re a family. What I’m saying is that right now, your job is to be the best you can be; do well at school, learn from Katherine and Lawson, make friends, in a couple of years you could even get a part time job. That’s how you help them; by living your life to the be the best you can.’

Agatha turned to Katherine, ‘What do you think?’

‘I agree with Rita. I really do. You have to learn to be you, Agatha.’

‘Here,’ Rita had opened the First Aid tin and passed it to Agatha. She took a purple treat from the tin and set it down beside her plate. She let out an exhausted sigh.

‘I used to get so angry at them, you know. Angry because they stopped being my parents, that I couldn’t have friends over, that I lost all the friends I had. I knew everyone was talking about them, saying mean things about them and me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.’

‘That’s not wrong, Agatha, to be angry.’

‘I feel like it is, Katherine.’

‘It’s how