Caroline Alone Ch. 03

All are hungry and they concentrate on eating. Jack looks round the table and momentarily the scene is indistinguishable from how it would have looked a year before. Appearances are deceptive. He eats and knows he must decide what happens next. He wants to talk to Caroline about the children coming to live with him and decides to wait for another time.

After dinner he goes on a tie hunt with Ben and they make a game of it. In minutes he finds the red striped snake at the bottom of the washing basket in the bathroom and Ben's spirits are much improved. When Amy's ready for bed he gets her to talk about her week at school and she tells him she's learning the recorder. He promises to buy some books of exercises. They start a new story she's saved to read with him, but after a while she says, "Daddy you're falling asleep! I'm giving you Bear to hold because last time you fell asleep on my bed you squashed Panda and he was very cross."

"I'm not!" he protests and very shortly afterwards he's asleep.

They next day they go shopping and Jack imagines that with Damien gone Caroline supposes everything has been restored to how it once was. He tells her that Ben must have a proper school uniform with a spare of everything and she whirls them round the shops buying what he needs. They can't find Amy's recorder book, but he tells her he's bound to find it in Brighton where there's a good music shop. Then they shop for food and he buys a gargantuan meal for the evening and food for dinner every day of the week. Caroline lets him spend his money and says nothing, but he can see she's happy.

It's a week to the end of term, when the plan is for the children to stay with Jack. He wonders how Caroline will handle this. She'll hate being on her own, he knows, and he wonders if she'll try to see Damien in London. He mentions his plan to collect the children and she says at once that she'll bring them to Brighton.

"It'll do me good to get some sea air and I'd like to see where you're staying. The children have told me so much about the University."

He's surprised but can't object and wonders what she's planning. Does she imagine that if she tries hard enough she can get him back? Even Caroline must realise that's not realistic. But when he considers it, he knows it's just what she thinks.

To be continued