knew exactly what Damien was talking about.
She started to cave in. ‘I’d do it but I really don’t think the school would let me.’
Damien had an answer for that. ‘I’ll ring them and I’ll get Freya to email your staff ID photo to the office. You’ll just have to show some ID when you get there. Please? I don’t know what else to do. The school is ten minutes from home. If you could just pick her up and I’ll collect her from your place as soon as I’m done here.’
He knew she lived in his neighbourhood, which would put her home close to the school. His plan made sense but Abi didn’t know if she could do it, although it was hard to refuse when he was looking so distressed and imploring her with his dark, dark eyes. If she acquiesced she knew it would be stressful. Could she handle it?
But she remembered what it felt like to be five years old and know that no one was coming for you, knowing that you were on your own. She’d hated that feeling and she knew she couldn’t put someone else in that position.
She sighed and said, ‘Let me make a call.’ She threw her gloves and mask into the bin as Damien signed the surgical notes. She was careful not to agree to his crazy plan just yet. She still didn’t know if she was capable of agreeing to his suggestion. She needed a second opinion. She needed to run it past her psychologist but that wasn’t a conversation she was prepared to have in public. She pushed open the door into the scrub room and went to fetch her cellphone.
She dialled the emergency number, the one Caroline had promised to always answer. Abi wasn’t sure what Caroline termed an emergency exactly but, for her, going unprepared into a new environment that was not only large but filled with people and knowing she would have to introduce herself to strangers without time for any research or reconnaissance definitely fell into the emergency assistance category. Abi had no idea how she was going to manage this and she needed Caroline to give her some contingencies to help her cope.
Caroline answered on the third ring and Abi explained the situation.
‘I assume,’ Caroline said, after listening to Abi’s predicament, ‘that you would actually like to do this favour for your boss?’
Would she? Part of her worried that if she agreed she would be setting a precedent and part of her also worried that she was letting him take advantage of her. But she could also remember what it was like to be left to find her own way home because her mother was incapable, again. Back then nobody had noticed if you weren’t collected from school, lots of kids made their own way home, but not many primary school children had that freedom now. They were bundled off to after-school care before anything untoward could happen to them. Abi remembered all too well that feeling of abandonment and if she could help by collecting Summer she would. It didn’t matter that Summer didn’t know her; she imagined just knowing her dad had sent someone would be better than being forgotten. Abi wasn’t doing this for Damien.
‘I’m not doing this for my boss, I’m doing it for his daughter,’ she explained. ‘She was expecting her mother to collect her and I don’t want her to feel that she’s not important.’ Abi knew that Caroline understood her reasons and where they stemmed from. They’d been over a lot of old, and new, ground together and Abi didn’t have many secrets left that Caroline hadn’t heard. Damien, however, was a new topic and not one they’d discussed, and neither did she intend to. Abi felt it was best, safest to leave him in the category of work colleague. There was no reason to go into any detail about him, he was of no consequence. ‘But I have never met Summer, I don’t know the school, I don’t know the staff and they don’t know me. It’s making me nervous.’
‘The school is close to your house, though?’ Caroline asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Why don’t you go home and collect Jonty?’ the psychologist suggested. ‘Take him with you. You’ll feel better and if Summer likes dogs it will break the ice with her too.’
Abi took a deep breath. She could do this. ‘That’s a good idea. Thanks.’
She felt better when she ended the call, far more confident. This might just work.
* * *
Abi pulled her 4x4 into the school car park. The building was long and low and stretched out before her, but fortunately the car park was virtually empty and she was able to put her car two places from the front entrance. She took a moment to survey her surroundings, not that she really expected any danger but it was a habit she had formed over the past six months and it was proving hard to shake. There was no one around and she could see nothing suspicious. She was in the middle of suburban LA, she reminded herself. It wasn’t Kabul and she was unlikely to encounter a suicide bomber here. But her paranoia still got the better of her and she reached across to her right and opened the passenger door, letting Jonty jump out first. He sniffed the air and once she was certain he was showing no signs of distress she took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.
She showed her ID at the office and was taken to the after-school-hours area, where about two dozen kids were engaged in various activities. She spotted Summer straight away. Three girls were jumping rope and one of the girls turning the rope was a miniature, female version of Damien. Dressed in pink she had her dark hair tied in two short pigtails that stuck out from the sides of her head but there was no mistaking that gene pool.
‘Summer,’ the school secretary called to her, getting her attention. ‘This is Dr Thompson. She works with your father and she’s come to collect you.’
‘Please, call me Abi. And this is Jonty.’
‘A dog! You brought a dog in.’ All three girls, Summer and her two friends, immediately surrounded Abi. Jonty lapped up the attention. Caroline’s advice to bring him had been spot on.
Abi took a closer look at Summer as the girls patted Jonty. She had the same oval face, the same dark eyes and the same smile as her father. She was as cute as a button.
She seemed to have no qualms going home with Abi. She skipped along beside Jonty and was far from the forlorn, lonely figure Abi had been expecting. If she knew her father had forgotten to collect her, it didn’t seem to bother her. What Abi saw was a confident, happy five-year-old who was very comfortable with strangers. Summer was not at all what she had envisaged.
Abi opened the car door and tilted the passenger seat forward. Jonty jumped in and Abi reset the seat and waited for Summer to climb up into the passenger seat, but she was standing still, her head tilted to one side, as she seemed to be considering something.
‘Are you going to get in?’ Abi asked her.
‘Are you sure you’re a doctor?’ Summer replied.
‘I’m positive. Why?’
‘You have a very old car.’
If Summer had visited The Hills and seen the cars driven by the doctors who worked there, Abi could understand the question. She didn’t have that kind of money. Not yet. While money did motivate her, she had grown up poor and didn’t plan on staying poor; she couldn’t, however, imagine spending a small fortune on a car. She had other priorities. She wanted to have the security of her own house and some investments, and a brand-new car was not on that list, but she wasn’t about to explain all that to a five-year-old.
‘It’s just me and Jonty,’ she said. ‘He’s very hairy and sometimes very dirty. I don’t have to worry about him messing up this car.’
‘Oh,
