Everything We Keep, Di Walker [best pdf reader for ebooks txt] 📗

‘There is one thing. Something you have refused to do.’ She turned to look at Agatha who was now standing defiantly with her hands on her hips. She shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other then folded her arms in front of her. She knew exactly what Nell was saying.

‘No. There must be something else. Something else.’

‘I can’t think of anything else Agatha. I think that would really help to build the case as to why you should stay here. And of course, you would have to go and visit your parents, probably weekly, so two things.’

Agatha swayed back and forth. Katherine stood up and went to her side, seeming to sense Agatha’s growing agitation. ‘What is it Agatha?’ Katherine asked. She looked at her and waited for and answer. When none came, she turned to Nell. ‘What do you want her to do?’

‘Agatha?’ Nell asked again, without an explanation to Katherine.

Agatha dropped her hands and began a slow pace back and forwards across the sitting room. She was shaking her head. Katherine had seen this behaviour in that very first week, when something was being asked of her that she couldn’t do.

Katherine moved over beside Nell and together they watched. Agatha was softly talking to herself, shaking her head, her hands rubbing together. Katherine couldn’t wait any longer. She stepped forward and blocked her path. Stopping Agatha in her tracks, she gently put her hands of Agatha’s shoulders. ‘Agatha,’ her soft voice said, ‘Agatha tell me. What does Nell want you to do? I’ll help you, whatever it is.’

Agatha looked from Katherine to Nell and then back again. She desperately wanted to stay here with Katherine and Chief.

She turned to Nell. ‘So, if I do it, then you promise I can stay.’

‘I never promise anything, Agatha, you know that.’

‘Okay, you two. I need to know what you’re both talking about,’ Katherine said, obviously starting to get frustrated about being left out of the conversation.

‘Well?’ Nell said to Agatha, again, her head to the side and a slight smile on her face.

Agatha turned to Katherine. ‘School,’ she said, her eyes lowered to the floor. ‘Nell wants me to go to school. The court wants me to go to school.’

Katherine slowly nodded. ‘I see.’ She moved to the sofa and motioned for Agatha to sit beside her. ‘Well then, let’s talk about that.’

Agatha didn’t move, instead she looked past Nell, through the front window of the sitting room to the garden and the street beyond. Finally, in slow steps, she moved towards the sofa and sat next to Katherine. Chief immediately jumped up between them.

For the next few minutes Nell, Katherine and Agatha sat in silence, each aware of the huge task ahead for all of them.

15

Nell sat at the kitchen table and watched Agatha and Katherine work together to make sandwiches. The topic of school had brought their conversation to a stop and Katherine, seeing it was right on noon, suggested lunch would be a good idea. ‘I’ll pop down to Rita’s with hers. It will give me a chance to check that ankle,’ Katherine had said.

Agatha set the table with glasses and a water jug from the fridge, helped clean up and then sat with Nell and waited for Katherine to return.

‘I know,’ Nell said, ‘that you like being here, that it’s good for you to be here. We just have to . . . ’

‘Can we wait for Katherine to get back?’ Agatha said softly.

Nell nodded.

They sat together at the table, sandwiches and drinks ready and waited.

A few minutes later Katherine returned and joined them. ‘She’s fine. Well, as fine as you can be when you can’t walk. I told her you would pop back later and get the plate and that we would bring her dinner around zero eighteen hundred. Agatha will still be here then won’t she Nell?’

Nell picked up her sandwich and took a bite. She chewed slowly and nodded ‘I think so. I’ll have to make a call, but I think that we can say she can stay for the night,’ she said, still chewing.

Agatha glanced at Katherine with a small smile. One night may be two, then three, then . . . She stopped herself from getting too excited.

The sandwiches didn’t take long to eat and soon they returned to the sitting room. This time Nell sat on the sofa next to Agatha and Katherine sat in the armchair. Agatha paced slowly back and forth.

‘Tell me about school,’ Katherine said, ‘Tell me why you won’t go.’

‘You won’t understand. Nell doesn’t really understand.’

‘I think I’m pretty good at understanding what’s going on with you Agatha,’ Nell said. ‘I’ve known you for over a year.’

‘Wow, a whole year,’ Agatha said sarcastically. ‘And before you there was Nic, and before her, Anne, and before her, blah blah blah. There’s been lots of you Nell, and each one of you thinks you know me and gets what it’s like to be me. But you always get to drive off and go to your own home. You all leave me eventually.’

Agatha was upset. She turned away from them and faced out the window. The cool air of the sitting room made outside look cooler than it really was.

‘Tell me about school,’ Katherine said again.

‘Did you like school, Katherine?’ Agatha said, her back still to them, her arms folded in front of her, she stood tall and straight.

‘I did. I went to a small primary school in the country before we moved to the city. Then I went to a girls’ school. I did like school. I have lots of fond memories, especially when I studied nursing.’

‘Did you have friends?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you get invited to parties and places, sleepovers and stuff like that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you ever get teased and called names?’

‘Possibly, not that I remember.’

‘Did your parents go to your sports day?’

‘Yes. All of the school events, graduation, plays. Agatha, tell me . . . ’

Agatha swung around. ‘And I bet