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

that first awkward week, they had sat and watched Chief roam about sniffing every blade of grass and occasionally looking at them with a protective eye, making sure they were still on the bench.

‘Why do you call him Chief?’ Agatha had asked Katherine as they watched him roam around, bouncing after a grasshopper that had sprung from a tall clump of grass.

‘It was Lawson’s idea. We got him as a pup a few years ago when I was nursing less and needed company on my walks. Lawson thought the name suited him. Chief is short for Chief Petty Officer, one of senior sailors but not above a Commander.

The Chief is trusted and highly respected by the Commander to look after the ship and everyone onboard.’

‘So, Chief is like running this ship while Lawson’s away?’

‘Yes and, just between you and me, I don’t think he wanted to be outranked by his dog,’ Katherine chuckled.

When Agatha had first arrived at Katherine’s house, she had prepared herself for the usual peppering of questions that carers ask. But Katherine didn’t. During that first week, Katherine had spoken to her about day to day things as if they had known each other for ages – showed her photos of herself and Lawson, sailing, camping. Agatha said nothing.

Looking back on it now, she was surprised Katherine had said to Nell that she could stay past that first week.

‘I’m really enjoying having her here,’ she had heard Katherine say over the phone to Nell. ‘Yes . . . I think we’ll be fine to have her stay longer, that’s if she would like to. She’s right here, I’ll ask her.’ Katherine had turned to find Agatha standing in the kitchen doorway. Still with the phone to her ear Katherine asked, ‘Nell wants to know if you’re happy to stay a bit longer?’

Agatha shrugged and walked back to her room, pausing just long enough at her door to hear Katherine say, ‘She’s happy to stay.’

The next two months had flown by. As each day arrived, Agatha learnt new things, like how to make potato salad, and how to separate her clothes into colours and whites before putting them into the washing machine.

Katherine showed her how to make a shopping list and even gave her Tuesday nights as her night to cook. ‘Lawson’s night is Friday, when he’s home, that is. He likes to try a different recipe every week, so you never know what you are going to have. But it’s always delicious. And on Sundays we eat out.’

Agatha noticed whenever Katherine talked about Lawson, her eyes would sparkle, and she would smile. ‘Why don’t you and Lawson have children, Katherine?’ she had asked.

Katherine had shrugged. ‘It just wasn’t meant to be. Not everything turns out how we think it should.’

Some nights Katherine and Agatha would get fish and chips and come down to the bay, to this spot, and talk until it was dark.

Katherine told her stories of growing up in the country, learning to drive her grandfather’s tractor and how she got it bogged in the mud. Agatha told her about a party she had once, with a jumping castle and an ice cream cake.

One night, early on in her stay, they got home from fish and chips on their bench and Katherine got out the ice-cream from the freezer and cones from the cupboard.

‘What flavour? It’s Napolitana, so vanilla, chocolate or strawberry or a scoop with all three?’

Agatha couldn’t answer. A memory had floated back into her mind. Her mother’s voice, joyful, filled with laughter. ‘Well, Aggie, what would you like? I bet you want chocolate. Or are you going to be like your little sister and have all three?’ A small hand reached up and took the cone with a tricoloured scoop sitting on top.

They were in the kitchen. She could see her Dad stacking the dinner plates into the dishwasher, holding back his tie because he was still in his work clothes. ‘Only vanilla for me,’ he said. ‘Two scoops please!’ Her Mum was wearing a summer dress, her hair up in a bun with wisps hanging down on each side, her bright red earrings swaying back and forth as she laughed. Agatha remembered thinking her mother was beautiful.

‘Agatha?’ Katherine’s voice brought her back. ‘Where did you go? What were you thinking about?’

‘Nothing. I’ll have all three. No. Just chocolate.’

Now, sitting here on the bench, in the middle of a hot summer’s day and those memories still strongly inside her, Agatha knew what she needed to do. If staying with Katherine, Chief, and Lawson, when he returned, meant facing up to school then that’s what she would do. But it was more than that.

Agatha knew that the only way she could get her mother back, was to leave her.

Chief saw her approach the driveway before the others. His excited yapping brought Nell and Katherine to the window. Agatha gave them all a small wave. Katherine moved swiftly other front door and held it open for her. ‘Come in to the cool,’ she said. ‘Your face is red from the heat. I’ll get you a glass of water.’

Agatha stepped into the sitting room and flopped onto the sofa. And even though she was hot, she didn’t mind Chief jumping up on her lap.

‘Good walk?’ Nell asked.

Agatha shrugged. She took the glass of water that Katherine had brought for her and drank it down in one go.

Katherine sat down beside her, and Chief left Agatha’s lap and went to her. He sat up straight and looked at Agatha. They were all waiting.

‘So, if I go to school, near here, I can stay with Katherine.’

‘If you go to school, near here, I think we can ask for a longer stay. I would be asking for six months.’

‘And after that?’

‘There are no guarantees, Agatha. I’m not even promising six months. But I will try, if you go to school. We will argue that you need a new school to escape some of the things that have been