Golden Box Book Publishing One Picture: Thousands of Words | Page 81

And she usually looked at Sarah at that point.
She’d take the book though in case there was anything in there
that gave a clue to the threads sudden appearance. Even though
mummy wouldn’t have let her. So she tucked it into the waistband of
her too short trousers, and retraced her steps through the gate and
back into the park, which was now a bit fuller with other people.
Not that she took any notice of them mind.
Sitting next to the waters edge she kept one eye out for the
duckling family while looking through the pictures. Pictures always
had tiny clues in them so she looked really closely at each one. Right
in the middle of the book, near where the pages are all sewn together,
she found it.
Oh dear she thought.
She really shouldn’t have worn her jumper. The sun beating down
on her was making her very hot. She didn’t want to go back into
house where her parents would now not be speaking to each other
and there would be that awful silence through which she wandered as
though everyone had forgotten she was even really there at all.
Picking up her book, she went and sat under her monkey-puzzle.
The sunlight never reached through the leaves and branches, so the
grass here was withered and browny. There little whorls here and
there as though tiny feet had been marching round and round.
Like fairy crop circles.
Tomorrow was the first of May.
The missing posters had long since faded within their plastic
wallets. The rain had got into them and leaked all the colour from the
text and her picture.
In time they fell from their trees and the lampposts.