Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 157

                ‘What have you done to them?’ Elle says, worry creeping into her voice.

                ‘You don’t need to worry, Elle.’ Windermere’s voice is the epitome of calm.

                Elle steps forward past me and grabs Windermere by the shoulder. ‘You listen here you overdressed cow, if anything happens to my parents you’ll have me to answer to.’

                Windermere turns and regards Elle’s hand without giving away the slightest emotion; not even a twitch of the mouth, a clench of the jaw, nothing to show what she was thinking.

                ‘We have a few of our people watching them,’ Windermere says. ‘They will not make contact. You’ll be pleased to know that they haven’t yet seen the image of you on television or the internet.’

                ‘Mum and Dad hate the internet,’ Elle says looking at me, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

                ‘Now, if we’re all happy,’ Windermere says, an ounce of annoyance surfacing for the first time.

                We continue up the stairs. They were keeping us so far down in the old building. I count ten floors and then lose my place when there’s a sound down towards the end of a dark corridor. My thoughts fall on my own parents. Elle’s parents may have been internet-phobic, but mine weren’t. I’m sure they’ll have seen something by now. I have to get to them, as soon as Windermere lets us go I’ll go home to make sure they’re alright. I’ve dropped in from time to time, simply sat with them and been their son in hiding. They’ve got on with their lives. You have to, I never sat and wished for them to miss me. I want them to be happy. Sometimes I see a look on their faces. Sometimes they look right at me and they don’t even know. Those moments when you just stare into space and catch yourself doing it. They always find me, without fail, like magnets to my being. Maybe on some level they know I’m there. A piece of them in the room with them.

                I look away and I realise that tears have welled in my eyes too quickly for me to stop them. I wipe them away, disguising it by scratching my nose. I sniff and look at the door at the top of the staircase as we go through.

                Facing us is an enormous window open to the stormy seas. The grey ocean spreads far and wide to the steady horizon and I’m taken aback a little. The reflection of the sky in the water, the waves mirroring every cloud and I take a second to appreciate it.

                ‘I diagnosed myself you know,’ Elle says next to me.