Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 205

‘I think so too,’ I reply. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust him. Problem is we have no proof he’s up to something?’

                Elle scrunches up her nose. She looks as though she wants to say something but isn’t sure if she should.

                ‘What did you notice?’ I ask. ‘I know that look.’

                It’s then that I notice how close I am to Elle. Maybe even closer than I ever was to Penny. It was never a romantic thing, I don’t think Elle’s interested in anything like that. But when I look at her sometimes, I know what she’s thinking. Maybe that’s the Edge, letting her thoughts and feelings leak out so much easier than if she was alive, but most of it is the friendship we’ve shared. I’m so happy I bumped into her on that day in Rome. I should tell her more often.

                Elle still pauses before she speaks. ‘It’s just, I was looking at what the kids had written and they’re all writing about the same thing. Home.’

                ‘What how this place is their home?’

                ‘No, home home. Where they were before they died? One of them was writing about San Francisco, another one about Nairobi?’

                ‘That’s weird, it’s not the sort of thing Tarquin and that lot seem to like?’

                ‘No, exactly, it’s quite cruel,’ Elle says. ‘He’s teasing them with a place they can’t get to anymore. Unless he has a reason for it?’

                ‘You mean using them for something?’ I consider the possibility. Is that all Teague needs? Concentrate enough thought on earth and we’ll return to it. Using the children would be his style.

                We can’t explore the idea further. Teague bursts into the hallway. ‘Come in, quick. You have to see this.’

                We walk back inside. The joy on his face would have been hard to fake. ‘This is why this place is wonderful,’ he says.

                We watch. One of the boys is standing up. He’s looking at himself like he’s never seen his body before. He must be about nine or ten, still with a boy’s frame and features. Slowly, and then very quickly, he begins to grow. First in height, he sprouts up like a time lapse view of a plant in growth. Then his shoulders square off. Finally his features harden and he takes on the visage of a boy of at least fifteen.

                ‘Congratulations Jacob!’ Teague cries. The class bursts into applause as me and Elle watch on, dumbfounded.