Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 23

I’ve stood in Penny’s house a thousand times. It opens straight into her living room and it’s deserted. I take in the bookcase, well stocked by her librarian father. The shelf devoted entirely to her chef mother, with cookbooks big, small, old and new. The sofas are well worn and comfortable, the TV small and unimposing. We’ve cuddled, a million times in front of the DVD player tucked underneath it, or just sat with her parents and chatted. I was the son they never had, just like Penny was a daughter to my parents.

I walk through the room, still excited, ignoring my early setback. A small knot of worry tightens in my chest. I haven’t seen her yet, and somewhere in the house, her parents will be in distress. And it’s my fault.

I try to push the thoughts from my head. The accident was no one’s fault, but it feels like I’m the one to blame. She was in my car, skipping school was my idea.

I walk into the kitchen and there’s no one. The tiny utility room looking over the empty garden, the old swingset moving in the breeze, like there’s a ghost even I can’t see swinging back and forth, without a care in the world.

I turn and start up the stairs in the living room; instantly I hear voices. They’re in her room.

I run up the stairs. I almost don’t notice the no sound my otherwise heavy steps don’t make. Her door is right at the top of the stairs, and it’s slightly ajar. I can’t open it, they’ll see and instantly be scared, and I can’t reach out to try and walk through it, I don’t trust myself not to move it physically.

But I can see through the gap. Penny’s mum, Irene, sitting on her purple bedsheets, her dad Frank stands by Penny’s own modest little library. All arranged but still haphazard, the occasional trinket or nick nack wedged in like bookends.

But I can’t see Penny. Then again, I can’t see half the room, she could be just standing behind the door. We could be separated by a single plank of wood.

‘I just can’t believe it, Frank.’ Irene’s face is streaked by tears. ‘I only spoke to her a few hours ago, and now I’ll never see her eyes again. She had the prettiest eyes.’

Tears start falling again and Frank instantly crosses over to her.

‘I know, Irene.’ He’s crying too, and now so am I. I can’t wait any longer. I know they can’t hear me.

‘Penny!’ I whisper, urgently.