Chapter Twenty-eight #2
Marion and the PTA had decorated the marquee beautifully, it was as if Homes Beautiful had stepped in and designed the perfect setting for a Bonfire Night party.
Red, orange and yellow bunting fluttered in the light breeze, all lit with subtle orange fairy lights and with strings attached to the roof of the marquee, floating down and across, featuring some of the children’s work on Guy Fawkes, and firework pictures in paint, chalk and pastel demonstrating the range of age across the school.
As well as long queues at the barbecue stall there were even longer ones near the mulled cider where the spices and smells, and alcohol content, were putting warm smiles on parents with every sip.
In the corner of the marquee was a human-sized Guy, seated in a wheelbarrow, a jam jar on string hanging off its hand and pictures of an orphanage in Africa scattered discreetly about, informing parents that this was the charity the PTA was collecting for this year alongside raising funds for the school.
‘Look, Daddy! It’s the Healing Hearts Orphanage. Like you said. Now we can get the Penmenna children to help too. We can give them loads of books. This is awesome.’ Sylvie watched Ellie’s face turn to her father’s, pride flitting across it.
‘We can indeed. Miss Winter thought this could be a start tonight, and then we could tell the rest of the children much more about it next week. You up for that?’
‘Damn straight!’ Ellie jumped up and high-fived her dad with her free hand.
‘Ellie! That’s another bad word.’
‘Sam says it.’ Both Sylvie and Alex’s heads shot around to look at Sam, who merely shrugged à la Ellie. She exchanged a look with Alex, both parents more amused than cross. It would appear their children were sharing their skills.
‘Can we put some money in as well, Dad? Look, Sam, look, that’s where I used to live before I came here with Daddy.’
Sylvie looked at Sam’s face and was so grateful she had had the chat with him before about Ellie’s adoptive status and she wasn’t going to have to do it again in front of the girl in question or her father and make some hideous faux pas by not choosing the right word and unintentionally offending the both of them.
‘Cool. I’ll put my pocket money in. Mum, can I?’
‘Of course. Here you are, you can have it now.’
‘Thanks, come on, Ellie.’ Sam looked at Ellie and waited for her to start walking with him towards the Guy.
‘That’s kind of him. Thank you, Sylvie.’
Alex smiled at her, that smile he had that made the whole marquee melt away and Sylvie gulp and have to think really hard to ground herself and remember what they were talking about.
That smile. The dangerous one. The one that didn’t make her think of children and responsibility but of crumpled duvets and tumbled bodies, piles of clothing and blissed-out morning smiles.
‘I didn’t know that you had involved the school with your foundation. That’s a brilliant idea. I presume this is to do with that.’
‘Yes, this is the orphanage Ells was put in after… well, when she lost her family, and they were amazing. I’m using them as a blueprint for another that we’re building and sending funds to them so they can continue to grow.
And help lead the way for the others. Matt told Rosy about the foundation and she suggested this as a tiny start and is apparently going to tie in a lot more in the build-up to Christmas.
She’s booked me in to do an assembly in a couple of weeks! I’m a bit scared.’
‘You’re so awesome, it’ll be fine. You really are the best man I’ve ever met. You don’t need to do any of this, and yet you do.’
‘I kind of do though, that’s the point. I’ve spent so long covering war, trauma and death and making a living from it, I need to give back. Something that doesn’t just raise awareness of what’s happening in the world but something to redress the balance.’
‘I stand by my statement.’ Without thinking twice Sylvie raised herself up and planted a light kiss on his cheek.
It wasn’t until she had both feet on the floor and saw his face that she realized what she had just done.
Talk about mixed messages. Shit, she’d have to talk to him again later, a bit less frenetically maybe.
He smiled at her but it wasn’t too hard to read the confusion in his eyes, even in the dark November night.
She was an idiot! Why had she done that? A bing from his phone sounded.
‘Right, that’ll be my call to action. Best go sort out these fireworks.’
‘OK, go do your bonfire duty, and come track us down when you’re done.’
‘Will do.’ Alex leant forward for a millisecond as if he were about to return the kiss. Then he pulled himself back, and they stood looking at each other, a pause as the world carried on bustling around them. Then he gave her a great big beam and headed off.
Sylvie watched him go and turned to see Ellie and Sam had pulled in a large gaggle of children to listen to her talk about the orphanage, showing them pictures of her old home and waving her arms about furiously.
She really was quite something, Sylvie wouldn’t be surprised if she was ruling the world by thirty.
Her audience were rapt before going to get their mothers and put money into the jar.
It soon filled up and one of Marion’s minions, dressed in exactly the same magpie dress but in a slightly more subtle shade, emptied the jar twice over simply in the time that Ellie held court by it.
Eventually the children were ready to leave the marquee and go and stand as the bonfire appeared to kick into life.
They crossed the field together, with Sylvie stopping to talk to other parents who wanted to congratulate her on her new ballet school venture or, in some cases, tell her how she was the talk of the dinner table after her PE lessons, with the children loving what they were doing.
It was these moments that made her heart swell and her face glow, unable to believe how quickly she had slotted in to this marvellous school community.
A gaggle of children from Class One, who had all donated their money earlier, were now swaggering around the field, parents loosely behind, letting the children revel in their new-found independence now they went to big school.
Ellie rushed to join them, dragging Sam behind her as they shouted over their shoulders for permission.
‘Mum, can we join the others, please?’ Sam called as he was helter-skeltered across the field by his best friend.
‘Yes, can we, Sylvie?’ Ellie called and then after a millisecond’s pause, ‘Pleeease.’ Sylvie shouted yes back, noting how Ellie might still be the confident young girl she had met on the beach but now had slightly improved manners and a clear skill for fundraising.
Sylvie was desperate for the loo, and had been since arrival, so as the flames of the bonfire licked the sky and the children reached it, pausing to stare in awe as the orange and yellow leapt and danced and filled the inky black, she asked one of the other mothers to keep her eyes peeled whilst she jogged to the staff loos inside.
As she headed in that direction she caught a glimpse of Alex, his frame outlined by one of the orange strings of light, casting his shadow long and tall.
He really was something else. It felt like every time she saw him the breath was knocked from her body. She needed to get a grip on that.
Right now, he was standing with Rosy and her partner, the three were laughing and she could see even from here, with his face illuminated, that Alex was looking very pleased with himself.
She stood and watched as he shook the curly-haired man’s hand and clasped him on the shoulder and then bent and gave their head teacher a peck on the cheek before, presumably, moving off to fulfil more of his bonfire duties.
She jerked herself away from the scene and entered the building; with so many parents and children milling about the field the silence of the school in comparison to the buzz outside was notable.
The minute her mind felt the silence it decided to fill the gap by suddenly working itself into a frenzy with regards to Alex and his remark to Marion – Sylvie has made it quite clear.
What did he mean by that? He hadn’t said, Neither of us feel that way, Marion.
Nor had he said, I like her as a friend but she doesn’t do anything for me in any other way.
He had laid it at her door, as if the only reason was her objection.
Could that mean that he wouldn’t be averse should she have said something different, had she let Marion continue in her matchmaking plans?
No, of course not, that was stupid. She had good reasons for keeping Alex at arm’s length when it came to sex and nothing had happened to change that.
The children were still the children and the absolute priority here.
Sam was the one she had to put above all else.
And Sam needed security, not her marching ‘daddies’ through the door.
Not even one. Lust-filled hope was not going to be of practical help to anybody.