The Drowning Lesson
Jane Shemilt
Language: English
Pages: 185
ISBN: 1405915315
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The press conference, one year ago
Our home is a crime scene now.
I am in yesterday's clothes. The clothes in which I kissed Sam goodbye. Then he'd belonged only to us. Now his image will be shared with the world.
We should be grateful.
'Our son . . . Sam . . .' My eyes fill with tears, the writing on the paper blurs. 'Someone took him. Please help us . . .'
I back away from the microphone, the paper falls from my hands.
The anniversary
The Jordan family thought they would return from their gap year abroad enriched, better people, a closer family.
Not minus one child.
A year on, Emma remains haunted by the image of that empty cot, thousands of miles away, the chasm between her and the rest of the family growing with each day that Sam remains missing. Is her son still out there? Will the mystery about what happened that night ever be unravelled?
different clothes and different shoes. I pictured her standing at the edge of a playing field, stocky, red-headed, the last to be chosen for a team, and wanted to put my arms round her. ‘Didn’t you tell your parents?’ ‘They asked questions when they picked me up at the end of term, but once we got back, home took over.’ She shrugged. ‘They returned to the clinic. Mum was an obstetrician, like you.’ Not really like me, though I didn’t say it out loud. I was planning something different. In a
holiday?’ She gestured to the hotel. Her South African accent gave her voice a hopeful, friendly edge. I shook my head. ‘Just overnight.’ As Sam began to splutter, I stood up to wind him. Kabo took over. ‘We’re setting up a joint research project to look at the risk of cancers in AIDS patients.’ He nodded towards Adam and the girls in the pool. ‘Dr Jordan’s just arrived with the family from the UK.’ ‘Anything that could make a difference would be good.’ She turned to me. ‘These kids have lost
plants and a group of gum trees at the far edge. ‘He had three guard dogs,’ he added. ‘They were tied up in the day, but let loose at night. They’re kennelled at Thamaga now. I could ask him to lend them to you. You’re isolated here – it might be sensible.’ Huge animals, probably, panting fiercely around the garden in the dark. What if the girls sneaked out to play on the lawn late one night? What might happen if Zoë tried to pet one? Adam looked uncertain. ‘Up to you, Em.’ ‘Thanks, Kabo, but
when he is already asleep; he gets up earlier and has left to walk the bush or visit the consulate by the time the children and I have breakfast. Yesterday a press plane flew low twice over the house; luckily the girls were inside. The gum trees bent and shook. The three guard dogs, housed in large crates near the garage, usually sleeping by day, woke and slunk in circles, whining. Peo returns to her village early on a Wednesday. A knot of women wait for her in the road beyond the gate and she
to know why I picked on them. I said I was visiting all the houses in the area, but he didn’t like it. He started shouting for someone to check the back garden. He thought it was a trick. He was quite right there.’ Bogosi chuckles. ‘When he saw me looking over his shoulder, he shut the door in my face.’ He turns to grin at me. ‘I could hear him swearing inside.’ ‘Claire’s South African, I think. Was he?’ They might have friends just over the border. They might still get away. ‘Hard to tell. He