Oliver’s father tried to follow him; but the crowd was thick, and he couldn’t push through.
“What was all that about?” asked Seth, trapped behind Reece.
Reece could not answer. He felt thunderstruck, and dumb.
“That’s not his mum who came,” said Abby, further back. “His dad’s got a girlfriend. So has my dad, but I told her not to turn up here or I’d glue her handbags to the ceiling.”
“Don’t you like her?” Cody asked.
“She’s all right,” said Abby. “But I like Mum better.”
Reece stared at Oliver’s dad, who was running his hands through his hair and craning his head to look for Oliver.
Oliver had disappeared. His father stood there, stuck, not knowing where to go.
Suddenly, though, Reece knew. He slipped out of the line, wriggled through the queuing children and hurried down the corridor.
He ran past the empty classrooms and the cloakrooms all the way to the deserted library. The door was slightly open: he crept in.
There, next to the shelf of Hamsters and Small Pets, sat Oliver.
His head was down on the table, hidden by his arms. His sobs were loud and anguished in the silent room.
Reece stood there for a moment. He did not know what to do. He wished he could give Oliver something that would help; a happy family wrapped up in a box, perhaps, and tied with ribbon. Something to stop the wrenching sobs, and make Oliver look up and smile.
That was impossible, though. His baffling gifts now seemed a mean and petty trick. They had not solved Oliver’s problems: they’d just given him more to worry about when he already had too much.
Even the corrected sums had not been kind. It would have been more helpful if he’d shown Oliver how to get them right... Only Oliver would not have let him.
He could think of nothing that would comfort Oliver. Oliver would not want comfort from him anyway. Oliver would not want him there at all.
So after a moment Reece crept away again, leaving the dreadful sobs behind, and very quietly closed the library door.
He walked back slowly through the school. He was trying to imagine what it felt like: as if your house turned inside out, he thought, and maybe upside down as well, and left you clinging to the walls. At least Dad was not likely to do that.
When he walked past Chloe’s classroom he spotted Oliver’s dad, who was admiring wobbly clay dinosaurs with Chloe and his girlfriend. He looked as sick as a dog.
Reece paused. What would Oliver want? Probably not his father, not right now.
So he trudged on, and eventually made his way to his own class, where his dad was chatting with Adam’s parents.
Dad grinned at Reece. “Great concert, son! Mum’s had to go to work, but she said to tell you she enjoyed it.”
“Have you seen Miss Lewis?” asked Reece.
“She was in here a moment ago. Are you okay? Is there something wrong?”
“I’m fine,” said Reece. He was glad that Dad had noticed, though; and that Dad had asked how he was feeling, instead of telling him.
“I’d better just go and find her,” he added, for he thought he ought to let Miss Lewis know that Oliver was sobbing in the library. That wasn’t tale-telling. It was too important.
But before he could go and hunt for her, Oliver came back in.
His eyes were a bit red and his face very pale; other than that, he looked almost normal. He went into the art area and stood fiddling with the brushes.
Nobody took any notice of him, apart from Reece. Reece’s dad and Adam’s mother were busy exchanging compliments about each other’s children.
“Lovely pie chart,” said Reece’s dad.
“Beautiful diagram,” said Adam’s mum.
Reece’s dad flushed with pleasure. “I really don’t know where he gets his brains from! He wrote this article about a soldier’s life, you know. Researched it all himself and everything.”
And he picked up the newsletter and pointed to the article, to show her.
Oliver saw him. Oliver heard him. Oliver looked at Reece with wide, red eyes.
Reece could have sworn he felt his heart leap up into his mouth. Something certainly did, and lodged itself in a nervous lump in his throat. He swallowed.
But Oliver said nothing. He just stared at Reece, as if seeing him properly for the first time.
While Reece’s dad was talking to the other parents about High Schools, Oliver walked over. Reece wondered if he might be going to punch him.
Oliver said hoarsely, “You wrote that. Why?”
Reece ran through several possible answers in his head. Because I thought you’d like it. Because I admired your dad. Because I want to be a journalist...
All of these were partly true. But none of them was the real reason.
Reece cleared his throat, and said, “To baffle you.”
“To what?”
“To baffle you. Because you said you couldn’t see me.”
If Oliver had been well baffled before, he was triply baffled now.
“I gave you the presents,” said Reece.
Oliver went very still. He was working it out. “The chocolate?”
“I gave you the chocolate by accident. But that started it off. I gave you all the other stuff to baffle you.”
“The yoyo?”
“Yes.”
“The pens? The mini joke book? The dragon in a box?”
Reece nodded.
Oliver thought about this. He looked exhausted: drained, as if he’d struggled through a storm. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Tamagotchi.
“You gave me this?” he said.
“Yes.”
“Do you want it back?”
Reece took it and held it in his palm. It was looking healthy. He knew Oliver had liked the Tamagotchi best of all the gifts, so he said, “I killed my last one. You’d better keep it.”
Oliver replaced it in his pocket. “All that maths,” he said. “You did that?”
“Yep.”
“The magnetic puzzle.”
“That too.”
“The river story.”
“Mine.”
“The liquorice allsorts.”
“The what?” Reece was startled. “No, that wasn’t me.”
“Who was it, then?”
“I don’t know. Somebody must fancy you.”
They stared at each other, and inexplicably, began to laugh. Even as he laughed, Reece thought, this is weird. And Oliver’s laughter was almost crying.
“Is this another of your friends, Reece?” It was Dad. “I’ve already met Adam, Seth and Maya,” he said gladly. “Who’s this?”
“This is Oliver,” said Reece reluctantly.
“Pleased to meet you, Oliver.” Dad put out his hand. Oliver shook it and did not reply. Instead he asked Reece,
“What I said. Was it that bad?”
Reece thought of saying No.
No, it was nothing, it didn’t matter a bit, I didn’t mind.
“You know it was,” he said.
Oliver bit his lip, and looked down.
“Yeah. I suppose I’d better go and find my father,” he muttered, though he did not move.
“He was in Year One not long ago.”
Oliver nodded, and stayed where he was. He began to fiddle with the brushes again.
Dad moved away. “What was all that about?” he asked Reece quietly.
“Nothing,” said Reece. “Well, it was something, but it’s over.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you? I wish you’d let me know what’s going on sometimes, Reece. I’m not a mind-reader.”
“Sorry.”
“Would you like Adam to come back for tea?”
“Okay,” said Reece.
Dad smiled again, happy because he thought that Reece was making friends. Well, Reece supposed he was. Adam looked happy too.
Maybe Adam liked him. He’d never really thought about it. He’d not paid mu
ch attention. Maybe he should start paying attention to Adam instead of Oliver.
“We’d better be going, then,” said Dad. “Got your rucksack? What happened to those doughnuts?”
“They’re in my drawer.” Reece had forgotten them. Now he retrieved the crumpled bag of doughnuts and offered one to Adam. Then, on impulse, he walked back over to the art area and held out the bag to Oliver.
“Doughnut?”
Oliver looked at him.
“It’s all right,” said Reece, “they’re fresh. They aren’t always. My dad works in a bakery, so we get a lot of leftovers.”
Oliver took a doughnut. “Thanks.”
Reece hesitated, testing things to say. He settled for, “I’ll see you Monday.”
“See you Monday.” Oliver’s answer was almost inaudible.
When Reece went back, Dad asked, “Would you like to invite that other lad, Oliver, home too?”
Reece shook his head. “Maybe another time.” It was not impossible, after all.
“Let’s go, then.”
They made their way out of the classroom. Reece glanced back at Oliver, sadly eating his doughnut. As Reece watched, he pulled the Tamagotchi out and began to press its buttons, feeding it.
In the corridor, they passed Oliver’s father, who looked lost.
“Oliver’s in Room Five, down that way,” Reece told him before walking on.
As they left the school, he took Dad’s arm. Dad looked round at him, surprised, but pleased.
Dad was so easy to surprise. He baffled Dad, he thought, non-stop, every day, without even trying.
Dad was easy to please, too. All he needed was a hand, a smile, a kind word now and then. Maybe that was all that anybody needed.
So he smiled at Dad.
“I’m glad you came,” he said.
The End
Thank you for reading I Can’t See You.
If you enjoyed it, you might like these books by Emma Laybourn:
The Trophy Trap: Abby (who is also in I Can’t See You) has won a table tennis trophy with her brother Liam. When Liam is allowed to keep the trophy, Abby is determined to steal it back. But where Abby goes, chaos follows...
One Thousand Lollipops: Sam just loves sweet things. So when he wins a thousand giant rainbow lollipops, it’s a dream come true! But his mother is a dentist, and soon the dream turns into a nightmare. A fast and funny read for ages 8 and over.
About the author
I’m a qualified librarian and teacher based in the north of England. Since 1997 I’ve had seven children’s books published by Transworld and Andersen Press, and have also had over thirty short stories printed in magazines in the UK and Australia.
In 2012 I set up my website, www.megamousebooks.com, to offer free children’s stories to read online or download as ebooks. The site contains stories and ebooks for ages six to twelve, as well as printable crosswords and puzzles. If you liked this book, please pay it a visit!
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