Bus, they said, still staring at their
bag.
You better come in then. Was that
the way to phrase it? Let’s go in, I said instead, kept my voice low, calm. You are a
bit of surprise.They glanced up sideways, a fleeting smile then
picked up the bag, stood beside me as I opened the door.
Have you eaten?
Yeah.
Drink of something.
Nah. I’m alright.
Tea?
Alright.
We went into
the small kitchen, I put the kettle on, Jay sat at the little rickety table
that had been left by the previous tenant, finger tracing
a circle on its surface. Legs folded under the
chair.
I don’t know your name yet, I said, keeping myself busy with cups and teabags.
Jay.
Well why don’t you tell me something about yourself?
They shrugged. The kettle clicked off and the
steam laid a patch of warm mist on the back of my arm as I turned
and lent back against the work surface. Maybe digging into people’s lives, people’s pasts was unnecessary, perhaps it was all best left
undisclosed.
The undisclosed. The word stayed with me for a
moment, gave me pause. A powerful word, somehow.
Sugar?
Two sugars.
I turned back, bags, milk, water, sugar from some sachets
I’d pocketed from local coffee shops. I put it down on the table in front of
them and they picked it up with both hands, blew on it, took
a sip.
I don’t know where you are
going to sleep, I said. Or what you’re going to sleep
in.
I got a sleeping bag Jay said. I am
alright anywhere.
Probably best if you take the upstairs
room. Maybe Chris should move into this room with me. Immediately his snoring and trips to the toilet flashed into my mind but this would be a temporary arrangement. Jay wasn’t a minor exactly
but still, I didn’t want to be sharing a house with someone vulnerable,
so young, who I seemed somehow to have taken custodianship of.
I had no expertise in these matters, probably
they needed access to professionals of some kind, support I couldn’t give them.
A naive assumption on my part, that something like that would be available. We were
still the mid-stage of the Austerity years at that point, though we had
imagined, equally naively, that their end
was imminent, and any kind of help for exactly those vulnerable
young people had been cut to the bone.
How did you find the house? I was about to ask, but I thought that might
sound accusatory too. I never asked and I never found out. Did it matter? Has
it mattered? Not at all. They were here
now, somehow.
A pause as we sipped our drinks. You travel light, I
said, gesturing to the sport’s bag.
Don’t send me back, they said, still staring into their
tea. I just want a chance.
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