Marker Pens

Mrs Davies looked down at her son as they waited. She could not remember as time where she had seen him look so nervous. The grip on her hand was still as tight as ever, the end of his sleeve was clutched in his other hand. He hadn’t let her, or the door, out of his line of sight.

Slowly she placed her free hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly and shrugged the hand off. His mother was used to this. It was something he had inherited off his father, the dislike of people touching him without consent.

The door next to them swung open and a rather imposing woman stepped out. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, the suit she wore was buttoned up and the heels increased her height by a few unneeded inches.

“Mrs Davies?” she called, expecting to see a few more people than there were.

“Yes,” Mrs Davies replied, standing up with Alex’s hand still in hers.

“If you’d like to come in and take a seat.”

The Davies’ followed her into the room and took their seats opposite her at the desk.

“My name is Mrs Paul,” The woman said, fishing through her cupboard for something.

“There it is,” she muttered to herself, laying a folder on top of the desk. “Your records Alexander. Could you check that all the information is correct on this paper while your mother and I talk?”

Alex looked up at her, not quite meeting her eyes. He nodded slowly and reached out for the paper. Placing it carefully on the desk in front of him, he began reading the content.

‘They’ve got nothing wrong,’ He thought to himself, ‘Just some stupid excuse so I don’t listen to them talking about me. None of this is information they could possibly get wrong. Date of birth? 26th October. Place of birth? Stockport. How could they possibly get this stuff wrong?’

Even if Alex did have a negative view about what he was asked to do, it certainly worked to their advantage. Alex found himself engrossed in an internal argument about whether or not he should disobey.

There was a knock on the office door. Alex’s eyes darted to the door handle when Mrs Paul shouted for them to enter. As the door swung open, Mrs Davies also turned to face the door. In walked a small, Japanese boy. He couldn’t have been much older than Alex, had shoulder length hair and rather large nose.

As he walked towards the desk, Alex found himself looking the boy up and down. He didn’t seem to strange, even if he did have a smile plastered to his face as though he’d been told to smile and never stop.

“Alexander,” Mrs Paul said, trying to get his attention, “This is Edward Minton. He’ll be your guide until you get use to the grounds. Is that okay?”

Alex nodded, his eyes still not leaving the small boy stood about a metre away.

“Good,” Mrs Paul continued, “Well why don’t you and Edward go explore while myself and your mother make all the essential arrangements?”

Both boys nodded. Alex with a distinct look of disgust at being patronised and Ed with a look that easily read that he didn’t particularly want to be there.

Mrs Paul ushered the children out of the room before turning back to Mrs Davies.