| �Can I play?� �No Dominic, go away. This is my game.� �Please John.� �No. My Mummy says you�re Mummy�s a tart, and you haven�t got a Daddy, she told me not to play with you.� Dominic walked away from the other boy, and towards a group of girls. �Can I play?� he asked a little blond girl in a pink summer dress. �Ask Lisa,� she answered. �Lisa, can I play?� �No, you got the lurgies. Yuk!� �You got the lurgies, you got the lurgies!� �And he�s got funny eyes. Look at his eyes.� The girls all tried to look and see. �I bet you don�t even know what the Lurgies are!� said the girl called Lisa. �I do to!� �What are they then?� said Lisa, quite curios to know herself. �Er�� �He doesn�t know!� �You�re stupid, Dominic.� �Yeah you�re thick and you got the Lurgies!� �Don�t try and play with us.� The group closed, blocking him out, and his bottom lip trembled. He looked at all the happy children around him, with smart clothes and shoes, and looked at his own cheep shoes and shorts from the charity shop. He sniffed and then shouted �I don�t need a Daddy,� and walked off with his shoulders bent and his arms crossed. He heard some kids laugh and he started running. The dinner ladies didn�t notice the small boy running behind the wall of a classroom, they were too busy chatting. Michelle sighed at length, and looked out over the pond as she had done as a child. She remembered all the times that she had screamed with exasperation at her parents and prayed that Dom wouldn�t do the same thing to her. She worried about him, he was very young, and there was no knowing what Jareth would do. She decided to change him schools; that at least would solve one problem. He was a friendly boy, and he could make new friends easily, if the other kids accepted him as he was. They were just too snobby at that school. They all were. �You must be Dominic,� said a voice, which seemed to come from nowhere. Dom jumped up, scared that one of the teachers had found him. Instead he saw a man he had never seen before. He seemed enormous to Dom, who was only 6, and less than three feet tall. He had long blond hair. Dominic had never seen a man in real life with long hair. He had the same funny eyes that Dominic had. He was quite frightening at first, but then he smiled at Dominic, and took the boys hand and shook it. �My name is Jareth. I suppose your mother has told you about me.� �Jareth?� �That�s right.� �That�s a real strange name.� �I suppose your mother hasn�t mentioned me then.� �Does she know you?� �O, we go back a long way, me and your mother.� Dom looked at him curiously, trying to remember if he knew the man. He couldn�t remember him, though he did seem vaguely familiar. �Did you used to have short hair?� he asked. �Mummy used to have long hair, and then she cut it off, and I almost didn�t recognise her.� Jareth considered this, and decided not to answer, in case his jealousy showed. �Let me tell you a story,� he said instead. �What about?� �It�s about a girl, called Sarah. I met her many years ago, when she was a bit younger than your mother was when she had you.� Michelle looked at her watch again. Bloody buses. The drivers just liked to be close enough to pull faces at each other, so there were huge gaps between buses, and then three would come at once, all doing the same route. She was going to be late picking up Dom again. She had had enough of that teacher�s sympathetic looks, and concerned, patronising comments to last her lifetime. How long was this bloody bus going to be? A black car, with dark windows pulled up at the bus stop. Michelle ignored it, searching the horizon for a bus. The window slid down, and a familiar voice said, �Do you want a lift somewhere?� She looked down, and saw Jaden through the window. �The next bus is twenty minutes,� he added. She got into the car, and crossed her legs away from Jaden, and he put the car into drive, and pulled away. �So, what happens next?� she asked at length. �We�ll see what Jareth offers.� �He�s not having him!� she said quickly. �He�s my son, and neither of you are going to hurt him, and neither of you are going to take him away from me!� Jaden laughed out loud at her. �You�ve gone soft in your old age, Michelle.� �Oh, shut up Jaden!� �Oh no Michelle. You asked for my help you�ll play by my rules now.� �I�m not giving him up!� �It�s so sweet it�s pathetic Michelle!� She clenched her fists, and looked into her own lap intently. Jaden looked at her and eventually said, �It might not come to that Michelle. You still don�t know what Jareth�s going to do.� He pulled up at the school. Lots of parents filed past the car, and Michelle got out. A few other mothers saw her and gave each other snide looks, and some even made quiet comments to each other. Michelle ignored them and half ran up the path to the school, looking around for Dominic. She couldn�t see him, so she went inside, where she found Mrs Baker stapling paintings to the wall. She looked around the classroom and then at the teacher. �Where�s Dominic?� |