‘You first,’ Norah said, gesturing at the door.
‘No, please,’ Poppy said.
Norah sighed through her annoyance and said, ‘OK, thanks,’ and stepped forward.
Freddie was ushered out by the teacher. ‘Mum!’ he said.
He wasn’t usually so excited to see her, and his shiny, happy face offered solace in amongst the banal horror of the situation. But that was swiftly cancelled when the first words out of his mouth were, ‘I’ve got a new friend!’
No. Please, no.
A little girl ran out, and you couldn’t miss the likeness. She was a mini-Poppy, albeit one with perfect braids. ‘Mum!’ she yelled. ‘Can Freddie come to our house?’
‘Oh!’ Poppy exclaimed. ‘Ummm...’
Norah couldn’t believe it. And yet she could. Her fear had come to pass. It was comforting, in a way. Norah wasn’t paranoid. Life really was as stupid as she’d always suspected.
The one bit of fortune in this was the question wasn’t aimed at her. It was Poppy’s to deal with.
‘Well, maybe not today,’ Poppy said quickly.
‘Why?!’ Luna demanded. She was a mini-Poppy in more than looks, it seemed.
‘I’ve got to get back,’ Poppy asked.
‘What for?’ Luna pressed.
‘The... plumber is coming,’ Poppy improvised.
‘What for?’ Luna kept on.
Norah felt the corner of her mouth slide up infinitesimally.
‘The toilet won’t flush,’ Poppy said.
‘Did you break it?’ Luna asked.
Poppy grabbed her daughter’s hand and tried to coerce her out of the playground. ‘No, well... Well, yes,’ she said, pulling at her hand.
But Luna wasn’t going into that goodnight gently. ‘How? Was it a massive poo?’
‘Oh my god,’ Poppy muttered to herself, pained. She was still trying to pull Luna, whose feet were edging forward, but not nearly fast enough.
‘Why aren’t you answering me?’ Luna demanded.
Norah decided it was becoming a little too fun to watch Poppy’s suffering, and she took Freddie’s hand. ‘Come on.’
‘Have you brought my snack?’ he asked. He seemed to have realised no playdate was forthcoming and was over it, bless him.
‘Yes, of course. Let’s get out of the playground, and I’ll give it to you,’ she told him.
The allure of the snack pulled him from the playground with relative ease. She heard one last snippet of the conversation between Poppy and her daughter as she passed through the gates to a waiting BMW.
‘Yes, Luna. It was massive. OK?!’ Poppy was saying irritably.
Norah worked hard to push down the smirk that was trying to take position on her face as she left the playground and fed Freddie a fruit bar. But only out of propriety. In her heart, the smile was allowed to be as big as it wanted to be—because Poppy wasn’t so perfect.
Twenty Years Ago
Poppy was in Norah’s tiny, cluttered bedroom. That was weird thing, numero uno. Numero dos was that she was looking at Norah’s half-finished graphic novel, her slender guitarist's hands flicking through the pages. She’d just picked it up off the desk without asking. For Norah, it felt like someone had walked in on her in the shower. But what was she gonna do, rip it out of her hands?
After a minute, Poppy looked up. ‘This is cool.’
‘Oh,’ Norah said, surprised. ‘Is it? It’s not.’
‘It is. The drawings are unreal.’
Norah told her face not to even dare blush. ‘Thanks,’ she said, trying to sound casual.
‘The central character is cute. Kind of looks like you, actually,’ Poppy observed casually.
Norah didn’t have a single response to that.
‘How does it end?’ Poppy asked, putting it down.
‘I don’t know yet,’ Norah admitted.
‘Well, when it’s done, I wanna read it.’
