Watching And Waiting

Fiction Editor, Gaynor We loved this heartwarming family story.

- Elizabeth McKay

Everyone in my class thinks I’m a baby. Everyone else gets to walk home on their own.”

I was walking three paces behind her, so the words were actually spoken to the back of Mum’s head. After all, to walk at her side would only serve to confirm everything I’d just said. And – heaven forbid – she might want to hold my hand.

“Nearly everyone in your class lives in the opposite direction from us, David,” Mum said, like she did every day. “They don’t have to cross that busy road at the top of Holdman Street.”

“I know the Green Cross Code,” I said, like I did every day. “I know when to stop, and look and listen.”

“That’s good.” Mum nodded.“Now, show me how sensible you are, and I’ll think about letting you walk home by yourself after the summer holidays.”

We’d reached the junction at Holdman Street, so I stopped and followed the procedure exactly like we’d been taught by the policeman who came to talk to us about road safety at school. As we waited at the edge of the kerb, I made an exaggerated display of turning my head right and left to check for traffic. I thought I saw Mum’s hand hovering, so I quickly stuck my own hand in the pocket of my blazer.

As soon as I was safely across on the other side, I ran ahead. It was more or less a straight route on a wide pavement from now until the final corner that led to home. Even Mum couldn’t have any concerns about that. I still had to stand outside the house and wait for her, though, until she arrived with the key.

I must have stood on the edge of the kerb for at least five minutes, reciting over and over again the words we’d been taught in school: Stop. Look. Listen. Everything seemed so much busier, so much faster and noisier, so much angrier, without Mum close by.