sun was high but its light was as gentle as the moon. Everything was alive and moving lazily: the trees, the birds, the house, the grass, the streams.
From out of the orchard came a little girl in a straw hat and a white sailor suit, with blue ribbons around her hat and waist and knees. She was solemn beyond her years but bright and friendly and all that they could wish she was. She was a friend and a sister and a daughter and a comfort.
With her, hanging back cautiously in the green shadows of the orchard, were playmates. The little girl looked at the family, fixing on each in turn, seeing right into their hearts. She understood at once that they were not what they had been in the city but were reborn in this place, at the Hollow.
Once she had decided that it was all right, her playmates came out of the trees.
The family were seized with joy.
Settling In
A s weeks passed, the family settled, explored, discovered. They filled the Hollow, fitted in nicely.
They lost their city pallor and began to tan. They ate healthily and never got tired of apples. They were not bothered by insects, even at dusk. Midges swarmed in pestilential clouds across the moor but turned aside at the ditch-moat of the property.
In tune with their surroundings, the family were at last in tune with each other. They listened, they cared, they were tolerant, they loved and were loved.
They were constantly surprised, but never shocked.
For the first time in their lives, they felt perfectly safe. In learning to live in a new place, they learned to live with each other, to appreciate each other’s mysteries.
The Hollow, they decided, was a happy place.
* * *
I n the octagonal room, Steven experimented with seven different positions for his desk before realising Louise Teazle had been right all along. He set up his computer in exactly the spot hers had been. Kirsty and Tim were off foraging at the County Stores in Taunton, which left Jordan at home to help arrange his office.
‘Sit in your chair,’ said his daughter. ‘Give it a whirl.’
He pulled his chair close to the desk and sat down, getting the feel of the position. A significant chunk of his life would be spent here. He stretched fingers to touch his keyboard. Jordan adjusted the back of the chair.
‘Comfy?’
He was.
‘You have to watch out for repetitive stress injury,’ Jordan warned.
In London, he had felt the beginnings of back pain and semi-arthritic aches in his finger joints. What with everything else, he’d never even mentioned it to anyone but Tatum. A few twinges didn’t count for anything set beside the rest of the problems.
In the Hollow, it all cleared up. It had probably been psychosomatic.
‘In Computer Studies, we had a whole lesson on setting up a work station,’ said Jordan.
She measured the distance between his chair and the desk with finger-spans, and did mental calculations. She took a ruler and sized him up, as if for a sitting-down suit. When thinking, she looked younger than she was.
‘I’ll tape an X on the floor,’ she said, ‘to show where your chair should be. It’s what we had to do. After a couple of months, you can pull up the mark. By then, you’ll be settled. Where do you keep your masking tape?’
‘It’s in one of those.’
She looked at a stack of cardboard boxes. ‘Shouldn’t they have been unpacked
weeks
ago?’
She was almost funny, trying to be strict.
(not screaming)
He ummed and ahhed about having been busy. She put hands on her hips and tutted. Her navel winked at him above her jeans’ waistline. Before her Audrey Hepburn craze set in, she had agitated for permission to get her belly button pierced.
Steven saw an opportunity. He tickled her. She screamed (not the old kind of screaming) with laughter, and hauled his chair off its X spot, then spun him around.
He laughed too.
It struck Steven that he couldn’t remember the last time he had been alone with Jordan. He and Tim were together often, doing
From out of the orchard came a little girl in a straw hat and a white sailor suit, with blue ribbons around her hat and waist and knees. She was solemn beyond her years but bright and friendly and all that they could wish she was. She was a friend and a sister and a daughter and a comfort.
With her, hanging back cautiously in the green shadows of the orchard, were playmates. The little girl looked at the family, fixing on each in turn, seeing right into their hearts. She understood at once that they were not what they had been in the city but were reborn in this place, at the Hollow.
Once she had decided that it was all right, her playmates came out of the trees.
The family were seized with joy.
Settling In
A s weeks passed, the family settled, explored, discovered. They filled the Hollow, fitted in nicely.
They lost their city pallor and began to tan. They ate healthily and never got tired of apples. They were not bothered by insects, even at dusk. Midges swarmed in pestilential clouds across the moor but turned aside at the ditch-moat of the property.
In tune with their surroundings, the family were at last in tune with each other. They listened, they cared, they were tolerant, they loved and were loved.
They were constantly surprised, but never shocked.
For the first time in their lives, they felt perfectly safe. In learning to live in a new place, they learned to live with each other, to appreciate each other’s mysteries.
The Hollow, they decided, was a happy place.
* * *
I n the octagonal room, Steven experimented with seven different positions for his desk before realising Louise Teazle had been right all along. He set up his computer in exactly the spot hers had been. Kirsty and Tim were off foraging at the County Stores in Taunton, which left Jordan at home to help arrange his office.
‘Sit in your chair,’ said his daughter. ‘Give it a whirl.’
He pulled his chair close to the desk and sat down, getting the feel of the position. A significant chunk of his life would be spent here. He stretched fingers to touch his keyboard. Jordan adjusted the back of the chair.
‘Comfy?’
He was.
‘You have to watch out for repetitive stress injury,’ Jordan warned.
In London, he had felt the beginnings of back pain and semi-arthritic aches in his finger joints. What with everything else, he’d never even mentioned it to anyone but Tatum. A few twinges didn’t count for anything set beside the rest of the problems.
In the Hollow, it all cleared up. It had probably been psychosomatic.
‘In Computer Studies, we had a whole lesson on setting up a work station,’ said Jordan.
She measured the distance between his chair and the desk with finger-spans, and did mental calculations. She took a ruler and sized him up, as if for a sitting-down suit. When thinking, she looked younger than she was.
‘I’ll tape an X on the floor,’ she said, ‘to show where your chair should be. It’s what we had to do. After a couple of months, you can pull up the mark. By then, you’ll be settled. Where do you keep your masking tape?’
‘It’s in one of those.’
She looked at a stack of cardboard boxes. ‘Shouldn’t they have been unpacked
weeks
ago?’
She was almost funny, trying to be strict.
(not screaming)
He ummed and ahhed about having been busy. She put hands on her hips and tutted. Her navel winked at him above her jeans’ waistline. Before her Audrey Hepburn craze set in, she had agitated for permission to get her belly button pierced.
Steven saw an opportunity. He tickled her. She screamed (not the old kind of screaming) with laughter, and hauled his chair off its X spot, then spun him around.
He laughed too.
It struck Steven that he couldn’t remember the last time he had been alone with Jordan. He and Tim were together often, doing
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