Clay by Melissa Harrison Read Free Book Online Page B

learned – very carefully in this notebook. It could take an awfully long time.’
    Daisy looked past her, brow furrowing. ‘OK,’ she said, without enthusiasm. ‘But, Granny, you’ve got the best writing, so you could do all the writing and I could just help you.’
    ‘Well, I think it would be best if we did it together,’ said Sophia, ‘unless . . . I don’t suppose you’d prefer to go and say hello to that little boy over there, would you? He looks like he might be doing a project that needs some expert help.’
    ‘Oh, OK then,’ said Daisy, ‘I’ll do that instead. If you can definitely manage by yourself.’
    ‘I’ll be quite all right,’ said Sophia, settling back on the bench and feeling in her pocket for a Minto. It was a shame there was only apple juice in the hip flask, but you couldn’t have everything.
    TC was still squatting and examining the ground when Daisy ran over. ‘What are you looking at?’ she demanded.
    He seemed to shrink a little. ‘Nothing,’ he muttered.
    ‘No it isn’t. What is it? I’m Daisy. What’s your name?’
    ‘TC,’ he muttered.
    ‘TC? That’s not a name,’ replied Daisy. ‘But you can be called it if you want. I’m eight. How old are you?’
    ‘Nine,’ said TC.
    ‘Nine!’ breathed Daisy, clearly impressed. ‘Have you found something? Is it a secret?’
    TC looked up, but there was no mockery in her face. He didn’t want to tell; at least, he didn’t think he did. But he could feel that he was going to. Why?
    ‘You can’t tell anyone,’ he said.
    ‘Cross my heart and hope to die,’ the girl said, crouching down too.
    ‘It’s not a game.’
    ‘I promise.’
    TC took a deep breath. ‘It’s an animal.’
    ‘What is?’
    ‘It lives around here.’
    ‘In the park?’
    ‘And on the common. You know.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘I’ve been tracking it.’
    ‘What does that mean?’
    ‘Following it. Its footprints and things.’
    Daisy looked down at the ground between them. It was bare where the grass gave out beneath the holm oak’s shade. ‘Is there a footprint here?’
    ‘Not yet,’ replied TC, smoothing the dusty surface of the soil with his hand, ‘but there might be tomorrow.’
    When Sophia opened her eyes she saw that the two children were happily engrossed in whatever they had found under the tree. She hoped Daisy wasn’t being too imperious with the little boy; he could clearly do with gentle handling.
    But TC didn’t mind Daisy’s bossiness, had hardly noticed it, in fact. Although he hadn’t exactly been keeping track, the truth was it was the first friendly contact he had had with another child in nearly a year.
     
    Over the weekend it became clear to Jamal that TC was not birdwatching. He saw the boy crawling about in the undergrowth at the end of the flats’ gardens, looking everywhere but at the pigeons and crows and what-all that Jamal could see in the trees. He asked Kelly about it on Sunday night as they watched TV.
    ‘He’s trying to find animals,’ she said, cracking open a beer. ‘You know, footprints and stuff. He’s got a book on it.’
    ‘TC got a book?’ asked Jamal. ‘How come we don’t see him reading it?’
    ‘I told you, it’s a secret. He thinks I don’t know. He’s got a ghost one too.’
    ‘But why? Why are they a secret?’
    ‘I don’t know. It’s just . . . kids, yeah? You know, they like to have secret games. Keeps him quiet, anyway.’
    ‘Can’t be much for him to find,’ said Jamal. ‘Apart from rats.’
    ‘He used to go on walks with his dad, though, stuff like that. He was good with him.’
    ‘He hit you, you said.’
    ‘Yeah. But he never laid a hand on the kid. TC still thinks his dad’s perfect.’
    ‘Well, tell him then.’
    ‘Don’t be stupid, Jamal. Why would I do that? Anyway, he would’ve learned it soon enough.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘He would’ve pissed Lenny off sooner or later, challenged him. Then it would’ve started. That fucking man,