SHADOWFALL

By Tessa Harvey


    Just then his mobile phone rang. Surprised, he picked up the phone, looked at the number, then answered. After a few minutes listening, he answered, "No charge" and looked at his brother. "The police want to know if I will press charges," but then the high excited voices of children were heard scattering the rabbits, the butterflies, the skinks, the silence. "Dad, dadda, where you?" sang Robin. Anneke and Johan had reached them. They looked askance at Hunter, but flung themselves at Tarrant.
    Sylvie came up, puffing, holding Robin's hand. She looked different, shiny somehow, Tarrant thought.
    "A man rang about a real good job, Tarry," she exclaimed, still out of breath. She spontaneously gave her husband a very warm hug and kiss.
    "Hungry, dad," Anneke was practical. Johan added his cries of hunger. Hunter looked at his near empty cupboard. "All out of sardines...." "Yuk!" Robin's vocabulary had expanded. "Got pancake mix here, you guys," Sylvie announced. "That God bloke helped me. I am free." Scrambling for a frying pan and utensils, Hunter groaned silently and swore to himself. "Delusional," he thought, crossly.

 

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