Listen by Kate Veitch Page A

basketball? Bit bigger, maybe.
    Quickly, quickly. Vesna and the girls were waiting in the car, and heaven knows the weekend was always far too short to fit everything in. Around the kitchen again. All lights, off. Microwave, toaster, blender, off. The fridge, now, that had to stay on. That had to stay on. Walk away from the fridge , he told himself, in the mock-cop voice the boys at school used. The clock, well, that was battery operated, so that was okay. He lifted it away from the wall to check. Yes, batteries all right.
    The laundry. Washing machine, off, dryer, off. Iron in the cupboard,cord safely wound around itself, as though it was tied up. Irons were one of the worst. The bedrooms, one, two, three: all the lights were off. He bent down to check each powerpoint in case something had been plugged in and left on by accident. A hairdryer, for instance. Maybe someone had used a hairdryer in the bathroom? He’d better check there again.
    Well, that was the whole house then. Twice. But what about the computer, had he checked the computer was turned off? Yes, he had, but maybe he should check again? He was going back into the living room when the front door opened and Vesna walked up to him.
    ‘Robert,’ she said in her calm, kind voice.
    ‘I was just checking that everything’s switched off.’
    ‘I know.’ She stood before him and gently put her hands to his face. ‘It’s all okay. You’ve taken care of everything. We can go now.’
    Robert closed his eyes and took several deep, slow breaths, as his doctor had suggested. His head felt so much better with Vesna’s hands there, keeping it to the proper size. Finally he nodded.
    ‘Is it this assessment with your father next week?’ she asked.
    ‘No, no. Well, maybe. Yes.’
    ‘It’s pretty routine, my darling. Really. Try not to worry.’
    He nodded again and took her hands, lowered them from his face, held them a moment. They walked to the front door together.
    ‘You didn’t say anything to the girls, did you?’ he asked.
    ‘About your father?’
    ‘No, about… me checking.’
    ‘No, darling,’ his wife assured him.
    But they must know. Surely. He glanced in the rear-view mirror at Bianca and Alexa on the back seat, their identical Coke-bottle-thick glasses and lovely wavy orange-red hair, Alexa’s with about a dozen green plastic clips in it and Bianca’s in pigtails with blue fluffy bands at both ends. They were leaning towards each other with their heads lowered as they looked at a magazine. They must know something. But the only comment they had ever made was an occasional wail of‘Come on , Daddy!’ as he prowled the rooms, checking, checking.
    And at school? What did they know? Or suspect? The secretary he shared with the principal had given up urging him to leave his computer on when he went home. Switched on at the powerpoint, at least. It would save you so much time each morning , he’d been told a thousand times, and it uses up virtually no electricity at all , but he just laughed that off and said I was brought up not to waste a single watt, I’m afraid! Which wasn’t true at all, of course, but no one at the school knew that, did they?
    Vesna turned a little in her seat. ‘Girls? Your friend Daisy, what’s her mother’s name? I just can’t remember.’
    The two girls looked at each other blankly and then back at their mother. ‘Mrs Lee?’ offered the older one, Bianca.
    ‘Mrs Lee.’ Vesna and Robert exchanged glances, smiling. ‘Of course. And you’re sure it’s okay for us to leave you there, they don’t expect the parents to stay?’
    ‘No, Mum. It’s okay.’
    ‘So we’ll pick you up after we’ve been to Ikea.’
    ‘But you don’t have to hurry , Mummy. It’s a party!’
    ‘I do have some work to get through today,’ remarked Robert in an aside to Vesna.
    ‘Mmm. If we get done in time at Ikea, I’ll drop you at home and then go and get the girls. Spend some time with my good friend Mrs Lee.’ They both