Klara and the Sun

‘That’s what I was thinking.’ He sighed and sat down on the sofa facing me. ‘So she sent you here on an errand.’

‘Yes. She wanted me to give you this. She worked especially hard on it.’

I held out the envelope in such a way that he could receive it while still sitting on the sofa. But he rose to his feet, even though he’d only just sat down, and, taking the envelope, opened it carefully.

He gazed at the picture for some time, his face on the edge of smiling. ‘Rick and Josie forever,’ he said finally.

‘Is that what it says? Inside the bubble?’

‘Oh, I thought you’d seen it.’

‘Josie put it in the envelope without showing me.’

He went on looking at it for another moment, then turned the drawing for me to see.

It was unlike any I’d seen during the bubble games. Much of the sheet was filled with sharp-looking objects, many with angry protruding points, that had become tangled together into an impenetrable mesh. Josie had used pencils of many colors to create the mesh, but its overall effect was dark and forbidding. However, a clear tranquil space had been kept in the lower left-hand corner, where the figures of two small people could be seen, their backs to passers-by, walking away hand in hand. They were too stick-like to be identifiable other than as a boy and girl, but they seemed happy and lacking worries. There was a bubble just above them, but because it was without the usual tail or bubble dots, the words inside seemed more like a poster slogan, or taxi door ad, than the thoughts from either person’s mind.

‘So what do you think?’ he asked.

‘It’s very nice. I think it’s a kind picture.’

‘Yes. I suppose it is. And a kind message.’

Suddenly music and electronic voices came loudly from upstairs and annoyance appeared in Rick’s face. He rushed out of the room, still holding Josie’s picture.

‘Mum!’ he shouted out in the hall. ‘Mum! For God’s sake turn that down please!’

A voice from upstairs said something, then Rick called up more gently: ‘I’ll come up in a minute. Now please. Turn it down.’

The electronic sounds grew quieter, and when Rick came back into the large room, he was again looking at Josie’s picture.

‘Yes, it’s a kind picture. Say thanks to Josie for me.’

‘I think Josie was hoping Rick would come in person to say thank you.’

His smile faded. ‘But it’s not that simple, is it?’ he said. ‘You’re always there, taking it all in. So you know as well as I do. The way she keeps getting at me. There’s no reason a person has to take all that. She pushes it too far, then thinks it can all be fixed with a nice picture. Send the AF over with it. Well she has to understand. Things aren’t always that easily fixed.’

‘If Rick came to visit once more, I believe Josie may wish to apologize.’

‘Really? Look, I know Josie and my guess is she’s pretty convinced I’m the one who needs to do the apologizing.’

‘Josie and I have already had that very discussion. I believe she’s wishing to apologize to Rick.’

‘I suppose I was out of order too. But she can’t just keep saying all that about my mum. It’s not fair. My mother’s doing her best and she’s getting better.’

Although the version of Rick who’d opened the door and faced me on the platform had been much like the one who’d ignored me throughout his visits, it was interesting to see he’d now become much closer to the person I’d talked to at the interaction meeting after the other children had gone outside. In fact it was almost as if this version of Rick was meeting me for the first time since that afternoon and continuing the conversation we’d then started.

‘I agree Josie’s words were sometimes unkind,’ I said. ‘But that might be because Josie feels Rick’s mother holds Rick too closely. Too closely to allow Rick and Josie’s plan to become possible in the future.’

‘But why does Josie blame Mum all the time? It’s not fair.’

‘Josie worries about the plan. I think she believes Rick’s mother is reluctant to let Rick go because she fears the loneliness that would result for her.’

‘Look, you might be a very intelligent AF. But there’s a lot you don’t know. If you only ever listen to Josie’s side of things, you’ll never get the whole picture. And it’s not just about Mum. Josie’s always trying to trap me now.’

‘Trap you?’

‘You must have heard. She’s always doing it now. Either she accuses me of thinking about that stuff too much. Or she’s offended because I don’t think about her enough in that way. Always trapping me, whatever I say. She claims I’m always lusting after these girls I can see on my DS, then the next time she brings it up, and I don’t react, she says there’s something wrong with me, I’m not being natural. She keeps talking about how we knew each other too well when we were children and so the whole sex thing might not even work with us. Whatever I try to say or do, it’s wrong and I get trapped. And the way she goes on about Mum. It’s going too far. Plan or no plan, that’s just not fair.’