‘Hey, come on,’ Mr Sutherland said. ‘Charlie’s fine, Poppy’s sorry. No need to make a big deal out of this. Everybody makes mistakes, right?’
‘I don’t know … ’ Principal Davies looked first at him, then at Juliet. ‘Poppy’s always been a lively girl, I don’t want her to think we condone this kind of violence.’
Juliet licked her dry lips. ‘She won’t do it again, I can promise you that.’
Principal Davies formed her fingers into a steeple, resting her chin on the intertwined tips. She turned her eyes to Poppy, who was still sitting silently. ‘Poppy, do you understand what you did was wrong?’
Poppy nodded fervently.
‘And are you very sorry for what you’ve done?’
Another barrage of nods.
‘Hmm,’ Principal Davies said. ‘All right then, I won’t exclude you this time. But if you ever hurt another child again, I’ll be down on you like a ton of bricks. Do you understand?’
This time, Poppy’s voice sounded as small as she was. ‘Yes, Principal Davies.’
‘Very well then, go back to class.’
If Poppy was half as frightened as Juliet was, then she understood all right. But Juliet’s anxiety was tempered by the relief of not having to tell Thomas what had happened.
It was a small consolation, but she’d take it.
‘Can we stop at the ice cream parlour on our way home?’ Poppy asked, swinging her legs so her tiny feet hit her car seat.
Juliet glanced in the rear-view mirror, noticing the car behind her – a huge battered truck. ‘Not after you hit that poor boy. You’ll be going straight to your room when we get home.’
‘That’s no fair.’ Poppy grimaced. ‘We always go to get ice cream after the first day. It’s a trad … trad … a thingy. You promised.’
‘It’s not a tradition, because we’ve only done it once before.’ Juliet was trying to keep her patience.
‘But you promised.’ Poppy’s voice took on a tremble. Her bottom lip was wobbling.
‘That was before you hit Charlie,’ Juliet pointed out. She had to bite down on her own lip to try to stem the emotions. If there was one thing she hated, it was seeing Poppy cry, and the poor kid had cried enough for them both over the past six months.
‘I said I was sorry. I played with him in recess this afternoon. I even gave him the green train as well as the blue one. He said we’re friends.’
‘I’m glad you made it up with him. That’s good.’
‘So can we get ice cream?’ Poppy leaned forward until the seat belt stopped her. ‘Please Mommy?’
There was a line of cars ahead, all waiting at the four-way-stop. Juliet put her foot on the brake, slowly coasting to a standstill. Staring out of the window at the cars ahead, she wondered how things had gotten this hard. Parenting was tricky enough when there were two of you, though at least then you had somebody to shoot ideas off and to commiserate with.
When there was just one of you it seemed almost impossible. It was one of the few times she missed Thomas.
‘Please Mommy?’ Poppy said again. The cars in front began to move slowly, and Juliet glanced in the mirror. The black truck was right behind her now, and when her eyes flicked up, she could make out the driver behind her, sitting beside his son with a mop of blond hair.
One look was enough to send her pulse soaring. Why the hell did that man have such an effect on her?
It had to be another stage of separation. Maybe even a sign she was getting over Thomas. It could have been anybody, Mr Sutherland just happened to be there at the right – or wrong – time. Blame it on the hormones. She’d barely looked at a man since she’d split from Thomas six months earlier, and they’d not been intimate for a good few months before that. It was her body’s reaction to enforced celibacy, nothing more, nothing less.
Damn it, maybe something cold would do them both good.
‘Okay, we’ll go for ice cream,’ Juliet conceded. ‘But if you hit anybody again, you’ll be banned from that place for a year.’
Poppy nodded, a serious expression on her face. ‘And so will you, Mommy, if you hit anybody again.’
Touché. Juliet tried – and failed – to bite down her smile.