Chapter Twenty-Six: A Perfect Day

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Perfect Day

Then the memory came to Kate like a benediction. It was so strong it blotted out everything else. It was during those carefree days when the door of the future was still closed to her. It was the last day of the autumn half-term holiday, only a few weeks before the day that Peter Schock arrived in her life.

She was perched on the narrow bench in the back of the ancient Land Rover, squashed up between Sam and Sean. She was so cross at being dragged off on a family outing when she had already made plans of her own. Kate felt every jarring stone and pothole as the Land Rover juddered up the rough track towards the main road, throwing her brothers and sisters around so that their shoulders thumped one against the other. All Kate’s friends had proper cars with springs and everything. Why did her family have to ride around in this bone-rattler?

She had been feeling put upon all week. As the eldest, she felt she had done more than her fair share of the chores and the boring stuff and she had tons more homework than anyone else. Somehow being deprived of her freedom on the last day of the half-term holiday before school started again was the final straw. She had upset Sam by stomping off up the stairs and slamming her door. Sam could not bear it when Kate and their mum fell out. They were each as strong-willed as the other so that when Sam tried to get them to make up, mother and daughter just got cross with him as well. Kate felt bad about it but was definitely not going to say sorry. She was entitled to her own personal space! Anyway, it was no big deal. Just a family squabble. A case of people getting on each other’s nerves. But now that Kate’s temper had cooled she was starting to feel miserable.

“But it’s such a beautiful day!” Mrs Dyer insisted as she drove them out of their valley. “Just look how blue the sky is. It’ll be winter soon. Let’s not waste this lovely sunny day. You never know how many days like ths you’ve got.”

“Don’t say things like that!” exclaimed Sam. “I hate it when you say stuff like that!”

Kate looked at him. He had tears in his eyes. The twins rolled their eyes theatrically towards heaven.

“Poor ickle Sammy, he’s so sensitive,” said Issy.

Sam reached over and slapped her hand hard. “Shut up!” he shouted.

Issy burst into tears. He had hurt her.

“Calm down, for goodness’ sake, Sam,” growled Dr Dyer. “We do not - even when provoked - hit each other in this family.”

Kate’s dad had not felt like a trip out either. He was in the middle of emailing a NASA colleague with some complicated data but he had come along because he did not want to disappoint Kate’s mother.

Issy sniffed and Kate passed her a tissue.

“For goodness’ sake!” exploded Mrs Dyer. “I only wanted all of us to go on a family outing for a change. Is that too much too ask?” No one answered. “Clearly it is!”

Suddenly Milly, exhausted from the climb, sat on her bottom and refused to budge. She started to cry. Shrill, piping sobs echoed through the woods and the whole family stopped in their tracks and looked over at the tiny figure, her golden curls blowing in the breeze, her red corduroy trousers bulging with a nappy that no doubt needed changing, her podgy arms raised in the air waiting for someone to pick her up and make her feel better. There was a slight pause and then, moving inwards like the spokes of a wheel, everyone approached the toddler at the centre of the circle. Dr and Mrs Dyer started to jog towards Milly, Sam slid off the iron cannon at the foot of the hunting lodge and the twins and Sean abandoned their game of tag. Kate reached her tiny sister first and picked her up, holding her soft, wet cheek against hers. Mrs Dyer got there next and Kate realised that, inexplicably, tears were running down her own cheeks, too.

“Oh Kate,” said her mother. “I expect so much of you, don’t I?”

And Mrs Dyer put her arms around Kate and Milly and then Sam joined them and they all opened their arms to let him join the circle and the next moment they were all there, clinging silently onto each other, their hearts brimming over with some unnamed emotion. It only lasted a moment.

“Why’s everyone crying? This is very silly,” said Sam, sniffing.

Dr Dyer laughed and ruffled Sam’s hair. “Human beings are very silly. Didn’t you know?”

Mrs Dyer squeezed Kate’s hand. “I knew this would be a perfect day.”

And then it was over. Sam and Sean and the twins went off to clamber over the cannon and Milly wriggled out of Kate’s grasp and started to crawl over the damp clover. With the last ounce of her strength Kate willed the memory of that moment to return and she felt the clutch of arms and warm breath on her cheeks and hard chins resting on her hair. And with the power of her imagination, for that was all that was left to her, she placed Peter, who she knew was so often lonely, and Gideon, who had lost so many brothers and sisters, firmly into the centre of that circle of belonging, too. Just for a moment. And then, as the scene started to slip from her grasp, she said goodbye to the people that she loved and who loved her, for she knew that she was now beyond help. Goodbye, she said. Thank you. I love you.

“Remember what the Marquis de Montfaron said. Nothing is ever lost…”

Kate murmured something which Dr Pirretti could not catch.

“We did not mean to invent Time Travel,” said Dr Pirretti. “Who would have wanted to open such a Pandora’s Box?”

Kate wanted to reply. She wanted to say that after Pandora let out all the evils of the world, Hope still remained. But she did not have the strength.

Dr Pirretti’s voice was unsteady. “I swear that I shall not rest until I have undone the harm we have done to the universe. I shall never forget your sacrifice. Can you hear me, Kate? Kate? KATE!”

But by now the only sound that Kate could hear was the faltering murmur of her own heart beating in her temples. And soon, too weak to resist any longer, even that was lost to her as the precious, unique structure that had been Kate Dyer was swept away by the ungovernable waters of Time.