‘Like I say,’ said Jana, her eyes flitting between me and Ed as if picking up on the tension, ‘I haven’t really seen enough evidence of it, and anyhow I’m not the right person to judge. All I can say is, Laurie seems to be super-adjusted, given the circumstances.’
‘And your own kids get on with her?’ Ed asked.
‘Sure.’ Jana nodded. ‘Well, Lisa is kinda separate because she’s older, and Barney has asked a coupla times when Laurie is going home, but that’s probably because he just wants me back to himself.’
‘Any questions about her parents? Her brother?’ I wanted to reassert myself into the situation, to recover ground.
‘Never about the brother. Occasionally she’ll mention her parents in passing, but it’s strange, it doesn’t seem to upset her in any way. She might just be good at hiding things but I get the feeling they’re already starting to fade from her mind.’
Ed picked up his notebook and scribbled furiously.
When Laurie came in, clutching Kristen’s hand, she seemed in high spirits.
‘There’s a machine there and it has all this nice stuff in the window and you put in your money and it makes this really loud noise like this . . .’ She stretched her mouth into a tall oval shape and made noises in the back of her throat. ‘Then it gives it to you in this special place in the bottom. I wanted some candy but the lady,’ she glanced up at Kristen, ‘said I needed to ask you. Can I, Mommy?’
The word seemed to take us all by surprise. I glanced over at Jana and she gave a faint ‘what can you do’ shrug.
‘We’ll see, Laurie. But listen, honey, what did I tell you about calling me Mommy? We talked about it, remember?’
Laurie smiled.
‘Oh yes, I forgot. But can I have some candy? I’ve been really good.’
‘We’ll talk about it later, but first we’re going to have a little chat to Professor Kowalsky and Dr Cater.’
Laurie bounced up and down on the chair Kristen had settled her into. She looked tiny. My heart contracted at the sight of her, taking me by surprise. Ed started by asking her questions about her new preschool. I was impressed by his gentleness. He was asking her about her favourite toys, and what she’d liked to play with in her other house.
‘I had some dolls, but Mommy,’ she glanced over at Jana, ‘I mean the other mommy, wouldn’t let me play with them all the time. Just sometimes when she let them out of their boxes.’
‘We went to see your house,’ I told her. ‘You have a lovely room.’
She nodded solemnly, accepting it as perfectly normal that we should have been to visit the house where she used to live.
‘I like my new room better. I have a box on wheels that comes out from under the bed with all my toys in it. I can push it in and out.’
‘Was there anything about your old house you didn’t like, Laurie?’
The room held its breath. Had Ed jumped in too soon?
Laurie shrugged.
‘I didn’t like the chair in the kitchen that was made of wood and gave me a splinter in my finger.’
‘Anything else? How about the basement? Did you ever go there? Did you like that?’
Bounce, bounce, bounce. Was it my imagination or had the little girl’s movements become more frenetic?
‘I didn’t really like the basement. I didn’t like it.’
‘It?’ queried Ed. ‘You mean the basement?’
‘No. The Thing.’
‘What thing, Laurie?’
‘The Thing that lived in the basement.’ Laurie was looking at Ed like it was too obvious to warrant spelling out.
‘Can you explain what that was, Laurie?’ I asked, trying to match my tone to Ed’s effortlessly patient one.
She shrugged again.
‘I dunno. Can’t remember. It was a Thing that was sometimes bad and made Mommy and Daddy cross, and I didn’t like going down there because it was kinda stinky.’ She held her nose and giggled.
‘Can you describe the Thing, Laurie?’ I asked, trying to keep her on subject.
She wriggled on the chair.
‘I can’t remember. It was dark in there. I think it was a kind of, you know, an animal.’
‘Like a pet?’
I fought a wave of irritation at Jana’s leading question. Why couldn’t she have let Laurie formulate her own conclusion instead of handing one to her on a plate?
‘Yeah, I guess. Can we go get candy now?’
As Jana got up to go, she shot us a sympathetic smile, as if to say ‘I don’t envy you’.
‘Laurie, say goodbye to Professor Kowalsky and Dr Cater,’ she said to the little girl hanging off her arm.
‘Goodbye,’ Laurie sing-songed, turning to us and shooting us a radiant smile.