THE SANDFATHER - NEW!

Extract

Hal is staying with Aunt Jude. After he's supposed to be in bed, he overhears her telling her friend Don that she's just seen his mother's old boyfriend, Wesley Prince - a name Hal has never heard before.

Two o'clock in the morning, and Hal was wide awake.

His brain was a knot of anger, confusion, excitement; his thoughts twined and tangled. He was too hot under his duvet, then he kicked it off and was too cold. He was hungry, and thought of going down to the kitchen to find something to eat; next moment he thought he'd throw up. He was tired, utterly weary, but there was no way he could sleep.

Wesley Prince.

Mum's old boyfriend.

Aunt Jude hadn't said he was black, but she did say he had family in Jamaica. And she didn't know if he knew about Hal, and she didn't want Hal to find out about Wesley. That could only mean one thing, couldn't it?

Only now did Hal remember the young woman he'd seen at the beach, with two little girls collecting shells. She'd smiled at him - she'd looked nice. What were the names she'd called out? Grace, one of them - what was the other? He hadn't taken all that much notice at the time; just that they were black.

Wesley's wife. Wesley's wife and little girls. Well, they could be ...

If Wesley wasn't his father, then why would Aunt Jude be bothered about him turning up? If he was just Mum's old boyfriend?

He's got to be my father, Hal thought. Got to be.

His first impulse was to go downstairs and ask Aunt Jude, straight out. He practised what he'd say. "I heard you talking about Wesley Prince. He's my father, isn't he?"

With those lines running through his head, he got as far as the landing, then stopped. What would she say back?

"Yes, Hal, but he doesn't know."

"Yes, Hal, but he didn't want you. And he's got a family now."

"No, Hal, he isn't. Whatever gave you that idea?"

Which would be worse? What would he do?

Back in his room, he stood by the window looking out until he heard Aunt Jude turn off the downstairs lights and come upstairs. He got into bed and pulled the duvet over himself, pretending to be asleep; she looked round the door to say Goodnight, paused without speaking, then went to her own room. For a while he heard the burble of talk on her radio, then it was switched off and the house was in silence. Hal must have slept for a short while, but then he woke up abruptly, with his new knowledge clear in his mind.

He had a father.

What was he going to do about it?

Ask Mum, ask Aunt Jude. Ask if it were true.

But would they tell him? They hadn't so far, had they? He'd asked and asked and asked Mum, but never once had she said Yes, you've got a father, and his name's Wesley Prince.

So there must be some reason why she didn't want him to know.

There was something bad about Wesley? Could that be it?

What he'd do, he decided, before he let on that he knew anything at all, was get a look at Wesley Prince. His wife had joined the choir; she'd been down on the beach with the little girls. They'd be around. How hard could it be? Probably Wesley had a job in town, or was looking for one.

The little girls. Were they his half-sisters?

The idea jabbed at him weirdly, like a harsh finger poking him in the ribs. Immediately he hated them, because they had a Dad. A proper Dad.

Turning on the bedside lamp, he opened the drawer of the small cabinet. There they were, like a kind of promise: the marbles his father had given to his mother. He reached in without looking and lifted out the first one his fingers closed round.

It was his favourite, the tiger's eye, with its glowing amber colour and its darker centre. It was a wise and knowing eye that gazed at him steadily. I know, it said. I've always known.

Orion Children's Books
ISBN 1842555480
Available from Amazon.co.uk

Illustration by Ian Benfold Hayward

This page last updated 3 February, 2009