Whereabouts

They had a very satisfying supper, finishing things off with three different kinds of ice cream they found in the freezer.

The girls were sure.

‘Mummy always lets us have as much ice cream as we like.’

The clones took this statement at face value, knowing nothing of the house rules. Their only experience of children was drawn from Xavier’s reported interactions with the girls when he looked after them before.

‘Strange stuff, this ice cream,’ said Hugo, sniffing suspiciously at the bubblegum flavour on his spoon.

‘I read that humans are wary of food if it goes blue. Doesn’t seem to be entirely accurate, does it?’ said Brontë.

‘It’s my favourite,’ said Poppy, holding her bowl out for some more.

‘Whereabouts has your mother gone?’ Alain checked the time on the kitchen clock. After eight.

Three eloquent shrugs greeted his question and just as he decided it was time to call Bella, the lady herself appeared, flushed with exertion and full of apologies.

‘I’m so sorry, I would have been here ages ago but there’s some sort of hold-up on the main road a couple of miles away and no traffic is getting through. There’s a helicopter circling around overhead, with a searchlight and lots of people in security uniforms, checking all the cars in the traffic jam. It was utter chaos.’

The clones looked at each other. Now was not the time to set off back to Kim and Joe’s house.