Broken City

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I hear the bustle long before they reach the door. Ralph, who has been making a valiant attempt to cheer me, has lapsed into silence. I struggle into sitting position hoping against hope but not daring to voice that hope. The wait seems endless and Ralph has taken a painful grip on my hand.

The door is wrenched open long before the sound reaches our floor, Tom is on the threshold and close behind him an out of breath Nella. Tom doesn’t move from his position just inside the door but Nella pushes passed him and falls to her knees beside me on the chair Ralph and I are sitting on.

“Deet honey, are you okay?” she doesn’t wait for my answer but traces a gentle finger down my bruised cheek. “What have they done to you?” her soft voice holds a faint inflection of horror.

Her face is already wet with tears and I realize that she must have cried the moment she was told. I have hardly cried at all since that night with Uncle Jep, but now with her arms around me I feel my eyes begin to well up.

“They’ve taken Dec, Nell—they just took him. And then you all didn’t come home and I thought—I thought...” My voice trails off suppressed by tears.

Nella’s arm around my waist squeezes me a little.

“We had a slight problem,” Nella turns to look uncertainly at Tom who awakening from his trance moves into the room, the whole tribe seems to file in after him.

“Why did you take so long?” asks Mr. Clark.

The question is directed at Jamie who has just entered but he doesn’t seem to hear him, he walks the length of the room and sinks down onto one of the chairs, his legs seeming to buckle underneath him. Under our astonished gaze his head sinks into his hands and the room goes silent. Mr. Clark turns from his son to Tom who is standing, hands clasped behind his back in front of the fire.

‘We have much to talk about, but everyone must be here.”

He seems to hesitate a moment and then calls Nella to him, their discussion is brief and she leaves the room with a reassuring smile in my direction. The murmuring in the room suddenly comes to an abrupt holt as Mr. Reynolds steps forwards.

“What is going on Tomasz?”

Tom, who is again looking at me, makes a dismissive gesture with his hand.

“Not until everyone is here,” he looks towards Uncle Jep. “In the meantime I’d like to know what happened here, Sir.”

Uncle Jep lays the bare facts before him quickly and clearly.

“And then Ricky came to find me to tell me where the children were and that Ralph had gone to find Deeta and Dec. It was half an hour before Ralph returned with Deeta unconscious in his arms and the news that Dec had not been with her.”

“Ralph found her?’

The Professor nods.

“Yes he has been a great help to me in looking after her and the children.”

Tom asks a rapid question in polish which the professor answers lengthily in the same language. Tom’s voice is bitter and though I had expected he would be angry, I had not imagined him as angry as this. Tom doesn’t get angry like most people do and shout or bash things about, as unpleasant as it is when someone does that Tom’s anger is somehow worse. He doesn’t shout and he certainly doesn’t bash things about, but his voice becomes very cold and very soft so that against your will you find yourself straining to hear his every word even though listening is one of the most uncomfortable things you will ever go through.