In The Rain

Chapter 36

Now they were at home. The mother sat in front of the daughter at the table with a cup of warm chocolate tea in the middle.

"I made it for you. I know you always prefer when I make it so here." Leigh's mother pushed the cup gently towards Leigh so she could drink.

Leigh-Anne did not look at it. Her eyes stared half-closed at nothing. She looked brain dead.

Her mother watched her then tilted her head to see if she could catch her gaze. "Leigh-Anne . . . you can't stay like that forever sweetheart. You need to speak to me so we can fix this together."

The girl did not react.

Her mother stretched out a hand. "Put your hand on top of mine. Let's talk."

Leigh didn't.

The mother sat straight and watched for a while. Is it brain damage from the jump? Did she hit her head? She got examined and they said that she was fine. What if she's not? She was quite worried. This had apparently been on the news already. She'd seen an update of it on her cell phone from the London news website. How did this even happen?

She played back what happened the last time she and Leigh interacted before this and remembered that she had warned her to not leave the school. She back tracked a bit again and then saw when she had been reprimanding the child for skipping. She remembered how she dragged her up the stairs and slapped her on the forehead. That may have been much. I was just so upset. Should she apologize?

"Could you tell me what made you do that?"

Silence . . .

"What did the bullies say? I can help if I at least know that."

Nothing.

She licked her lips which felt dry and then took up the cup of tea. She then stood and went to Leigh's side. "Here. I'll feed it to you."

Leigh made no motion to say she would drink it.

"But you like it this way don't you?" The mother took a sip. "So sweet. Come on. You like sweets. Drink up." She tried again but Leigh did not budge.

If she doesn't do something soon then I'm taking her to the hospital. The woman stared at her child for a while then thought of something.

Fifteen minutes later, Leigh-Anne's mother was coming down the staircase with Leigh's favourite toy in her hand. "Why has he got a bandage Leigh-Anne?" She had found the stuffed animal lying on Leigh's bed as if resting. Something about that made her smile but now she just felt sad watching how out of it her daughter was.

"Here you go. It's Dr Weasel or Dr Ferret or whatever it is you call him. Here. He's here to tell you to drink your tea Leigh-Anne." She made the doll dance next to Leigh's face then in front of the girl.

Leigh-Anne didn't react.

Her mother's shoulders fell. Now what is that silly voice that John always does? She was not as good with animation as her ex-husband so she would not try. She placed the toy on Leigh's lap and then sat down.

By the strike of seven the tea was most likely dead cold.

Leigh's mother had just been waiting for a response for all of thirty minutes and there was still nothing. All Leigh did was blink, breathe and stare.

She held her forehead in her hand with her elbow on the table, searching the wood for answers. What did I do wrong? What is wrong? She always seemed fine. Clearly she wasn't if she felt so miserable that she had to jump off a building. She jumped off. A teacher had to hold her for a long time in order for her not to die. What is happening?