The Apple Tree

Chapter 8

Katie's POV
I lay in bed that night. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. I couldn't even focus.
I felt helpless. There are hundreds of women looking like that.
I kept remembering the woman from the station. I kept thinking of her face. I began to retrace my footsteps in my head of the day before. I thought about the women that had come into the chipper. It struck me. The woman from the shop. The cashier. It was her.
That meant that little boy was her son. And the man was her husband.
Her husband was dead.
I couldn't believe it.
I walked to the kitchen. I had a pounding headache. I took a Panadol from the press. I went to bed after that. I was truly shocked.

I woke the next morning. I walked into the kitchen and turned on the radio.
"Michelle O Dea was found dead in her apartment with her 1 year old toddler. According to officers, it was suicide. Michelle had recently lost her husband in a suspected murder, however officers have not released details about that yet."
I dropped my mug.
Committed Suicide.
I put on my track suit and ran to the station. As I arrived I seen Liam and Lexi-Anne getting out of a car. I ran to them. They looked at me, concerned.
"Is it true?"
"Yes, it is."
I seen the little boy in the back of the car. He waved at me. He was happy. I don't think he knows what happened.
"What's going to happen to him."
I tilted my head towards the child in the car.
"Well he has no family here so he's going to have to go to foster care."
The poor boy. One of my friends back in Kilkenny was in foster care from the time she was born. She used to get beaten and starved. I don't know why but I felt a sense of protection over the child.
"Would I be able to take him? I know it sounds stupid but I can't let him go there. I have an extra room in my apartment. I have a job. I'm going to apply for college this coming year. There's a crèche there. I could apply him in that."
They looked at me and then each other.
"Well we would have to talk to social workers and look into your financial income, stuff like that."
"That's fine. My income isn't too bad. My apartment is quite cheap and I always have a good bit of money left at the end of each week. Enough for a child even. I have no debts. No plan to move from here, so once he has his social worker he wouldn't have to change."
"Look, we'll see what we can do for you and get back to you but in the meantime he has to stay with us."
"Ok, but you have my number so please be in touch."
"Of course. "
Lexi-Anne helped the child out of the car and carried him inside. He looked delighted that he had got to ride in a police car. I wondered how he would handle the situation. I strolled to work. I had loads of time so I stopped for a take-away coffee. I was standing in the line when two Middle-aged women began talking beside me.
"The police are meant to be releasing a statement of the cause of death of that poor man today."
Shit. I must have missed that. What time though. Walking out, I stopped at the women's table.
"Hi, would you happen to know the time that the statement is being broadcasted at?"
The woman sitting on the right looked at me and smiled.
"4 o clock, dear."
"Thank you very much."
I would be home by then. I could listen to it. There are some times I wish I had bought a television.
It's not that I can't afford one. I can. I just feel there is no need for one when I am hardly home.
I walked in the door of the chip shop.
"Hello, Katie, your early." Brian looked at me concerned. I didn't understand why everyone was looking at me like that. I was tired. Get over it for gods sake.
"Hi, I know, I couldn't sleep."
"Ok! Well better early than late! get an apron and start!"
The day flew by. I was focused on that statement I needed to know what happened to him. I hadn't seen much. A lot of blood but I didn't see where it was coming from. I think the shoulder or around there. It nearly made me sick thinking about it. I attempted to wipe that image from my head. Sadly enough the little boys face came back into my head. Imagine him growing up, knowing he lost both his parents within the same week.
3'o'clock. My shift was done. I grabbed my coat and a bag of chips and ran up the road and straight to my apartment. I turned on the radio and tuned it so I could hear it clearly. I ate my chips while reading my book. Finally, the radio host announced
"Now we go live to outside the Dublin HQ of gardaí..."