Ducky Love

Chapter 10: Childhood

Sqaishey's POV

I stand motionless, frozen with the phone to my ear.

"Beth? Are you ok?" Joanne says.

"Yeah..." I say. But I'm not. I'm not ok.

It was Squid. The man who made me bolognaise, who helped plan out the holidays.

He... He...

"It is very possible to be Mr. Spencer. But do you have any suspicions about Mr. Garrett?

"Oh, he's fine... I just can't believe it's... Him!

He practically killed my best friend. He told her she didn't deserve to live, and other things. I don't know the details, but she commited suicide 3 months later.

I won't ever forget the moment I heard the news. I cried for days, weeks, months. My best friend was gone.

And John, no, David, was making a little 'joke' about it.

And now, he's probably going to hurt Stampy.

"I'm sorry, Joanne, can I call you back later? I just need to get my head around it." I say quickly.

"Sure." I hear before I end the call.

I run into the loungeroom and make sure Stampy is ok. He is there, sleeping peacefully. I sit down next to him.

My life is ruined, even though he doesn't know it yet. And I don't plan on him knowing. At least not till the end.

He will be upset. I know it for a fact. But I want to live the last few years with him not knowing that I could die any moment.

After 2 hours of sitting there, he starts to stir. I walk away and wait for him to wake up.

As soon as I start to walk away, I faintly hear a voice call my name.

"Sqaishey?" I hear Stampy's voice say.

I turn to look at him.

"What are you doing up?" He says, yawning.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep again." I say.

"Yeah, about that. That first night, why did you need company? I mean, you are a grown woman, so..."

"I'm used to sleeping in the same room as my brother. And he sorta looks like you. When I was little, I used to get nightmares all the time. And so I would ask him whether I could come in with him. Why did you let me sleep with you?"

"Sorta the same reason. My older sister Rachel had a nightmare condition and so I used to calm her down."

"Oh." I say simply.

We sit there in silence, until we hear a clanging in the kitchen.

David was up.

I don't want to call him Squid anymore. Because it makes me feel that he is a good person. But he's not.

Will I tell Stampy what the police said? Maybe I shouldn't until we can find some evidence and he gets arrested.

Great. Two things I'm hiding from him now.

"I like this." I say. "Talking about our childhood."

"Well, I have planned a picnic today. So that's got our conversation planned. And I've got food planned. Cake, cake and more cake!" he says, laughing.

We walk together out into the kitchen.

"Morning, love birds!" Squid says. But I'm sure I see him narrow his eyes at Stampy.

"Good news! The insurance place paid us some money and so we are going to have my bedroom back to normal by tonight." says Stampy happily. "And the police rang last night to say that they are going to investigate today."

"That's good." Squid says flatly.

*Time Skip*

We sit in the park, on a picnic rug. We eat food and ask questions about each other's childhood.

"Who are your siblings?" I ask
Stampy.

"I have an older sister Rachel and a younger sister Annette."

"Cool." I say.

"Where did you grow up?" Stampy asks me.

"England." I say, smiling.

"Is that all you're going to give me?" says Stampy, also smiling.

"What's your favourite memory of your life so far?" I ask, rolling my eyes.

"Right now." Stampy says.

I want to kiss Stampy on the spot, but David is there. It wouldn't feel very good, him watching us kiss.

So I sit and smile at Stampy.

Then I start to cough.

"Here's some water, Sqaishey." he says.

I smile appreciatively and chug down a whole lot of water.

Then I look at the time.

It's 1:15. I better go.

"I just need to go and do some things in town. Bye!" I say as happily as I can so as not to cause suspicion.

And when I get there, the doctor calls me in. I sure hope this goes well.