ALONE TOGETHER I OWEN GRADY

Losing Touch

Losing Touch

It took Cassandra several moments to realise her phone was ringing, ripping her out of her reverie, and another several moments for her shaking hands to negotiate it out of her pocket. By the time she was able to hold it without dropping it, it was only to see she had six missed calls. Then the phone started ringing for the seventh time, making her nearly drop it all over again. "Hello," she choked out, "Karen?"

"Told me what?" Karen quoted impatiently down the line. "And why are you not picking up? I expect that from Zach, but not you."

"Claire didn't show."

There was a long silence. "Fuck," Karen then hissed, all her strictures on swearing immediately out the window, "fuck-fuck-fuck. I knew she would do this, I knew it!"

"What else did you expect, man!?"

Karen didn't answer, Cassandra only hearing the sound of her harsh breathing down the phone, sounding as if she was trying not to cry.

"What did you tell Zach about Morgan's father?" Cassandra said suddenly, straightening up. "What did you say?"

"What!?"

"Morgan's father, what did you tell Zach about him?"

Karen exhaled sharply, trying to make sense of what Cassandra was saying. "I... I never said anything to anyone," she said, bewildered, "you know that – I never even asked you about him and anyways, I knew it couldn't be David. I just welcomed Morgan with open arms. I don't give two flying monkeys about her father or who he was or where he is."

"Was it Scott, then?"

"Scott, what?"

"Zach just slung me the line that Morgan's father fucked off because of me."

"What, you drove him away?"

"In a nutshell, yeah."

"And you're saying Scott put that idea into his head?"

"Who else?"

"Well, somebody else in the family might have been putting the poison in" –

-"Like who?"

"Well, Mom for starters – things have never been right between you after the scholarship fiasco and then your divorce and you taking up art again" –

-"Okay, Mom, I get, but who else? Who else hates my guts?"

"Cass, please, I didn't mean it like that" –

- "C'mon, Karen, who else in my family is gunning for me" –

-"I'm trying to save my marriage here, Cassandra!" Karen snapped, silencing her sister. "I don't need you phoning me, saying Scott said this, and Scott said that, when you've got no proof" –

Cassandra cut the call, before switching the phone off for good measure. She stared at the blank screen, her mind painting the canvas of her memory with pictures of the past, of a man with grey eyes who would never hold the hand of his child. Exhaling sharply, she then put the phone away in her pocket, forcing herself to focus. With great difficulty, she made herself move, brushing past strangers as she went up the steps that led to the main entrance of the Innovation Centre.

She hesitated before going inside, edging around the various exhibits until she found the children by a life-size hologram of a diplodocus, the trio circling it with awed faces. Nearby, the PA was pacing in front of the enormous T-Rex skeleton exhibit, yelling at somebody down her phone as she did, anger rendering her striking features ugly. Cassandra hung back, watching the children without them knowing, heart twisting in her chest. They were so innocent, only living in the moment, never thinking of the future. Yet for all this innocence, they could be deadly, wounding with a string of words pitched precisely the right way.