Dark Mirrors
– she’d done it all wrong.
    “I mean it’s for you, Amy and me. Just us.”
    She should have warned him beforehand, broken it to him with a little more sensitivity.
    He stayed quiet for a while, just looking. Esmée knew better than to say anything more, not yet anyway. She could almost hear his mind ticking over, almost see the cogs turn as piece by piece the bits fell into place and the final assumption was gleaned although not necessarily understood. But he said no more, just peered out the window at the two-storey building with the number 6 on its front.
    Esmée got out of the car and walked around to open his door. Amy and Fin were already waiting and together they went inside. Esmée and Fin stood back and let the two children wander one after the other through the house. Esmée knew that Amy was too young to even begin to understand the implications of this move, but Matthew, well, he was a smart and sensitive six-year-old and that made her nervous.
    “This could go either way,” she commented through gritted teeth to Fin as she watched him stroll nervously through the small living space, eventually climbing the stairs behind his decisively more inquisitive sister.
    “It’s not as big as our own house,” he challenged when he returned to stand before her with his hands firmly lodged in his pockets, his furrowed brow exposing his worries as he stood glancing furtively around him, poking at the carpet with his toe. His eyes were wide, his cheeks faintly flushed and his mouth turned slightly downward.
    And finally! The question Esmée had been dreading crossed his lips.
    “Isn’t Daddy coming too?”
    There! It was out and the world hadn’t caved in around them!
    She knelt so that their eyes were level and stroked his face gently. Her voice was soft and bursting with emotion as she tried to answer him as best and honestly as she could without totally freaking him out.
    “No, pet, Daddy’s going to stay at the other house. But he’ll come and visit you and I promise you can visit him whenever you want.” She brought her hand to her chest to seal the pledge.
    “But won’t he miss us?” he asked sadly, mixed up and confused as tears defied the brave tone in his little voice.
    “He won’t have a chance to miss you,” she replied honestly, seizing him into her grasp. “He’ll see you more than ever before,” she reassured him, holding him tight as if squeezing him might expel the sadness from his tiny, precious body.
    “What about my other toys?”
    “Well, your favourite toys are right here, in the box beside your bed.” She pointed to the ceiling to indicate their presence in the room upstairs. “And if you want to bring anything else just tell me and we can go and collect it.”
    He thought about this for a while, like an adult taking mental stock of his situation, but it was obviously a little too much and his bottom lip began to quiver.
    “But, Mummy,” he sobbed, “my friends – they won’t know where I live – how will they find me?”
    He cried quietly at first, until the swell of emotion brought a wave of tears from a child who hadn’t the energy to pretend any more that he was grown up.
    As Amy watched curiously Esmée held him close, her heart spiking with the pain she was inflicting on them.
    “Don’t be silly!” she said, battling with her own failing composure and the hard lump that was threatening in her throat. “Sure we can always show them where we live, can’t we?” She lifted his chin with her finger so she could look into his eyes. “Why don’t we have Simon, Eamonn and Shane over to play tomorrow after school? How does that sound?”
    He nodded gently, liking the sound of the promise, and Esmée could feel his heartbeat settle somewhat but his body still heaved as he held on tightly to her.
    “I like it, Mummy,” whispered Amy, tugging at her sleeve, obviously feeling left out of the moment.
    “That’s just fantastic!” Esmée laughed, pulling her little
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