Somebody to Love: Sigh With Contentment, Scream With Frustration. At Time You Will Weep. Read Online Free PDF Page B

Karl’s hair. His fringe was tickling his eyelashes again, he noticed.
    Time for a trim, he guessed, recalling how, with his long dark eyelashes, Karl had often been mistaken for a girl as a baby. How his wife had joked he’d grow up to be a heartbreaker. Mark’s heart seemed to have broken, that was for sure.
    Karl shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, in that gruff, grainy voice that drew people’s stares. Mark didn’t care. At least Karl was speaking. He was two when he’d stopped, and Mark’s life changed forever
    But now, with speech therapy and hard work, Karl at least had some vocabulary.
    ‘Dog,’ Karl went on bluntly, his brow furrowed in concentration as he took hold of Mark’s hand.
    ‘Dog?’ Mark furrowed his brow in turn. ‘Okay, so show me,’ he said, knowing Karl would drag him there anyway to show him what he wanted.
    Karl paused outside a glass display case. ‘Dog,’ he repeated, pointing a finger at a ceramic creature with huge, beguiling eyes.
    Mark crouched down to Karl’s level. He placed an arm around his son, his own eyes full of wonder now. ‘That’s right, Karl. Dog,’ he said, looking from the dog to his son’s face, carefully gauging his reactions. ‘And this one…’ he pointed to another dog, similarly hand-crafted, but a different breed, ‘… what’s that Karl?’
    Karl pointed at the original. ‘Dog,’ he repeated, resolute.
    ‘Right.’ Mark smiled. It was too much to hope that Karl might be able to hang something that was a different shape and colour on the same family tree, but one miracle was enough. Karl was here, in one piece, in a shop, with people. No sign of claustrophobia. No rocking, hand-flapping or temper tantrum in sight. And he was communicating. Rudimentary it might be, but he was exchanging dialogue. As miracles went, this one was more than enough.
    ‘So, shall we buy the dog, Karl? Forget about the car for today, maybe?’
    Mark held his breath and waited. Karl needed routine. Knowing what was going to happen next kept him on track. Buying a model car while out shopping was the ‘right’ way to do it in Karl’s mind.
    Karl nodded, at length. ‘Yes,’ he finally said.
    And Mark breathed out.
    The day, he decided as they left, Karl clutching the dog that had cost and arm and a leg, might not have turned out so badly, after all.
    Draping an arm over Karl’s shoulders, Mark nodded his reassurances to Phil and Jody as he approached the car where they waited.
    Should he ring Donna, he wondered. Check she was okay after he’d checked his text and made what must have seemed like a sharp exit?
    He could still taste her; smell her, an intoxicating mix of perfume and pure feminine essence. He reached for his mobile, which seemed to be burning a hole in his pocket. Wouldn’t it seem a bit too keen though, ringing her barely an hour after leaving her? He hadn’t had that much practice at the dating game. Had no idea what the protocol was. He must already have seemed pushy. Way too pushy. He didn’t want her thinking he was desperate, some kind of obsessive who was going to plague her with calls. Didn’t want to have to explain right then either why he had had to leave in such a hurry. Because he’d have to gloss it over, or out-and-out lie, and he definitely didn’t want to do that.
    Tomorrow, he decided. That wouldn’t seem too soon. He’d ask her what food she liked, book the restaurant, and come clean over dinner. And then…
    What would be would be.
    ****
    Up bright and early the next morning, Donna popped Sadie on her favourite chair — opposite the patio windows where she could see out, popped a generous helping of cabbage and cucumber under the kitchen table for Findus, then dashed for the stairs to get ready for work, glancing casually at her mobile parked on the hall cupboard as she went.
    She had given him the right number, hadn’t she? She knitted her brow. He had put it into his mobile correctly, hadn’t he? It was possible he might