The Broken Ones Read Online Free PDF

room, glad to be away from them both.
     
    *
     
    First I tell myself I’ll call Peter on the way to work. Then I say I’ll do it during the first break. Before I know it, lunch time is almost here and I still haven’t called him. If he hadn’t called me so many times, I’d feel a lot better about it. It’s not particularly normal to call someone over and over like that. And then there’s the text messages, which started off friendly and ended up needy: Hi Sophie, just checking in about our second date. Get back to me! And then the latest one: Ok, I just want to know you’re all right. Get in touch. Pleaaase xx . We hardly know each other. We had five minutes of conversation. Why does he care so much about my welfare?
    There’s a big red flag waving over Peter’s head right now, and I’m not sure what to do. If there’s a way to make this situation worse, there’s a good chance I’ll find it. That’s the way the world works, right?
    “Miss! Miss!”
    The pink palm waving in front of my face alerts me to the fact that I’ve been staring at my phone for several minutes.
    “Can we go to lunch now? The bell rang.”
    “It did?”
    The entire class choruses, “Duh!”
    I wave my hand at them. “Go on, then. Get gone!”
    As the children filter out of the room, my phone begins to vibrate. The sound is amplified by the hard surface of my desk, and every one of my muscles clench. I snatch the phone up and stare at the screen. When I see that it’s Erin calling, I’m at first relieved, and then nervous. I answer.
    “Is everything okay?”
    “I’m so sorry, Sophie,” she says. “But I think you need to come home. Your mum won’t settle today.”
    I can hear that Erin is on the brink of tears. “Has she hit you?”
    “No… well… she’s been very difficult and won’t eat at all. She tried to leave the house, and I had to stop her. She tried to steal my car keys. She kept muttering about the house not feeling safe. She’s seems frightened, but I don’t know why.”
    “All right. I’m going to come home early. I won’t be long.”
    I hang up the phone and hurry out to the playground where I know Alisha is on duty. When she sees me, she frowns.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine, but I have to go home. The nurse is having trouble with Mum, and I need to be there. Can my class go in with yours after the break?”
    “Of course,” she says. “What are you going to do about Moira, though?”
    “Thank you. I’ll have to square it with her on my way home.”
    Alisha’s concerned gaze follows me as I hurry back into the school. Moira—our pocket-sized monster of a head teacher—won’t be happy, but there’s nothing I can do. Sometimes, family takes priority over work and that’s all there is to it.
    I knock on the door to the head teacher’s office. Then I wait. Her secretary is on her lunch break, so I have to wait for Moira herself.
    “Come in.”
    I enter the room and am face to face with Moira’s ice-blue eyes, always shocking beneath her sharp cut of black hair. She sits stiffly, with her hands placed on the desk in front of her. There’s no trace of a smile, and I immediately feel as though I’m a child again.
    Despite Moira’s reputation as a battle-axe with the school board, and her zero tolerance for staff members who don’t pull their weight, Moira MacIntosh is a favourite with the children. They call her Mac, and she tells irreverent jokes to the kids in assembly, throwing in pop culture references and commanding their attention like no one else can in the entire school.
    “I’m so sorry. I have to go home this afternoon. It’s my mum.”
    “Is everything all right?” she asks.
    “Yes… well, no… she’s deteriorating fast. The nurse is having problems with her. I’m so sorry. This won’t be a habit, I promise. Alisha has room for my children in her class.”
    She nods her head once. “Okay. That should be fine this once.” There’s the smallest flash of a smile