A Song of Shadows by John Connolly Page B

had stopped to ask one of the officers on duty if there had been some kind of accident. That was when they found out about the body, and although Amanda still ate her pancakes later, they didn’t taste quite as good as usual. Drowning sounded to her like a terrible way to die. Drowning, or burning: both of those were very bad. Then, later, she’d brought her mother the envelope that she’d found on the doorstep, and her mother had been very quiet for the rest of the evening, and the toilet had smelled of vomit.
    Now here was Mr Parker, walking more slowly than he had the last time, when she had watched him from her window. His face looked gray, and Amanda thought that she could see beads of sweat blistering on his skin even though a breeze was blowing and it wasn’t hot. She called out a greeting, but he didn’t hear. He just stared fixedly ahead, placing one foot slowly and deliberately in front of the other. He didn’t have his stick with him today. Either he had forgotten it, which didn’t seem likely, or he was trying to make do without it. She saw the ribbon on the bag of stones fluttering in the wind, and Mr Parker altered his direction to move toward it. He was almost within touching distance of it when he stopped and swayed, then slowly collapsed to the sand, his knees folding beneath him, so that he came to rest like a man saying his bedtime prayers.
    Amanda ran to him. For a moment it looked as though he would fall flat on his face, but he managed to stay upright and instead slumped back, the backs of his thighs against his calf muscles, his hands by his sides, the palms raised upwards. Amanda reached him, but did not touch him. She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she run back to her mother to get help? But that would mean leaving Mr Parker alone. Should she try to assist him? Yes, it was probably the best thing, although she figured that it would possibly break her mother’s rule about having anything to do with strangers. But what else could she do? Still, she held back, uncertain.
    ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, even though it was clear that he wasn’t.
    He turned his head in her direction, only noticing her now that she had spoken.
    ‘I just need … to catch my breath.’
    He was breathing shallowly, and she could see the pain in his face.
    ‘Do you want me to get my mom?’
    ‘No. I’ll be fine in a moment.’
    She knelt by him. She didn’t know what else to do, so she put her right hand on his shoulder and rubbed gently. She had seen adults do this to each other when one of them was sad or in pain, although when she was sad or in pain, she preferred a hug. She didn’t think it would be appropriate to hug Mr Parker. That would certainly have broken her mother’s rule.
    ‘I’m going to get up now,’ he said at last.
    ‘I’ll help you.’
    She wasn’t sure that she could, but it was only right to offer. She held his right arm as he used his left to lever himself up. His right hand came to rest on her right shoulder, and she took some of his weight as he stood. He swayed again when he was upright, but he didn’t fall. She saw him looking at the red ribbon in the sand, and she knew what he was thinking.
    ‘I’ll walk to it with you, if you like,’ she said.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’ve seen you walking on the beach before. I saw you pick up the bag and move it along some. It’s a marker, isn’t it, so that you’ll know how far you’ve gone, so you’ll know that you walked a little more than last time?’
    He smiled at her. He had a nice smile, and she felt sure that, although she had now resolutely broken all of her mother’s rules about dealing with strangers, this man would never hurt her.
    ‘That’s very perceptive of you,’ he said, and Amanda wanted to tell him about the dream, but decided not to in case it made her sound weird.
    ‘Well,’ she said, ‘do you want me to walk with you?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘If you wouldn’t mind.’
    So they walked together, and it made