Cuckoo by Julia Crouch

catching her wine glass as it toppled, knocked over by the displaced crockery. She watched, amused, as her carefully laid table was sent to chaos.
     
    ‘This one,’ Anna said, taking a life-sized, shiny green egg from the basket and handing it to Yannis, ‘Daddy brought me back from China.’
     
    ‘Let me see!’ Nico was on his feet, snatching the egg from his little brother.
     
    ‘Oy!’ Yannis cried.
     
    ‘Never mind, Yannis,’ Anna said, lifting a bigger, turquoisecoloured egg from the basket and giving it to the little boy. ‘You can hold this one – look. It’s my favourite. Daddy brought it back from Japan when I was four.’
     
    ‘What about this one?’ Nico lifted a polished lump the size of an ostrich egg from the basket.
     
    ‘That’s the biggest. It’s made of onyx, which is a semi-precious stone. Daddy got it in Singapore.’
     
    ‘Does your papa bring you eggs from everywhere he goes?’ Yannis asked.
     
    ‘Yes. I’ve got sixteen. Though he hasn’t been anywhere for ages and I want another egg.’ Anna looked at Gareth.
     
    ‘So you want me to go away?’ Gareth laughed.
     
    ‘No! No, Daddy, I didn’t mean that. I just want another egg and for you to stay.’
     
    ‘Oh, OK, that’s all right. I thought you wanted me out,’ he said. Feigning great relief, he got back to his food.
     
    ‘Does anyone want any more stew?’ Rose asked, trying to change the subject, surprised that Gareth couldn’t show more tact towards two boys who had just lost their father. But Nico and Yannis didn’t seem to have noticed. They both appeared to be strangely resilient. Perhaps Polly was right – perhaps it hadn’t yet sunk in for them. A month can seem like a lifetime when you are young.
     
    ‘What was your school like in Karpathos?’ Anna asked Nico, carefully arranging her eggs back into the basket.
     
    ‘Small,’ said Nico. ‘There were twenty-three children in the whole school and we all had lessons in one room.’
     
    ‘Was your teacher nice?’
     
    ‘He was OK,’ said Nico.
     
    ‘He was great!’ Yannis said.
     
    ‘And you learned your lessons in Greek?’
     
    ‘Yep.’
     
    ‘It’s not like that at mine,’ Anna said. She went to the village primary, which was a short walk across the fields at the back of the house. ‘Each class is bigger than your whole school.’
     
    ‘Are we going to go there, Mama?’ Yannis asked, going over and sitting next to Polly.
     
    ‘What?’ said Polly. She had zoned out during the children’s conversation.
     
    ‘Are we going to Anna’s school?’
     
    ‘I suppose so,’ Polly said. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’
     
    ‘I’ve spoken to the Head,’ Rose said, clearing the table. ‘They’ve got a couple of spaces in years one and four, so you should be OK. But you’ll need to go up there tomorrow because I think you’ve got to fill in some forms or something for the council.’
     
    ‘There’s no hurry, though,’ Polly said, pouring herself another glass of wine.
     
    ‘No, not at all,’ Rose said. ‘Gareth, could you finish the table while I get the pudding out?’
     
    Gareth got up and put the basket of eggs back on the dresser shelf.
     
    ‘You’re coming to my school!’ Anna clanged her cutlery together. ‘Wicked! It’ll be like you’re my brothers. Or like Mum and Polly when they were at school.’
     
    ‘Like we were.’ Polly caught Rose’s eye across the room, and smiled.
     
    Holding herself slightly back from that dense gaze, Rose thought she detected something a little more complicated than pure nostalgia. Confused, she broke away, and busied herself with the custard.
     
     
    ‘So,’ Gareth said, as the children raced up the stairs, their bellies full of apple crumble. ‘How long are you with us, Polly?’ He put another bottle of red on the table and sat back down opposite her.
     
    ‘I’ll get me coat.’ She smiled lopsidedly.
     
    ‘You know that’s not what he means,’