Moon Pie by Simon Mason Page A

Tug.
    They sat there in silence while he ate them.
    ‘Martha?’ he said at last.
    ‘What now?’
    ‘I’m still hungry.’
    She sighed. ‘Let’s play a game.’
    ‘All right. What game?’
    ‘Hide-and-seek.’
    ‘All right. I’ll hide.’
    First he hid in the greenhouse, and then in the rockery, and finally up a tree. Then it was Martha’s turn.
    Leaving him crouched on the grass counting erratically in a loud, determined voice, she went up the garden to find somewhere to hide. She thought there might be a good place among the patio furniture, or along the path that went round to the front drive. But when she reached the back of the house, she suddenly heard shouting from the dining room and she stopped in alarm.
    She heard Dad shout, ‘No!’, and the tone of hisvoice took her breath away, it was so strange and loud.
    She stood there very still, head cocked on one side, listening. Grandpa said something she couldn’t hear. Then Grandma said, ‘Everybody knows. I don’t know why you don’t admit it.’
    Feeling afraid, Martha crept quietly along the house wall until she came to the dining room window, and peeped through a corner of it into the room.
    Dad was standing up at the end of the table, and Grandma and Grandpa were sitting facing him.
    ‘Anyone can see it, just looking at you,’ Grandma said scornfully, and Martha looked at him.
    She had never seen Dad like this. His face was pale, even paler than usual, and shiny, and he was glaring all round the room (though not, Martha noticed, at Grandma and Grandpa). His voice was different too, harsh and strangled.
    ‘You’re wrong,’ he said with difficulty. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway,’ he added, ‘it’s nothing to do with you.’
    Martha noticed how he ran his fingers through his hair, something she had never seen him do before.
    ‘It’s everything to do with our grandchildren,’ Grandma said.
    Now she was talking about them! Martha pressed her face against the window, not wanting to miss anything.
    Dad glared. ‘Leave my children out of it.’
    ‘You’re neglecting them. Endangering them, even.’
    ‘Nonsense!’
    ‘You leave them unattended late at night. You’re not in when they arrive home from school. Your house is dirty and hazardous. Do you even feed them properly, I wonder. Do you think we’ll stand by and do nothing? We’ve told you before. We’ve tried and tried to help you. We want to help you. But if you won’t let us, I warn you, we will contact the Social Services.’
    ‘My children stay with me,’ Dad said, breathing heavily. Then they all began to talk angrily, and at that moment Martha was jumped on from behind by Tug shouting, ‘Found you!’ into her ear. Caught offbalance, she staggered forwards with him round her waist and they tottered together past the window, fell over the edge of the patio onto the grass, and lay there in a heap.
    In the dining room there was sudden silence.
    ‘That was rubbish hiding, Martha,’ Tug said happily. ‘I saw you straight away.’
    She pushed him off.
    ‘What’s the matter, Martha?’
    ‘Shut up!’
    ‘What’s happened?’
    ‘Quiet!’
    Dad came hurrying round the side of the house, followed by Grandma and Grandpa, who stood together at the edge of the lawn with their arms folded, watching him.
    ‘Get up,’ Dad said, ‘and come with me.’
    ‘Will you play hide-and-seek with us, Dad?’ Tug asked.
    ‘We’re going home,’ Dad said.
    ‘Just one game.’
    ‘Now!’ Dad shouted.
    Tug stared, and Martha got him up and held his hand, and they followed Dad past Grandma and Grandpa and round the house to the front drive.
    Tug began to sniff.
    ‘Quiet!’ Dad said without looking round. ‘Keep up.’ And they went down the road as fast as they could.
    ‘Martha?’ Tug sniffed, as they went.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Did he break something?’
    ‘I don’t know, Tug. I don’t think so.’
    After a while Tug said sadly, ‘I think he broke