The Half Truth. Sue Fortin

love was. How sad that they had so little time together. She replaced the frame.

      ‘I’m going to pop upstairs to get changed,’ she said to Dimitri. ‘Then I’ll go next door and see if Mr Cooper wants some tea. You okay there?’

      A brief ‘yes’ in reply, which didn’t even involve her son taking his eyes from the screen. Okay, the TV wasn’t the ideal babysitter, but today she was grateful for it.

      Tina sighed to herself as she climbed the stairs, picking up a couple of toys that Dimitri had discarded at some point that morning before school. All she ever seemed to do was tidy up after him. How was it possible a six-year-old could make so much mess? She reached the landing and, just to prove her point, there was a sprinkling of what looked like powder on the carpet.

      She scuffed it with her foot in an attempt to rub it in. She paused. Not simply because she knew she was being lazy and should really get the Hoover out, but because the powder had a grey tinge to it. What on earth had he tipped out? She looked into his bedroom and noticed an old cardboard box in the corner that he had brought home from school. Well, he told her it was a robot, hence the silver foil stuck randomly all over it, together with milk-bottle lids. The dust and dirt had probably come from there. She went to call out his name and tell him to come and tidy up, but stopped herself.