‘Do you believe in fairies?’ Henry asked.
‘Sorry?’
Henry leaned forward. ‘Do you believe in fairies?’ he asked again, dropping his voice even further. They were sitting in a new coffee house called Ropo’s that was proving extremely popular with everyone from school. There were at least eight pupils at nearby tables (several of them dressed as Goths) and he certainly didn’t want them hearing.
‘Fairies?’ Charlie echoed, looking at him strangely. ‘Like on top of the Christmas tree?’
Henry nodded. ‘Except for real.’
‘Except for real?’ Charlie was obviously big into repeating everything he said tonight. ‘Like, little people with wings who flit among the bluebells?’
Henry gave up and said, ‘I thought I saw one once.’
‘You thought you -?’
‘Charlie,’ Henry hissed, ‘please don’t keep repeating everything I say. Yes, I said I thought I saw one once.’
‘You saw a little person with wings flitting among the bluebells?’
‘I was under a lot of strain,’ said Henry.
That caught her attention. Charlie knew all about the strain Henry had been under. She frowned. ‘Your mum’s not got you seeing things?’ She sounded outraged.
‘I think so. I mean, what else could it be?’ A thought occurred to him. ‘It wasn’t flitting among the bluebells: Hodge caught it.’
‘Mr Fogarty’s cat?’
Henry nodded. ‘Yes.’
The ghost of a suppressed smile twitched Charlie’s lips. ‘Mr Fogarty’s cat caught a fairy?’
‘Look,’ said Henry urgently, ‘until today, I thought all this was for real. Then I went to see Dad and he’s got a new girlfriend, and when I got home, Mum had moved Anais in.’
‘Oh my God!’ Charlie exclaimed, genuinely appalled. All hint of a smile vanished. ‘You mean you’ll have to live with your mum and Aisling and now this dreadful Anais woman as well?’
‘She’s not really dreadful. Quite nice, really. Like, she tries. But you know…’
‘Oh, I know all right,’ Charlie said fiercely. ‘They’re going to get divorced, aren’t they? If your dad’s got himself a girlfriend?’
Henry nodded miserably. ‘I suppose so.’
Charlie reached out and took his hand. ‘It’s not as bad as you think, Henry. It’s pretty awful, but it’s not as bad as you think. And when it’s over, it’s over.’
Charlie’s parents had divorced and Charlie’s mum was married again to a man Charlie adored. Henry said uncertainly, ‘Do you know what happens to the children? Like, me and Aisling? I mean do we have to go to court? And who says who lives where?’ He swallowed. ‘I mean, I don’t want to live with Mum and Anais – that would be just too awful for Dad – but I can’t very well move in with him if he’s got a new girl: did I mention she was young? Just a few years older than we are. I couldn’t move in there, not that he’d want me anyway, so do I have to go to an orphanage or something until I’m eighteen?’
Charlie said, ‘I don’t know, Henry. I was too young to remember much of it. Anyway, I think my mum and dad agreed everything between them and I was happy living with my mum – I hated my real dad. It wasn’t like your situation at all.’ She stared thoughtfully into the middle distance for a moment, then pulled her gaze back to Henry. ‘What’s the thing about fairies?’
Henry sighed. ‘Oh, it’s stupid.’ He shook his head and tried to smile. ‘It was after all this business started – Mum and Anais. Or at least after I heard about it. I suppose I just couldn’t cope with it. I mean, how often do you find out your mum’s a lesbian? I think I wanted to get away: you know, just get away from… everything. And since there was no way I could get away, I suppose I… I… started to make up stuff. In my head. I suppose I made up a whole other stupid world in my head -’ the weak smile again, ‘- and just, sort of… went there.’ The look on Charlie’s face made him want to cry.
‘But… what actually happened?’ she asked with a curious mixture of bewilderment and sympathy.
He’d gone too far to start backing off now. Besides, he trusted Charlie. He’d always talked to her, right since they were little kids. He took a deep breath and somehow managed to inject a note of briskness into his voice.
‘I had this… thing… I don’t know, hallucination or something, or dream, or false memory or -’
‘Henry, just tell me what happened.’
Henry shifted uncomfortably. ‘Well, after it came out about Mum, I went to Mr Fogarty’s. I had to clean out his shed. And while I was there, Hodge appeared and he had a thing in his mouth. Like a butterfly. You know the way cats are. He’d caught it, but it wasn’t dead so I tried to take if off him.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘That’s when I saw it was a fairy.’
‘You thought it was a fairy?’
‘Yes.’
After a bit, Charlie said, ‘Go on.’
‘I suppose it was just a butterfly,’ Henry said. ‘But I made up this fantasy about the butterfly being a fairy prince called Pyrgus -’
‘Pyrgus?’ Charlie echoed.
Henry nodded.
‘Did he have some other name?’
‘Pyrgus Malvae,’ Henry said.
‘That’s a butterfly name,’ Charlie said. ‘That’s the Latin name for the grizzled skipper butterfly.’
‘Is it?’ Henry said, surprised. After a while he added, ‘I suppose I must have known that. Subconsciously. Does a grizzled skipper have little brown spotty wings?’
Charlie nodded. ‘Yes.’
Henry shook his head in wonder. ‘I must have made it part of my fantasy. Grizzled skipper butterfly turns into a fairy and I give him his butterfly name.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m in a lot of trouble, Charlie.’
Charlie said quietly, ‘I think maybe you are.’