She nodded. ‘Yes. We used to come here on Sunday afternoons when I was little. My dad taught me how to fly a kite here.’
It must be nice to have those memories. To be able to access them whenever you wanted and smile.
‘You’ve never thought of moving away?’ He was interested. It was an experience that was so very different from his.
‘Not really. After my dad died my mum was just...lost. I was away for a while, and by the time I managed to get back, my dad was already gone. I couldn’t leave her again.’
‘I’m sorry. That must have been very difficult.’
‘It was for Mum.’ Hannah shrugged off whatever regrets she had of her own. ‘He knew that I was com
ing back for him, he just couldn’t wait.’
A tear trickled down her cheek, and she wiped it away impatiently. Matt wanted very badly to comfort her, but wasn’t sure whether she’d accept it.
‘I imagine that there isn’t much you can tell people that you love that they don’t already know.’
She nodded. ‘That’s what I think as well. I hope so, anyway. My biggest regret is that I never got to tell Dad that he wasn’t to worry about Mum, because I’d look after her.’
‘I dare say that you know what your son’s capable of, even better than he does, at times.’ Matt really wasn’t qualified to give advice on families. But maybe all that time when he was a kid, spent watching other people’s families, studying them carefully from the outside, gave him a slightly different perspective.
Hannah laughed suddenly. ‘Yes, you’ve got that right. It’s just as well that I can out-think him a bit, or I’d never manage to keep up with him.’
‘I guess that having a child puts things into perspective. You get to understand your own parents a little better.’
‘Yes, it puts a lot of things into perspective. I wish that Sam could have known my dad, he would have adored him.’
‘You’ve taught him how to fly a kite?’
Hannah laughed. ‘No, actually, I haven’t. That’s a very good idea, though. Maybe I’ll wait for a windy day and bring him up here.’
The question was on the tip of his tongue. Whether Hannah might wait for that windy day, and call him to see if he might come along. He had no idea how to fly a kite and it seemed suddenly as if it was something he’d be interested in learning about.
He didn’t ask. Hannah’s was one of those families that had fascinated him as a child, stable and loving, the exact opposite of his own. But they were unknown territory and he’d kept his distance. And anyway, Hannah was really just an acquaintance. One who he felt suddenly very close to, after working through the challenges they’d been set for today, but still just an acquaintance.
He jumped as someone rapped on the car window, and Hannah pressed the control to wind it down. The yellow team had been dropped off in the car park now, and were making their way to their car.
‘Guys, we need you back at the hospital. We’re doing a few interviews there, and when the other teams get back we’ll be announcing the winners.’
‘I don’t suppose you know where the other teams are, do you?’ Hannah’s competitive spirit emerged suddenly and the young woman shook her head.
‘Sorry...’
‘Okay, thanks.’ Hannah wound the window back up. ‘Can’t say or won’t say, I wonder.’
Matt chuckled, reaching for the ignition. ‘We’ll find out soon enough.’
* * *
Hannah had stepped over the line a little. She usually gave the sanitised version of what had happened when her father had died, just that she’d been out of the country and got back as soon as she could.
She didn’t tell anyone about the clawing guilt. About how she’d left, accompanying her boyfriend on travels that were his dream, not hers. John had been her dream, and she’d followed him.
Her father had asked her what she really wanted, and she’d told him it was this. She wanted to see the world. He hadn’t believed her, and he and her mother had obviously been worried for her, but they’d let her go without any more argument, waving her off at the airport with fixed smiles on their faces.
And that was the last time she’d seen him. When the telegram had got through, routed through various different post offices, she’d called her mother and found that her father was dying. John had waved her off at the airport rather more cheerfully than her parents had, and she hadn’t seen him again either. By the time she’d arrived home, her father had died, and she’d never had the chance to tell him that she was sorry.
The car turned into the road that ran through to the back of the hospital and she saw her mother with Sam. He was standing right at the front of the spectator area, waving the red flag that she’d helped him make. Matt stopped the car, right in front of him.