Lucy Learns Something New

By Roger Hayden

Lucy asks questions, barely pausing for breath, a small, dark-eyed child wanting to know more. Grey-haired Ambrose, ancient, an arm’s length away on the window seat, stays silent, hunched, immobile.

She turns yellowed scrapbook pages, pouring her enquiries out loud: “Who is this, who is that, what’s this, what’s that, what are they doing?”

Ambrose sits, head sunk on his chest, his feet on the many-coloured rug Lucy wove for him with her mum’s help.

Outside, the clouds clear. The sun illuminates the garden teeming with snowdrops and daffodils. Lucy looks up, reaches out to touch Ambrose, frightened by his silence.

“Grandad?”