She knew they would because one day Seb would be bigger and stronger than the man, and together they would be able to overpower him. It might take years, but it would happen.

The man had sowed the seed of his own destruction. So she would wait. And the longer she waited, the stronger she – and Seb – would become.

She felt, for the first time since she had been here, at peace.

Thursday, 21 June 2018

Two Days to Go

1

The man put two buckets on the floor next to the dinner tray. He stood up, wincing as he straightened his back.

‘I’ll be back for the stuff later,’ he said.

Maggie waited until she heard the scraping sound that meant he was gone, then picked up the tray.

Two plates. Two slices of cold pizza and two bowls of mandarin slices. Eating was impossible. She wasn’t sure if she was coming down with something but even if she wasn’t the sense of dread – it never left her now – about Max’s birthday had destroyed her appetite.

She handed a plate to Max.

‘Here you are,’ she said. ‘I’m not hungry at the moment.’

He picked up a slice of pizza and lifted it to his mouth. Maggie went back and picked up the buckets.

One of them was full of sand. In the other were two bottles, one of bleach and one of a blue liquid labelled ‘Toilet Holding Tank Deodorant.’

It was Toilet Day.

One of the things she had had to get used to early on was the toilet. It was a bucket with a hinged seat on top. Next to it was a second bucket full of sand, mixed with the blue liquid. You did your business – piss or shit – in the toilet-bucket and then scooped sand in on top.

She lifted them up and carried them to the corner. She took off the hinged lid from the toilet and emptied it into the bucket without the sand in it. The man would come and take it away later. Then poured bleach into the toilet bucket, making sure it covered the sides, and put the bottle on the floor. She opened the bottle of blue liquid and started to add it to the sand. It worked well; whatever the blue stuff was, it masked the smell of the shit and piss in there.

And, oddly enough, the smell always brought a smile to her face. It reminded her of a camping holiday in France when they had used a chemical toilet for two weeks. Although the blue liquid was pretty foul stuff it had a sweet, strangely alluring smell. It was like petrol: even though you knew it would be horrible to drink, it smelled irresistible.