This time he must have heard me, because he peered down and waved. I could see his face clearly now, and it filled me with fear. It didn’t look like Pa at all, but like someone possessed: grinning wildly, the features distorted into a grotesque mask. His mouth opened wide and he emitted a terrible, blood-curdling howl.

I burst into tears. Arms were around me, holding me, passing handkerchiefs. Someone put a jacket over my shoulders; another was laid onto a gravestone, on which I was urged to sit. When we looked up again, Pa was no longer climbing the spire, but had climbed back to the roof of the tower and was now peering down at us from the parapet wall.

‘Is that you, my dearest?’ he shouted, sounding almost sane.

I sprang to my feet. ‘Yes, it’s me, Molly. Whatever are you doing up there? Come down, please. You’re scaring me.’

To my horror, he began to climb onto the narrow section between two corners of the wall, grasping the spindly flagpole with one hand, the other waving freely. Around me, people gasped.

‘Look at me, Molly. I can fly,’ my father shouted. ‘Take me, God, I’m coming.’

‘No, stop. Get down!’

‘Don’t you worry about me. I’m going to find Jimmy, my darling. And Sarah. We can all be together again.’

My blood ran cold. Sarah – my mother.

‘You have to stop him,’ I pleaded, desperate now. ‘He’s going to kill himself.’

At that moment there was a mighty crash and George Diamond’s face appeared at the top of the tower. He lunged towards Pa and then both of them disappeared below the parapet.

‘He’s got him,’ someone said.

‘Good old George. Must’ve broken down the door.’

‘Someone call an ambulance.’

The world went dark and that was the last thing I heard.

PART THREE:

SPRING 2019

24

Molly is exhausted but feels curiously elated, energised even, by her journey back into the past, and presses Bella to stay for a cup of tea before she leaves.

Bella hesitates. Lewis and his dad will be sitting in front of the television eating pizza by now, the house will be in chaos, and her work blouse is still waiting to be ironed. But after such a momentous day it’s too soon to rush away.

‘I’ll put the kettle on then,’ she says. ‘Are you okay, Mum?’

‘Fine, dear. Just fine, thank you.’

Bella returns from the kitchen and sits down again. ‘I can’t help thinking about it. What terrible things you had to deal with, as a young girl.’

Molly shrugs. ‘You just have to get on with it, I suppose. Face each day as it comes.’