Today's Reading
"Of course, lovely to see you again. Come on in, we've only just started."
He hovered in the doorway for a moment, his eyes flicking around the occupants of the room. There were two free seats between Arthur and Phyllis, and he took the one next to the older man. "I see you've got the book with you," Nova said. "Did you enjoy it?"
Michael looked at the book in his hands as if only just realizing it was there. "I only read a bit."
She waited to see if he'd elaborate but he just stared at the cover. "Right, well we were about to discuss Kya's abandonment by her family," Nova said. "I was interested to know what impact you all thought this had on the young girl, and how it shaped the woman she became?"
She looked round the circle, but the only person willing to catch her eye was Arthur. She gave him a small nod.
"I thought it was heartbreaking. Especially her being left by her own mother aged just six. It made Kya think she was unlovable, and she carried that her whole life."
"It wasn't the mother's fault," Phyllis said, squinting at Arthur through narrow eyes. "That husband of hers was a violent thug who drove her away and threatened her kids if she ever came back."
"That's true," Nova said. "Clearly Kya's mother was terrified of her husband and—"
"That's no excuse," Michael interrupted.
They all turned to look at him; at the last meeting he'd not uttered a single word.
"How do you mean?" Nova asked.
"Given she knew how awful life would be for Kya when she left, why didn't she take her daughter with her? What kind of a monster abandons her own child like that?"
"Hang on a second," Phyllis said, crossing her arms. "The book tells us the woman had a nervous breakdown, and yet somehow you're blaming the poor bird for everything. That's typical bloody men!"
"Here we go again," Arthur muttered to Nova. Last meeting, Phyllis had taken umbrage when Arthur had made a critical comment about Agatha Christie's 'The Murder at the Vicarage', and she'd spent fifteen minutes berating the man.
Nova cleared her throat to cut Phyllis off before she could launch into another rant. "I thought it was interesting how Kya uses examples from the animal world to try and understand the behavior of humans. Did anyone else pick up on this?"
"Like that mother fox who abandoned her babies for her own survival," Michael said with a grunt. "Kya's mother did the same, leaving her kids in danger to protect herself like a—"
He stopped as his phone pinged. Michael pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen, the color draining from his face as he read the message. He thrust it away again and closed his eyes. Nova was about to ask if he was okay when Ash spoke up.
"I don't think it was the mum's fault," he said, his voice so quiet Nova had to strain to hear him. "I think even Kya comes to understand her mum's actions."
"Kya could empathize but 'these' two clearly can't," Phyllis snapped, nodding toward Michael and Arthur.
"Okay, shall we move on?" Nova said quickly. "The residents of Barkley Cove treat Kya as an outsider, and I wondered—"
But she didn't get to finish her sentence, as at that moment Michael jumped up so abruptly that his chair fell over with a crash, grabbed his bag and ran out of the room.
CHAPTER TWO
Nova
For a moment no one said anything as they all stared at the open door. Arthur was the first to speak.
"What do you suppose is up with him?"
"I don't know, but something fishy is going on there, you mark my words," Phyllis said.
"I'm sure he'll be back any minute," Nova said. "Shall we carry on?" They continued discussing the book, but after Michael's sudden departure, all the energy seemed to have disappeared from the room. Ash had retreated into silence and Phyllis only piped up to disagree with Arthur. Nova tried to get the conversation going again, but her efforts fell flat, and after twenty minutes of stilted chat, she decided to admit defeat and wrap the meeting up early.
"Before we head off, shall we pick our book for next month?"
...
