Towers of Silence

Chapter Fourteen

On Tuesday morning I was up for seven and on my way to spy on Adam Reeve by seven forty-five. The traffic was building up already. I parked a few doors down from the house and waited for him to emerge. It was just getting light when he appeared, a bulky rucksack slung over one shoulder. He was taller than his mother with blond hair cut short all over. I noted the time and when he’d reached the end of the avenue in a quick loping stride I got out of the car and locked it and set off after him.

There was a steady stream of pupils walking down Kingsway, the dual carriageway, in the direction of the school and college. Some were clustered at bus stops. Adam kept up a brisk pace. He never looked back. The walking made me warm and I unzipped my coat. It was a dry day, cooler with a fresh blue sky. Most of the route was lined with houses, red brick council houses with privet hedging or fences round the front gardens. I amused myself by comparing the plots with the Christmas decorations in the window. Was there any correlation between horticultural and festive style?

The college was behind the large multiplex cinema, bowling alley and bingo hall and opposite Tescos. The place had been rebuilt as part of a private finance initiative. The city council sold off the prime site land in return for a new, state of the art school and sixth form centre. The Millennium school they called it. Adam’s transfer from Burnage Boys would have been before the rebuild. These days he wouldn’t get a look in. It was way oversubscribed and there’d been ructions about who would get to go there. A lot of the other city high schools had poor reputations or they were single sex schools which some parents didn’t want (myself included.) It was still 5 years before Maddie would move up and I hoped by then there’d be a real choice of where to send her.

I made sure that Adam actually entered the college building and then retraced my walk to the car. I reckoned I’d done three miles there and back. I could notch it up as good exercise but I can’t deny that I was disappointed that Adam Reeve hadn’t done a bunk with me hot on his heels.