23 Megan
I watch through the kitchen window as Chris wrestles with an old tree stump towards the bottom of the garden. He’s been talking for months about taking it out, but for some reason he seems to have chosen now as the time to do it.
As I rinse the washing up suds off my hands, I can hear the faint sound of Chris’s phone ringing. I know it’s Chris’s phone, because his ringtone is the theme tune from the Star Wars films. I head upstairs to see if I can find it — he’s obviously switched his voicemail off, because the phone just rings and rings.
I finally find it under a pile of clothes on the bed. I pick it up and look at the screen. It’s Rebecca Atkinson-West, the headteacher at St Bartholomew’s, where Chris works. I answer the call.
‘Oh, is that Megan?’ she says, in a tone of voic
