It was a few weeks later when I saw the family in the same mall. The woman must have seen me and we exchanged glances. She walked up to me and siad hello. I told her I had finished shopping and if she had as well could I offer her a lift. She accepted and told her kids to come over and stop messing about. She introduced them to me.
''I know'' I said, ''lets all get something to eat ''
Mary, that was her name, agreed and we set off to the nearest cafe. I treated them all to ice creams and drinks. I watched Jason as he quickly devoured the ice cream. His face was sparkling, his round cheecks skin smooth and pale. His hair had been cut since I had last seen him, longer on top and shorter at the sides and around the neck. He looked very cute. He ate his food much faster than hios slight build allowed and every so often his mum would complain to him (ansd to me) about his eating manners. I just replied that all boys were the same, even though I had no idea whether they were or not.
When we arrived at Mary's house she invited me in. I sat in her fromnt room, the furnishings were very basic and I could tell that she had little money to spare. I had also noted that the food she had bought was very basic. I thought that the children should be fed on better things than burgers and chips but, what the heck, they were not my kids and they seemed to have developed quite well and none of the three were overweight, under, if anything.
The two girls came up to me and thanked me for buying them the ice ceams. They invited me to see their bedroom, show me their toys etc and after checking that it was ok with Mary I follwed them to their rooms. I did not know if they ever saw their dad, had uncles or grandfather but I thought not as it seemed a novelty to have a man in the house. I showed great interest in their dolls, drawings and other items but in truth I was never that keen on girls things. Just as I was getting really bored Jason ran into the room and jumped on one of the girls beds.
''Hey,,, get off you know you're not allowed on my bed,'' the older girl whined and Jason ran into my arms and said ''come and look at my room, come and see my room now''.
I thanked the girls for showing me their drawing and toys and followed Jason who was skipping excitedly in front of me. I looked down at the back of the boy's shorts. The were loose fitting.
In his room, which I noted with pleasure was very tidy He ran to the cupbaord , bent down and pulled out a large red plastic box. Now the outline of his small bottom cheecks were defined as the shorts stretched across his backside. Inside the box were two action man dolls and some assoprted guns and clothing. It is the sort of clothing that small boys can never stretch on themselves so adults are always tested, can you get the tank top on the doll without it ripping.
I admired the toys a great deal but thought that it was not much of a collection yet. If Jason were my son, I thought, he would have a room full of such toys. He was a real little delight, happy and good looking, like his sisters.
I glanced around the room.
Then I saw it.
Hanging on a small hook on the back of the bedroom door was a length of smoothed mahogany wood. It looked about 20 inches long by three quarters of an inch wide and quite thin, but thicker than a school ruler.