Emily

He tugs at his mum’s sleeve, but she doesn't notice. She’s chatting to Mrs. Lawler. Ashley pulls faces at him from the back of the Volkswagen Beetle. 

“Mummy!  Mummy, can you take me to school tomorrow?”  She doesn't hear, and all of a sudden, it’s too late

“See you in the morning Krish!” Mrs Lawler shouts from the wound-down window, before driving away. 

After breakfast the next day, Krish puts on his coat and waits; they’re late. A car horn blasts outside, he jumps up. His mother opens the front door while holding the baby, and gives him a kiss goodbye. 

“Can we see Emily after school today, Mummy?”

“Hmm we’ll see.”

“Hurry up! Mrs Lawler calls over to him. 

Krish climbs in next to Ashley;  Ashley is in the middle, next to him is Suzy. At nine and three quarters, Suzy is much older and doesn’t say hello. Ashley starts prodding him. 

“Stop it,” Krish says. 

“Stop it,” mimics Ashley.

“Shut up Ashley,” says Suzy 

“You’ve got to be nice to me, it’s my birthday!”

Ashley and Suzy start arguing, Mrs. Lawler starts yelling. Krish gazes out of the window. The car turns onto the main road; that’s when he sees her. Past rows of houses, over the treetops and beyond the wavy fields, watching out for him. Emily. 

In the classroom they practice writing sentences. Krish's handwriting wobbles about, refusing to be straight. 

“Letters on the line please! ” says Mrs Kendry as she walks past. 

He rubs it out and starts again, but he’s pressed down on the pencil far too hard - the old smudged letters linger beneath the new. It’s worse than before. Outside, the sky is darkening, dun clouds draw in, but Emily is still there. She blinks and twinkles at him, sending out her signals. 

“Krish stop daydreaming!” Mrs. Kendry shouts. She walks back over to him, peering down at the exercise book. “My word, what a mess, do it again and concentrate this time!”

Towards the end of the day, Ashley brings a cake to the front desk, they all line up for a slice. Krish reaches the front, Mrs. Kendry says no cake for daydreamers. 

At home-time he looks out for his mother, but she isn’t there -  Mrs. Lawler is.

“You’re with us again Krish, your baby sister’s a bit poorly and mummy’s taken her to the doctor. Suzy’s at a friend’s so the three of us can do something fun!”

Krish looks down at his shoes.

They drive along unfamiliar roads - past wide green fields and brown stone walls. Sun rays shoot through gaps in the clouds, brightening up the sky. The car stops at the bottom of a hill. Krish stares upwards. 

“Emily!” he blurts out. 

“A little bird told me you wanted to visit the Emley Moor Mast.” Mrs Lawler turns around, smiling at him. 

“You can have some cake now - if you like?” says Ashley. 

This piece was prompted by a flash fiction competition on the theme of ‘Landmarks’.
It was inspired by a misnomer and a couple of memories - enhanced and remastered.
After finishing it, I noticed two writing cliches but I’ve hopefully successfully replaced them…
The original remit was 300 words- for this version I added an extra 146,