My Name Is Leon

by Kit de Waal

Leon doesn’t like bread sauce because it reminds him of when he saw a cat being sick.

Same

‘Jake is going to have a new mum and dad.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because, love. Just because. Because he’s a baby, a white baby. And you’re not.

The empty sound in the house is louder than Jake crying for his bottle. It’s louder than his laugh. Louder than his baby drums. And if Leon turns round and looks at Jake’s cot in the corner of the room, he knows that he will get angry with Maureen

He looks at the mess that the police have made of the path. He looks at the plants their black boots have trampled. ‘They’re the same all over the world,’ he says. ‘Small minds, big feet.’

‘And you,’ she whispers. ‘I still love you.’ She smiles then like she used to and scrabbles her fingers on his chest. She kisses him and walks backwards for a few yards. She gives a little curtsy like he’s a king and she’s a servant. She turns and is gone.