Out Of Time | A Shelby

five

"Where is he? Oh thank God!"

Nancy grabbed her son and squeezed him tightly against her body as soon as she ran through the front door of their home.

After spending the day with Esme, the two of them had left to pick their children up from school, only the teacher had informed Nancy that Vincent's father had already been to collect him.

The look of horror on Esme and Nancy's faces mirrored one another. Esme felt the sense of dread that any mother would, especially after the reading that Polly had given earlier that day.

Nancy wasted no time in heading straight home. She had no idea why Henry would've gone to pick up Vinny, he was meant to be working till five just like every other day.

She kissed Vincent's hair over and over again as he looked up at her with an innocent smile. He'd only just turned five but to Nancy, he was still her little baby boy.

"Why didn't you tell me you were picking him up?"

Henry looked up at his wife as he sat at the kitchen table, a bottle of rum in his hand and a short glass with ice was in front of him.

"Decided to take the afternoon off, spend it with my boy." He shrugged and poured himself another glass of rum.

"We went to the park and Dad bought me ice cream!" Vinny beamed at his mother as she now noticed the smearing of chocolate on his lips.

"That's wonderful, darling."

Nancy decided to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the evening. She made dinner, keeping an eye on Vinny as he played with his cars on the floor by the fireplace while Henry started to reach the end of his bottle of rum.

The family sat and ate together. Nancy asked Vincent about school and Henry about work, though the most conversation was between her and her son. Henry was never the most talkative of people. He used to be five years ago, his charm was one of the things that won Nancy over in the first place. Now, however, she would have a better conversation with a brick wall.

"May I leave the table, Mum?"

Nancy smiled at her son, "Of course."

Vinny rushed off back over to the fireplace to pick up his toy cars again. Nancy began clearing the table and washing the dishes while Henry pulled another full bottle of dark rum from the rucksack he took to work with him.

Nancy sighed at the sight of it but did her best to keep her head down, biting her tongue. She cleaned up the kitchen and the table and made herself a cup of tea before sitting back down beside her husband.

She contemplated whether to start a conversation or not, but the rate that Henry was knocking back his alcohol made Nancy more keen to stay quiet.

"God," Henry mumbled, rubbing his face with his hands, "Will you shut up, kid?"

Vinny looked up over the back of the settee at his father. He had been happily racing his cars on the floor for the past hour, admittedly making quite a bit of noise, but he was happy and not hassling his parents.

Henry rose to his feet when Vinny smashed two of his cars together, adding his own sound effects and rolling around on the floor with his toys, laughing and screaming to himself happily.

"I said," Henry gritted his teeth as he stood, "Shut up with all that racket."

"He's only playing, Henry." Nancy swallowed and spoke quietly, not wanting her son to have to stop.

"What did you just say to me?"

Henry turned to Nancy, his fists and jaw both clenched. His eyes glazed over with anger were what struck the initial panic in Nancy, but the way he grabbed the empty glass bottle made her realise that it was much more serious than she'd thought.