Check Mate

Emily had been in the backyard. Everything was covered in little white prickles; the weeds, the abandoned toys, the broken chairs. Even the dog poos. Emily showed them to teddy. Her breath flamed from her mouth like dragon’s smoke. She found that the prickles were not sharp- in fact you could run your finger along them, and ruin them just like that. But they were cold. There was a big, black bird on the fence. It looked at her and then it flew off. Emily went inside.

“You see, babe- she’s the spitting image of you.” Emily found herself seized by the shoulders and hustled over to the settee, where slumped the lumpen form of her mother’s boyfriend. Confused, she looked toward her mother, who had dragged her there. Cigarette smoke scalded her eyes and throat. Her mother’s face was empty. Its rabid expression frightened Emily, and she began to cry.

“Oh, shut up will yer. Look, Craig- babe- she’s got your nose.” A spider-like hand snatched Emily’s chin and yanked her head aside. She felt Craig’s gaze, searching, probing her face, and she wanted to howl, to tear at her skin and run away. She looked at the scratches on the door, which were like blades of long grass. There was a chip in the paint like a butterfly.

“I’ll get a test, you’ll see. And that cunt will never see her again.”

***

The envelope- self-consciously understated- gave itself away. Carla tore it open with greedy, shaking hands, an animal sneer spreading slowly across her face as she devoured its contents. After reading it several times through, she ground her cigarette into the ashtray and dashed the letter down on the table, leaning back in her chair to shout upstairs.

“Craig. Guess what. Emily’s yours.” And she collapsed into the mirthless laughter of a carrion-bird.

***

“I told you, I was seeing Craig the whole time. She ain’t yours, Stuart.” Carla stretched the syllables of his name with a mocking tongue. Winked at Craig.

“Please, Carla.” The tinny voice spilling from the speakerphone cracked in two. “Please, I don’t care- me mum and dad don’t care. Please, just let us carry on like before. We love her.”

“I ain’t having you seein’ her anymore, alright? You can pick Liam and Josie up tomorrow as normal. But you’re not having Emily. She’s Craig’s now. She’s always been Craig’s. And if you make any trouble, you’ll never see any of ‘em again.” A dark, vertical line slowly materialised between Carla’s finely plucked eyebrows. She took a long pull on her cigarette, hung up the phone, and laughed smoke into Craig’s face.

Emily was in the front room playing dolls with Josie, when her mother’s voice leapt from the kitchen and struck her like a blow.

“Emily. Get in here.”

She dropped the doll as if it were scalding hot. A familiar terror scuttled from her belly to her ribcage, fluttering and scrabbling in her chest as her feet carried her toward the kitchen. Carla and Craig were seated at the table. Emily paused at the doorway, her body rigid with fear. Craig’s gaze made her itch; her mother’s face had that vacant look again. When Carla finally spoke, her voice was soft, caressing, like the smoke that danced from her lips with every word.

“Come in here, darlin’. We need to have a little chat.”

***

Emily stood motionless on the living-room carpet, clutching teddy by a threadbare arm. A strange lump had risen in her throat and now squatted like a toad behind her tongue. Outside, a car horn beeped.

“Emily, put Josie’s trainers on. Liam- hurry up, yer dad’s waiting.”

Emily stumbled over to her little sister and began to pull on her shoes. The velcro straps swam before her eyes. Josie kicked her legs and giggled, excited to be going to her daddy’s. Liam stood by the door, pressing his fist to his mouth and staring miserably at the floor.

“Mum. If Emily can’t go, I’m not going neither.”

Emily’s head snapped upright. Liam lived for his weekends with dad.

“Don’t fuck me about Liam. Craig is Emily’s dad. She stays here with us now.”

“But nana and granddad-“ Carla sprang from her seat and caught Liam by a skinny arm, shaking him back and forth like a dog with a rat. Josie began to wail.

“Don’t you fucking talk back to me. You can go now, or never see your dad again. You think I want that cunt in my life? Do you? I do this for your benefit, not mine. Now fuck off out of my sight.”

Carla pushed Liam away and returned to her seat at the kitchen table. Liam leant back against the wall, kneading his fists into his eye sockets as his breath rasped in his throat. Josie, perceiving that something was wrong, clung to Emily and mewed bitterly. Emily could take no more. She buried her face in Josie’s soft curls and began to keen like a wounded animal. Her little heart throbbed painfully; the room seemed to spin around her. Emily’s five years on earth had been loaded with pain and fear, but nothing could have prepared her for this. Her daddy was her only refuge. Daddy loved her.

“Emily- shut that fucking noise right now.” Her mother’s voice pelted her like gunfire and she knew she had to stop, but the tears came by themselves and would not relent.

Letting go of Josie, she pressed her forehead to the floor, fighting to suppress her sobs ‘til only a whimper was audible. A tiny, helpless voice mingled with her tears and soaked into the carpet.

“Daddy."

Outside, the horn beeped again. Liam looked at his two little sisters huddled on the floor, then toward the front door. Silent tears coursed down his cheeks. He felt an urge to run to his mother, grab her by the hair and punch her, punch her, punch her ‘til her nose bled and she cried for mercy. Craig too. If he was only a bit bigger, he would've taken them both on.

“Liam, you got five seconds to get out that door, or I’ll tell yer dad to fuck off and never come back. Five.”

Liam knelt beside his sisters, put his mouth to Emily’s ear.

“I’m sorry, Ems. Don’t worry, Dad won’t let ‘em- he’ll do something- I promise.”

“Four.”

Liam put his arms around Josie and lifted her. She let out a squeal, kicking her legs and reaching for Emily. Emily remained a tight little ball of grief, her wet face pressed hard into the carpet.

“Three. Two."

The front door slammed, and Emily was alone.

Josie wailed all the way to the car. Father and son were silent as together they installed her in the car-seat. Her wailing subsided to little hiccoughing sobs as she found herself safe in daddy’s car. Liam dropped into the passenger seat with the sigh of an old, old man, tipped his head back and closed his eyes. His face was still wet with tears.

“Dad. Please do something.”

“There’s nothing I can do, Liam. Craig is Emily’s dad- your mum’s got the papers to prove it. If I make a noise she’ll cut me out completely.” Stuart’s voice splintered. “I can’t lose you all.”

Stuart started up the car. As they pulled away, their eyes were drawn irresistibly back to the house. Pressed against the front room window was a small, white face.