Tunnels 03, Freefall
away from her and instead stared at the motorway through the window, watching the endless stream of cars.
Drake had told them that when they were finished eating he was going to drive Will and Dr. Burrows back to Norfolk, and Leatherman -- although he was nowhere to be seen -- would be taking Mrs. Burrows to London. So this was to be the parting of the ways, the final meal before they went on their separate paths.
At other tables lone truck drivers sat eating in silence, and a young couple with their noisy infant in a high chair were in a far corner. There was a loud crash as one of the waitresses dropped a pile of plates, and Mrs. Burrows recoiled. It didn't take much to see her nerves were strained to the breaking point. She hastily took a sip of water, her hand shaking as she replaced the glass on the table.
"You had to meddle in things you didn't understand, didn't you? If you'd left well enough alone, none of this would have happened," she said quietly.
"Who... me?" Dr. Burrows asked, his fork poised in front of him.
"Who d'you bloody think?" she replied bitterly.
"Please don't start whacking him again," Will said, giving her a wary glance as he pulled his bowl of chips towards him.
Mrs. Burrows rested her head in her hands and sighed. "No, Will, I haven't got the energy to do any more of that." She looked up at him. "And it really doesn't matter about your father or me. We've already had most of our lives and made a God-awful mess of them. But you're young. You've got everything ahead of you. I'm so sorry, Will." She reached out a hand and squeezed his forearm. "I'm so sorry you've been dragged into the middle of all this."
Will wiped tomato ketchup from the corner of his mouth. "Mum, I am the middle of all this. There was always a chance my real..." He tailed off.
"Your real mother," Mrs. Burrows helped him out.
"Yes... a chance that Sarah Jerome would show up again. It's what the Styx were trying to make happen." He picked up a chip with his fingers and chewed it slowly. "And I was a problem for them, too. I'd have been grabbed or killed at some point, anyway." Will glanced sideways at Drake. "Isn't that right?"
Drake put down his cup of coffee and nodded. "They play the long game. They would've tidied up sooner or later," he agreed.
The infant began to howl, its ear-piercing shrieks making the truck drivers shift in their chairs and grumble under their breath as if they'd just been roused from a very deep sleep.
"I can't stand this," Mrs. Burrows said suddenly, rising to her feet. "I'm going."
"Once you're outside, walk towards the filling station. Leatherman will pull up beside you in a white van. Get into it," Drake told her.
"So be it," Mrs. Burrows said.
Dr. Burrows and Will also stood up.
Mrs. Burrows offered her hand, and after a split second of hesitation, Dr. Burrows took it and they shook.
"Good luck," Mrs. Burrows said.
"Good luck to you, too," Dr. Burrows replied, then promptly sat down again.
It was such a formal act, as if two strangers were bidding each other farewell, that Will didn't know what he should be doing.
He hovered in front of his chair, then Mrs. Burrows stepped round the end of the table to him. "Come here, you," she said, taking him in her arms. She was crying, and it was all Will could do to stop himself from crying too. She carried on hugging him, as if she didn't want to let go.
"Take care, Will. Always remember I love you," she finally said in not much more than a croak, and strode towards the exit, wiping her eyes.
"I love you too, Mum," he said, but she was through the door and outside in the car park, striding quickly away.
Will sat down heavily in his chair. He glanced at his remaining chips, then looked away from them. He couldn't remember the last time his mother had spoken to him with such affection, or said those words to him. He knew she must have done when he was younger, but he couldn't remember a single occasion. As the infant in the corner of the room shrieked again, he was hit by the realization that it had taken all the nightmarish events to clear away the chaff which had been their Topsoil lives, and reveal how his mother really felt about him. And how he felt about her.
He was overcome both by a sense of moment, and a sense of aching loss.
As the waitress came with his order of ice cream, three dollops of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, he stuck a spoonful into his mouth, more as a diversion than anything else because he didn't
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