Chapter 53

"Mum?"

Jonas and I were seated side-by-side on a bench in the shade of the village store - waiting for his taxi. Alex was still off loading supplies, and our 'taxi' - the tiny, dusty bus that would take Jonas back to a more major town - hadn't arrived yet. I could hear Adriano, the guide I'd hired to see Jonas safely onto a plane home, inside the store haggling with the proprietor.

"Yes, Jo?" I asked, glancing down at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Alex is pretty cool, isn't she?"

I blinked; this hadn't been exactly what I had been expecting. "Yeah, she is," I agreed, nodding.

"She's... probably the best assistant you've had," Jonas said then. I could tell he was choosing his words carefully.

"I think so too. I'm glad you like her."

"Yeah." There was another long silence during which Jonas fiddled with the settings on his iPod. "Keira's okay too," he said eventually.

I was glad he wasn't looking at me, since my expression probably looked more shocked than he thought the statement warranted. "...good. That's good. I'm glad."

"Yeah, I mean. She's nice and everything. Kinda... old. I mean, I know she's not, but sometimes she acts older than you." He paused. "I think maybe she just doesn't really know how to treat kids."

"Well, kids are a bit weird," I said, leaning sideways and bumping him with a shoulder, grinning. "I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually. Probably by the time you're not a kid anymore."

"Mm. Yeah, well. I think I prefer the way Alex does it. She doesn't patronise me."

"I know. And I'm... really glad you two get along." Even though it makes things harder for me. "If you like, we could... hang out with her more when we get back."

Jonas glanced at me and for just a second I wondered just how much he saw, how much that sharp mind of him processed, even at his age. "Yeah," he said, shrugging. "Sure. Cool. Whatever."

"Great. Cool. Okay." At that I reached out and put an arm around him, just briefly, and he leaned in and rested his head on my shoulder for a moment. I wasn't entirely sure what conversation we'd just had, but it seemed that I had performed adequately nonetheless, which was about the best one could hope for with teenagers, it seemed.

 

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