Wails came from the living room. "Thomas! No! Bradley, what have you done?" Nympha yelled, seeing the sight of the poor child's eye. "I was just trying-to have fun-" Brad began, stuttering nervously. "Fun? This isn't fun! It's disgusting! You-bastard!" She leapt at him, only to be held back by her father, who looked at her firmly, shaking his head. Bradley kept quiet, somehow over all of this mess hoping not to be noticed. Meanwhile, Nympha wailed over the wasted body of her young boy. He was still breathing, crying visibly but he could not see and John was already phoning the ambulance. Bradley sighed, and sat down holding his head in his hands.
Nympha swiftly picked up the phone, Thomas in one hand, handbag in the other. Thomas was babbling on about his recent obsessive TV show, Fifi, and Nympha answered the work call, not exactly looking forward to the day ahead. "Yeah, well, Nora, you know I have lots of things..." she pulled a small toy out from Thomas' mouth. "To do today." "Yes," Nora Hasting said hastily, "I know about Bradley-" Nympha rolled her eyes at this. "But we're really strapped for cash here at the moment, and we really need as much extra staff as possible." Nympha sighed, and pushing some of her hair behind her ear, she said, "Fine, but who's gonna watch Thomas?" "Your dad?" "He's at the home?" "Oh!" Nora cried. "Sorry! Well, um...there's always your brother." "He lives in Norwich?" "I'm sure he can-" "Oh, fine! Forget it! I'll come out for an hour!" She sat Thomas down on the floor, he gurgled away happily, his curly ginger hair now drowning him at this rate, she knew, she had to go and get it cut at some point. "Come on, darling, we're going to Uncle Joseph's," she said calmly, pulling him up. Her old Honda was very cheap, and not very useful when it came to long journeys. She text Joseph and told him to meet her at the halfway point between London and Norwich and he said he was only about half an hour away from there. She smiled, mouthed "yes!" and drove off to the point. "Nearly there, darling," she said to a distracted Thomas who was in the back bumper seat, fiddling around with some old Starwars toy. She pulled up at the side of the road about a half an hour later, and handed Thomas to Joseph. She hugged him tightly. "Oh, am I so glad to see you!" she exclaimed, smiling brightly. "Aw, don't worry about it, sis," he said, his eyes glued on young Thomas. "Anything to see my little nephew." "Yeah, anything! You had to drive for only half an hour!" "Well, so did you," he said, holding Thomas to his side, not really paying attention to him anymore. "True, yeah, but you don't have to go to work for seven hours-" she stopped. "Oh, work!" she yelled. "Bye!" she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Love you!" She gave him a polite little wave and Joseph sighed. "What're we gonna do with her, eh?" he said to Thomas, who was not paying attention.
Back home, about an hour later, Thomas had been sick twice already on the journey and Joseph was trying to nurse him back to sleep, while ignoring calls from his girlfriend. His spacey Norwich flat had a lovely warm glass conservatory window that looked out on the city below. It made him feel quite happy, but what with work catching up with him, and his Lou complaining he didn't know if he could keep this place up anymore. He placed Tomas gently down on the shiny brown leather sofa and smiled, looking down at him, so beautifully sleeping calmly. He couldn't believe the previous events had only taken place 2 months ago. Yawning, running a hand though his messy brown hair, he looked outside as he seen a smallish figure young man walking towards his flat. Screwing up his face, he wondered what he was doing. Without even yet considering that he wasn't the only one in the flat he looked at the even-younger-than him man and grabbed his coat, kissing Thomas caringly on the head before he scooted off downstairs. The bustling England street was busting his local shoppers, trying to get all their messages in before Monday morning. He trailed his coat on properly, and looking over at the young man. He was ginger, freckly, and looked quite twitchy and geeky. "Er, Joe?" he said, in a deep London accent, pushing his glasses right up to the bridge of his nose. "Joseph, yeah," Joseph said smoothly, sliding down to him from the higH steps of the expensive flats. "Ermm, yeah, bailiffs?" Joseph studied him, then finally realised what he was saying. "Piss off," he said, grinning, not believing that this scrawny young boy was the bailiffs. He knew Britain was in times of terror, but come on. The young boy looked quite offended by his use of language. "You're serious?" he giggled, not being able to help himself. "I'm sorry. Bugger off, mate, I've got a little kid up there," he said, gesturing towards his high flat. "Oh, sorry,...but here, take a notice. I will, or indeed one f my work colleagues will be back in the morning." Joseph made faces at him when he turned his back, chuckling. The warm Norwich wind ruffled his hair up and he rushed back inside. "Alright mate?" he said, lazing down beside little Tommy, and switching his Samsung plasma screen TV on. He lay relaxingly back and switched on the football, waking and unintentionally Thomas up. He cried out loud. Joseph scooped him up, humming and eventually just leaving him there and calling Nympha back. She'd only been gone three hours,. But already he couldn't cope. "Nympha, here I can't cope with this stupid kid anymore-" "Hey, don't call him stupid! D you have any idea what he's been through lately?" "Susie...He's a kid," he said, using her by her real name for the first time instead of her stupid Harry Potter nickname she'd picked up when she was five. "So then don't be so harsh!" Joseph frowned, biting his lips. "Look, Nympha, can you just come and get him?" "No!" she said. "I'm busy! Well...maybe...It'll calm down later on I could maybe get over." Joseph fist pumped in the air and mouthed the word yes. Thomas was still wailing over in the living room. "Is that Thomas crying?" she said, sounding quite shocked. "Yes.." "Then, don't sit there! Go do something!" "Fine! I will! And hurry up, I need you to get here." He hung up rudely, and wnent into the living room, staring over at Thomas, who was looking at him, his lip stuck out. He worriedly called Lou and she came over within 30mins. "Yes?" she said, when he answered the front door. "Uh, can you look after Thomas?" he said. "While you..." "Um, work?" She rolled her eyes. "Fine, go." She pushed past him and into the flat. Joseph grinned and went off for a drink with the lads.
That night, Nympha was exhausted. She was at the police station for endless hours after her work. Until seven, from four. She was spending it all with a young police officer, named Terry. He was very gorgeous and also quite charismatic. She grinned and laughed, played along with all of his jokes, and he too seemed to enjoy her company. He has tousled brown hair and a hazel glint in his eye. His teeth also sparkled brightly, and although some may have found him fake, she found him very true and honest. He'd interviewed her on what'd happened that day, and he even agreed, but of course told her not to tell, that Bradley was a bastard. She came out of there, her dyed ginger hair gleaming. She'd been ready for a whole new life but little did she know what tomorrow's court news would bring.
