4. The Parents' Evening

"Miss Tyler," greeted Mrs Bradbury, on seven year old Joshua's parents' evening.

"Hello," said Rose, sitting down opposite her son's teacher. "So! How's he doing?"

"Well," she began. She tilted her head to the side contemplatively. "Well. Well, how do I put it? Um. Well..."

"Mrs Bradbury?" Rose pressed, suppressing a grin.

"Yes, so. Yes. Joshua is...well. Rather exceptional, really."

"Thanks! I think so, too."

Mrs Bradbury gave her an awkward smile. "Quite. He's able to grasp everything we try to teach him instantly. I've no doubt that he will be quite the genius by the time he reaches his teens."

Rose smiled. "I'm not gonna have a clue what he's going on about then, am I?" she pondered. "You know, the other day he came home babbling about the transdimensional velocity of something or other, and I had to Google it to figure it out!"

The teacher shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "Yes, he does often ask questions that, I admit, I struggle to know the answers to."

"Don't worry about it; he's like that with everyone."

"Your very own little Einstein, eh?"

Rose beamed. "Oh, yes."

Mrs Bradbury smiled, then said, "However, there is one thing that I'm finding a little...disconcerting."

Rose's brow furrowed. "He's alright with the other kids, isn't he? He's always talking about his friends, has even had some over to play - I assumed he was getting along with everyone okay."

"Yes, yes, that's all fine, it's just..." she trailed off.

"What is it?" prompted Rose.

"May I ask, Rose," she started tactfully. "Is Joshua's father...around? Only, he often talks about him, but some of his classmates tease him that he is making up stories because he doesn't actually know him..."

Rose bit down on her lip hard. "Really? They tease him?"

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. She chuckled. "Believe me, Joshua can handle himself. He soon puts them down a peg or two with a witty remark. No, no, it's just...I am anxious that he is lying, you see. I am not quite sure as yet, whether I trust what he says, you know?"

Rose tried to keep ahold of herself and not get angry. "Mrs Bradbury, I don't think Joshua's home life is any of your business."

"With all due respect, Ms Tyler, of course it is! I am his teacher; I am here to be looking out for his welfare. He is a loved and fulfilled child, of that there is no doubt. You are a fantastic mother. But he needs to learn he cannot be dishonest."

"He's seven!" Rose exclaimed. "All kids make some stuff up at seven! And anyway, how do you know he's lying, hmm? Perhaps he is relaying information I've told him about his Dad."

"So...he doesn't live with you, then?"

Rose swallowed thickly. "No."

"And has Joshua ever met him?"

"Josh wasn't even born when his dad and I..."

"Broke up?" she prompted tentatively.

Rose rubbed at her forehead wearily, fed up with trying to explain their unique situation. "No, we didn't 'break up;' honestly, everyone makes our relationship sound so bloody trivial," she muttered. "We were in love, Mrs Bradbury, completely in love – in fact, I still am in love with him, even after all these years. Joshua was a product of that love. It was simply due to circumstances outside our control that his dad and I had to part ways. His dad doesn't know he exists, because I am unable to get in contact with him, but Josh knows everything about his dad that I know, because one day he'll come back for us and I want Josh to be able to recognise him instantly. Well, he looks exactly like him, actually, so there'd be no doubt of that, but you know what I mean."

Mrs Bradbury smiled sympathetically at her, evidently believing Rose was deluding herself thinking that Joshua's dad was returning at any point. But Rose knew she couldn't give up hope on that. "Okay then, dear. I'll take your word for it. I know it must be difficult, being a single mum; having to provide enough love for the missing parent too, and all that. One piece of advice though - "

Rose groaned. She hated it when strangers gave her advice, it was always so...eugh. Annoying.

" – don't let him believe his dad is some sort of superhero, which is what he likes to tell us at school. He'll only be disappointed if his dad does turn up and ends up being something a great deal less impressive than what you've had him believe, eh?"

Rose internally raged at the woman but smiled tightly at her. "When he 'turns up' I'm sure my son will see with his own very eyes what a good person his father is. And isn't any dad like a superhero for their son, anyway?" She shrugged, and stood up. Just so happens that Josh's dad kind of in a way is a bit like a superhero.

Mrs Bradbury raised her eyebrows.

"Just a piece of advice for you, Mrs Bradbury," Rose continued. "Don't go presuming you know everything about someone's life. It's not all cut and dry and short and simple. Sometimes life is complicated, yeah? It throws up unexpected problems that you have to try and solve on your own when you expected someone else to be there to help you. But that's okay, 'cos humans have a great survival instinct, you see. We keep going, and we hope, and we love. That's what gets us through. So if telling my little boy that his father has saved the World gives him hope that he'll come back, then that's what I'll do. And I'll love Josh more than enough for the whole universe, not just enough for his 'missing parent,' as you put it earlier. Thanks for your time; I think I'll go now." Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

Before Rose left, she glanced back at Mrs Bradbury, and smiled when she noted that the teacher looked suitably chastened.

Rose Tyler strikes again, Rose thought, and giggled at herself all the way to the playground, where she then picked up her son and twirled him around in a circle, and told him how wonderful he was for being so clever and brave and brilliant. Just like, once upon a time, the Doctor had said to her.