[picture: high-street -- dara hurrying+open, jonah edge+left-out]
Dara hurrying past along the pavement with her swimming bag; Jonah side on, looking after her.
Another Saturday on the high street. Jonah is outside the bakery with his dad, waiting for the rolls.
Dara is further down the street, walking fast, with her swimming bag bumping against her leg at every step.
jonah: Dara! Hey -- Dara!
She does not stop. She does not turn round either.
[and what shows it]
Now look at Dara. Her bag is on her shoulder, and she is going somewhere, fast, on a Saturday morning.
Choice: DARA! Wait -- didn't you see me?
[picture: high-street -- dara leaning-in+startled, jonah open]
Dara stopped, turning back towards Jonah.
dara: What? Oh -- Jonah. I'm LATE. It's the swimming race. Dad's already at the pool.
So that was all it was. She had not been walking away from him. She had been walking towards a race, and the race was not going to wait.
He had thought of one explanation, which was that she did not want to talk to him. The second one had been there the whole time, hurrying down the street to get to a race. He only had to shout once more to find it.
Choice: Let her go. Ask her at school.
[picture: high-street -- dara hurrying+open, jonah edge+left-out]
Dara further down the pavement with her swimming bag, still going; Jonah side on where he was, looking after her.
Jonah watched her go round the corner. Saturday was a strange day to fall out with somebody, and he could ask her at school on Monday.
jonah: Dara just walked straight past me.
His dad did not look up from the bag of rolls. He said that was a shame, and wondered out loud what her hurry had been.
It was a long weekend. Jonah thought about it in the bath, and at tea, and in bed, and none of the thinking told him anything.
On Monday he asked her, at the gate, before the bell. She told him about the race, and about the girl who dived in before the whistle, and it took her the whole of the line to get to the end of it.
Leaving it cost him a whole weekend of not knowing. It also meant that on Monday he asked her, instead of shouting at her back, and she had time to answer.
Choice: Look at the wall when she waves.
[picture: school-gate -- dara confused, jonah turned-away+press]
Monday at the school gate, Dara stopped with her head on one side, and Jonah facing the wall.
On Monday Dara waved from the gate. Jonah looked at a very interesting bit of wall instead.
Now there were two of them not talking, and each one was sure that the other one had started it.
Looking at the wall had shown her how Saturday felt. It had also turned one person not talking into two. A thing done back is a second thing, not an answer.
She had been going to a swimming race. She came second, and she had a whole story about a girl who dived in before the whistle, for anyone who would listen.
Whether Jonah ever heard that story was settled outside the bakery. It took a few seconds, in the moment after she did not turn round, with the rolls still warm.