Identical

Mindy can no longer bear seeing her little boy lonely and friendless at school. She’s determined to help him

- BARBARA PEACOCK

MINDY watched from her car as David walked towards the school gate. He wandered slowly in the general direction of the entrance, mind obviously somewhere else, eyes downcast. She saw all the other children gathering in little clumps, three or four in every group, chattering quickly and excitedly like songbirds just waking to a new day.

Her heart ached at the thought that her darling little boy was so alone, so lonely that no other child even looked in his direction. She wanted to jump out of the car and yell to anyone who could hear her that he was a lovely child, that he deserved to be in a group too, to be met at the gates by friends who couldn’t wait to talk to him.

But that would embarrass her boy, and that was possibly a worse sin than making a scene herself and being labeled that mother who “had issues”. As if every mother didn’t have issues of some sort. Even the supposedly well-adjusted ones with everything under control, all the time. And she was definitely not one of those mothers!

Mindy sighed again and drove home, worrying about David all the way. Her husband, Paul, kept telling her everything would be fine, but she just couldn’t bring herself to believe it. Paul had had a wonderful life at school, nothing at all like what she saw David living through.

Forcing her mind to other things, she planned her day. It was going to be a busy one, as she was helping her friend, Sarah, move her business, from a desk in her house to a small office in a nearby office park. She’d agreed to help out all morning, and then she needed to collect David from school and sort out homework and dinner before getting back to the school for parents’ evening. Maybe she could ask David’s teachers if they had any suggestions for helping her son find some friends.