Keira’s Story Taster: COVID Phrases:

I stood there motionless in the doorway. For a few seconds I remember feeling like one of those majestic stone lions you see outside some buildings, guarding it, protecting it.

All of a sudden, I stirred, snapping out of my daydream and back into the real world. My head was whirling trying to take in the flashing blue and red lights and the wailing, howling sirens. That was when I noticed two police officers, one male and one female standing there in front of me. The male had sharp eyes and a mouth that could have been drawn with a single line. He was a big, burly man and was looking me straight in the eye. The woman, however, was small and kind looking, she was looking me in the eye too, but I could see sympathy in her sapphire blue eyes. She coughed and stepped forward a few paces then stopped.

‘May we come in?’ she asked. Her voice was neutral, but I could tell she was uncomfortable talking to me. All at once my brain began ticking, trying to figure out why. She must have seen the cogs working in my mind, so she spoke again.

‘Hi, my name is Sophie, and this is my colleague Josh. Please may we come in? We have some unfortunate news.’

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. I just nodded briefly and moved aside.

I think I should pause here because you probably wondering who I am, well, my name is Katie Baker, and I am 15 years old. I live at 63 Bluebell Drive, and I attend Hymers High School. There, now we are up-to-date, I will continue.

The officers with their shiny badges glinting in the sun and their navyblue uniforms strode in and stood there, in the hallway, waiting for me to turn around again. Josh, who I noticed hadn’t said anything yet, suddenly spoke and asked where my guardian was. I told them that my parents were away on business and that my grandma, who was looking after me in the meantime, had just gone to the shops and should be back very soon.

‘Our meeting with her is really quite urgent, so please can we stay until she arrives back?’ This was Sophie speaking.

‘Yes of course. Would you like a drink?’ I tried to sound calm, but I was trembling like we were having a conversation while an earthquake was going on.

‘Yes, that would be brilliant thank you, we will both have a tea, two sugars please’

I nodded and left hastily.

I have noticed that unlike other things, making tea seems to make all the problems of the outside world disappear while you do familiar things with the kettle and tea bags, but today was different. I was shaking like a blancmange and the simple task of putting the tea bags in the water becomes a task fraught with difficulty and I sent the bag spinning across the counter three times before it splashed in, the water drops burnt my skin.

I cursed shaking my hand. When I came back into the room fumbling with the tray, I saw Sophie and Josh whispering urgently but when they saw me, they stopped abruptly. I staggered into the room completely abandoning me formality and smashed the floral tray onto the glass table. I could easily have cracked the blue tinted glass, but right then I couldn’t have cared less. I collapsed, ungraciously, into a faux leather armchair opposite the officers. Sophie was sitting straight-backed and staring at the spilt tea as if it held the answers to space and time and puzzling how to break this so-called unfortunate news to me. The unfortunate news. I thought. My mouth went dry. What could it be? That’s when it hit me like a tidal wave, I felt like I was drowning. My eyes were blurred, my throat tightened so I couldn’t breathe, and my feet felt like lead weights. I somehow managed to rasp out some words.

‘M-my parents, are they o…okay?’ I stammered.

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