Chapter 4

'You are clearly confused.' Robert says to Alison though his front teeth. Alison lets out a laugh. 'You see, the thing is Robert, I am not confused. He is standing here, right in front of me. He is not a figment of my imagination, just because you can't see him doesn't mean he isn't here. Don't go dismissing him Robert, by doing that you are making him feel like complete and utter shit. Would you do that if he was your child? He is someone's child and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate you treating him like that.' Robert gives a slight hesitation; he cannot find the words to say to Alison. 'You are so wrong Alison; you haven't got the slightest clue what you are talking about.' He looks at his watch. 'I think it's about time I left, I've got some work to do and I should leave.' He heads towards the door, Alison shouts behind him. 'What are you so afraid of Robert? Are you scared that I am finding things out about you and it's making you uncomfortable?' There is a faint laughter coming from the front door. 'You don't know the first thing about me Alison. You are completely clueless.' Suddenly it all hits Alison. 'Fucking hell, he is your son isn't he?' she says as she steps towards the door. 'Goodbye Alison.' He walks away and she slams the door shut behind him.

'I don't understand why he is so defensive, what's the worst thing I could do? I'm not exactly the most well known person; I mean not a lot of people listen to me. Plus Robert thinks the majority of the things I say are complete shit so why would he listen. There isn't anything I can do to help you, I'm so sorry. He won't listen to me; he doesn't believe me when I say I can see you. He is afraid to admit to the possibility of it all. He shouldn't be afraid; nothing is going to happen to him if he does believe.' Alison thinks to herself as she sits in her arm chair, knees tucked up to her chin and her hands clasped together twiddling her thumbs as she talks to the little boy standing in the corner. 'And I can't look at you, I'm sorry about that too. I want to, you know I do, I just can't. I suppose I just don't want to let you down, I'm trying my best to help you, I'm trying to make him talk about what happened to you.' She closes her eyes and breathes deeply. 'I promise you, I will get him to talk about what happened to you, and then we can try and sort this out.' She smiles into thin air, turns around and the boy in the corner is gone. She turns back and tilts her head back and sighs.

After a while of being down stairs and drinking her bottle of red wine, Alison went up stairs and got herself ready for bed. As usually she opens her organised draw and pulls out one of her many black tops. She then moves down to the next draw and pulls out a pair of old grey jogging bottoms. She removes her day clothes and stands in front of her mirror. She runs her hands through her blonde hair, and then works her way down the rest of her face and neck. She then lifts her hand from her face and moved to her stomach. She lays her hands over it, gently rubs it and quickly puts her top on. As she walks over to the bed she slowly begins to put her bottoms on. Once she reaches the bed she leans over to the dial on her old fashioned television, turns the volume off and sits on the floor close to the screen. 'Why won't he speak to me? Was it so bad that he can't think about it? I'm pretty sure it can't have been that bad, he doesn't seem to be that sort. I've met that sort and he just doesn't fit in with them. I guess he may come around.'

A few hours pass and Alison wakes up in her bed. It's 4:48am, once Alison is awake she can't get back to sleep. She just lays in her bed and looks to the ceiling. 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I just be normal like all the others? I never asked to be like this, I never asked to be a 'freak' or anything like that. If I hadn't have gone the other night no one would have ever known, I could have lived a normal life and been happy with it all. No one would know. I suppose that's just how life is.'

She rolls on to her side and stares at the wall.