If You Could See Me Now Read Free Page A

faced the window.
    “I said it will be ready in twen—”
    “No, not you,” Luke said, once again being sucked into the world of video games. “Ivan would like some too. He said pizza is his favorite.”
    “Oh.” Elizabeth swallowed helplessly.
    “With olives,” Luke continued.
    “But Luke, you hate olives.”
    “Yeah, but Ivan loves them. He says they’re his favorite.”
    “Oh .. .”
    “Thanks,” Luke said to his aunt, looked to the beanbag, gave the thumbs-up, smiled, then looked away again.
    Elizabeth slowly backed out of the playroom. She realized she was still holding the phone to her chest. “Marie, are you still there?” She chewed on her nail and stared at the closed playroom door, wondering what to do.
    “I thought you’d gone off to the moon as well,” Marie chuckled.
    Marie mistook Elizabeth’s silence for anger and apologized quickly. “Anyway, you were right, Saoirse was headed to the moon but luckily she decided to stop off on the way to refuel. Refueling herself, more like. Your car was found blocking the main street with the engine still running and the driver’s door wide open. You’re lucky Paddy found it when he did before someone took off with it.”
    “Let me guess, the car was outside the pub.” Elizabeth already knew the answer.
    “Correct.” She paused. “Do you want to press charges?”
    Elizabeth sighed, “No. Thanks, Marie.”
    “Not a problem. We’ll have someone bring the car around to you.”
    “What about Saoirse?” Elizabeth paced the hall. “Where is she?”
    “We’ll just keep her here for a while, Elizabeth.”
    “I’ll come get her,” Elizabeth said quickly.
    “No,” Marie said firmly. “Let me get back to you about that. She needs to calm down before she goes anywhere yet.”
    Inside the playroom, she heard Luke laughing and talking away to himself.
    “Actually, Marie,” Elizabeth added with a weak smile, “while we’re on the phone, tell whoever’s bringing the car to bring a shrink with them. It seems Luke is imagining friends now.”
    Inside the playroom, Ivan rolled his eyes and wiggled his body down further into the beanbag. He had heard her on the phone. Ever since he had started this job, parents had been calling him that and it was really beginning to bother him. There was nothing imaginary about him whatsoever.
    They just couldn’t see him.

 
    Chapter Two

     
     
    It was a friday morning in June when I first became best friends with Luke. It was 9:15 a.m. to be precise and I happen to know exactly what time it was because I looked at my watch. I don’t know why I did, because I didn’t need to be anywhere by any specific time. But I believe there’s a reason for everything, so perhaps I checked my watch at that time just so I could tell you my story properly. Details are important in storytelling, aren’t they?
    I was glad I met Luke that morning because I was a bit down after having to leave my old best friend Barry. Having to leave my best friends is all part of my job. It’s not a very nice part, but I believe in finding a positive side in everything, so the way I see it is, if I didn’t have to leave my best friends, then I wouldn’t be able to make new ones. And making new friends is my favorite part by far. That’s probably why I was offered the job.
    We’ll get on to what my job is in just a moment, but first I want to tell you about the morning I first met my best friend Luke.
    I closed the gate to Barry’s front garden behind me and I started walking with no particular direction in mind and eventually ended up beside a housing estate called Fuchsia Lane. It must have been called that because of the fuchsia growing all around the place. They grow wild here. Sorry, when I say “here” I mean a town called Baile na gCroíthe which is in County Kerry. That’s in Ireland.
    Baile na gCroíthe somewhere along the line ended up being known in English as Heartstown but as a direct translation from Irish it means the