Stealing Time

He was apolice officer. A student of policing, whatever it is they teachthere. I can’t imagine it’s much. You either have the intellect tosolve problems and deal with people or you don’t, I think.Sebastian had the one but not so much of the other. Perhaps it wassimply that they didn’t teach the people part well enough.
Varya didn’t seem to mind. They spent alltheir hours talking about time and its infinite possibilities. Herjoy leaked out onto him, seeped into his pores, and made his mouthtwitch upwards. Uncharacteristically, that upwards mouth cornertrend continued for some time. Long enough for him to marry myVarya.
But that joy, it just kept leaking right outof her. I still hold that Sebastian responsible for not even tryingto plug the hole.
It dripped and it dripped the deeper he gother involved in the cases of the time thieves. Invaluableknowledge, he said she had. ‘Help save the children’, was thecarrot he dangled in front of her. Nobody could maintain their joyin the face of all those stolen babies returned to their parents,only to wilt forever soon after.
She never did figure out how to do it; turnback the hands of time. It broke her in the end.
Sebastian and his policing friends saved theday by shooting a few of the thieves and capturing another few.Importantly, they captured the impossible technology that thethieves had somehow made possible. It was turned over to Varya andher colleagues to study and understand. But the public, they wereheartbroken, and they were angry. Mostly, they were scared. Theywanted the technology destroyed. They wanted to never have to fearfor the minutes and hours and days they planned to spend with theirbabies before they left home to find their joy, like my Varya had.It is a wicked thing to have parenting hours stolen from you.
And yet here I am, being given back morehours than I could ever possibly imagine, or perhaps even want,with my grandson Kir. Now a new child is to be placed under my careas well. Daniel, a nine-year-old boy. What do I know aboutnine-year-old boys? Not much, that’s what.

Chapter twenty-five
Varya
Varya and Daniel were greeted by Kir at the Time Lockportal, the smaller boy bouncing up and down, ready to greet hismother. Varya braced herself as Kir flung himself at her legs, butshe kept on walking. Kir giggled as he rose up and down on Varya’sleg, her right foot dug into his bottom. His laughter drowned outthe sounds of adult murmuring until they arrived in the kitchen. Hepeered around and noticed more legs. His gaze travelled upwards toDaniel’s face and his eyes opened wide.
“Mama!” he exclaimed.
Daniel gave him an awkward smile and held uphis palm in greeting.
“Mama, Nanna! A moving person! It’s a movingperson!” He stood up and raced around to the far side of the roundtable where Elena sat, a steaming cup of tea in a saucer in frontof her. She chuckled as she picked him up and held him close.
“Yes, Kir, it’s a moving person.” To Danielshe explained, “We don’t get moving people around here much, asyou’ll soon find out.”
“Mama, this is Daniel.” Varya touchedDaniel’s shoulder. “And this is his mother, Zoe.” Varya tried tocatch Zoe’s eye but she was too busy staring at Kir.
“He’s really alive. All this time,” shesaid. She inched towards the chair nearest to Elena and the boy andsat, to get a closer look. “How do you feel?”
“I’m hungry!” shouted Kir, very loudly, inher face, then leaned back against his grandmother and roared withlaughter.
“Oh hush, child, you are not hungry. You’vejust finished eating your breakfast.” Elena shook her head.
“But you’re not in any pain?” asked Zoe,lifting one of his arms and then the other, turning them over andsearching for signs of... what? She addressed Elena then. “He’sbeen well?”
“Fit as a fiddle,” Elena retorted. “Runs meoff my feet.” Kir bounced up and down in her lap to demonstrate.“Ouch! You’ve got a bony bottom, Kir. Get off me now, you’ll haveme as bruised as a mango dropped from a hot air balloon.”
Kir leaped off her lap and went to run outof the room. He stopped short at Daniel’s feet and looked directlyup into his face.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Daniel,” said Daniel, taking a smallstep backwards. Varya watched them closely. She thought he seemedsort of glad to see his former playmate, whom he must have reallyonly remembered from photographs, stories and snippets of his ownmemories. Mostly, though, he seemed thoroughly overwhelmed andconfused.
Varya crouched down beside Kir so their eyeswere level. “You two used to be great friends when Daniel wasyounger. You were four years old together.”
“I’ve been four years old for five years!”said Kir proudly, holding up the correct number of fingers, splayedwidely. “But Nanna lets me put an extra candle on my cake everyyear anyway. Ssh, it’s a secret.” He looked from his mother toDaniel and back again. “Can I show him my room now? I’ve beenlearning how to play Jingle Bells on my guitar so I can play it atChristmas for everyone!”
“How about you show Daniel the Blue Roomfirst?” suggested Varya.
“Why?”
“Because he’s going to be staying with youand Nanna for a while and that’s where he’ll be sleeping,” sheexplained. “He’ll probably want to put his bag down in there. It’spretty heavy.” She whispered this last part conspiratorially toKir. Kir looked at the bag.
“Why? Why is he staying here? He’s a movingperson. Moving people don’t stay here, only the frozen-in-timeones. Moving people come and then they go. Like you and Marisa and…and…” He trailed off, throwing a quick glance to hisgrandmother.
“You ask a lot of questions,” said Daniel,finally smiling.
“Go show him the Blue Room and Daniel mightanswer some of the questions for you,” Varya suggested.
Kir gazed up at the moving boy with newrespect. “Okay, it’s down here!” He pushed past Daniel and ran downthe hallway.
Daniel looked at his mother hesitantly, whonodded. He hefted his bag higher on his shoulder and followedKir.
“Is he cured?” Zoe asked, after the childrenwere out of ear shot.
Varya shook her head. “No.”
“But he seems so well.”
Varya smiled. “He does, doesn’t he?”
“How long can he stay