‘I could do a velociraptor.’ Ben’s face lit up. ‘They’re fascinating creatures. Computer modelling shows that they may have used their tails as balance mechanisms...’
‘She doesn’t know what a velociraptor is, but she loves dinosaurs.’ Raina ventured a compromise.
‘Great.’ Alistair beamed. ‘So we’ll ask her to draw a dinosaur and Ben can make whatever small adjustments are needed to stop it from falling flat on its face. I think we’re all on the same page now.’
Somehow they were. Alistair’s ability to negotiate between two entirely different points of view had never been in doubt. It was his point of view that had eluded Raina. But his private thoughts were no longer any of her concern.
* * *
His head was buzzing, and a series of loud, inexplicable noises seemed to be coming from somewhere. When Alistair looked around the room, it turned out to be the hiss of the coffee machine. At this rate it was going to be a miracle if he managed to keep track of a three-year-old, an ex-wife and three designers who were gifted but didn’t have the practical experience to turn their ideas into workable solutions.
At least he was having no difficulty hearing what Raina said. He wondered whether that was because he seemed to be acutely aware of every move she made, and decided that it was because she was making it easy for him to hear her. This project mattered as much to her as it did to him, and communication was the key.
But since everyone seemed to be communicating pretty well without him, he retired to the corner of the room, taking out his hearing aid. It was the aural equivalent of someone suddenly putting a bag over his head, and everything seemed suddenly muffled and indistinct. But at least he wasn’t jumping all the time.
‘Going to put that back on?’ Somehow Raina managed to speak in a way that he could hear, and yet at the same time make their conversation private. How did she do that?
‘Um... Not at the moment. I think that the audiologist must have adjusted it incorrectly, everything seems very distorted.’ Alistair pulled open the battery compartment to switch the hearing aid off, and put it into his pocket.
‘It’s going to sound distorted. If anything, that means they’ve got it right, because you’re hearing things that you haven’t heard for the last few months. Your brain just needs a bit of time to catch up and learn how to process those sounds again.’
‘The audiologist did mention that. But I don’t think this can be right. I feel constantly on edge with it.’
‘Of course you do. We instinctively react to sounds we don’t recognise and block out the ones we do if they’re of no importance to us.’
When Raina reminded him of that well-understood fact, everything seemed a bit better. Warmer and full of promise, tempering the harsh, brittle sounds that he felt overwhelmed by at times.
‘I suppose that asking a three-year-old to get to grips with a new arm, when I’ve got my hearing aid in my pocket is... I should practise what I preach a little more.’
Raina shrugged. ‘I’m sure that Anya will need a bit of coaxing, too. Kaia seems to be making a good job of that.’ She nodded over to where Kaia had lifted Anya up to see through the partition window, into the room where the 3D printer was housed. Alistair had reckoned that sparkly plastic bricks might catch Anya’s attention and they were small enough that they didn’t take too long to print.
‘And that’s what you’re doing? Coaxing me?’ Alistair rather wished that she would.
She smiled suddenly, stepping closer. Alistair caught a trace of her scent and suddenly his whole body was taking notice of Raina. ‘Perhaps I can get Ben to make you a sparkly cover for your earpiece.’
Alistair took the hearing aid from his pocket and put it back into his ear. ‘Don’t do that. He’ll be wanting to incorporate something useful. GPS tracking probably to give them advanced warning of when I’m on my way up here.’
‘That would be useful.’ Raina seemed to suddenly realise that the conversation had slipped into familiarity and that they were standing very close. Almost touching. Her cheeks flushed and she stepped back. Alistair wondered whether he should apologise and decided that would only make things even more awkward.
Alistair cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the lump that had formed, forcing his thoughts back to the present and the task in hand. ‘So...practically speaking, we can fit Anya with a new prosthetic very easily. Our real difficulty is going to be in showing her what benefits it might give her.’
‘You have some ideas about that?’ Raina looked up at him, and when Alistair saw the trust in her dark eyes he almost turned away in shame. He’d done so little to deserve her trust, but maybe he could change that. If he paid the debt that he owed her, maybe he could bring himself to move on with his life.
‘Yes, I have some ideas. But first I’d like Anya to spend some more time up here. Kaia’s got some great ideas for fun things to make, and I’m hoping that if Anya gets involved with that process, she’ll feel that making her a prosthetic is just another fun thing that we can do.’
‘That sounds wonderful. When would you like us to come back?’
‘As often as you like. Kaia’s working with one of the other children on the project in the mornings, but she’s set aside her afternoons for Anya.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Raina’s face lit up in a smile, and Alistair couldn’t help feeling that this was the reason he’d got out of bed this morning.
‘Tomorrow would be great.’
CHAPTER FIVE
THE DREAM TEAM had walked the extra mile and then one more for Anya. Ben had made a dinosaur for her, which was a direct replica of one that the little girl had drawn, right down to the smile on its face. The bricks took a shorter time to print, and Anya was beginning to understand that anything that she or the Dream Team could imagine might emerge from the ‘magic printer’.
The two offices at the far end of the main office were both beginning to look more and more like playrooms. Gabriel’s was all his own work, and when he was in the office he seemed to add something more every day to the pile of toys that he was assessing for suitability for the twins that he and his wife Clara were expecting.