and policewoman the police in our lounge room And a kid A little kid bawling its eyes out Not a baby but not a proper child either It has black wispy hair and looks like a chubby elf Mum is sitting on the floor next to it going shh shh shhhh over and over And I hear Dad say There was a knock on the screen door about 9 45 then I heard a car drive off really fast It burnt rubber I opened the door and there she was just there on the doorstep crying Poor little thing Mum croons then goes back to her shh shh shhhhs Dad keeps talking I was expecting to see old Mrs Mackay from next door she often has trouble closing the blinds you know or turning off her oil heater and she comes over to ask for help I certainly wasn’t expecting to find well she was very distressed he says shaking his head And she had this green blanket Mum says 11
holding it up And this note was pinned to it And that was all that was with her the policeman asks Nothing else No bag of clothes or anything No Dad says just what she’s wearing the Wondersuit thing with the blanket around her and the note pinned to it The policeman looks at the note again and reads it out loud Please look after Hmmm how do you pronounce this M-E-I Is it My Mee I think you’d pronounce it May the policewoman says and bends down to the child Hello she smiles gently I’m Jan What’s your name Mei the child wails eyes wide and then calls Mama mama mama Okay well that’s a start the policewoman says turning to the others Where do you live Mei she continues Where’s your house Can you show us 12
Mama Mei just cries even harder I feel sick seeing this How scary would it be to be in someone else’s lounge room at eleven o’clock on a Monday night without your mum anywhere nearby I’d be scared and I’m ten Where is her mum The policeman says We’ll have to call in Family Services The policewoman nods I’ll take a photo of her and email it over to Missing Persons in case somebody’s already registered her as missing She swipes her phone into camera mode and squats down She smiles again and says Mei and the flash goes off adding to the weirdness of this whole thing Not exactly happy snaps time Mei is clutching her green blanket and crying loudly I’ll put the kettle on Mum says going out and then she returns to the room to Mei Would you like some milk love Some warm milk 13
Mama comes the sobbing reply Milk Mum says holding up the milk carton and shaking it a little Mei cries so hard it hurts to watch 14
