He’d tell me they were on holiday or at the dentist so I could officially mark the absence. Sometimes an imaginary pupil wouldn’t answer so I’d have the undiluted joy of calling out again and asking my ‘class’ where they were. From a young age, I had dreams of being a teacher and Harry would pretend to be my only pupil, dutifully filling out my homemade worksheets and answering all of the names on the register with different voices. He would do what he wanted but often it seemed that what he wanted was to make other people happy. He didn’t find it difficult to make friends and had his first girlfriend at the age of four or five. Babies still tend to stare at him now – it’s kind of weird. Even then he had that sort of magnetism that made people just want to watch him.
When I started school in Holmes Chapel, on hot days when the school-run cars were lined up outside and the parents were passing the time, Harry – never scared of attracting attention – would be stood up in the back of the car, entertaining everyone through the open window. Then there was the time Harry actually tried to get me in trouble, when I told him WWF wrestling was all staged – he took it as a personal insult and as revenge told Mum that I was the worst thing he could think of… a drug dealer. I think the first time I got in serious trouble was when I pushed him off a chair because he just wouldn’t stop crying. Max looked somewhat puzzled but just sort of let him get on with it.
When Harry was probably only one year old he’d be laying on the floor with Max, or join him in his basket, all blond hair and giant blue eyes, then would suddenly take his dummy out and pointedly shove it in the dog’s mouth instead, like something out of The Simpsons. I chose him out of affection for his weirdness and we adored him. Max was a border collie/lurcher cross, the only grey speckled puppy with a curly tail and multicoloured eyes, from a litter of pure black. The little things are what stick with me the most: our old house and garden, climbing frame, family dog. As such, the first memories I have of him are a typically hazy mix.
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