Tracking Love Down

It was raining. Huge raindrops were splattering against the windows of the nursery school, buffeted by the gusty wind. Violet’s dad helped her fasten her bright, sunshine-yellow raincoat. But Violet didn’t look very bright or sunny. Her face was more like one of the gloomy grey rain clouds.

“What’s up, Violet?” he asked with concern, giving her cheek a stroke.

Violet said nothing at first, because she didn’t know where to begin. But then she fixed her doubtful eyes on her father and said: “Daddy, do we have any love at home?”

“What’s made you wonder that?” he asked.

“Well, today we were talking about love. Mr Burnham said there’s a special day when everyone celebrates love. Katy said that she and her brother stick hearts in the windows at home, and Theo said that his dad gives his mum a bunch of roses, and… and… I don’t really know what love is, Daddy. If we haven’t got roses or heart shapes at home, where is our love?”

Her father laughed. “Why don’t we play detectives?”

Violet was intrigued by that idea. “Detectives? How?”

“We’ll go looking for love!” he declared, sweeping her into his arms and running out through the school doors into the rain.

Once they were back home, he put Violet down on the sofa and wrapped her in a soft blanket to warm her up. “We have our first clue!” he announced. “When you love someone, looking after them and helping them out makes you happy. That’s also why I’m going to go and make a cup of tea for Mummy. She should be back from work any minute now.”

“Is that the second clue?” asked Violet excitedly. She was really enjoying this game – and it looked like they…