by Aoife Walsh
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Babi snapped. She was obviously in pain – it seemed to be her ankle that was the trouble – but she was in danger of losing her jolly reputation during the next few minutes, while they all wittered on about what to do and threatened vaguely that this was the kind of thing that turned you into an elderly person.
It ended up with Minny, Selena and Raymond being crushed into the hot back seat while Letty, the oldest woman in England, drove them home at five miles an hour and then took Babi on to the hospital. ‘Make sure to feed the baby,’ was all she said through the window once they had been decanted onto the pavement outside the house, ‘and give him enough to drink.’ Then they drove off.
It was a dull afternoon. Hours passed. In the end Minny thought she’d better get everyone out for a walk, but Ash wouldn’t come. ‘Please,’ Minny said. ‘I can’t manage the two of them without help.’ She could barely get Raymond into his pushchair on her own, he hated it so much.
‘Don’t go then.’
‘You haven’t been out of the house in days.’ Minny hesitated. ‘Are you worried we might bump into someone from school?’
‘No. Leave me alone.’
‘Because we don’t have to go to the park. We could walk the other way up to the river.’
‘Leave me ALONE,’ she shouted, and kicked the door shut in Minny’s face.
Minny went downstairs and, to improve staying in the garden, spent a sweaty twenty minutes emptying buckets into the grubby old paddling pool while Selena followed Raymond around and shouted at Minny every time he put a pebble in his mouth. She was incapable of stopping him herself without choking him or making him cry. Clouds closed in and as Minny grimly topped up the pool with a final bucket, rain pitter-pattered gently into it.
They stayed outside because there was nothing to do inside. When the shadows were getting longer and the paddling pool was filling up with floating specks of dirt at the top and swirling dirt at the bottom, and the sky with darker clouds so that even though it was warm you shivered sometimes, Ash came and stood at the French windows. She slid one of them back and forth. ‘I’m hungry.’
‘Sandwiches for dinner, I suppose,’ Minny said.
‘There’s no bread.’
‘Well, you’ll have to go and get some.’
‘Me?’
‘I can’t go, can I? Unless we all go, I suppose.’
The phone rang. Selena was quick as a fish and got to it before anyone else, ignoring the fact she was dripping thin mud onto the carpet, but once it was obvious it was Babi – you could hear her voice from the other end of the room – Minny wrenched it away from her.
‘Give it to me – oh, sod off, Selena. What?’ she said into the receiver.
‘I have not died, thank you for your kind concern, nor am I about to lose one of my limbs.’
‘Well, I knew you wouldn’t be,’ Minny said, exasperated. ‘So what is happening?’
‘I have a severely sprained ankle.’
‘Just a sprain?’
‘Which, as the twelve-year-old doctors and adolescent nurses here have been eager to point out, at my age is a serious situation. Sorry that I didn’t break my neck.’
‘Right,’ Minny said, running a hand up through her hair. ‘Are you coming home?’
‘Yes. Gil has extremely kindly come all the way to the hospital and we are on our way back now.’
‘OK.’ Great. ‘The thing is, we don’t have any food.’
There was a heavy sigh. ‘I will ask Gil if he would mind stopping to get something.’
‘Thanks,’ Minny said sharply, and replaced the handset.
Selena hadn’t got past her embarrassment with Gil, Aisling was still surly, the baby was tearful, Minny found herself in a foul mood and Babi was shouting at anyone who ventured within two metres of her foot, so dinner was awkward. Even though it was nice Lebanese food from the café by Gil’s shop. Minny thought about the Lebanese meal she’d had with her father. Perhaps pleasantness under false pretences was to be preferred to honest horribleness after all.
The actual trouble began when Gil ordered Minny to wash up and Aisling to make a coffee for Babi and himself. Of course if their mother had been there she’d probably have made them do it and they wouldn’t have minded too much. But as it was, even Ash looked resentful. ‘What about the baby?’ Minny muttered. ‘Who’s looking after him?’ She’d already realised that, with Babi having an excuse to sit on the sofa not moving, her own workload was significantly increased.
‘I’m sure Selena can keep an eye on him for a few minutes,’ Gil said, offering Babi his arm and picking up her glass of wine for her.
He would have done better, if he actually wanted his coffee, to get either of the others to make it or to make it himself. Minny had finished clearing the table and washing the plates by the time Aisling had it ready. She took it through, a mug at a time, while Minny made tea.
‘Oh, but.’ Aisling was suddenly lathered with indecision. ‘Isn’t it too late for tea?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Selena said. It wasn’t quite seven o’clock, which was when Sel had her pre-bedtime drink of water. Aisling left hers till half seven. They had once read that you shouldn’t drink anything two hours before you go to bed, lest you get woken up in the night by a full bladder.
‘Have tea for once instead,’ Minny said, pressing her lips together and marching them into the back room. Babi and Gil should not have it all their own way the whole time Nita was gone; her mother would never be able to fight a battle against lines already solid. This was their house now too. She picked up the remote and switched on the TV; it was Emmerdale, which Babi watched but never with Gil, because he wasn’t a big TV fan. She wanted to see her grandmother’s eyes trying not to slide towards it.
As it happened Babi was in the mood for dealing with things more directly. ‘Minny,’ she said in a voice which grated so much that Selena looked round in alarm. ‘Turn it off.’
Minny settled herself into the chair beside her, because it was closest to where the baby was playing with a pack of cards. ‘Why? You like Emmerdale.’
‘Turn it off.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she said so, that’s why,’ Gil said.
‘That’s not the way this house works,’ Minny said. Her cheeks were beginning to burn. ‘We haven’t been brought up to obey unquestioningly, Gil.’
‘Is that what it is? I thought you were just extremely rude.’
‘She’s not rude.’ Aisling was watching the baby.
‘Minny,’ Babi said, leaning heavily on her crutch to stand up, ‘turn off that television.’
‘Do it yourself,’ Minny said, placing the remote on the arm of the sofa and folding her arms. Babi snapped the button and the TV flickered to silence.
‘What is the matter with you?’ She was still standing there, right in front of Minny. ‘Why are you being a spoilt brat?’
‘I’m not. I just came into the living room of my home to watch some telly. I don’t see why that’s unreasonable.’
‘You are being deliberately obstreperous and unpleasant.’ Minny sometimes wondered if her grandmother would be even meaner in her first language; there was never any shortage of critical vocabulary. ‘You wouldn’t be acting like this if your mother was here.’
‘I should hope not,’ Gil said.
Minny snapped. ‘No, probably not, because if Mum was here you wouldn’t be inflicting your horrible mood on us just because you made a tit of yourself at your stupid meeting and now we’ve all got to put up with him sitting around like he owns the place—’
Her grandmother, swaying on her crutch for extra force, slapped her across the face.
Minny flung all the tea in her cup over her grandmother.
Selena screamed. Aisling backed into the corner. Gil leaped up and in front of Babi, which put him looming over Minny; for a second she thought he might hit her as well, she was so shocked.
‘That’s enough,’ he said. ‘That’s
more than enough. Milena, are you all right? Are you burnt?’
‘Of course she’s not burnt,’ Minny shouted, ‘it was half-drunk milky tea, not steaming acid.’
Gil was helping Babi away. She wiped her face. Her hair was dripping at the front. ‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘I have done all I can, but that’s it. If you were a little older or I had not a sprained ankle I would throw you out of this house, you little … ingrate. I have had enough disrespect. I will go instead. You can go to your father’s and deal with him as best you can, and when your mother gets back we will go into this.’
‘I want Mummy,’ Selena wailed.
‘Where are you going?’ Aisling asked.
‘Away from here.’
‘Yes, I’m taking her away,’ Gil said. ‘She gave up a holiday to stay here and look after you girls.’
‘And this is what I get.’ She picked up the house phone and the address book. They all watched her dial. She listened for a moment and then crashed the receiver down. ‘I refuse to speak to his fancy-piece, and really I don’t see why I should speak to him either. Minny, you can explain the situation to him.’ She hobbled out.
Aisling stood in the corridor, twisting her hands, while Babi was getting a bag together, helped by Gil. It didn’t take long. A lot of her stuff must have been at his house by now anyway. Minny could hardly speak but she stood up stiffly, pushing away Selena, who didn’t know what to do with herself, and dialled the correct number. By the time Babi appeared again everything was settled.
‘You have spoken to him?’
‘Yes.’
‘He will take the baby too?’
‘Yes. He’s coming to get us in the car.’
‘Fine.’
‘But I don’t know what Mum’s going to say about it.’
‘Shall I tell you frankly, Minny, I don’t care. I would rather your mother have her few days away without feeling she must dash back because of your bad behaviour, but I am beginning to be indifferent even to that. She is after all your mother, and responsible for you, since your father is not able to be. I am in a great deal of pain and I am very angry. I think a few days away for me is called for.’
They were gone. Minny was high – she didn’t know what to feel except that enthralling danger was here. Her mother … her mother might think she had been wrong to sling tea over Babi, but she was pretty sure she would be furious that Babi should slap her, Minny, and she would find it hard to forgive their being abandoned. Why, Babi hadn’t even hung around until Des showed up. Which was just as well.
‘Shall I pack to go to Dad’s?’ Selena asked in a small, tinny voice.
‘No,’ Minny said, not rubbing her face though it tingled. She wanted to go and look in the mirror to see if it was red. No adult had ever hit her before in her life. Selena didn’t know what to say; Minny could feel that without looking at her. Not even Ash …
‘Is your face all right?’ Ash asked.
‘I don’t know. It smarts a bit. How does it look?’
‘Red. Why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why not pack to go to Des’s?’
‘We’re not going.’
Selena gasped. ‘Didn’t he want us?’
‘I didn’t ring him.’
‘I heard you ring him.’
‘That was acting, dimbo. No, we’ll just stay here.’
‘On our own?’
‘Why not?’
Neither of them seemed excited at the prospect. Minny was excited, partly; another part was scared, and the third was saying firmly that there was no reason to be scared or excited. They were only staying at home, after all. She’d done everything she would have to do tonight a million times without anyone watching; come to that, even if Babi was still here a fat lot of good she would be, either in a pinch or in the normal run of things, with a sprained ankle.
‘I think we should go to Dad’s,’ Selena said, interrupting her thoughts.
‘No,’ Minny and Aisling said together.
‘I think we should go to Granny’s,’ Aisling said.
‘No.’
‘Or get her to come round here.’
‘We’re not doing that, Ash.’ Her reasons were obscure but she felt them strongly. It wasn’t only that she hadn’t seen Franklin since Veronica’s house. Or heard from him.
She didn’t exactly manage to persuade them, that is stop them looking sceptical or troubled, but as long as they stopped arguing and didn’t threaten to pick up the phone themselves, she was happy. She sweetened the deal by pointing out that there was quite a lot of ice cream in the freezer, and that the shopping was booked for delivery tomorrow, so right now they could tag whatever they wanted onto the order. ‘You see,’ she said, clicking to add garlic bread to the basket, ‘it’s just going to be perfectly normal, and Mum’s back the day after tomorrow. A nice ordinary night tonight, only with extra ice cream and chocolate sauce, and the lights off.’
‘The lights off?’ Sel squeaked.
‘Yeah. Just in case Babi comes past or anything. I don’t suppose she will. You can have your nightlight on and everything. But, till we go to bed – you’ve got a torch, if you need it, don’t you? It’s not as if it’s really dark yet anyway.’
It did make everything different. She read the baby’s story in the bathroom, which faced the back of the house, and then tucked him up in his cot. He lay looking up at her – she could see in the twilight peeping in through the curtains – with eyes that seemed reproachful. ‘Look, it’s not my fault Mum’s in Edinburgh,’ she told him. ‘Anyway she’ll be back the day after tomorrow. It’s not long to wait. And I’ll sleep in her bed tonight, so I’ll be here if you need me.’
Selena wasn’t very pleased. ‘It’s like the Book of Job,’ she said when Minny went in to fetch her pyjamas. Sel was sitting up in bed with her torch lit. ‘Bad things keep happening, Minny. I don’t like it.’
‘Oh, rubbish. I bet it’s not like the Book of Job at all.’
‘It is. Maybe I’ll get boils next.’
‘Don’t be silly, Selena. It’s just a row. OK, a few rows, but it’s going to be fine. Mum will be back soon. Go to sleep.’
The baby moaned and complained for quite a while, and Minny couldn’t get properly to sleep until way after one o’clock when he seemed to settle a bit. Then just before four a little white ghost appeared at the door. ‘My torch has gone out.’
Minny shut her eyes again and moaned into the pillow. ‘You’ve still got your nightlight.’
There was a pitter-patter and a breeze and Selena scrambled in beside her. ‘I can’t sleep. And there was a spider.’
‘Oh,’ Minny said, turning over, ‘why not a werewolf?’
THIRTEEN
The morning was unpleasant – Aisling had been woken by Selena’s journeyings, too early even for her; it was dark and lashing with rain outside, and they were all starving by nine o’clock when the shopping arrived. They had ham and cheese sandwiches and Wagon Wheels for breakfast. And then they drank supermarket Coke and played on the Wii for a while. And then hung around waiting for lunch.
‘I’m bored,’ Selena said.
‘Me too.’ Aisling never did anything but this kind of stuff. Minny didn’t know what she was whinging about.
‘Read a book,’ she snapped, reminding herself unnervingly of her mother. The baby was bored too.
‘Can’t I have Victoria round?’
‘Of course you can’t have Victoria round, idiot.’
‘Why not?’
‘Oh, shut up, Selena, for God’s sake.’
‘Well, can we go to the park then?’
Minny took them in the end, in the middle of the afternoon, when it had more or less stopped raining – the grass would be sopping and so would everything in the playground, but they needed air. She would buy them an ice cream, why not, so what if there were three full tubs in the freezer. She was too exhausted to argue. Aisling wouldn’t come, even though she hadn’t been out in so long and even th
ough Minny begged her to. The baby wailed about having his rain jacket put on, threw his hat off and screamed all the way there so that people stopped and stared after them; he hit new heights in the queue for the ice-cream van and only settled down when Minny shoved quarter of a flake into his mouth.
‘Mum says we shouldn’t bribe him to be good with food,’ Selena remarked.
Minny squatted down to let him lick the ice cream. ‘Yeah? What about you? Does she say that about you too? Shall I have that 99 back?’ A fat drop of rain hit her right in the eye. ‘Oh God, why does it have to be raining on top of everything else?’
Selena looked smug. ‘Job. I told you.’
They went to the playground. Minny pushed Raymond on the swing with all the other babies while the mothers and fathers chattered around her, and thought about Penny. She should probably call her. Perhaps her having texted at all meant that she wasn’t still angry with Minny; perhaps she was just really upset about Jorge. Maybe her own one-word reply had been a bit abrupt. Although they were probably back together by now.
Then Selena got into a fight with another little girl over whose turn it was on the monkey bars, which was unlike her anyway, and the other little girl somehow fell off them and bashed her head. Minny had to drag the baby out of the swing, retrieve Selena from an angry mother without getting involved and run away, Raymond stuffed into the pushchair bottom first and screaming again. ‘I don’t know why we’re all so bad-tempered,’ she said aloud as they left the park.
‘Because it’s a terrible summer and there’s no one looking after us.’
‘I’m looking after us.’
‘Well, you’re rubbish at it.’
She ran on ahead and Minny followed, shoving the pushchair right through puddles. She was wet up to the waist anyway. Halfway home the rain suddenly tripled in volume and soaked the other half of her. The whole top of Whitsun Road was underwater; she almost caught up with Selena, who was goggling at it till she saw Minny coming and pranced off ahead again.