Up on the Roof

by A. L. Brooks

  These thoughts made Lena squirm in the water, and her optimistic mood of only moments earlier burst like one of the soap bubbles in front of her.

  She reached over the side of the bath for the book she had left on the floor. The box had arrived from Amazon that morning, taken in for her by the builders working on her flat. Only half a dozen new books, as that was all she could afford this month until her own insurance money came through for the loss of her belongings, but the sight of their pristine pages and glossy covers had thrilled her when she ripped off the brown tape holding the box together. She’d chosen two all-time favourites, needing the comfort of old friends such as these to take up what little shelf space she had in her temporary home. But she’d also gone for four recent releases by authors she knew well. Now was not the time to be trying new authors. She needed stability and reliability and—

  She sighed.

  All of that sounded so…boring.

  But safe.

  She sighed again and opened the book to page one.

  The rapid tappity-tap knocking on the front door had Megan sitting bolt upright in alarm. It was nine thirty at night, and unless someone had got in through the locked main door downstairs, what on earth was Dorothy doing knocking on their door at this hour?

  Megan trotted over to the door as quickly as she could, if only to put a stop to the incessant knocking. As she pulled open the door Dorothy’s wide-eyed face came into view, her right hand raised in the action of knocking, the annoying sound of which had now been mercifully interrupted. She was breathing rather heavily, and her left hand was working knots in her cardigan where the two sides met over her rotund belly. She startled when she saw Megan, then her eyes narrowed into a squint.

  “Where is Lena?” Her voice trembled, and Megan’s concern shot even higher.

  “What is it, Dorothy? Are you okay?”

  Dorothy shuffled slightly, trying to look past Megan into the flat. “Is Lena not here?”

  “She’s in the bath, actually.”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened again and her eyebrows made a beeline for her hairline.

  “I mean, th-that’s where she said she was going,” Megan stammered, wondering how someone could reduce her to this quivering mess with one look. Dorothy was a master at it.

  Dorothy snapped her attention back to look Megan fully in the face. “Well, be that as it may, you will have to do. Come on,” she said, and turned swifter than Megan would have thought possible. She was three steps down the main staircase before Megan could gather herself enough to follow. Careful to put the front door on the latch so that she didn’t lock herself out, she stumbled quickly down the stairs after Dorothy.

  The older woman had come to a stop at the bottom of the staircase and the hand-wringing resumed, her glance flicking to her own front door and back to the descending Megan.

  “Dorothy, please, what’s going on?” Megan asked, as she hopped down the final step.

  “A beast!” Dorothy’s voice shook. “You will have to deal with it. As big as my hand and on the kitchen ceiling.” She shuddered and grasped her cardigan even tighter.

  “A…what?”

  “A spider!” Dorothy hissed.

  Megan back-tracked as fast as her feet would allow her. “Oh no, no fu…no way.”

  “What?” Dorothy screeched.

  “No. No can do. Me and spiders, no. Sorry, Dorothy, you’re on your own.” Megan started to climb the stairs only to be brought to a shuddering halt by Dorothy’s hand clamped on her forearm.

  “But…but you have to, child!” Dorothy pleaded, her eyes watering. “I can’t go back in there.”

  Megan prised Dorothy’s hand from her arm gently and sighed. “Dorothy, I really can’t. I’m sorry. I have a real fear of them, just like you.”

  “What am I going to do?” Dorothy whispered, her glance returning to her front door.

  Megan sighed, wondering if she would regret this. “I take it Lena normally does this for you?”

  Dorothy turned back to face her and nodded sharply.

  “Well,” Megan said, shrugging, “then how about I make you a cup of tea and we wait for Lena to finish her bath?”

  When Lena exited the bathroom some twenty minutes later, the rapid transformation in her expression was comical, but Megan just about managed to hold back her laugh. Lena walked into the living area looking supremely serene, but as soon as her gaze landed on the inexplicable sight of Dorothy sitting on Megan’s sofa with a cup of tea in her hand, Lena’s face folded into a deep frown.

  Megan was simply glad to see her, whatever mood she was in; making small talk with Dorothy for twenty minutes had been difficult, to say the least. Never mind the fact that they were both twitchy at the thought of the spider downstairs and where it might be wandering now in the time it had had on its own.

  “Er, good evening, Dorothy,” she said, pulling the two sides of her fluffy towelling robe closer together.

  “Good evening, Lena,” Dorothy replied, and Megan could swear her eyes were sparkling behind the thick lenses of her glasses.

  Lena’s gaze swivelled to Megan. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t have to—her face said it all. She wore what could only be described as a “what the fuck?” expression, even though Lena would never have couched it in those terms, given she didn’t swear.

  “Um, Lena,” Megan began, her voice croaky with nerves under the intense glare of that look. “Dorothy seems to have a little issue that needs your attention.”

  “Big issue,” Dorothy cut in, snippily. “There is nothing little about it, child.”

  “Of course. Yes.” Megan cleared her throat. “Apparently there is a large spider on the ceiling of Dorothy’s kitchen. As I’m also pretty terrified of them, I offered Dorothy…refuge, until you could go down and, you know, deal with it.”

  “Refuge,” Dorothy murmured. “I like that.”

  “Thank you,” Megan said out of the corner of her mouth, not daring to look away from Lena, hoping she was putting the right amount of pleading into her own eyes.

  The snort of laughter that Lena emitted made both Megan and Dorothy jump. Dorothy just about held onto her tea, and tutted loudly. Lena ignored her.

  “You are scared of spiders?” Lena asked, her hands moving to her hips, which in Megan’s humble opinion—like the rest of Lena’s body—looked even more deliciously curved in the big towelling robe she was wearing. Lena was looking Megan up and down, taking in the overall size of her, Megan presumed.

  “Well, why shouldn’t I be?” Megan said hotly. “Just because I’m the size I am has nothing to do with phobias like this, you know.”

  Lena’s expression softened then, and she held her hands up. “You’re right, I’m sorry.” Her voice softened too as she said, “It’s, well, you were so brave that day of the storm, when we wondered if it was burglars.”

  “You were,” Dorothy concurred, nodding, and Megan’s cheeks flushed.

  “Seriously, I was shi…er, very frightened, actually. I hid it well,” she finished, smiling as the other two women chuckled.

  “All right,” Lena said, sighing. “You two stay here and finish your tea. I’ll deal with it.” She looked down at her robe. “I’m not going down like this, however. I’ll get into some clothes and then go down there. I’ll shout up when the coast is clear.”

  “She’s an angel,” Dorothy said a few minutes later as Lena disappeared out the front door, now clad in her Hogwarts hoodie and a pair of pyjama pants.

  “Yeah,” Megan breathed, forgetting to filter herself, then squirming under the intense gaze Dorothy aimed her way.

  “Are you like her?” Dorothy asked into the awkward silence.

  Megan stared at her. “Like?”

  “Lesbian,” Dorothy whispered, her eyes darting right and left as if afraid to find someone had overheard her saying the word ou
t loud.

  “Yes, I am,” Megan said, straightening her spine in anticipation of a battle.

  Dorothy simply nodded. “Treat her right,” she said quietly. “After that woman, she doesn’t need any more unpleasantness.”

  Megan’s cheeks burned. “I… We’re—”

  “All done!” Lena’s voice called up the staircase outside the flat. “You can come down now, Dorothy.”

  Dorothy turned to Megan and patted her on the arm. “Thank you for the tea, child. And remember my words.”

  Before Megan could even think to respond, her neighbour from downstairs had shuffled out of the front door.

  Chapter 14

  “Hey, you!” Madhu pulled Lena into a big hug, or at least as best she could around her expansive bump.

  “Madhu, you’re huge! Are you sure you’re okay to be travelling?”

  “Well, thanks a lot,” Madhu said, then smirked to let Lena know she was only teasing. “I’m fine. As long as I don’t walk too far.”

  “Eight weeks to go, right?” Lena asked, and she took Madhu’s arm to lead her away from the entrance to the platform where Madhu’s train had just arrived at Euston.

  “Yes. I can’t decide if I want it to hurry up or never come at all.”

  “Madhu!”

  Madhu waved a hand. “I don’t mean I don’t want the baby. I’m, you know, a bit scared of the whole giving-birth thing.”

  Lena grimaced. “So glad it’s you, not me,” she said.

  “Thanks, sis, so supportive.” Madhu laughed and pulled Lena into a hug again. “It is so good to see you.”

  Lena smiled against Madhu’s lustrous black hair, holding her beloved sister as close as she dared. “Yes, it is. Now, we ought to get on the Tube and down to my place so that we can get that weight off your feet.”

  “I like your thinking,” Madhu said, smiling.

  Although it was the first Saturday in December, and the Christmas shoppers were already making their moves, the Tube south to Clapham wasn’t horrendously busy. Madhu’s very obvious bump got her a seat immediately, with Lena hovering protectively near her for the journey. Exiting the station at Clapham North, they turned round the corner towards Jackson Road, the cold wind cutting into their faces as they walked as quickly as Madhu’s bulk would allow.

  “Oh, that’s better,” Madhu said, sighing as she sat down on the sofa and kicked off her boots.

  “Tea?”

  “Definitely.”

  Lena made a pot—she’d rescued her own treasured teapot from the wreckage of her flat—and brought it over to the sofa on a tray complete with mugs and slices of lemon in a little dish.

  “So how is the building work going?” Madhu asked after their first few sips of tea.

  Lena sighed. “Slowly. They warned me the weather could get in the way, which it has, but it also seems they’re not the fastest builders on the planet. Megan’s often home in the mornings, and she says some days she doesn’t hear a sound from up there, so I don’t really understand what’s going on.”

  “Worth checking with the landlord?”

  The snort that Lena emitted was distinctly unladylike. “I doubt it. He’s useless. And a complete miser. As long as he’s getting insurance money to make up for my lack of rent he doesn’t care.” She pursed her lips. “But maybe I could call the insurance company themselves—after all, they’re the ones who appointed the builders so it’s in their interests that it doesn’t overrun and cost more, surely.”

  Madhu nodded. “That sounds like the best plan then.” She took hold of Lena’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry you’re going through this and that I couldn’t help more with finding you somewhere to stay.”

  Lena smiled and waved her off. “Forget it, sis. This—” she gestured to the room around them “—has worked out fine, you know. I think I’m going to be okay.”

  Madhu beamed and squeezed Lena’s hand again. “That is so good to hear.”

  “Anyway.” Lena cleared her throat at the upwelling of emotion Madhu’s obvious love brought on, suddenly desperate to change the subject. “I didn’t know what you’d want to do for food later, so I did get some groceries first thing to cook for us, if you like. Or we can go out to the High Street where there’s lots of places.”

  Madhu nodded slightly, as if accepting the change of topic. “Anywhere good?” Madhu asked over the rim of her mug.

  Lena shrugged. “I… It’s been a while since I ate out.”

  “Not since Chris, right?” Madhu’s previous smiley face sunk into a frown. “Lena, that’s months! Have you really stayed home every night and weekend since she left?”

  Lena’s blush was deep. When Madhu said it like that, it did sound pretty…pathetic. “I know how it sounds. I just, you know, couldn’t face it. I was upset, at first, and then, well, it got too easy to stay home all the time. Safe,” she finished quietly.

  Madhu laid a warm hand on Lena’s arm. “I get it,” she said, her voice soft and full of tenderness. “I really do. But, don’t you think that should start changing now? Or soon? I mean, you’re not living on your own now, so you could at least ask your flatmate out one night, maybe?”

  Lena stared at her sister, her mind churning. Could she? Not a date, obviously, and she’d have to make sure Megan knew that wasn’t what Lena was thinking, because how embarrassing would it be if she thought Lena was asking her on a date and Megan said no as a result? But if she could avoid all of that it would be quite nice to go out for a meal. With Megan. Her eyes widened with a mix of excitement and fear at the prospect.

  “What?” Madhu said, frowning.

  “Er, nothing,” Lena said quickly. “Just, you know, wondering if that would be possible because she works such different hours to me and—”

  “Leelawati Shah, what are you not telling me?” Madhu’s voice this time was firm and hard as steel.

  “Nothing!”

  Madhu arched one perfectly sculpted and pencilled eyebrow and said, “Really?”

  Lena groaned and covered her face with her hands. From between her fingers, she said, “You know what, you’re worse than Mum at this.”

  Madhu snorted, then laughed out loud. “I actually don’t mind that. Which is bizarre.” She shook her head. “This pregnancy has really screwed up my moral compass.” She sighed dramatically. “Well, whatever. Spill.”

  Lena dropped her hands back into her lap. “I was thinking how I would ask Megan and not make it sound like I was asking her on a date, because I wouldn’t be. I wouldn’t want her to get the wrong idea and it make things awkward between us.” She looked round at Madhu. “It’s been nice, actually, the last couple of weeks. We’ve got on well, I think.”

  “That is so good to hear, sis.” Madhu smiled. “But backtrack a step for me please. Why would Megan think it might be a date? She’s straight, right? And she doesn’t know you’re a lesbian.” This time both of Madhu’s eyebrows rose and her eyes widened. “Hang on, is that what you’re worried about, that she does know and she thinks you’re going to jump—”

  Lena was laughing, waving her hands trying to get Madhu to stop talking and eventually settled for putting her hand across Madhu’s mouth to silence her.

  “Stop!” Lena said. “Just stop. Wow, when you get a head start there’s no stopping you.” She took a deep breath, and removed her hand from Madhu’s mouth, who looked sheepish. “I need to catch you up on some things. Megan is gay too, and she knows I am. Her friend, Jen, asked me out on a date—” Madhu squeaked “—and I declined. Too arrogant for me. Anyway, Megan also knows about me leaving home and why. Like I said, we’ve been getting on well, and, it, you know, seemed like the right time to tell her.”

  “Wow,” mouthed Madhu, her eyes wide. Then she shook her head before saying, “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

  Lena smiled and blush
ed, then squealed as Madhu pulled her into a fierce hug.

  They ventured out to the High Street for food. Madhu insisted and Lena accepted it was as good a time as any to get reacquainted with her local area. They ended up at a wood-fired pizza restaurant.

  “I know it’s probably unhealthy but I really, really want one,” Madhu said as she pushed through the front doors, a grinning Lena following close behind her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had pizza and was feeling like an over-excited child as they sat down and opened the menus.

  “Now,” Madhu said, once they’d ordered, “I know you said it was okay for me to stay the night when we spoke last week, but are you sure? I have an open return, I can go back tonight if you’d prefer it.”

  “No,” Lena said sharply. “It’s totally fine, you staying. I won’t have you doing all that travelling in one day. You’ll have my bed and I’ll be on the sofa. I already told Megan and she’s working until nine tonight anyway so wasn’t planning on doing anything at home. She said she’ll come home straight from work and make sure she’s used the bathroom et cetera before I’m ready to sleep.”

  “That’s lovely of her. I hope I’m awake when she comes home so that I can thank her personally.”

  “Oh wow, that was such a good pizza.” Madhu groaned as she sat down on the sofa, one hand rubbing her extended belly. “But I am completely stuffed now.”

  Lena chuckled. “Er, you did finish all the crusts on mine too, you know, so I don’t know why you’re so surprised at how full you feel.”

  “Whatever,” Madhu said, smirking. “I’ll be honest though, I might need to shut my eyes for a few minutes. Recharge.” Her voice was already drifting, and Lena watched, overcome with tenderness, as her sister snuggled down into a semi-horizontal position on the large sofa, her head resting against the padded back, her eyes slowly closing. A few moments later, Madhu’s breathing had deepened and Lena smiled. Her sister looked incredibly beautiful in this moment, and so peaceful. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and snapped a couple of photos to show Madhu later. Then she tip-toed to her room, pulled a blanket out of her wardrobe, and returned just as quietly to the living room to gently place the warm, fleecy blanket over her now deeply sleeping sister.