by Judi Curtin
Alice sighed. ‘That is so totally different. I …’
Her mother ignored her. ‘And, Megan, you’re good at … Well, I’m sure you’re good at something. And you’ll use that to get on in life, won’t you?’
I didn’t know how to answer. Alice and her mum were always fighting, and I hated when I got stuck in the middle of their rows. Alice was my friend, and I had to be loyal to her, but if I made her mother cross, it could turn into a very long holiday.
Jamie came to my rescue. ‘I’m good at lots of things, aren’t I Mummy?’
Veronica turned around and smiled at him. ‘Yes, my love, you are.’
He smiled back at her. ‘I’m good at doing burps. I’m the very best in my whole class. Listen.’ He did a huge, long, loud burp. The smell of cheese and onions became even stronger. Now I felt like throwing up. Alice giggled.
Veronica shook her head crossly. ‘That’s hardly something to be proud of, Jamie. You’re good at lots of other nicer things.’
He grinned. ‘Yes, I am. I can do rudies too. I’m nearly as good as Dylan. And I’m much better than Conor. Will I do some?’
Veronica turned around and gave him a fierce look. The car swerved, and I could see a huge stone wall rushing towards us. Just in time Veronica steered clear. The car behind us beeped loudly.
I sighed. Life with the O’Rourkes was never dull, that was for sure.
Chapter three
Soon we were at Alice’s apartment. Jamie immediately parked himself in front of the television, and Veronica went into the kitchen. Alice brought me into her bedroom, and closed the door behind us.
I sat on her bed and picked up a furry purple cushion. Alice always has loads of cushions on her bed. (My mum says cushions are just holiday camps for dust mites, and doesn’t let me have any.) I played with the cushion’s silky fringe while I waited for Alice to talk. I was dying to know what was going on, but with Alice, it’s always better to pretend not to be too eager.
After a moment she spoke. ‘Mum has a boyfriend.’
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What on earth could I say to that? A mum having a boyfriend just sounded too weird. Big sisters and babysitters and pop stars had boyfriends. Not mums. I couldn’t picture my mum with a boyfriend. I couldn’t imagine her with anyone except for Dad. It just wouldn’t seem right. But then, maybe that’s what Alice used to think about her parents before they separated. For a moment I was glad that my mum was all scruffy and worn-down looking. Surely she could never get a boyfriend even if she wanted one?
Alice stood in front of me with her arms folded. She sounded cross. ‘Didn’t you hear me, Megan? My mum has a boyfriend.’
I still didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience of this kind of thing. ‘Oh … em … that’s…. well … I mean … I’m sorry. I’m sorry to hear it,’ I muttered.
Was that the right thing to say? Probably not. It didn’t seem like enough, and Alice certainly didn’t look very pleased. I racked my brains for some sensible questions. After a few seconds, they all poured out in a rush.
‘How do you know? Did she tell you? Who is he? Have you met him? What’s he like? Is he nice?’
Alice shook her head, but I had no idea which of my many questions she was saying ‘no’ to. She looked all worked up and sad. I patted the bed beside me, the way Mum sometimes does with Rosie. Alice obediently sat down beside me. I spoke softly. ‘Just tell me everything.’ At least if she talked, I didn’t have to.
Alice took a deep breath. ‘OK. Well, like I said, Mum has a boyfriend. She hasn’t actually told me yet, but I know she has.’
For a moment I felt a bit better. Alice’s vivid imagination was legendary. Maybe it wasn’t true at all. I spoke again. ‘So how exactly do you know?’
She gave a sad laugh. ‘Any fool could see it. He rings her every night. Always at seven o’clock. Just when The Simpsons is starting. It’s been going on for ages. The first time I answered it, and it was a man’s voice. Now Mum grabs the phone before Jamie and I can get there. Then she goes all shy and breathy, and she keeps fixing her hair, and she takes the phone into her room so we won’t hear what she’s saying.’
This didn’t sound good at all. I spoke as brightly as I could. ‘Maybe he’s just a friend?’
She shook her head. ‘No way. She hasn’t got any men friends. And anyway, what friend phones every single night?’
I tried again. ‘There’s not much harm in phone calls, is there?’
She shrugged. ‘Who knows? Anyway, it’s not just the phone calls. I think she meets him during the day, when Jamie and I aren’t here. When I get home from school she’s always in her best clothes.’
I tried not to smile. It looked to me as if Veronica was permanently in her best clothes. She always wore really fancy suits to the supermarket, and once when she lived next door to me, I’d seen her putting out the bins in a long evening dress with sequins down the front.
Alice saw my look. ‘No, really, Meg. I mean her very, very best clothes. And she keeps buying new stuff. And she’s got this new perfume that she wears every day. And when I talk to her, she never seems to listen.’
No change there then. Veronica had never been a very attentive mother. Alice saw my look again. That girl was too smart for words. ‘I mean she listens even less than usual. It’s like she’s living on another planet. Her mind is always somewhere else. She’s gone all dreamy and moody. She thinks about him all the time. I know it. And she’s got this fancy leather notebook, like a diary. I bet she keeps a record of all their dates in there.’
I wondered why Alice hadn’t found the diary and read it. It was sneaky, but she could justify it by saying that it was for the sake of the family. Alice could justify anything if she tried.
She continued. ‘I searched for the diary for days, but when I found it, it was locked, and I couldn’t find the key.’
I decided to be brave. ‘And what about your dad?’
Alice shrugged. ‘What about him? Mum doesn’t care about him any more, does she? And I know she won’t get back with him. I know that’s over forever, but imagine if she got married? Imagine if I had to live with her new husband. I don’t want to have a stepfather. I have one dad, and that’s enough. It would be awful. It would be …’
She stopped talking, and I thought she was going to cry. At that moment I really hated Veronica. She’d messed up Alice and Jamie’s lives. And even my life had changed forever when she decided to drag half her family off to live in Dublin. What on earth could I say that would make this better? Life had been so much simpler when my best friend’s parents were living together and pretending to be happy.
I took off my coat, and as I did so, a piece of paper fell out of the pocket. I picked it up. It was Alice’s e-mail. Suddenly I felt cross. Why hadn’t she mentioned Veronica’s boyfriend in her message? Why had she just talked about fun stuff? I was her friend. Why hadn’t she told me the truth?
I handed the e-mail to Alice. She unfolded it slowly, and looked at it for a long time. Then she looked at me with a funny wrinkle between her eyebrows. She didn’t say anything.
‘Why?’ I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about all this in the e-mail? Why did you pretend everything’s normal when it’s not?’
‘I was afraid,’ she said.
I didn’t believe her. Alice is the bravest girl I know. She’s never afraid of anything. ‘Afraid of what?’ I asked.
Now real tears came to her eyes. ‘I know you hate rows and stuff. I was afraid if I told you the truth you wouldn’t come.’
I couldn’t answer that. Maybe what she said was true. I felt kind of ashamed, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.
Then, all of a sudden Alice’s mood changed. She gave me a huge smile. It was a smile that I knew very well indeed. It was a smile that made me very, very nervous. I held my breath and waited.
She jumped up from the bed. ‘Anyway, I’m so glad you’re here, Meg. Everything’s going to
be fine now that you’re here. The timing’s perfect.’
I felt even more nervous than before. I played with the cushion strings so hard that I actually pulled a piece out. I hid it in my pocket, hoping that Alice hadn’t noticed. ‘What exactly do you mean?’
She smiled at me again. ‘You can help me.’
I could hardly get the words out, ‘Help you what?’
She spoke as calmly as if she was asking me to help tidy her room, or help her with her maths homework.
‘You can help me to find out who Mum’s boyfriend is.’
I allowed myself a small sigh of relief. That wasn’t really so bad. In fact, it was almost harmless. It might even be fun.
Then Alice continued, ‘And once we know who he is, we can get rid of him.
I thought I could hear a dull thud as my heart sank down to the pale-blue soles of my brand-new runners.
Chapter four
Sometimes Mum says that I allow myself to be bullied by Alice. (Well, actually she says that about twice a week.) I know what she means, but it isn’t exactly true. Alice doesn’t bully me – she’s just very, very good at persuading me to do what she wants.
A while later, when Veronica was getting the tea ready, Alice took me back into her room to tell me the first part of her plan. As usual, she made it all sound very simple.
‘Don’t worry, Meg,’ she began. ‘You get the easy job.’
‘Ha!’ I laughed, ‘Your plans never have easy jobs – just hard jobs and very, very hard jobs.’
Alice laughed too. ‘Honestly, Meg, this time your job is really easy, I promise. This is all you have to do – at five to seven you just get Mum into the kitchen and keep her there while I go and hide in the wardrobe in her bedroom.’
I sighed. Last year Alice spent half her mid-term break hiding under my bed, and now she was planning to hide in her mother’s wardrobe. What was it with this girl and hiding? Didn’t she play enough hide and seek when she was small?
Alice continued. ‘The phone will ring at seven, just like it always does, and when Mum goes into her room, I’ll be able to hear everything she says. Then, when she comes out, you just distract her again, and I’ll escape. Couldn’t be easier.’
I sighed. She was right. It did sound easy.
So why was I still nervous?
Maybe I’m just a chicken at heart. Or maybe it’s just that I’m more sensible than Alice.
Once again I wondered why I’d agreed to go along with her crazy idea. I’ve always been kind of afraid of Veronica, and I really didn’t want to get into trouble with her. Especially not when I was staying in her apartment, and couldn’t just run off home if things got too rough. If things went wrong, I’d go to bed that night with Veronica mad at me, and I’d wake up the next morning and she’d still be mad at me. I couldn’t escape.
And besides, I just wanted to hang out with Alice and have a good time. I wanted to do all the fun things she’d promised in her e-mail.
Maybe if I put my foot down now, and refused to help her, she’d abandon her stupid plan, and we could get on with our holiday.
But how could I be so selfish? This wasn’t about me. This was about Alice. It scared me to see how upset she was. She was completely changed from the happy, funny girl I used to know. I had to help her. If I wanted to be a good friend, I really didn’t have a choice.
But still, something was sure to go wrong – I knew it. I just couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.
I decided that I needed more information. ‘What will I do?’ I asked. ‘How will I distract her?’
Alice shrugged. ‘I dunno. Drop something and break it, maybe? I know! There’s a purple vase on the kitchen windowsill that Mum really loves. She’ll go crazy if you break it, and I’ll have loads of time to sneak away.’
Typical Alice, always going for the dramatic option.
I shook my head. ‘No way. I’m Megan, remember? I don’t do extreme. And if your mum does go crazy, I soooo do not want to be the one who causes it. Any more bright ideas?’
Alice shrugged. ‘No. Sorry. Anyway, you’ll feel more part of the plan if you come up with the idea yourself.’
I didn’t reply. Didn’t Alice realise that I didn’t really want anything at all to do with her plan?
She continued, ‘Come on, Meg. You’re clever. You’ll think of something. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. And anyway, if something goes wrong, I’ll take the blame. I’ll say you had nothing at all to do with it.’
She went on like this for a while, and in the end I promised to do as she asked. As usual, I wondered why I had even bothered to argue with her in the first place.
Tea that night was probably delicious. It was pepperoni pizza and chips and Coke and ice-cream with rivers of chocolate sauce dripping down over it – all foods that are on the banned list in my own perfect home. I couldn’t enjoy the meal though – I had too much on my mind.
Veronica was quite funny, telling us about the first time she bought a pizza and didn’t realise that it needed to be cooked, and served it to her family in an ice-cold slab.
Jamie was totally obnoxious, slurping his drink and burping loudly, and kicking the table legs. He probably would have kicked my legs too, but I was careful to keep out of his reach. My shin was still sore from his last kick.
Alice was being really sweet, saying over and over again how glad she was that I was there, and what a good time we were going to have over the next few days.
I couldn’t concentrate on anything, though. All I could think of was what was going to happen after tea, when the phone rang. I watched in fear as the clock ticked rather too quickly towards seven o’clock.
When the meal was over, Alice and I helped Veronica to tidy up. There wasn’t much to do. Interesting that after junk food there’s so much less work. Less washing up must be good for the environment. I decided to run that by my mum as soon as I got home.
When the clear-up was nearly done, Veronica turned to Jamie and stroked his cheek, ‘What about you, sweetness? Are you going to help Mummy tonight?’
Jamie made a face at her and shouted, ‘No! Do it yourself poo-head.’
I couldn’t believe it what I’d just heard. If I said that to my mother I’d be grounded for about a thousand years. Veronica didn’t even flinch though. She just patted him on the head, and smiled, ‘Maybe tomorrow so, my little lamb. Why don’t you go and watch some television?’
He grinned and ran into the television room. Veronica closed the door gently behind him and said, ‘He’s just tired, the poor little pet.’
Alice whispered to me, ‘He’s gone horrible lately, and Mum does nothing about it. She lets him away with everything. He’s turning out to be the most revolting child in the world.’
I couldn’t argue with her. I was already wondering if I would be able to stick his behaviour for the next six days. My sister Rosie was no angel, but she was a perfect child compared to Jamie. And she was only three – two whole years younger than Jamie.
A few minutes later, Alice nudged me, and pointed to the kitchen clock. I didn’t need to look, but I did anyway. It was almost five to seven. Time for me to play my so-called small part in Alice’s big plan. For one moment, I considered not doing anything. I could change my mind, and not get involved. But then I decided that would be really mean. After all, Alice was a child from a broken home, and how could I not help her?
I was just putting away the last of the cups, as the big hand of the clock ticked on past eleven. I suddenly clamped my hand over my eye, and gave a small moan. Alice giggled, but luckily Veronica didn’t hear her. Veronica stepped towards me. ‘What is it, Megan? Have you hurt yourself?’
I kept my hand over my eye and nodded. ‘Yes. It’s my eye. I think there’s something in it.’
She came closer, and spoke rather crossly. ‘Take your hand down, so I can have a look.’
I removed my hand, and Veronica peered into my eye with her icy-blue ones. I’d never been so close to her before, and I
wasn’t sure I liked it. She had lots of thick black mascara on. It made her look a bit scary.
‘I can’t see anything. Come over here where the light’s better.’
As I moved towards the light, I could see that Alice had vanished from the kitchen. Veronica peered into my eye once more, ‘I still can’t see anything. Alice, pass me a tissue, will you?’
Oh, no! Now what? If Alice had to come out of her mother’s bedroom again, it would kind of spoil her plan.
I stepped backwards and blinked rapidly. ‘Actually, Veronica, it’s fine again. Whatever it was must have slipped out. But thanks anyway.’
She gave me a funny kind of look. ‘Where’s Alice got to? She…’
Just then the phone rang. I was so pleased with myself for distracting Veronica so well, that I suddenly felt brave, ‘Will I answer that for you, Veronica?’ I asked in my sweetest voice.
She pushed past me in her hurry to pick the phone up from the counter. ‘No need, Megan, dear. I have it.’
She picked it up and pressed the green button. She put on the kind of voice my mum uses for strangers on the phone. ‘Hello. O’Rourkes. This is Veronica speaking.’
I could just hear a deep male voice, saying, ‘Veronica, how are things? Did you….?’ Then Veronica pushed past me again, and went into her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
Chapter five
It seemed like the longest phone call in the history of the world. I stood in the kitchen and watched the minutes tick slowly by. After about ten minutes, I tiptoed over to Veronica’s bedroom door, and listened carefully, ready to run off if the door opened. She was talking too softly for me to make out any words, but even through the door, I could hear the tone of her voice. It was just like Alice had described, all kind of sweet and breathy, like she was trying to impress someone.
I thought of Alice, hiding in Veronica’s wardrobe, listening to what her mum was saying. It must have been awful for her. But then, the situation was pretty awful for me too. This was all going to end in tears – I just knew it.