CHAPTER 56
Three days later, Mildred heard voices downstairs at six-thirty in the morning and found Eldred watching television in the living-room.
'What are you doing?’
He turned the volume down. 'Open University,’ he said. 'Molecular structure.’
Mildred wasn't convinced. 'Why can't you sleep? Are you worrying?’
Eldred shrugged. 'Not really.’
'You'll have to let your father do this in his own time,’ said Mildred. 'If he won't discuss this school yet, he won't, and that's all there is to it. He'll have to eventually.’
'Is he waiting to see if we get any money from people who see the television programme?’
'No,’ said Mildred. 'He doesn't believe that will happen. Anyway, we don't have to pay the fees.’
Eldred was amazed. 'Can I go there for free? Is that what Mr Clinford said?’
'He said a school like that has hidden expenses like uniforms and sports kits and charges for some of the after-school clubs that use expensive equipment, and if we could meet those he would waive the fees. I think waive is the word he said,’ Mildred said doubtfully. ‘Anyway, your father looked it up in your big dictionary and it means we don't have to pay them.’
'So what's the problem?’ Eldred asked. 'Why won't Dad let us mention the subject?’
'He keeps saying Mr Clinford told him to get back to him in his own time,’ Mildred said, 'and that that's what he's doing - considering it in his own time.’
'We're meant to be considering it all together,’ said Eldred.
Mildred sighed. 'Maybe he feels it's the only thing he has control over still,’ she said. 'Everything else seems to be out of his hands.’
Eldred was disappointed. 'I thought he'd changed,’ he said.
'He's changing,’ said Mildred. 'Give it time.’
'How much time?’ asked Eldred, but Mildred just shook her head.
'Want a cup of tea, love?’ she said.
'You don't have to stay up,’ Eldred said. 'You have to go to work later on.’
'I don't mind,’ said Mildred. 'I was thinking of changing to the night shift; they asked for volunteers yesterday.’
'Work nights?’ asked Eldred. 'You wouldn't get any sleep at all then.’
'I could sleep while you're at school and be here when you come home,’ said Mildred, 'and go off to work at about the time you're going to bed. I'd be here for breakfast and seeing you off to school. You'd hardly know I was gone.’
Eldred frowned. 'What about all the other things you do, Mum? Shopping and cleaning the house and going to the launderette. Who'd do that for you?’
'Oh, I'd fit it in,’ she said. 'Lots of people do.’
He was worried. 'Why do you have to work? If we don't have to pay school fees ...’
'It's not that,’ said Mildred. 'There'll be lots of extra things, now you're growing up. Uniform, for starters, if you do go to that school, and school trips, and then you're interested in so many things and it takes money to do anything nowadays.’
'Can't we get the uniform second-hand?’ Eldred asked.
Mildred pursed her lips. 'We could, but we're not going to. Not when you're starting new; later on perhaps. You don't want people looking down their noses at you.’
'I don't want you dropping dead with exhaustion,’ said Eldred.
She smiled. 'No fear of that. I'm as strong as a horse.’ She stood up, tightening her dressing-gown belt around her as if girding herself for battle.
'Mum,’ said Eldred, 'did something happen to you?’
'Pardon?’
He swivelled round to face her, cross-legged on the carpet. 'You say other people do all this work and you can do it too,’ he said, 'but I don't know if you can. You seem to have had a lot happen to you.’
'What's ever happened to me?’ asked Mildred. 'I haven't done anything with my life, except leave school with no qualifications to speak of, work for a time in a grocer's and then an optician's, marry your father, run the house and have you.’
'But what happened in between times?’ Eldred asked. 'I mean, to you?’
Mildred grew flustered. 'I don't know what you're talking about.’
'When I was in your womb,’ said Eldred, 'something happened to you. I don't know whether it was at the time or whether it had happened before I came along and I kind of picked up the memory of it on you. But what was it? I thought I'd erased the memory once but it sometimes comes back again. I know what it felt like from my point of view but how did it affect you?’
Mildred looked frightened. 'This is all nonsense,’ she said. 'Stop it, Eldred. No one can remember before they were actually born. It's your imagination working overtime.’
'Pre-birth memories are very common,’ said Eldred. 'It's well known for people to suffer trauma in later life from experiences in the womb or even at the moment of conception. And as the body retains its own record of stressful experiences, it's natural for an unborn baby, who is totally vulnerable, to absorb these messages from the mother when it's in the womb.’
'You shouldn't even be thinking about these things,’ said Mildred. 'It's not nice, Eldred. Let alone talking about them at quarter to seven in the morning. I can't cope with it. I'm going to get dressed.’
Eldred was remorseful. 'I'm sorry, Mum,’ he said. 'I only wondered.’
'That's just it,’ said Mildred with bitterness. 'You never do mean to upset people but you do. All your wondering - where does it get you? Delving into things that are none of your business.’
Eldred picked up the remote control and turned up the sound on the television to a barely audible level. He crouched in front of the screen and listened intently, his arms wrapped round his chest, legs bent up to his chin, head down and shoulders hunched. From this foetal position he tried to concentrate on the information he was receiving from the screen about the movement of molecular particles. Relationships between atoms were easier than relationships between people. They followed immutable scientific laws and no one got hurt, unless of course someone turned something so innocuous into a bomb.
Genius Page 56