‘All alone? No worries! We’ve got loads of animals to keep you company while you wait for your rides.’
‘Huh?’ said Mae.
‘Not real animals. Duh.’ Crazy Curly rolled her eyes, which seemed to have a knock-on effect on her breasts, which rolled about in unison. ‘There’s Brave Brian the Bear, Zippy Zebra, Playful Pig and more.’
‘I’m here for a job interview,’ explained Mae.
Crazy Curly’s face dropped. ‘What? Ugh. Could’ve said. Oi! Bri! Another interview.’
Bri, an acne-ridden teenager, was in the booth next door, which was next to a wooden hut. He pointed towards it without looking up at Mae.
‘Do I go in?’ she asked.
He looked up at her. ‘No, you just stand outside.’
For a moment Mae thought he was serious.
‘Course you go in,’ he said, looking at Crazy Curly and rolling his eyes.
‘Oh, right.’
God. What nice people, thought Mae as she knocked tentatively on the door.
‘Come in,’ someone barked.
She stepped into the hut with its wooden beams that didn’t seem to go with the plain white desk the man was sitting behind.
‘Mae Amir?’ he said.
She nodded as she took a seat opposite him.
‘What kind of name is Amir?’
‘Bengali.’
‘Hmm.’
He made a note on a piece of paper.
‘Experience?’
‘Er … I’m a people person,’ said Mae, hopefully.
She was getting good at lying in her quest for a job. Anyway, how could you get experience if no one employed you?
His eyes flicked through the limited information Mae had provided on her CV before he turned the piece of paper over to see that it was blank.
‘Summer job, eh?’
Mae smiled her most radiant smile and nodded. ‘I learn quick and I love the amusement park here. Family-friendly and all.’
‘Hmm, yeah. You people are keen on that stuff, aren’t you? Very well. And you can work weekends? And during the day as well? Do you get sick a lot? Can’t abide by sickness.’
‘I can work whenever, and no, I’m as healthy as anything.’
He made a few more notes on a piece of paper.
‘When can you start?’
‘Soon as you ask,’ replied Mae, crossing her fingers under the chair.
He paused and looked at her. ‘All right then. You’ve got yourself a job.’
Mae couldn’t believe it. That easily? ‘Really?’
‘You want it, don’t you?’ he said, eyebrows knitted.
Mae nodded vigorously. ‘Yes. Of course. I can’t believe it,’ she exclaimed, barely able to contain her joy.
‘No pissing about, eh? And smile,’ he said, showing a set of nicotine-stained teeth. ‘You get fired for wearing a mug like it’s January, okay? See Leanne out there? At the booth? Curly-haired blondie? That’s what we want for our customers.’
Mae wanted to say that Leanne was kind of terrifying, but perhaps it wasn’t the time for that.
She nodded. ‘Yeah, of course.’
‘Got a shift for you tomorrow, nine thirty to six thirty. We open at ten. Don’t be late. You’ll need to change.’
Oh God. The bus into town where she had to change over only came once an hour. It meant she’d have to leave at like seven in the morning. He opened a drawer and asked: ‘What are you? Medium? Large?’
‘Medium. I think.’
Taking out some clothes wrapped in plastic, he threw it at her. ‘You’ll wear that when you’re not in costume.’
‘Costume?’
He stared at her. Mae waited for him to answer. Had he heard her?
‘Well?’ he said. ‘I’ve got a park to run now. Does it look like I have time to answer inane questions?’
‘Oh, right. Okay.’ Mae was unsure for a few moments before she got up and walked to the door. ‘Well. See you tomorrow then,’ she added, looking back. ‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.’
‘Barry,’ he said, without looking up. ‘And you’ll do well to remember it.’
Ha! Who’d have thought that getting a job could be that easy. Mae felt rather uplifted at this success so on the way home she decided to stop by Ash’s driving school.
‘Young man,’ she said to Ilyaas, who was doing some filing in the back room. ‘I owe you an ice cream. Or whatever you crazy kids eat and drink nowadays.’
‘You’re only a few years older than me,’ he said.
‘Whatever. Congratulate me, please, I got myself a job.’
Mae went to high five him and he put his hand up to her.
‘Oh, good,’ said Ash, walking in.
Ilyaas went back to his filing.
‘What’s the job then?’
Mae filled them in and Ash said to Ilyaas: ‘Maybe you and Aima could spend the day there?’
‘Bro-in-law, I don’t think it’s exactly their idea of cool, you know?’
‘Nah, nah. It sounds all right,’ replied Ilyaas.
Ash couldn’t have beamed more had Ilyaas just announced he’d decided to become a brain surgeon. He left the two in the room as Mae chatted about the park and threw a packet of Skittles towards him.
‘Hope you brush your teeth before bed,’ she said.
‘You don’t have to sound like my mum,’ he replied.
‘Of course I do. Or my sister’ll get blamed for your rotting teeth.’
She opened her own packet of Skittles and popped several in her mouth. Ji Su hadn’t messaged her back, but now, at least, she wouldn’t have to dwell on it, stuck in a dingy room or babysitting. Now she had a job.
When she left the office to go back home she had a spring in her step as she got on the bus, feeling that the cloud of failure was still hovering, but at least it wasn’t raining down on her quite as hard.
Chapter Nine
The following morning Mae changed into her uniform, which was a bit on the snug side, and made her way to the park in her dad’s car. He’d agreed she could use it when working. Her mum had looked at him, as if in doubt. She never had liked the idea of any of her daughters working – said it gave them too much independence, but they’d been through three daughters and Mae was able to get away with things Fatti, Farah and Bubblee only dreamt of. Her dad, however, always had been more amenable and handed over his car keys as he whispered in Mae’s ear: ‘Because I trust you.’
She felt a rush of love and affection for her dad as she said thanks and took the keys.
Mae got to work half an hour early to show how conscientious a worker she was going to be. Unfortunately, Barry was ten minutes late and Mae found Leanne and Bri a little hard to communicate with. The other people working there hung about, sitting on the brick wall, tapping away on their phones and they didn’t look like they were in the mood to be disturbed, while Leanne and Bri were both engaged in the kind of flirtation that Mae found nauseating.
‘Go get me a Coke from the machine,’ said Leanne.
‘Get it yourself, and get one for me too,’ replied Bri.
‘I got you one yesterday.’
‘So? I’m the king and you’re my servant.’
It went on like this until Barry came bounding towards the entrance, walking past a few customers who had got there before opening time.
‘Damn car,’ he exclaimed. ‘None of you numbnuts know how to open this place?’
‘You’ve got the keys and codes, ’member?’ Leanne rolled her eyes.
‘You’re lucky you’re good with the customers or I’d fire you.’
Leanne looked over at Mae. ‘Whatever. He’s been saying that every year for three years straight.’
Leanne and Bri took up their posts in their booths, while everyone set about to do their respective tasks.
‘So?’ said Mae, following Barry into the wooden hut. ‘What do you want me to do?’
He looked at her, as if surprised that she was in there. ‘Wha
t do you think?’
I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.
‘Oh, for God’s sake. Am I going to have to handhold you the whole time?’ he said.
‘But you—’
‘Where the hell is that Henrietta? I swear I’d kill her if she wasn’t going to burst into tears every time I spoke to her. Here, take this.’
That’s when Barry took out two furry brown items. Mae would’ve been confused if she hadn’t seen the distinct horse’s head attached to one of them.
‘What—’
‘What do you think? You’re the back end of Happy Horse.’
‘What?’ said Mae.
Barry looked at her. ‘The. Back. End. Of. Happy. Horse.’
‘Oh.’
He threw both pieces to her and she almost fell back from the weight of them.
‘Find that bloody Henrietta and tell her if she doesn’t sort out her time-keeping I’ll fire her before she can whimper her way out of it.’
Mae was too disconcerted, both by the horse and Barry’s manner, to ask any further questions. Where was she meant to go? What was she meant to do? Who the hell was Henrietta and where was Mae meant to find her? She dragged the horse’s costume to Leanne’s booth and asked who the other half of her horse might be and where she might find her.
‘Probably crying in a toilet somewhere. Look in the ladies’ room.’
The sun had begun to press down upon the day and Mae was feeling the heat of both that, the task ahead, and the polyester outfit she was wearing, not to mention the horse’s costume she was carrying around. It took her twenty minutes to find the ladies’ room, and just as Leanne had said, there was indeed a girl, wiping her eyes in front of the mirror.
‘Henrietta?’ said Mae.
She looked over at Mae then at the costume and burst into a fresh set of sobs. Another ten minutes was spent trying to calm her down.
‘You’re so nice,’ said Henrietta after having recovered somewhat. ‘That-that-that pig Barry. Don’t let him bring you down.’
Mae was too distracted by the fact that Henrietta was about as tall as her so wondered how this was going to work.
‘Do you think we should go?’ she asked, handing Henrietta the back end of the costume, hoping to get away with it.
‘Oh no. I’m always the head,’ she replied, taking it from Mae.
‘Right.’
Henrietta put on the horse’s head as Mae took the remainder material and slipped it over herself, sliding her legs into the back end of the horse.
‘Am I just meant to stay bent over?’ said Mae, distressed already at how dark and uncomfortable it was.
‘Yep. Can you shift back a bit? God, it’s so hot. I get really faint when it’s hot. Do you have any water?’ Henrietta then took something out of her pocket and Mae heard the twisting of a wrapper. ‘My sugar gets really low so I have to keep boiled sweets with me. In case.’
‘Right.’
Without warning Henrietta then strode towards the bathroom’s exit, forcing Mae to trot behind her, almost losing her balance.
‘You’re going to have to keep up, you know,’ said Henrietta. ‘I bruise really easily.’
By the end of the day, Mae stank, her feet ached, and she thought she might be on her way to being the hunchback of the amusement park. Although, apparently, how Mae felt wasn’t nearly as bad as Henrietta’s eczema, coupled with her low blood sugar and her nerves that were put on edge every time Barry’s name was mentioned.
‘Oh, calm down,’ said Leanne as they were waiting to be told they could leave. ‘You know his bark is worse than his bite.’
‘The material on that horse really makes my skin worse.’
Leanne squinted at Henrietta’s forearms, bare legs – anywhere her skin was exposed – and asked, ‘Where?’
‘Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there,’ said Henrietta.
When Barry marched out of the hut he said: ‘She whining again?’
Mae noticed Henrietta’s eyes fill with tears but was finding it hard to be sympathetic.
‘Right. Good job today. Now get out of here so I don’t have to see your mugs any longer.’
Mae did wonder whether there was an HR department for the park.
‘Oh, and before you go …’ Barry threw a plastic bag to each of the employees who caught them. Apart from Henrietta, whose bag fell to the floor.
No one bothered to look inside as they all said ‘Cheers’ and goodbye to him. Walking towards her dad’s car, Mae saw that Barry had stopped Henrietta and was talking to her with his hands on his hips, his face going red as she burst into tears and ran away. He looked after her and shook his head before he went back into the hut. For a minute Mae considered going after Henrietta but she was so tired all she could do was think of her bed. She sat in the car and took a deep breath.
‘From uni student to horse’s arse.’
She put her head on the steering wheel when there was a knock on the window that startled her. It was Barry. She wound down the window and attempted to smile.
‘Here’s another one for you,’ he barked. ‘First day dibs.’
With which he gave her another plastic bag and walked off. Mae opened it up and looked inside to find an array of pick ’n’ mix. She picked up a sour coke bottle and smiled before putting it in her mouth.
‘Thanks,’ she called out from her window.
Barry simply waved without looking back.
There was no way Mae was telling her family exactly what she was doing at the amusement park. The following day she and Henrietta took up their normal positions except Henrietta refused to talk to anyone. When a boiled sweet dropped from Henrietta’s hand, Mae tried to make a joke – about it going in one end and coming out the other – but this didn’t seem to amuse her. The day after that Mae suggested they take being a horse’s arse in turns.
‘Didn’t I tell you about my fainting?’ said Henrietta, exasperated.
It was all Mae could do to not push her into the teacup ride. A few hours into her fifth shift she thought she heard someone say her name.
‘Neeiigh,’ replied Henrietta. ‘I’m Happy Horse – I don’t know a Maeeeeee.’
Mae rolled her eyes as she wiggled free from her costume to see who it was. It was Ilyaas. Oh God.
‘Oh, hey. What are you doing here?’ she asked. ‘How’d you get here?’
That’s when she looked behind him to see her parents, Ash, Bubblee, Farah, Fatti, Aima and Zoya and Adam in their prams, behind him, all looking some version of confused or amused. Mae felt her face flush, resisting the urge to get back into her costume and never come out.
‘Well,’ said Bubblee. ‘We always knew you were a bit of an arse.’
Fatti hit her on the arm as her parents looked too horrified to say anything.
‘This is what you’re doing all summer?’ said her mum. ‘Jay’s abba, are you seeing? What is this?’
Mae’s dad just shook his head, shrugging at the sight before him. Henrietta took off her horse’s head and looked at Mae. ‘You know family time isn’t allowed when you’re not on your break?’
‘Henrietta, please shut up,’ said Mae.
‘I’m glad someone’s taking their job seriously,’ said Bubblee, hardly able to hold in her laughter.
‘I do, as a matter of fact,’ replied Henrietta. ‘Despite all my ailments.’
Henrietta gave Mae a look of disdain as she flicked her head and put on the horse’s head again.
‘What are you all doing here?’ asked Mae.
‘We thought we’d surprise you,’ replied Farah. ‘It was Fatti’s idea.’
‘Ilyaas mentioned you might like it,’ added Fatti.
Mae could see that even Fatti was finding it hard to suppress her smile.
‘Whatever,’ said Mae. ‘I’ll get fired if I stand around talking to you losers.’
‘All right then,’ said Bubblee. ‘Glad you’re not horsing around.’
‘Shall we w
ait until the end of your shift so you can tail us back home?’ said Farah.
Mae slipped the material over her head as she heard Aima say: ‘That cannot be good for her skin.’
‘Trust me,’ mumbled Mae. ‘It’s not good for anything.’
Bubblee: When are you galloping home for dinner?
Farah: Bubblee … rein it in.
Fatti: Don’t pay attention to them.
By the end of the day, Mae was in such a bad mood that she’d muted the WhatsApp group and was, for a moment, tempted to leave it altogether.
‘Damn her!’ exclaimed Barry as everyone was leaving.
‘What happened?’ Mae whispered to Leanne.
‘Henrietta, what else? She’s only gone and left.’
‘Why?’ Mae asked.
Leanne gave her an appraising look. ‘You ought to be glad it’s not you, what with your family coming and you getting out of your costume when it wasn’t break time. She complained about you, didn’t she?’
What was this? Military service?
‘You bloody kids. No sense of responsibility – a bit of tough love and you crumble. You’d better not make me regret this,’ he said to Mae.
It seemed that Henrietta had made an official complaint about Mae’s lack of professionalism and Bri told Leanne who told Mae that Barry said he’d rather have someone with a sense of humour than a wet blanket who cried every five minutes.
‘Now whose arse will you be?’ he barked at Mae as if expecting her to answer.
‘I can just walk around and be one on my own,’ she replied, jokingly. ‘I’m really good at that.’
Barry just shook his head, threw packets of pick ’n’ mix to everyone and stalked off, mumbling something under his breath.
‘Thanks, guys,’ Mae said when she got home that evening to tell them what happened. ‘My boss was really happy about my family just hanging around.’
‘What’s the big deal?’ said Farah. ‘We were just bumming around.’
Bubblee and Farah laughed and Fatti wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding her own amusement.
‘Ugh, just go and look after your babies,’ said Mae.
The sisters quietened down.
‘Sorry, Mae,’ said Fatti. ‘We didn’t know it’d cause trouble. We just wanted to see you in your new job. You’re hardly around any more.’
The Hopes and Triumphs of the Amir Sisters Page 11