A Jarful of Moondreams: What Secrets Are Ready to Spill Out?

by Chrissie Bradshaw

  Teri lay watching Greg as he slept. Such long dark lashes and a very kissable mouth. She loved the smell of him. Underneath the shower gel fragrance, he still smelt of sun and warmth and Greg. Enjoying her newly awakened sexuality, making love, after seventeen years had taken her by surprise. It had been exquisite and healing. Healing for them both. Greg confessed that he hadn’t made love since losing his wife.

  It couldn’t last, she knew that; he deserved a family and she had her own girls to go back to but this was more than a holiday romance. Her sensual side had been reborn and they had limited time in Egypt, so they would make the most of this hiatus in their lives.

  THUNDER MOON

  19

  Even though it was Saturday, Cleo was up early. She had to complete the timetable for the next academic year before the end of term and they were approaching the final week. Staff appreciated having their timetable before they broke up for summer but it wasn’t easy to finish it with all the interruptions she had at work and at home.

  Camping out in the office wasn’t comfortable and she was ready to have yet another moving out discussion with Neil whenever he next reappeared. Yesterday, she had considered ringing social services about Josh. Neil wasn’t caring for him properly if he could just up and leave him. He was being unfair on her and on her sister too; Josh was an easy going kiddie but he wasn’t their responsibility.

  She could hear Josh in the bedroom, talking away to his dinosaur collection. She’d stop for a coffee in a few minutes and fix him some breakfast. She would just finish the timetabling Year 9 English first.

  Success! Cleo saved her work and stretched; sorting out Year 9 had taken her longer than she thought. All was quiet in the apartment; had Josh gone back to sleep? She left her office to check on him.

  ‘Ah, there you are Josh. Good morning sweetie.’ He was lying on his tummy in the living area drawing dinosaurs on a sketch pad that Alex had given him. Pharos stretched out beside him trying to flick a felt tip under the sofa but, on seeing Cleo, he yawned and strolled purposefully towards his food bowl.

  Josh grinned up at Cleo, ‘I’m not a sweetie, I’m a superman, silly. Look at my steg’saurus.’ He proudly waved a green and purple drawing at her. Cleo crouched down to look and succeeded in ignoring the open felt tips lying all over her rug… well almost.

  ‘That’s really good, Josh. Where did you get the felt tips from? You usually use your wax crayons.’

  ‘Alex says I can use them, but just if I’m careful,’ he explained.

  ‘Oh, is she awake then?’ Alex didn’t usually surface until after nine on Saturdays.

  ‘No, not yet but I am being careful.’

  Cleo noticed that he had dragged Alex’s bag into the living area and had opened her felt tip case. She picked up the loose felt tips.

  ‘Let’s put these back until Alex wakes up and you can ask her if she minds. Anyway, you and Pharos and I are going to have breakfast.’

  ‘Sc’ambled eggs?’ his hopeful grin won her over.

  ‘Pharos would prefer a smelly fish pouch but yes, we’ve got time for that today.’

  As Cleo put the felt tip case bag into Alex’s bag, she caught sight of a half open bag. Josh must have looked into it when he was searching for the pens.

  She was just about to close the bag when she caught sight of the pregnancy test carton. Oh please no, what the hell had Alex been up to? A pregnancy test! She’d only been with her for two weeks so it had to be before then. She hadn’t mentioned a boy back in Dunleith. That night in Edinburgh maybe? The silly girl.

  Josh had gone back to his drawing; shouldn’t she make breakfast and calm down before she talked to Alex? Better still, wait for Alex to come to her in her own time. She stood up but her feet wouldn’t move towards the kitchen. She had to talk to Alex now, even though her common sense was shrieking bad idea, wrong move.

  ‘Alex! Wake up, you and I need to talk.’ She was drawing the curtains as Alex rubbed hair eyes and yawned.

  ‘Hey Cleo, calm yourself. What’s the matter now?

  Alex looked about twelve with her hair tied back from her face in a plait for bed. She was sitting up and looking crossly at Cleo.

  ‘This is what’s wrong, Alex. Why do you need this?’ Cleo sat down and her hands trembled as she put the chemist’s bag onto the bed beside her.

  Alex grabbed the bag, ‘What the hell are you doing, going through my things?’ she blustered.

  ‘I wasn’t. It was Josh who opened it, he...’

  ‘Oh, yes, blame someone else. You have no right to go through my things.’

  ‘I didn’t!’

  Alex glared at her, ‘Please get out of my room and give me some privacy. I’m seventeen and don’t need to explain anything to you. You’re out of order to even suggest what you’re suggesting.’

  Was Alex right? Maybe she hadn’t handled that in the calmest way. She could hear Josh shouting about breakfast.

  ‘Look Alex, whatever’s happened, we can sort it out. I’m sorry to confront you with it but I just know that Mum would expect me to help you.’

  ‘Cleo, sod off. Get out and leave me alone.’ Alex buried herself under the duvet.

  So much for counselling skills. It seemed they were impossible to apply when the problem involved your own family. All Cleo could do was leave the room and wait until Alex was ready to talk.

  Half an hour later, Alex made sure that Cleo heard her leave the apartment by banging the door after her. Josh had eaten all of his breakfast but Cleo hadn’t been able to touch hers. She should have handled the situation much better than that.

  She blinked back tears as she cleared their plates. She was worried, she was tired and she was stuck here until Neil showed up. She really needed to get back to her timetable but Josh needed to go out and get some exercise and fresh air. It wasn’t fair on him to be cooped up all day.

  ‘Hey Josh, why don’t we get ourselves washed and dressed and then go on the metro to Tynemouth beach?’

  ‘Yay! Shall we take our cossies?’

  ‘No, it’s still quite cold but we’ll take wellingtons to splash in the water.’ Cleo felt almost cheered. She could do with a Northern sea breeze to clear her thoughts.

  Cleo enjoyed their splash time as much as Josh and as they made their way back to the metro station, the smell of Longsands Fish Kitchen beckoned.

  ‘Shall we have a chippy lunch, Josh?’

  ‘Could I have the chippy but not the fishy please, Cleo?’

  ‘What about a sausage with the chips?’ she suggested.

  ‘Cool.’ He looked up at her and grinned. She matched his grin thinking he’d picked that superlative up from Alex.

  ‘Let’s just go to the hole in the wall and get some cash. It’s on the way to the chippy.’

  Cleo was aware of the queue forming behind her as she looked in puzzlement at the bank’s screen. It wasn’t going to pay out. She tried again and asked for her current account balance. Minus?... Minus!... She tried again. There had to be an error. She had this month’s salary in there and her emergency overdraft was for £1000.

  ‘Are you going to be all day love?’ a gruff voice enquired. She ignored the remark, tried one more time and her card was eaten up. She felt her cheeks flushing as she took Josh’s hand and walked away empty handed, trying to avoid the looks from the growing queue. Just wait until she called the bank. They had some explaining to do.

  ‘Sorry, sweetheart. It looks like we’re going to have to share a bag of chips and then have a proper meal at home,’ explained Cleo.

  ‘It’s OK, those holes are mean. They do that to Daddy too, you know.’

  I bet they do, thought Cleo.

  As they ate their shared chips, Cleo couldn’t get rid of the fiery anxious feeling in her chest that was like indigestion but worse. It was as if her body knew what her brain was scared to admit. What if the balance was real? What if someone had cleared her account? She could have been cloned in an internet fraud or it could have been someo
ne in the flat, Alex or Neil?

  Straight away she ruled out her sister. Alex may be in trouble but she was honest. Alex even replaced her jelly sweets when she ate them, but Neil...Neil had shown he was untrustworthy several times. Let’s face it, he’d taken financial liberties since day one. Surely even Neil wouldn’t be so dishonest as to deliberately steal from her?

  She’d have to go online to her bank when she got back and sort all this out. Please let it be a banking error. Please!

  ‘Hi there, you two!’ Neil was making coffee when they got home. ‘Sorry about leaving you with Josh but I had an emergency to sort out. Would you like a coffee?’

  Josh had run to hug his dad and Cleo stood weighing up the situation. Should she say something now, and risk jumping to conclusions as she had with Alex this morning or should she look online at her bank account first?

  ‘No, no coffee for me. You’ve held my work up enough today. I need to go back to my office,’ she said and excused herself.

  As she logged on, she could hear Josh talking to Neil.

  ‘We jumped the waves and then I nearly had a sausage but the hole wouldn’t give Cleo any money so we had to share chips. That was OK, though.’

  She stared at her accounts on screen, Savings account - zilch, Holiday account - zilch,

  Current account - minus £3520. Cleo felt sick. She went into her holiday account and saw that the whole lot had been withdrawn last week. She clicked on savings and saw that £4500 had dwindled in chunks of £500 or £1000 at weekly intervals, until it reached zero. This had been going on all month. Why, oh why, hadn’t she checked?

  The door opened behind her. ‘Oh shit, Cleo. I meant to have the money back before you found out. I’ve been in a bit of trouble you see.’

  Cleo slowly swivelled her chair towards the door. She looked at Neil, incredulous at what was coming from his mouth. Ice cold rage froze her to her chair. A good thing too because she really wanted to wipe that stupid vacant look from his face. ‘Explain.’ The calm request belied her rage.

  ‘You must realise by now that I have a bit of a gambling problem, Cleo, love.’

  Love? Love! Cleo’s head pounded. She would strangle him if she could move.

  Neil carried on, ‘I... I just can’t help it and sometimes I’m near to winning and clearing my debts but just need a bit more.’

  ‘A bit more of my money, of my savings? Mine, not yours!’

  ‘Yes, I know. I shouldn’t have taken advantage, but I’ll pay you back and that’s a promise.’

  ‘Promise? A promise from you is pointless, less than useless.’ Her voice was raised and Josh came to the door.

  ‘Are you two arguing?’ he asked.

  Oh no, poor Josh, she couldn’t let him see this!

  ‘No darling. Look, why don’t you go and watch some TV?’ she found the CBeebies channel and gave him some juice and then went back to find Neil. He was in her bedroom packing a holdall.

  ‘Running away?’

  ‘No. Well, yes I am going away but I’m not running Cleo. I’ll be back. I need to come back for Josh, don’t I? Please, don’t do anything rash like calling the police, I’ll sort it all out, honestly.’

  ‘Honestly? Promise? You have to be joking Neil!’ Cleo barred the doorway. Her hands were on her hips but she was longing to throw something heavy at him. An alarming thought struck her,

  ‘Neil, is that it? Is that all you’ve borrowed? Is there anything else I should know?’

  ‘Why don’t you sit down?’ he suggested.

  Cleo sat on the edge of the bed. Was there more to this nightmare?

  ‘I’ll come clean. I’ve pawned your Gucci watch. You never wear it and it’s just at the brokers on the West Road. You can get it back. And... I may as well tell you that I’ve got a credit card. It’s in your name and up to its limit, I’m afraid.’ He had the good grace to wince as he revealed this.

  ‘Oh, my God.’ Cleo felt such a trembling rage that she almost forgot Josh was sitting in the next room watching Peppa Pig.

  ‘I’m calling the police, Neil,’ she managed to say calmly. ‘You’re a crook.’ It sounded old fashioned and she almost giggled with nerves but it was true; he was a trickster and a crook.

  Neil continued flinging things into the holdall.

  ‘You can’t make a getaway when you have your son sitting here, Neil, don’t be silly.’

  ‘Watch me,’ he answered and made for the door.

  ‘Neil, don’t be stupid. You have to face the music sometime.’

  The front door closed. Had he really just walked, gone and left her, his victim, with his son to look after? Cleo didn’t know what to do next. She picked up the phone to call the police but then decided to call Alex first.

  ‘Yes? Have you finished snooping into my things now and stopped accusing me of things?’ Alex asked.

  Damn, she’d forgotten about that. This morning seemed so long ago.

  ‘Alex, I’m sorry about that but please can you get home? Tears started and Cleo sobbed down the phone. ‘Something horrible has happened.’

  ‘Are you OK? Is Josh OK?’

  ‘Yes we’re here and all right but I’ve got myself into a right mess.’

  ‘I’m coming now Cleo, don’t cry, it can’t be that bad.’

  Alex thought it couldn’t be that bad but it really was. Cleo put her head down onto her closed laptop and sobbed. She’d been an absolute fool.

  ‘This is serious crime Cleo, so we must call the police.’ Alex’s reaction, after she’d listened carefully to the whole tale, encouraged Cleo to pick up the phone.

  It had been difficult to discuss with Josh around but they’d made him a long overdue meal and then he’d fallen asleep watching Shrek. He’d had far too much TV today but Cleo knew that she wasn’t thinking straight and was grateful that he loved it so much. Hell, he shouldn’t even be their responsibility; she’d have to try to contact his Mum if Neil didn’t return.

  Cleo was relieved that Heather was coming around to help look after Josh and to see if he would like a sleep over with Archie before the police were called around. It seemed as though they didn’t think a live-in fraudster was urgent but they’d try to fit a visit in later today. On top of that, Mum had sent a text to say she wanted to skype them both later tonight, their time, so Cleo hoped that everything was sorted by then.

  By nine that night, Cleo looked better, even though her head was pounding and she couldn’t stop making frantic calculations in her head about how to pay her mortgage, the bills and still eat for the rest of the month. The police hadn’t shown at all. She obviously wasn’t a priority; she’d have to give them a call tomorrow. In a way, she was pleased that she didn’t have to go through the whole sorry mess and admit, yet again, that she kept her passwords and bank details in a file in her desk. Who expected someone in their own home to be so devious?

  Alex and Pharos were sitting on the sofa with Alex’s iPad on the coffee table waiting for Mum’s weekly skype. Both girls had put make up on and agreed that Mum was going to hear that everything was rainbows and lollipops for the Moon sisters. It made no sense to worry someone on the other side of the world and she would be certain to cut short her trip.

  ‘Cleo, here she is, she’s coming through.’

  Cleo rushed to the sofa and saw Mum as clear as day looking tanned and like a Ten Years Younger after shot.

  ‘Hi girls!’ Her green eyes sparkled against golden skin and her smile was as wide as Cleo remembered it. Tears stung her eyes as she joined Alex.

  All three talked at once as there was such a lot to say and Cleo’s spirits had lifted considerably when they were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Cleo glanced at Alex who looked equally alarmed.

  ‘Hang on Mum, you carry on talking to Cleo, I’ll be back in a moment.’

  Cleo kept the conversation going as, out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed two police officers in the doorway. She heard their radios relaying information as she tried to swing the screen o
ut of view of them.

  ‘What’s that sound, Cleo? The picture is out of focus, I can’t see you?’ Then Mum’s puzzled voice rose in alarm, ‘Is that a policeman in your room? What is going on?’

  20

  Alex sat up in bed watching a film on her iPad with Pharos draped around her neck and purring so loudly that she could hardly hear the dialogue. Her mind wasn’t on the film but she couldn’t sleep. The police had been very thorough with Cleo and she’d felt sorry for her when she had to confess that she’d allowed someone else to have access to her laptop and had kept all her passwords together in a file.

  Alex didn’t even feel pleased that her sister was such a dolt. She hated Neil for taking advantage of Cleo’s kindness. She might be bossy but, lately, Alex had discovered that Cleo could be really kind and didn’t deserve someone like Neil taking advantage of her.

  Alex had called Mum back and explained that the police had knocked on the wrong address. She didn’t like to lie, but Cleo didn’t want Mum worrying while she was away and couldn’t do anything about it. Mum had believed her anyway, so that was a relief.

  Cleo was going through her computer files and paperwork to see what other mischief Neil may have been up to. They were giving Neil until tomorrow to collect Josh; he’d gone happily enough to Heather’s with Archie but the poor little lad had been tossed from pillar to post over the last week. If Neil didn’t return, they’d have no choice but to get in touch with social services to find his Mum. All they knew about her was that she was somewhere in Delft.

  With all this racing around in her head, Alex was nowhere near sleep even though it was almost twelve.

  A hunting horn blasted out from her phone; she had a text.

  Phone when you can. Ella x