John had been hovering about in the window area for the last half an hour. "She's got fifteen minutes to get back."
"Yes, John. I know. I was there when we discussed ground rules, remember?"
"Well, where is she?"
"You just said it yourself. She has fifteen minutes till curfew. Do you know any sixteen year olds that don't actually push their luck when it comes to curfews? She's hardly likely to come back any earlier than ……. Oh! Hello, love."
Cleo had obviously entered via the back lane and bypassed John's surveillance system/curtain twitching. "Hi. Gotta have a wee. None of the toilets are open in the park," she said, as she dashed through the room.
I beamed at John. "You see that? That's pure class, right there," I said, nodding towards the direction of the cloakroom. "I have never been prouder! A daughter who actually comes home ahead of curfew, rather than peeing in the bushes."
"Where the hell did she get that from?"
"Well …... given recent events, I think that we can all agree that it wasn't from her father."
There was no way that Cleo was going to go about her evening's business without an interrogation from her father. From what we were told, she met four others in the park, they each took their own bottle of water to keep dehydration at bay and all were equipped with rugs to sit on, which they placed at least two metres apart. The only other people that they spoke to were two boys from school who they happened to see. I'm guessing by the little look that she gave me when she was telling us, that one of them was that juggler's son that she'd mentioned last week. And yes, before we asked, they also kept their distance.
"Right, now that we've got that out of the way," I said, getting to my feet as Cleo went into the garden, "what shall we have for dinner? We could probably do with getting some more shopping in soon."
"Not so fast!" said John. "We need to discuss the money that you've been lending to Rosie."
Ffs!
"I was just gonna ….."
"Daisy, sit down please." I reluctantly sat next to him. "And please don't insult me with any more crap about you being worried about her kids. The kids are bloody fine. Well ….. they're completely wild but they certainly don't go without anything. Far from it."
I'd known this was coming. I blew out hard. "Ok. You're right. There is more to it but I really hate talking about this, John. It was such an awful time in my life. Way back …. before I met you."
"Oh my God, Daisy!" he said, covering my hand with his, concern imprinted on his face. "What happened to you? Is it that bad?"
"It's something that I've tried so hard to forget, to be honest, John. I'm so ashamed."
"What is it Daisy? You're scaring me now."
I averted my eyes from his gaze. I just wasn't going to be able to get this out while looking at John. "It was after I got booted out of university ….. " I began.
"That was a long time ago."
"Exactly, so remember that I was a stupid kid." John nodded cautiously. "As you know, Rosie didn't go to uni. She was doing pretty well at the time with a little catering business that she'd started up with her first husband in Brighton. It was a van that sold hotdogs, burgers, chips ….." The last word came out as almost a whisper.
"I never knew she did that."
"No. We .... we don't talk about it any more. Anyway ….. Rosie was very good to me around that time. I didn't tell Mum and Dad about being kicked out of uni for a whole term. I pretended I was still studying. I went down to Brighton and stayed with Rosie and her husband in their flat. One night I got drunk and I …."
"Oh God, Daisy! You slept with Rosie's husband! You did, didn't you? God, Daisy, how could you?"
"No!" I snapped. "Of course I didn't sleep with my bloody twin sister's husband. What do you take me for? I was going to say that when I was drunk, I sort of …… blew up the burger van."
"What? How the …."
I took a deep breath, eyes fixed on the table before me. "Let's just say that it involved a Marlboro Light and a deep fat fryer."
"Jesus!"
"It was awful, John." I looked at him, imploring him now to understand the pain of the memory. "Rosie lost everything. It turned out that her husband hadn't sorted out proper insurance. They had a massive loan on the van to pay off and no business to show for it. On top of it all, Rosie ended up getting divorced because of it and had solicitors' fees on top! It was all my fault, John."
"Whew," John gave a kind of semi-whistle. "No wonder you kept that quiet. I would, too."
"Don't you dare judge me, John," I snapped. "You're really not in a position to. I was a bloody angel compared to you, when you were a teenager. At least I didn't get off with my teachers, or ….."
"She was a student teacher."
"Or run off to France behind my parents' backs."
"I ….." John stopped dead, his eyes wide. "How long have you been there, love?"
"Long enough," said Cleo from the open patio door behind me.
Comments
Post a Comment