Same Time Next Week

Chapter 25

After leaving her mum’s house, Amanda drove over to her brother’s. She’d been trying, without success, to get hold of him on the phone since she’d heard he was back from his holidays, so she decided to spring a visit. She noticed immediately the brand new Audis on the drive, a big blue one for Bradley and a smaller red one for wifey. My, they were splashing the cash. Arnold must have left them quite the fortune, though she thought they’d gotten their hands on it early, because wouldn’t his estate have taken longer to settle? Then again, maybe the wily old creep had got smaller amounts dotted around in banks which didn’t require a grant of probate to access them. She pressed the doorbell and saw the nets twitch and then Bradley opened the door. He looked baked brown, tanned to within an inch of his life and so when he flashed his new smile it dazzled extra bright. Like the icing in an Oreo. His teeth looked too big for his face and too perfect, like piano notes. He must have been happy with them, though, because he wouldn’t close his mouth and kept them out on display.

‘Had a good holiday?’ asked Amanda as she entered the sanctum of Bradberry Towers. They didn’t do kisses.

‘Can’t you tell?’ he said, showing off his arms. His voice had changed as well. Maybe his tongue needed some lessons in getting round his new teeth.

Kerry appeared in the doorway, looking as if she’d been to the Arctic rather than the Med but her new teeth were also from the Shergar range and were the same brightness as her husband’s.

‘Kerry can’t take to the sun, so she stayed inside and played Candy Crush and then we met for lunch and the jacuzzi,’ explained Bradley.

‘Sounds idyllic. How’s the new kitchen?’ asked Amanda. ‘Mum told me all about it.’

‘Oh, er, it looks good,’ said Bradley. ‘I’ll show you if you like.’

Amanda followed him through. The kitchen was like the furniture equivalent of their teeth: blinding and too much.

‘Blimey, I need sunglasses,’ said Amanda, shielding her eyes.

‘We didn’t skimp on price.’

‘I can see that.’ Top-of-the-range triple oven, she noted. Kerry was opening doors and showing off the new washing machine and dishwasher hiding behind them.

‘I heard Arnold died,’ said Amanda, coming straight out with it.

‘Yes, I thought Mother might have told you.’ Bradley always called her ‘mother’ when he was talking about her. Never Mum. Although he would sometimes call her Mum when he was with her.

‘She only let it slip while you were away.’

Bradley shrugged. ‘It wasn’t a secret.’

‘And this is a heat pump tumble dryer. Miele.’ Kerry pronounced it, my-elly. She was still opening up doors and Amanda wanted to tell her to shut up.

‘I thought you might have told me yourself,’ said Amanda to her brother.

‘Well, you had nothing to do with him, did you?’ answered Bradley, his tone slightly clipped.

Amanda wanted to say that actually she did a bit, seeing it was probably her own father’s money that had allowed him to buy his ironmonger’s. But what good would it do? Bradley wouldn’t have rushed to get his cheque book and recompense her. Plus she had bigger fish to fry.

‘Anyway, I need your help with Mum,’ she said, wondering if Kerry would show off her new kettle, switch it on and make her a cup of tea.

‘Oh?’ Bradley folded his arms and they sat high up on top of his stomach. If he shaved off those silly scraps of hair on his head, he’d look just like Buddha.

‘She’s not going to be able to get up and down those stairs soon. Her house would sell quickly, because they’re snapped up in that area. I’ve contacted an estate agent and I’m going through the house, deep-cleaning it and getting it ready. I don’t want you going against that, especially as she seems to listen to you more than me. So be on the same page as me, will you?’

Did she imagine that look that crossed his face, the one that just for a second looked like fear? She must have. Unless it was fear at actually having to do something that involved more work for their mum than sticking a cheap dinner in the microwave.

She waited for him to say that he agreed, but he didn’t.

‘I think Mum is fine where she is.’

‘It’s a lovely house and it’s only going to go up in value,’ said mousy Kerry, opening up something else to show off, but Amanda wasn’t interested and she was miffed at Kerry sticking in her two-penn’orth. If the house wasn’t sold and she and Bradley jointly inherited it, she couldn’t imagine him telling her to hold off selling because it would be worth more in a few years’ time; he’d want his bunce before the funeral flowers had drooped.

‘It’s a very nice house, but it’s no longer suitable,’ said Amanda, tightly. ‘And an increasing value on it isn’t going to do anything to stop Mum falling downstairs. She’s up to the toilet god knows how many times—’

‘Well that’s good exercise for her legs,’ Bradley said, cutting her off.

Amanda could feel herself colouring.

This was how every conversation between them went. Bradley would not listen to any counter-argument to his, because their mother had pumped him up full of his own importance until he was a fat balloon of pomposity.

‘She told me that she would like a bungalow. So we are going to get her a bungalow,’ Amanda said with quiet, but firm, determination.

‘She has never said anything to me about wanting to move.’ Bradley’s left eye always twitched when he got annoyed. It was twitching like billy-o now.

‘Well, I’m not being funny but you’re hardly there, are you? For some reason she thinks you work ten hours per day more than I do,’ parried Amanda. ‘Did you know that she hasn’t been cleaning her house for god knows how long? Maybe the bits on show, but behind the scenes, she isn’t managing. And she will fall down those stairs and kill herself if we don’t act. The house is too big and impractical now. In the meantime, maybe Kerry could clean for her if she’s not working. For a price , as you once volunteered her services.’

Amanda gave her brother a pointed look.

‘Kerry’s actually hurt her back. We have a cleaner of our own.’

Kerry’s back looked as agile as Olga Korbut’s as she bent down and stretched up to show off the kitchen.

Amanda saw Bradley start to gnaw on his bottom lip with his bulky new teeth. He looked like a different person with those things, they both did. They’d certainly got their money’s worth in materials.

‘I will go and see Mother on Saturday and sit and talk with her,’ Bradley said. He didn’t like direct confrontation and was clearly uncomfortable at being put on the spot. He was more the sly sort. He’d stab someone from behind rather than in the front. ‘I’ll take her out for her tea.’

Amanda climbed down off her high horse then.

‘Definitely?’

‘Definitely.’

‘That’ll be nice,’ she said. ‘She has missed you while you were away. She’s not getting any younger, Bradley, and she’s been getting a little confused as well, and it’s worrying me. You should be spending a bit more time with her.’

‘I spend as much time with her as my busy life permits,’ he said, pulling a stern face of indignation.

Amanda was done. This was as long as she could usually stand in her brother’s company without wanting to nut him. He was selfish, with every letter in the word a capital one. All take and no give. He always had been and he always would be.

‘Right then, I’ll leave it with you to sort, because it will be happening, so I’d appreciate it if you made it easy and worked with me – for her. This is all for her, an old lady who needs our help and we are not going to get a lot of notice if things go very wrong.’ She turned to Kerry. ‘Don’t put the kettle on on my account. Enjoy your new toys.’ She smiled sweetly, feeling that smile stop at her cheeks and not extend into her eyes.

She tried not to stomp out of Bradberry bloody Towers or whatever pretentious twaddle they’d called it. She could feel the core of her bubbling, getting ready to blow. Whatever benefits her HRT patches were giving her to tone down any symptoms of rage, her brother had the ability to undo them all.