9
9
‘So, how was your first day with Fiona?’ I asked Rose as the four of us sat down to dinner.
‘It was good.’
‘Just good?’
Rose shrugged. ‘Yeah.’
Dylan laughed. ‘Aargh, too much detail. We don’t need to know everything .’
The look she gave him was so dirty I was taken aback.
‘You were the same when you were twelve,’ Emma said to Dylan. ‘We’d ask you how school was and all you ever said was “normal”.’
Before I could ask Rose anything else about her first day with Fiona, the doorbell rang.
‘Are we expecting a delivery?’ I asked, getting up and going into the hallway to the front door, with Lola following me. I opened the door – and found myself face to face with Tommy, Albie and Eric’s dad. Lola had been good up to this point, but now began barking, possibly because she could smell his German shepherds on him. He looked at her like he wanted to kill her, and it struck me what a deeply unpleasant bloke he was. The kind who kept dogs as a macho status symbol. He probably found it pathetic that I owned a cute little cockapoo.
‘One second,’ I said, scooping Lola up and taking her back to the dining room.
‘Who is it?’ Emma asked as I handed her the dog.
‘Tommy,’ I whispered. ‘I don’t know what he wants.’
I went back, closing the dining room door behind me.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘How’s Albie?’
To my horror, a tear ran down his cheek and his eyelids fluttered, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed, clearly trying to stop himself from breaking into sobs. I was filled with dread. Had Albie died ? Was he going round telling the neighbours the bad news?
He managed to get hold of himself and said, with his voice trembling, ‘The docs are running all sorts of tests. But they don’t know if he’s ever going to fully recover.’
‘Oh, thank God.’
He stared at me, eyes bulging, grief flipping to rage. ‘What?’
‘I mean ... I thought you were going to say ...’ I cleared my throat. ‘Thank God for the NHS. For looking after him.’
‘Yeah. Those nurses. They’re angels.’ He held on to the door frame with one meaty paw and pressed his face into the crook of his bare arm, breathing rapidly and wetly. What was I supposed to do? Should I ... hug him? Pat him on the shoulder? I had a lot of experience dealing with crying children – a crying wife too, I was sorry to say – but a six-foot-two man weeping on my doorstep? I was not equipped to deal with this . Luckily, a prop came to the rescue: a box of tissues on the hall table. I handed it to him and he plucked two out, blowing his nose loudly before giving the wet tissues back to me. I treated them like they were hot potatoes, dropping them on the table as quickly as I could.
As soon as the tears stopped, the anger returned.
‘Someone punctured that tyre deliberately,’ he said, fixing me with a death-ray glare.
If I’d been guilty, I probably would have confessed right there and then. But as an innocent man I was able to say, in a surprised tone, ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Something sharp burst the tyre. Something like a nail or a big shard of glass, right at the spot where they always jump the bike between the trees.’
I was shocked. ‘I took Lola for a walk shortly after it happened.’ I explained how I’d seen the bike still lying there but no sharp objects.
He narrowed his eyes at me. ‘How long after?’
‘I don’t know. An hour? Maybe a bit less?’
‘Plenty of time for whoever did it to go back and remove the evidence. It wasn’t an accident. Someone wanted to hurt my boy.’
‘But he’s a kid. Why would anyone want to hurt him?’
‘That’s what I came here to find out.’
I took a step back. ‘What are you talking about? You think I had something to do with Albie’s accident?’
‘Not you. Your son. Eric told me about the fight they had last week.’
This was news to me. ‘What fight?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but your kids were in the fields with your dog and apparently they were pissed off with my lads for riding their bike.’ He paused. ‘And I think my dogs might have scared yours, trying to play with it.’
‘What, one of your giant German shepherds went for Lola?’
‘Did I say that? I said they were playing.’
My hackles were up now. ‘Like your sons were playing when they bullied Rose? The last day of school, Eric and Albie were teasing Rose when she got off the bus. I was going to talk to you about it, but Rose didn’t want to cause a big fuss.’
‘What are they supposed to have done?’
‘They called her names. Said she looked like Taylor Swift.’
He blew air out through his lips. ‘You class that as bullying?’ He muttered something about snowflakes. ‘Sounds like a bit of harmless mucking about to me.’
‘Our next-door neighbour witnessed it and brought Rose home.’
‘Oh yeah?’ He jabbed a thumb in the direction of Fiona’s house. ‘Her? The Aussie?’
‘That’s right.’
‘She was there too. In the fields.’
That was news to me, but I didn’t want this bloke thinking I didn’t know what my kids got up to.
‘Listen, I’m in the middle of dinner. You’re wasting your time coming here. There is no way Dylan had anything to do with Albie’s accident. It’s just not the kind of thing he would do. I really hope your son fully recovers but I don’t appreciate you coming here flinging accusations around. Someone placing a nail in exactly the right spot? Then going to remove it before anyone found it? If you ask me, the most likely thing is that the tyre blew out. Maybe there was a sharp rock or something. An accident, that’s it.’
Tommy’s eyes narrowed and, for a moment, I thought he was going to try to push past me and demand to talk to Dylan. Instead, he said, ‘This ain’t over.’
He left and I shut the door behind me. As I re-entered the dining room I heard the buzz of Fiona’s doorbell from the other side of the wall.
‘What was all that about?’ Emma asked.
‘That guy’s an absolute ...’ I didn’t complete the sentence, aware of my children staring at me. ‘Dylan, you didn’t tell me you’d had a run-in with Albie and Eric.’
‘What?’ said Emma.
I repeated what Tommy had told me.
‘That’s not what happened!’ Dylan said. ‘They were riding that stupid bike around and around us and getting their dogs to terrorise Lola.’
‘They were horrible,’ said Rose.
Emma got to her feet. ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’
Rose answered first. ‘We were worried you might not let us walk Lola in the fields anymore.’
‘Is that right, Dylan?’ I asked.
‘Yeah. I guess. Also, I didn’t want to cause you any more stress or worry.’
Emma and I exchanged a glance. Dylan was a sensitive boy. He knew stuff had happened between us in our old house and he must have had some inkling that we were making this fresh start to try to save our marriage. It broke my heart to think he couldn’t come to us for help because we were too stressed.
‘Plus it was dealt with,’ he said.
‘By who?’
‘By Fiona. She talked to them, told them to leave us alone. She was great, wasn’t she, Rose?’
‘Yeah, she was amazing.’
Emma looked towards the door, and I thought she was about to march outside to give Tommy a piece of her mind. ‘This is a lot to process. Tommy really thinks Dylan might have had something to do with his son’s accident? That’s unbelievable.’
‘That’s what I said. It’s ridiculous.’
‘He probably feels guilty about letting them ride around on that dangerous thing and is trying to find someone else to blame.’
Here we were, agreeing. United. It felt good.
‘I don’t want you going near that house, okay?’ Emma said to Dylan and Rose.
‘What about taking Lola to the fields?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘It’s fine, isn’t it?’ Rose said. ‘I mean, isn’t Albie in a coma? He’s not going to be able to bother us now, is he?’
‘You sound like you’re actually glad he’s in a coma,’ Dylan said.
Rose shrugged. ‘I can’t deny my feelings.’
We all looked at her – surprised, I thought, more by the phrasing than the sentiment.
‘I don’t know if he’s actually in a coma,’ I said. ‘But we shouldn’t be glad he’s got a brain injury.’
Rose muttered something.
‘What was that?’
Without looking up, she said, ‘I’m amazed he had much of a brain to injure.’
‘Rose!’ Emma and I said together, and Dylan rolled his eyes.
‘Can I go to my room now?’ he asked. ‘I’ve arranged to play FIFA with Sam and Milo, and they’re going to be waiting for me.’
I sighed. ‘Sure. Go.’
He left, and Rose stayed at the table for a minute.
‘Rose,’ Emma said, ‘you should have told us about those boys the moment you got home.’
Rose pouted. ‘Why should I? I don’t have to tell you everything.’
I’m not sure if Emma was tired or stressed or feeling that most terrible of things, parental guilt, but she snapped, ‘Actually, you do. You’re twelve.’
‘I didn’t think you’d care.’
‘What? Of course I care.’
‘Only about Lola getting attacked. You don’t care about me. You just want to control me.’
Emma stood up. ‘If this is how you’re going to talk to me after spending one day with Fiona, I’m not going to let it happen again.’
‘I’m not going to that club! I like Fiona!’ Then, when Emma didn’t back down, Rose immediately changed tactics. It was kind of fascinating to watch. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was scared you wouldn’t let me walk Lola anymore or that you’d make me stay indoors. Next time, I promise I’ll tell you.’
‘Hopefully, there won’t be a next time.’
‘There won’t,’ Rose said. ‘Can I go to my room?’
‘Fine.’ I spoke before Emma could argue. I wanted this quarrel to end.
As soon as we were alone, Emma let out a great sigh.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘What do you think? Not only is this woman next door minding our daughter for us while we go to work, but she’s fighting our kids’ battles for them. Battles we didn’t even know about. It should be me spending the summer with Rose, not this stranger . It makes me feel like ...’
‘What?’
‘A bad mother.’
I reached for her hand. ‘Emma, you’ve got a career. We’re both here for our kids every morning, every evening. You’re a great role model for Rose. You’re a brilliant mother.’
‘Am I? Do you really think that? It wasn’t long ago you accused me of being a selfish bitch.’
I stared at her. ‘That was in the heat of an argument.’ I had been so angry that night; a fury like I’d never experienced before. Later, I had apologised for using the B-word, but she hadn’t forgotten. It was still there, festering.
‘I don’t even like my job anymore,’ she said. ‘I’m sick of it. I’d rather be here, with my kids, but we can’t afford for me to give up work now, can we? Not since you made us move here.’
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘You know why we had to leave the old place. That was not my fault.’
‘Maybe you—’ She stopped herself.
‘Maybe I what? Overreacted? Is that what you were going to say?’
‘No, actually, I was going to say we didn’t have to buy somewhere so expensive. There was that other place ...’
‘It was a shithole, Emma.’
‘It was fine. And it might have allowed me to go part-time at least. But no, you insisted. You said this estate would be perfect for our fresh start, for our family. And now you don’t even like it here.’
‘What? Yes I do.’
‘You think the neighbours are morons. Oh, apart from Little Miss Perfect next door.’
‘So, what? You want to sell up? Move somewhere worse so you can quit your job, just because you’re weirdly jealous of someone who’s doing us a favour?’
I hated this. Hated that we were arguing again. I had to get out of there before my emotions completely took over and threw petrol on to the flames.
‘I’m going to take the dog out,’ I said. ‘I need to calm down. Where is she?’
I left the room to look for Lola – and bumped straight into Rose. She was standing in the hallway outside the dining room. She’d clearly heard every word we’d said.
‘Rose,’ I began, but before I could say any more she flung her arms around me.
‘ I’m glad we moved here,’ she said.
‘Even with those boys?’
‘Yes.’ She pulled out of the hug. ‘Please don’t let Mum stop me from seeing Fiona. I really like spending time with her. If Mum makes me go to that club, I’ll kill myself.’
‘Rose! Never say things like that!’
But now she was crying, and then Emma appeared in the doorway. ‘Rose? What is it? What’s going on?’
‘She’s worried we’re going to stop her from spending her days with Fiona.’
Emma came over to try to give Rose a hug, but Rose stepped behind me. Emma looked shocked. Wounded.
‘Dad, don’t let her send me to that club.’
I made eye contact with Emma, silently imploring her to go easy on Rose. I could see this going either way. But – to my relief, because I wanted Rose’s tears to stop – Emma said, ‘Okay, fine. But if anything else happens like this, you have to tell us straight away. All right?’
Rose wiped her tears away and smiled.
‘I promise.’