3. Don’t Get my Egg Wet
Chapter 3
Don’t Get my Egg Wet
H arry tore out of his classroom at top speed.
‘Did you see me? I said it right. I nearly didn’t, because I was thinking about gingerbread men and I nearly forgot because I was trying to see if I could look through the double doors and spot mine, because I really have to get it because it’s got loads of icing and then there’s the tombola prizes –’
‘Woah, Harry! Slow down. One thing at a time,’ Amy said.
Harry thrust his cardboard egg costume at James and a large bag of his other costume items at Amy.
‘Don’t get my egg wet. I want to keep it for Easter, because the play said the egg was coming back at Easter, and if we do a spring play, I might get to be the egg again.’
‘You’ve got the yellow trousers for it,’ Amy said with a rueful smile as she rummaged through the bag to make sure everything was in it. Finding yellow trousers for his costume before Christmas, when everything in the shops was green or red, hadn’t been easy. As always when it came to items desperately needed for school it was Amy’s job to find them. James was happy enough to pay, but Amy was the one who spent hours trailing round all the charity shops hoping against hope that one of them might have an overlooked pair of yellow boy’s trousers. It wasn’t as if she had a huge amount of free time in the run up to Christmas. She’d recently started her own small business, making memory quilts and soft toys. Today she had finished a beautiful little white rabbit for a first baby whose ears were lined with snippets of material from her mum’s wedding dress, but this was only one of dozens of soft toy commissions she had to finish before Christmas. Hunting for yellow trousers was an extra job she hadn’t needed.
‘I won’t get your egg wet. I’ll go and put it in the car now,’ James offered.
‘No. Not your car, it’s got to go to mam’s flat with my backpack. Have you brought my backpack with all my things like you promised?’
Harry had stayed with his dad and Laurie the previous night, and there were certain things he couldn’t manage without. His special hairbrush, which was shaped like a hedgehog, and usually left his hair looking like one too; whichever book they were reading to him at the moment (he liked to be read to rather than reading for himself); and, most importantly, Fred Bear, who had been by his side every night since he was a baby.
‘Of course I’ve brought it,’ said James. ‘Laurie, why don’t you take Harry to the classroom to get his gingerbread man? Me and Amy’ll pick up Harry’s backpack from the car and take it all back to hers. We’re parked down the road.’
Amy’s flat was on the other side of the main road from the school. She could see the wall around the playground from the window of the stairwell outside her front door, and James would be parked in the street beside the flats. This time last year she wouldn’t have been happy to leave Laurie alone with Harry in case he tried any of his Dennis-the-Menace-style behaviour on her, but she had increasing confidence that Laurie could deal with him.
‘Go on then, why not? You show me where this ginger biscuit is.’ Laurie held out her hand to Harry, who grabbed hold of it.
‘You’ve got to go through the double doors. Come on, Laurie.’ He pulled her in the direction most of the other parents had now gone, in search of tea and biscuits. Laurie was a soft touch when it came to buying goodies for Harry, and the tables would be laden with festive treats. It was all in a good cause, to raise money for new playground equipment, even when you had to hand over ￡1.50 for a cupcake you’d baked yourself only hours earlier.
Amy and James crossed the playground towards the gate to the High Street and the wind whipped the rain into their faces. It was less of a downpour than it had been a couple of hours earlier, but the wind was colder and the sharp drops of rain stung her face. Ice was forming on the shallow puddles which edged the playground. Amy shivered in the darkness; her coat wasn’t thick enough for a night as cold as this. Matt would have noticed but James was blissfully oblivious; his own coat was thick wool and no doubt had been ridiculously expensive.
James had parked his car on the side street next to Amy’s flat, and he pointed the key and clicked to open it. The lights flashed and the falling rain was caught in the beams of the headlights. He opened the boot and Amy reached in to grab Harry’s backpack. James struggled to keep the egg dry and stop it being blown out of his hands and into the oncoming traffic on the main road as he slammed the boot shut.
‘Look, Amy, I know whatever’s going on with you and Matt is none of my business –’
‘Too right. It’s none of your business.’ She put Harry’s backpack on her own back and shifted the carrier bag of costumes into her other hand.
‘– but it’s wrong, if you love Matt, to be pretending you don’t even know him. You shouldn’t have to be ashamed of what you feel for each other.’
‘We’re not ashamed. It’s just Diane.’ She rummaged in her pocket for her flat keys as they headed round the corner, the wind at their backs.
Amy opened the door at the foot of the communal stairs. She lived in a long, low block of grey, nineteen-sixties flats. Hers was on the third floor, and she led the way up the concrete staircase. The wind blew through the ventilation blocks in the walls as they climbed, sudden gusts of cold air lifted her hair and blew it into her eyes.
The contrast as they stepped from the concrete stairwell into the flat couldn’t have been greater. It was full of textiles in all the colours of the rainbow. The table was piled high with colourful bunnies, teddies and penguins, as well as some beautiful patchwork quilts ready to be delivered to their new owners. The soft light from the Christmas tree added a warm glow. She took the egg from James and propped it against the wall inside the door with Harry’s backpack and the bulging carrier bag of costumes beside it.
‘Just don’t let you and Matt end up like we did.’ His face glowed golden in the light from the Christmas tree. ‘Separate lives. Secrets. I mean, even though we lived in the same house, we didn’t exactly communicate.’
‘That’s not me and Matt.’ She ushered him right back out of the door, keen to get back to school before Laurie allowed Harry to eat too many sweets. ‘We haven’t ended up anywhere, we’ve only just started out.’ They headed back down the staircase which was even greyer and darker than it had been when they climbed it.
‘You’re right, I guess.’ He stopped on the bottom step of the staircase and turned back to her, lit by the harsh glare of the security light which shone in through the window.
‘We’ve got a whole week to do everything together when we go to Elder Fell Farm for Christmas.’ She pushed past him, opened the outer door and held it open for him to walk through.
‘Make sure you make the most of it. Don’t spend every minute running round after the boys.’
‘We agreed we should always put the boys first.’ The lobby door slammed shut behind them, and they headed back towards the school.
‘Of course. But he needs to man up and think of you too.’ James stood tall with the satisfaction of being the one to deliver romantic advice to her.
‘What? Be more like you, you mean? Always fighting one battle or another?’
‘That’s the way you get to be successful. You don’t win if you don’t fight.’
‘And you don’t lose either. I prefer Matt’s way of doing things. Slow and steady, putting everyone else before himself.’
‘You’re as bad as he is. You’re both too nice .’ He said it as if it was a dirty word.
‘You never complained about me being too nice when we were married,’ she said. They paused on the edge of the road and waited to cross. Some of the cars were starting to leave the school now and the traffic was steady. They had to stand well back from the kerb to stop being soaked by the spray from the cars – James a step further back than Amy, no doubt to protect that expensive woollen coat.
‘Of course I didn’t complain. I was the one you were being nice to. Seriously, Amy, you’ve both got to stop being so soft, though you’re much better about standing up for Harry these days – even to me.’ He gave her a sideways look, and she knew instantly what he meant.
‘If this is about Bruno again – you know Harry didn’t mean to let him dig up your vegetable patch. Laurie agreed the hutch door didn’t shut properly.’
He gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Let’s not talk about Bruno. Bloody stupid name for a rabbit.’
She spotted a gap in the traffic and they dashed across the road.
‘Just make sure you talk to each other,’ he said. ‘Properly. Not like you and me did. All those secrets.’ They fell into step with each other as they walked towards the playground gate.
‘ I didn’t keep many secrets from you ,’ she said, pointedly, and he had the grace to look away. ‘And Matt and me don’t have secrets from each other.’
‘Whatever you say,’ he said, but his tone was more sceptical than his words.
‘It’ll all be different when we go away for Christmas. No Diane and no-one who even knows Diane for fifty miles.’ There were other people leaving the school as they crossed the playground, so she spoke quietly.
‘If she doesn’t know you’re an item, how’ve you explained the cosy romantic Christmas holiday to her?’ James didn’t lower his voice.
‘We haven’t. Matt told her he and Olly are spending the holidays with Harry and his family. She doesn’t know Harry’s family is only me.’ She shoved her cold hands deep into her pockets.
‘I hope you know what you’re doing. It sounds dodgy to me, keeping secrets from her.’
‘We’ve already established that you’re the last person in Saddleton to go on about keeping secrets. You were seeing Laurie while you were still married to me,’ she pointed out, hotly. ‘That was a bloody big secret.’
‘And, as you’ve pointed out many times, that was very wrong of me, wasn’t it?’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s get back to the school.’