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“Ok, well, don’t use that as an excuse not to come next time. There is a perfectly good bus service that brings you here,” Clare said and picked up her Sudoku puzzle from the table next to the chair.
The conversation had ended, we were dismissed. Adaline didn’t reply to her mother or say goodbye. She quietly left the living room and stepped out of the house. I followed in silence, I didn’t know what to say. I unlocked her door and helped her into the van, waiting for her to click in her seatbelt before I closed the door. Getting into the driver’s seat, I started the engine and secured my seatbelt. I drove the van for a few minutes to a quiet road and parked up.
Adaline didn’t register what I was doing, her head was bowed and her hands in her lap. My heart broke at her sadness, and I wasn’t sure what I did next, was to comfort her or me. Racing around the front of the van, I opened her door and unclipped her seatbelt. Without resistance, I pulled Adaline from the van and crushed her body to my chest, hugging her tight. Her arms went around my neck with her head on my shoulder. After a few minutes of holding her tight, I loosened my grip and cupped her face. Her eyes were glassy, but no tears had fallen down her face. Lifting her by the waist, I positioned her on the passenger seat. We were face to face.
“How did you suffer as well as your mum from the complications of your birth?”
“It doesn’t matter, there is nothing I can do about it.”
“I’d still like to know,” I pleaded, but she was wearing a face of stone.
“This isn’t the time or the place,” she said and looked around. The park on the opposite side of the road was deserted.
“I used to play in that park, on those swings. I spent every hour I could get out of the house. This park was my refuge until it became a drug dealing spot.” She commented.
“Nothing you could tell me would scare me away. It isn’t my place to say, and it is rude of me to utter these words. Your parents are fucking awful.” I said.
She burst out laughing, clutching onto my t-shirt as she rocked back and forth. One had let go to hold her stomach and then a moment later, she was silent, and her head rested on my shoulder.
“They are the only parents I have. They’re both unwell, so, I put up with the nonsense.”
“You shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of abuse, tell them to go to hell.” My voice was louder than I planned.
“What you saw and heard today was mild, they were on their best behaviour because you were there. My mum and dad are far more despicable than that.”
“I don’t want you coming back here without me. I want to shield you from the vile things they say. If me being there means they are kinder, then I will visit with you every time. They don’t deserve your time, Adaline.”
“I don’t think I’d have the courage to not turn up. I plan my business trips around the visits. There was a time that if I didn’t show up, they would bombard me with phone calls and text messages about my selfish ways. I was sick with the flu and didn’t have the energy to get out of bed to pee let alone go to their house on that occasion. I never missed another visit. I don’t know where the arrangement came that I go once a fortnight, I try to remember why I said I would. Anyway, you’ve met them, they’re hideous, and now I’m ashamed.”
“Why the hell are you ashamed?”
“Because I came from them, I am their child, and I hate them. I hate my parents. Ah fuck, I’ve never said that before, I don’t know if I believe it. Am I allowed to hate my parents?” she said and burst into tears. It was awful that she felt this way and while I understood, I felt elated that she’d been able to let out her feelings to me.
“Adaline,” I said, lifting her face that was buried against my chest. “You may feel any way you want about your parents. I’m not judging you. Will you tell me more about your childhood?”
“No, I don’t want to talk about that, not yet,” she said. Adaline used my t-shirt to wipe her eyes and then apologised for her rudeness when she realised. I stopped her when she tried to brush away her tears with her fingers. They were falling down her face while she chuckled humourlessly. Her eyes were bright, and I had never seen a more beautiful face than Adaline’s at that moment. My heart beat faster for a few beats at the realisation.
“I’m here when you do, you know that, right?” I said and kissed her when she nodded solemnly.
“Are you sure you want to go on a date with me?” she asked.
“You’ve got to be kidding, of course, I do. Why would you think I’d changed my mind?”
“My parents.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
It was an attempt to make her laugh, but I hadn’t succeeded. She dropped her head, and her legs went limp at each side of my thighs. If I hadn’t had her pinned on the seat with my hips, she would have slipped off the seat. She resembled a sack of spuds, the way she was slumped on the seat.
“Shall I take us home?” I asked her.
“Yeah, let’s get back. This day has turned to shit. I ache all over, I think my body is reacting to the motorbike hitting me. Can we take a rain check on the date?”
“No,” I said.
There was no way she was getting out of this date. She could dress it up that she was hurting. I didn’t doubt she was. Anyone who is hit by a moving motorbike would feel that pain at some stage. I was pretty sure she was trying to give me an out after what I’d seen at her parent’s home.
That wasn’t happening.
