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‘Mum made a casserole.’
‘It’ll keep.’
I smiled.
‘Yeah, all right then.’
He grinned, gave me a mock salute.
‘Grand. Back in a tick, comrade.’
He reappeared as I was doing my probability homework at the kitchen table.
Joanna has ten apples. One has a worm in it. What’s the probability of her picking the rotten fruit?
‘Pizza’ll be here in half an hour.’
I glanced up, the word ‘Great’ drying on my lips. Matty was standing in front of me, stark naked. I felt my face heat up, didn’t know where to look.
‘You’ve got no clothes on,’ I stammered as if he wasn’t aware he was parading around the flat in his birthday suit.
He sauntered over, plonked down in the seat next to me, helped himself to a pear from the bowl.
My stomach tightened. My face burned harder.
‘Why aren’t you—’
‘I took a shower,’ he said. ‘Couldn’t find a towel.’
‘They’re in the bathroom.’
I stared at the table. Anywhere that meant I didn’t have to look at him.
‘I can’t use those. They’re yours and your mam’s.’
‘Get one from the laundry closet then.’
‘Can you show me where it is?’
I pointed, without raising my head.
Matty laughed.
‘Gee, Soph. I didn’t take you for such a prude.’
‘Gee’, like he was a character out of The Brady Bunch.
‘Haven’t you ever seen a man naked?’
I shook my head, no. My tummy felt wriggly, alive with maggots. A pulse beat hard in my neck.
‘You’re making kind of a big deal out of it, don’t you think?’
He was so relaxed. Maybe I was overreacting. My mother walked around in her underwear sometimes. Was this really so different?
And yet still the maggots squirmed.
‘You reckon your friends’ dads never go about in the buff?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
‘Of course they do, you wee daftie. Well, I’m dry now so you can get off the stage.’
I never told my mother about that night, and by the time the news about the next murder broke, I’d pushed the memory down so far it withered and died.
That evening though, it was all I could think about. My brain saying one thing, my body another. As much as I’d been looking forward to pizza, when it arrived I couldn’t manage a mouthful.
Meanwhile Matty was ravenous, gobbled the whole thing.
