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‘Is that you, Flora?’
‘Hi, Mum.’ Her mother, Kate, looked up from Flora’s sofa, the floor of the small sitting room covered in books and toys. With her flowing red skirt and multicoloured cardigan, she looked like a fabric rainbow.
‘Oh, darling, you do look tired.’
‘Wow, thank you…’ So soon, thought Flora. Her mother usually left it at least a couple of minutes before getting a dig in. Flora had been up late the night before, studying. Again.
‘Sorry, darling, I just mean… I worry about you taking on too much. What with the shop and everything.’
Flora suspected what really bothered her mother was the fact that she worked in a shop. ‘Mum, how many times do I have to explain? Having a job that fits in, most of the time, with school hours is a godsend. It’s not like I have to commute for miles and I’m not stuck in an office for hours on end. Not to mention that I’m doing something I really love.’
‘But, darling, don’t forget the children need you, too.’
‘Oh, Mum, please don’t do this now. I’m there for them most of the time. And Johnny is really supportive, so I don’t see what the problem is.’ Flora knew that one mention of Johnny and her mother would zip it. Kate adored Johnny. ‘Anyway, thank you for picking the kids up. Normally, they’d go to Tilda’s after school today, but one of hers is sick.’ Tilda had been one of the first friends Flora had made when they’d moved to the area. She lived five minutes away and, with both of them working and having children roughly the same age, they helped each other out as much as they could.
‘Oh, anytime. You know I love seeing them.’
‘Where are they, anyway?’ Flora looked out through the French windows into the garden but there was no sign of the children. She suddenly clocked how quiet it was.
‘Upstairs, I think. They went to go and clean something.’
As if on cue, water started to slowly drip from the corner of the ceiling onto the cushion next to Kate.
Flora looked up. ‘Oh my God! What have they…?’ She was halfway up the stairs by the time Kate stood up.
Flora ran into the bathroom to find water overflowing from the sink, cascading onto the old wooden floorboards and pooling in the corner by the bath. ‘Pip! Tom!’ Flora shrieked, feeling both relief that they were clearly fine and fury that they’d been up to no good. She turned the taps off and threw as many towels as she could get her hands on onto the floor.
‘We’re in here!’ Pip called. Flora raced to Pip’s room to find her sitting in her wigwam with Tom, their faces lit up by the light of a screen.
‘Where did you find the iPad? You know you’re not supposed to help yourselves. And what have you done in the bathroom?’
Pip looked horrified. ‘Oh, Mum, I’m so sorry. We were trying to clean Tom’s comic. He’d drawn on it and wanted to rub the pen off. So we tried to wash it but it wouldn’t come off so we… we… then it started to fall apart in the sink…’
Tom stood up. ‘But it’s OK, Mama, because Granny gave us this to watch instead.’ He held out the iPad. ‘I’m really sorry.’ Tom swiped his blond hair with his other hand, his enormous brown eyes looking up at her.
‘Oh, for God’s sake… well, that was clearly a stupid thing to do, to wash paper in the sink. Come on, Pip. You should know better.’
‘I’m really sorry, Mum. I’ll go and clear it up.’ Pip looked up at her mother, her brown eyes peering through her thick dark fringe.
‘No, I’d rather you went downstairs and helped tidy up, and we’ll say goodbye to Granny, too.’
Kate appeared at the door. ‘Well now, you two. What were you doing up here?’
Flora bit her bottom lip. She was so cross, but she knew it wouldn’t end well if she reminded her mother that the time to really worry was when the kids were quiet for too long.
‘Oh, you little monkeys, I told you not to let Mummy see you with the iPad! It was supposed to be our secret!’ Kate winked at them.
Flora thought she might actually taste blood if she bit her lip any harder. She took a deep breath. ‘Mum, it’s OK. You go. I’m going to clear up the bathroom. The kids can help me.’
‘Are you sure? I’d probably just be in the way. I’ll get going, then. Let me know when you next need me to step in…’
Flora resisted rolling her eyes. ‘OK, thanks, Mum. I will.’
‘Bye, darlings!’ Kate blew kisses to Tom first, then Pip. They both waved back and thanked her in unison. ‘I’ll let myself out.’
‘Bye.’ Flora sighed. She looked back at the children. ‘Right, let’s sort this mess out.’
* * *
