AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’ve had enough.
Charging up the stairs, I walk into Lois’s room without bothering to knock, and she looks up from her magazine in astonishment.
‘Yes?’ she enquires coldly.
‘I need to talk to you, Lois. If you won’t listen to your mum, then listen to me. There are things you don’t know. And if you did, you’d understand why she made the decision to keep the truth from you.’
She sneers. ‘Want to bet?’
‘Yes, I do, actually.’
‘Oh, right. So you’re about to give me some kind of tragically sad story, are you? Has she sent you in to plead her case?’
‘No, she hasn’t. Not at all. But there are things you need to know. Things I wish I didn’t have to tell you but– ’
‘Really?’ She cuts me off. ‘Would that have to do with the fact that my mother chose to make money working as anescort? Because surprising as it might seem, I’m really not interested in hearing all the sordid details. So you’ll have to forgive me if I pass on yourfascinatinglittle lecture.’
She jumps off the bed and hobbles past me, heading for the bathroom. Incensed, I run after her, and when she goes in, I push against the door and slip into the room after her. Locking the door behind me, I bar the way so she’s trapped in there with me.
‘Getout, you freak!’ she shrieks.
But I stand my ground. And a tussle ensues, as she tries to push me away from the door.
‘I’m not going anywhere until you listen to me,’ I pant, resisting her efforts to get rid of me, even though the doorhandle is digging painfully into my back. ‘So you might as well give up the struggle.’
‘Never!’ she yells, red-faced with fury. ‘Just piss off and get out!’
Her nails dig painfully into my arm and I push her back– a little too enthusiastically, as it turns out. She loses her balance, staggers backwards and lands awkwardly on the toilet at an angle, legs akimbo, her face a picture of surprise. At which point I quickly gain the advantage by nipping over and pressing the flusher.
She squeals as the rush of cold water leaps up and seeps through her jeans. ‘Bloody hell, Clara.’ Seeing that she’s struggling to get up, her bottom wedged down the hole, I hold out my hand and haul her to her feet.
‘Look at me,’ she squeaks. ‘I’m soaked.’ She’s staring down at her soggy crotch with a look of disgust.
I grin. ‘You look like you’ve had an accident in your pants.’
She looks up at that, her lips twisting in a ghost of a smile. The fight seems to have gone out of her.
She sighs. ‘I need to get changed. Get out of the way. Please, Clara?’ she begs at normal volume. ‘Let me out. This feels absolutely disgusting.’
I laugh. ‘Well, you should have listened.’
With a weary sigh, she lowers the toilet lid and plonks herself down on it. Glumly, she stares up at me. ‘You’ve got two minutes.’ She looks at her watch. ‘I’m timing you.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
So with Lois’s drum and bass music still playing in the background– but not sounding quite as ear-splitting in here– I launch into the details Irene related to me, about her sad and shocking childhood. And by the time I’m nearing my allotted two minutes, Lois is no longer looking at her watch.
Instead, she’s staring up at me with a neutral expression, not giving anything away. But her silence tells me all I need to know. She’s listening at last. And– like me before her– she can hardly believe what she’s hearing.
‘It’s all true.’ I shrug, when I’ve told her all I know. ‘Your mum told me the other day and I believed every word. She’s desperate to talk to you.’
Lois gets up. ‘Can I go now?’ she asks in a tremulous voice.
‘Of course.’ I unlock the door and she walks out.
I stand there, feeling emotionally exhausted, watching her go into her room and close the door behind her. Seconds later, she turns off her music.
The silence is bliss. I can hear Irene and Bertie playing a game of Ludo in the kitchen, clearly unaware of the frantic struggle that’s just taken place in the bathroom.
