AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Irene used to go out practically every night, dating guys she met online. I tried to tell myself it was a reaction to losing Dad– but that was four years ago, and she really ought to be moving on by now. She drank socially back then but it never seemed a problem.
But one day, about three weeks ago, everything seemed to change.
It was Irene’s birthday. She took herself off into Guildford on a shopping expedition, and while she was away, Lois, Bertie and I made her a birthday tea with presents from all of us piled in the middle of the table.
Bertie was really excited. But when she arrived back, she didn’t even respond to our rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ in the hallway. White-faced and trembling, she mumbled something about not feeling well and ran straight upstairs. Worried about her, Lois went upstairs to find out what was wrong, but she was back down a few minutes later, saying her mum had ordered her out. Irene just wanted to be left alone.
It was the following day before she finally came down to open her birthday presents. She seemed oddly quiet, although she made an effort to look pleased. But from that day to this, she hasn’t been herself and neither Lois nor I can work out why. We think something must have happened when she was shopping in Guildford, but she just denied it when we asked her outright.
After that, she stopped going out– despite Damien, her longest-standing boyfriend, still phoning her up occasionally– and she’s taken to drinking at home in her room instead. The number of empty bottles in the recycling is becoming embarrassing, and Lois and I are at our wits’ end, wondering what to do. When Lois shouted at her last week that she’d end up killing herself if she didn’t stop drinking so much, Irene stormed into her room with two full bottles of vodka, kicked the door shut and refused to come out all the next day.
My own, more gentle suggestions, have been met with a bleary-eyed instruction to get lost (or words to that effect) and a defensive, ‘What are trying to say, Clara? That I’m an alcoholic?’ And another door kicked shut in my face.
It’s Bertie I worry about most of all. What’s going through his mind these days, seeing his mum in such a state? At least when she was going out all the time, she seemed happy, and would sometimes make much of Bertie, sitting in his room and playing a board game with him, and letting him chatter away to her about his dinosaurs. But these days, she views life through a haze of alcohol and seems to have completely forgotten what’s important...
Now, I can hear Lois remonstrating with her mum by the bins, but I know it won’t do any good. Irene seems to be on a path of destruction and no one can persuade her to step off it.
I stand up as they come back in.
‘Why don’t we go and watch a film with Bertie?’ Lois is saying. ‘It’s not good for you, staying in your room all the time, Mum. I’ll make us some coffee and there’s doughnuts.’
Irene mumbles something about Harry Potter under her breath.
‘But he’s not watching Harry Potter,’ Lois says, when I join them in the hall. ‘At least, I don’t think he is. It’s probably a dinosaur movie. I’ve never understood why you hate Harry Potter so much, anyway.’ She steers her mum towards the living room and I follow on behind.
‘He’s a pathetic victim who should stand up for himself more,’ mutters Irene darkly.
My heart sinks when we walk in– and Bertie’s lying on the sofa watching what I recognise asHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
‘Not watching that,’ says Irene. Turning, she pushes past Lois and me, and stumbles up the stairs to her room before we can stop her.
‘Shite,’ sighs Lois, staring after her gloomily.
‘I know.’
‘You said shite,’ calls Bertie.
‘No, I didn’t. I said, “Right”. Clara was suggesting we break open the doughnuts. Not thatyou’llbe wanting one.’ Lois leans over the sofa to tickle him and he shrieks and scrambles to the other end. She grins at me and I nod and go off to the kitchen for the goodies, leaving Lois plopped down on the sofa beside Bertie, her arm around him, asking him what on earth Death Eaters have got against Muggles, anyway...
I smile to myself as I load up the tray, listening to them chattering away.
Sometimes Lois is worth her weight in gold...
*****
After the film, Lois says she’s tired and she’s going to bed. Bertie pleads to stay up and watch more TV, but it’s school next day so I say no. He knows the rules! But I tell him I’ll bring him some hot chocolate once he’s in bed and he can clean his teeth afterwards.
‘Ooh, yes, please,’ grins Lois.
I shake my head at her. ‘It’s high timeyoumade the hot chocolate for once.’
‘Nah! I could never make it as well as you do.’
‘Yeah, right.’ I laugh at her cheek. ‘Go on, then. I’ll bring some up.’
I head into the kitchen, smiling to myself. Apart from worrying about Irene, I’ve enjoyed the novelty of us spending time together as a family. Mugs of hot chocolate will round off the evening perfectly.
I deliver Bertie’s mug to his room, and when I go into Lois’s bedroom, she’s sitting on her bed, looking at something in her bedside drawer. She doesn’t even notice that I’m there until I say, ‘Here you go. One hot chocolate.’
