EPISODE TWENTY-TWO

Claire arrived home late to find Mike and Andrew sprawled out in front of the television. The house smelt of beer and vinegar. Crumpled fish and chip wrappers littered the coffee table. She felt like screaming.
‘Couldn’t you even be bothered to eat off plates?’ she said, trying to control her anger. But the television was too loud, setting her nerves on edge. ‘Can you switch that bloody thing off?’
‘Oh, Mum!’ Andrew protested. ‘We’re in the middle of watching it.’
Claire stared with hostility at the screen. A thug in a Hawaiian shirt fired a few rounds from a machine pistol, then lobbed a grenade at a motor launch, which exploded vividly.
‘Please, Andrew! Go and watch the rest of it in your room.’
‘What about Dad?’
Mike’s voice sounded slurred. ‘I’ve seen as much as I want to see. Load of old...any film starring Chuck Norris...’
Impatiently, Claire switched the television off.  Andrew got up, went to the door, reluctantly stopped to ask: ‘How was Newcastle?’
‘Newcastle’s fine. Thank you for asking.’
Andrew frowned, shrugged, then left the room, muttering, ‘I’ll go an watch the rest of the film then.’
Claire sat on the sofa next to Mike, poised on the edge, tension showing in her neck and shoulders.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Mike.
‘I’m glad he’s out of the room. I couldn’t face telling him. Not right now.’
‘Telling him? Telling him what?’
‘About Chloe.’
‘Are you going to tell me or not? I was hoping you’d phone from Newcastle...’
‘I did, and you were out. I couldn’t leave a message on the answering machine.  Hello, I’m just ringing to tell you that you that your daughter’s pregnant.’
Claire stared at Mike, watching his reaction.  They heard the distant crackle of gunfire as Andrew switched the TV on in his room. Mike rubbed and pressed his forehead and sighed tremulously.
‘All day I’ve been thinking about her, wondering what the problem was, and I didn’t think that...’He felt angry suddenly. ‘Why the hell couldn’t they take precautions?’
‘It gets worse, I’m afraid. It wasn’t her boyfriend Mark. She’d had an argument with him. She went to a party, got drunk, and slept with another bloke just to spite him.’
‘Oh, the stupid little...I can’t believe this.  If it was Andrew who’d come home and told me he’d got some girl in the family way, I could understand it. But not Chloe.’
‘Not your little girl, you mean. She’s nearly twenty-one, Mike.’
‘Yes, I know but...What the hell is she going to do?  What about her degree?’
‘She says she doesn’t know what she wants to do.  She’s going to come home this weekend to talk about it.’
‘Well, she’s got one of two choices. She can either have it or have an abortion. And what about the bloke? The father. What was he studying? Anatomy?’
Claire shook her head. ‘He wasn’t a student. He worked in the Union Bar. He was Australian.’
‘Was?’
‘The night he slept with Chloe was his last night in this country. He went back to Australia the next day. And she can’t even remember his name.’

*

Craig waited for Tony Rice in a pub near Tonbridge Station. The place smelled musty and stale and he wondered why Rice frequented such a down-at-heel dump.
As if in answer to his thoughts, Rice suddenly materialised at his side and whispered, ‘Not exactly your old English pub - more of a karzy in Cairo – but at least I don’t ‘ave far to stagger home. If you can call it that.’
‘You live near here then?’
‘You catch on quick. I’ll have a pint of Guinness, seeing as you’re paying.’
As soon as they’d been served, Craig nervously started to explain about how he would inherit the chip shop. Rice interrupted him.
‘Harvey’s already told me you want out.’
‘Does that bother you?’
‘It might have done, if I didn’t have nothing else.’
‘I was a bit worried...you might be a bit upset, like.’
‘Nah'. Doing that club was too risky for my liking. But I was desperate.’
‘So what you up to now? Or shouldn’t I ask?’
A slow smile grew on Rice. ‘I’ve got myself a nice little number punishing people.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I start tonight.’
‘When you say punishing people...’
‘I mean a bit of bone-breaking. I’ve got a bass guitarist’s fingers to snap tonight – poor bastard. Still, at twenty a finger, mustn’t grumble.’
Craig shivered. Rice leant close to him and added, ‘Harvey took exception to this musician screwing around with his daughter. I got nothing against the bloke, so I’ll probably put him out first He won’t feel a thing. Job done. Cheers!’
Craig raised his glass. ‘Yeah. Cheers!’

*

Awake for most of the night, Claire eventually fell into a deep, trance-like sleep, but was immediately woken by a noise which made her start. She listened carefully. Mike was snoring, as he usually did after too much beer. Then she heard the noise again. A cry of pain, coming from Andrew’s room.
She climbed out of bed, put her dressing gown on and crept quietly to her son’s room. He was half sitting up in bed, sobbing.
‘Andrew,’ she whispered. ‘What’s wrong?’
She sat on the bed and put an arm round him. He let his head fall onto her shoulder.
‘It...it was a nightmare,’ he sobbed. ‘It was so real. It was terrible.’
She stroked his hair. ‘Hush. Shh.  It’s alright. Mum’s here now.  Everything’s alright.’
‘I was on the computer. Firing missiles at children. Small children. Crying and screaming. Blood everywhere. It was so real. I could see their faces.’
‘It’s alright, darling. It was just a nasty dream.’
She held him close, enjoying the cuddle.
Make the most of it, she thought. Make the most of it.

IN EPISODE TWENTY-THREE ON THURSDAY

Dave meets Mary at the stag do, and Nigel’s birthday celebration is cringe-making.


Episode Twenty-three  Homepage