The Peas and Carrots Series Boxset 1, page 60
part #1 of Peas and Carrots Series
‘No,’ Katrina said, shaking her head. ‘Philip’s not here. I didn’t come with him.’
‘Then why did you come?’
The girl’s eyes wandered around the room, falling fleetingly on Eric and then Abi and then the unpacked kitchen cabinets which were sprawled out on the floor.
Eric noticed his daughter, cutlery down, gawping at the situation.
‘Abi, upstairs,’ he said.
‘What? No,’ she protested. ‘I want to know what’s going on.’
‘Nothing’s going on,’ he said. ‘Now upstairs and run your bath.’ He moved around the room and swept Abi up off her seat before ushering her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Lulu scampered up after her mistress.
‘I’ll be up in two minutes,’ he called, desperately hoping he was telling the truth. ‘And don’t forget tonight is a hair wash night.’
In the kitchen, the two women stood in silence. Yvette, frozen to the spot, continued to stare daggers at the young girl while Katrina, whose hands and knees shook visibly, continued to bounce the baby in her arms. A slightly musty smell of soured milk rose from the pair.
‘Please, Yvette,’ Katrina said, finally breaking the silence. ‘I need your help.’
Yvette snorted. There was a harshness in the sound that Eric had never encountered from his mother-in-law. Katrina flinched visibly.
‘You are joking, aren’t you? You can’t think I’m that naive?’
Eric’s eyes scanned back and forth between the pair. Katrina refused to lower her eyes despite a definite sheen within them glistening in the light. Yvette’s eyes, by contrast, showed only venom.
‘Yvette.’ The unease of the situation swirled in Eric’s gut. ‘Surely you can hear the girl out?’
‘Hear her out?’ Yvette’s nostrils flared at the apparent insult. ‘Whose side are you on in this?’
Eric opened his mouth, then closed it hurriedly and bit his tongue.
Even in her current state, it was easy to see what Philip had fallen for in the girl, with her cascades of ringlets and long, slender neck, although at that moment, with bags under her eyes and tears making a bid for freedom, she barely looked older than Abi. She held the baby at an angle in her arms as if she were not quite sure what it was, or whether it was safe to hold it. Her nails were bitten to the quick and her dry lips were chapped. This was a girl for whom things had gone very, very awry, Eric thought.
‘Yvette,’ he said acutely aware of the tremble in his mother-in-law’s hands. ‘You need to get to your dance lesson. You don’t want to be late.’ Yvette transposed the venom of her glare from Katrina to Eric. ‘You know you have to go,’ he repeated. ‘You’ll be late if you don’t leave now.’
Without so much as a whispering breath, Yvette sucked her cheeks in tightly, narrowing her features to a fraction of their normal state.
‘She better be gone by the time I get back.’
Then, without so much as a goodbye to Abi, she grabbed her handbag from the back of her chair and stormed out through the house, slamming the front door behind her.
The slam of the front door had a multitude of small effects. These effects, whilst on their own would have been insignificant and at worst mildly irritating, combined in the exact proportion that they were, resulted in an overwhelming cacophony of chaos. First, Lulu started barking, which resulted in the bundle in Katrina’s arms wailing at full pelt. Katrina, in turn, burst into tears. Not one to miss out, Abi came storming back down the stairs, towel wrapped around her, and began shouting at the top of her voice that no one valued her opinions or considered her as a person. In one second, pandemonium had set in.
‘That’s not fair. Why did you tell me to leave? I shouldn’t have had to leave. I’m part of this family. And there’s a baby. And I love babies and you made me leave the baby and—’
‘Abi, please—’
‘I’m sorry,’ Katrina sobbed, barely audible over the wailing baby. ‘I’m sorry. She’s just fussy. Sometimes when we’re in new places she gets fussy. And old places. You can stop crying now. You can stop now. Please stop. Please stop.’
Eric turned his head, trying to find some direction in which to shield his ears.
‘And you know I’ve always loved babies—’ Abi continued to shout at him.
Lulu barked for good measure.
Eric closed his eyes, hoping that it might somehow help with the issue.
‘And you say that you care about how I’m feeling bu—’
‘Please, why won’t you stop?’
‘And this is my house—’
‘All right. Enough! Stop it! Will everyone please just be quiet!’ Eric’s placed his hands over his ears as he bellowed.
The result was instant. In less than a second Katrina, Abi, and Lulu were all stunned silent, mouths wide, the final breaths of their words still hanging in the air. And while the baby continued to wail, even that was at a more diminished volume. Six pairs of eyes stared expectantly up at him. Eric exhaled with relief.
‘Thank you,’ Eric said, taking the moment of quiet to breathe before they started up again. ‘Abi, you need to have a bath.’
‘But the baby—’
‘Needs some quiet.’
‘Bu—’
‘Now,’ Eric insisted.
‘But—’
‘Now. It is late. You have school tomorrow, and tonight is a hair wash night.’
Abi pouted, squeezing her mouth tightly into a perfect circle.
‘Don’t make me ask again. Today is not the day you want to try to battle me.’
With her pout still in place, Abi narrowed her eyes, clearly considering whether the threat from her father was real or not. After a brief moment’s contemplation, she huffed loudly and whistled the dog to her side.
‘Well Lulu’s coming with me,’ she said.
‘That would be wonderful,’ Eric replied. With Abi still grumbling to herself, the pair stomped their way up the staircase. Eric sighed in relief; however, the volume of the room was once again on the rise.
Although Katrina continued her actions of rocking and shushing, it became increasingly obvious to Eric that they were having very little effect on the child. Within a minute the gentle sobs were once more full-blown screams, and the baby’s olive-toned skin had now adopted an angry purple hue. Katrina’s eyes blurred with tears.
‘She’s only just been fed. And I winded her. But she’s so fussy. And she won’t sleep at the minute. She never sleeps. She just never sleeps. And I can’t … I can’t …’ Tears streamed down her cheeks. ‘I can’t …’
Eric stepped towards her. She was pale to the point of ghostly, with dark bags weighing beneath her eyes. It wasn’t just her nails and skin that were in a bad state. Her hair was more unkempt, knotted, and oily than he had realised at first, and the top of her jumper was mottled with whitish stains. Every attempt to speak was shorted by a deluge of tears or an ill-timed yawn. Still, she continued to stutter out her apologies.
‘I … I’m so sorry. It’s just … it’s just—’
‘Do you want a drink?’ Eric said, trying to figure out what kind of helpful comment people usually used in this type of situation. ‘We’ve got some tea?’
Katrina snivelled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Her chest shuddered with muffled sobs.
‘Tea would be good,’ she said.
It turned out that tea was the perfect solution in that it allowed Eric to busy himself and avoid any type of proper conversation. However, it was still more challenging than he had originally anticipated. With the expectation of making a simple cup of builder’s brew, Eric found himself rather out of his comfort zone when he opened the cupboard and began to search for tea bags of which, he quickly discovered, there was a multitude.
‘Uhmm,’ he said, pulling one box out and then another. ‘I’ve got peppermint tea—’
‘That would be fine.’
‘Or ginger and lemongrass? Or Earl Grey?’ He turned a patterned box over in his hand. The carton looked more like something you would wrap Grandma’s birthday present in than a tea box, with layers of multi-coloured flowers on. ‘I’m not sure what this one is …’ He dropped it to the other side of the pile. ‘But there’s a liquorice and chamomile, or goji berry — is that a thing? — goji berry and grapefruit?’
‘Peppermint will be fine,’ Katrina replied.
Why did they have so many types of tea? Eric wondered. He didn’t even drink the stuff. It had to be Yvette. There was no way Suzy would have had the patience to sort through all these every time she wanted a drink. Then again, it was starting to look like he didn’t know Suzy quite as well as he thought he did. He found another carton, this time a selection box, with ten different types of green tea infusion.
‘Or this says it’s—’
‘Peppermint would be great.’ Katrina looked him in the eye.
‘Peppermint it is then.’
No words were exchanged while they waited for the kettle to boil, and after he had poured the water, he took the mug in his hand and held it out. His throat had tightened awkwardly while his mind was having difficulty trying to process what type of etiquette should be displayed in such situations.
‘Why don’t you go drink that in the living room?’ he said, suddenly aware that she had been in the house for nearly ten minutes and he had not so much as offered her a seat, despite the weight in her arms. ‘You can sit down then. I’ll carry the tea through.’
‘A sit down would be good.’
‘After you,’ Eric said and pointed his hand out of the kitchen. He followed her out into the hallway before leading her into the living room and placing the mug down on their recently purchased, imitation teak coffee table.
‘I should go and get Abi sorted,’ he said. ‘I’ll only be a couple of minutes.’
‘No need to rush,’ she replied, her body sagging into the sofa.
Half an hour later and Eric had almost managed to get Abi settled in bed.
‘Who is she?’ she’d asked as she pulled on her pyjamas and took the toothbrush which Eric held out for her.
‘She’s a friend of Granny’s.’
‘It didn’t sound like they were friends,’ Abi said and raised a sceptical eyebrow. He flinched at an action that was scarily like her mother.
‘Well they are friends,’ he said. ‘They just haven’t seen each other in a while. They need to get to know each other again. Now I need to go and check if she’s all right. So you need to go to sleep.’
‘You know you shouldn’t lie to me,’ Abi said, her toothbrush by her side and her glare unwavering. ‘Mr Joe says it’s not healthy for you to lie to me, and I should say if I don’t feel like you’re being truthful.’
‘I’m being truthful when I say you need to go to sleep.’
‘Dad ...’ Abi growled.
Eric sighed, taking her toothbrush and dropping it back in the pot.
‘Okay, they aren’t friends. But they were and maybe they can be again.’
‘And that’s the truth? You swear?’
‘That is the truth. I swear,’ Eric said. ‘Now go to sleep.’
Abi shuffled into her room and up onto the bed.
‘Can I read first?’
‘Fifteen minutes maximum. And I mean that.’
‘Love you, Dad.’
‘Love you too.’ Eric kissed his daughter on the forehead. She might look like Suzy, he thought, but she would always smell like Abi; earthy and new, yet somehow fizzy like sugar-coated cola bottle sweets. ‘Sleep tight, my darling.’
He turned around to find himself toe to toe with Lulu. She looked up at him longingly from the floor.
‘Fine. You too. Fifteen minutes,’ Eric repeated and moved his arm to the side. Lulu bounded into the room and onto Abi’s bed, where she promptly snuggled down next to her. He let out a sad little chuckle. There was no chance that dog was going anywhere, not on his say so.
It was only when he was halfway down the stairs and Abi’s laughter drifted down after him that Eric realised this was the first time he had put Abi to bed without her mentioning her mother. He didn’t know if this made him more or less sad.
In the living room, Katrina was asleep. The mug of peppermint tea sat untouched on the coffee table while the bundled-up baby lay silently in the crook of her arm. It was almost impossible to believe that only a short while ago the same child had been screaming loud enough to wake the entire street. A trail of milky spittle was trickling from her mouth. Eric lifted the corner of her muslin blanket to wipe the dribble away.
‘Sorry,’ Katrina jolted from her sleep. ‘I must have dozed off.’
‘It’s fine. It’s not a problem.’
‘Is Yvette back?’ she said manoeuvring herself upright. ‘And Suzy? How long was I asleep? I need to speak to them. I have to speak to them.’ Her panicked tone and sudden tensing began to rattle the baby who grizzled wordlessly in her arms.
‘No, not again. It’s fine. Go back to sleep,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t wake up.’ Her voice hitched with distress. ‘You need to go back to sleep. Please, please. Not again. I need you to go back to sleep.’ Apparently, the baby was unable to hear the desperation in her mother’s voice as her screaming did nothing but increase. Within seconds, the purple features had returned.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry …’ She aimed her flustered apologies at Eric. ‘I don’t know why she’s like this.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘Honestly. We’ve all been there.’
‘But she’ll be coming home soon, right?’ Katrina begged, bouncing the baby up and down at an ever-increasing pace. ‘It won’t be long?’
‘She’ll be back soon,’ he said, without quite meeting her eyes.
Pressing his lips together, Eric glanced at his watch. Normally Yvette came straight home after her dance lessons, apart from on Thursdays when she went for a drink with a couple of the women from her seniors’ class. Tonight was a Wednesday, which meant she should be home fairly promptly, although the squirming in his stomach told him he probably shouldn’t bet on it. He tried not to show the doubt on his face.
Gradually the wail diminished into low grizzle. Katrina looked up at Eric.
‘I think she needs feeding again,’ she said. ‘Honestly, it’s non-stop. I don’t understand what’s wrong with her. You don’t mind, do you? If I give her some food here?’ As if reacting to the thought of food – and before Eric could offer a slightly wary go ahead – Katrina’s stomach let out a loud grumble. She yawned and blushed simultaneously, before it repeated the sound, this time even louder.
‘I’ve got a pizza in the freezer,’ Eric said, rising to his feet. ‘I can pop it in the oven if you fancy it?’
‘I don’t want to be any trouble.’
‘It’s not.’
Katrina nodded gratefully.
‘Pizza would be great. Thank you.’
Eric scurried out of the living room, leaving Katrina to feed the baby.
He took his time in the kitchen, waiting for the oven to heat up before unwrapping the pizza from its plastic packaging and sliding it onto the top shelf. The dishes from dinner were sitting on the draining board, Abi’s only half eaten, Yvette’s fork still on the floor. Eric moved to place it all in the dishwasher, only to discover it full of unwashed plates and cutlery. Washing up it was then.
The plates had been cleaned, dried, and put away and Eric was just taking the pizza out of the oven when Yvette arrived back home. He had stayed in the kitchen the entire time, poking his head around the corner only once to ask if Katrina wanted another cup of tea or a glass of water, both of which she declined. Something was bothering him as he paced around the table and washed the suds off the plates, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Most probably though, he suspected it was to do with Abi; most things that concerned him were. Perhaps her comments about Mr Joe. He couldn’t be certain, but all the while he was waiting for Yvette something was niggling away at the back of his mind, just out of reach.
‘Tell me that’s not for her?’ Yvette said, dropping her bag on the kitchen table and scowling. ‘Tell me she’s not still here?’
Eric slid the pizza onto a plate and opened the drawer in search of a pizza cutter.
‘Eric?’
He turned around with a sigh.
‘What do you want me to say, Yvette?’ He rubbed his temples in the vain hope of some relief from the headache he felt building. ‘Yes, it’s for her. Yes, she’s still here.’
‘Why?’ Yvette’s fist balled at her side.
‘Because she wanted to speak to you.’
Yvette’s balled fists tightened, whitening the skin on her knuckles.
‘Eric, what that girl did to me—’
‘Was unforgivable. I know, Yvette, I really do. But she’s tired, and she’s upset, and she wants to talk to you. It’s obviously caused her a great deal of distress to come here.’
‘A great deal of distress? What does someone like her know about distress?’
‘Yvette, you need to be reasonable.’
Yvette threw back her head and emitted a high-pitched laugh.
‘Me? Be reasonable? You men. All she has to do is bat her eyelids and utter a few sad, little words and there you all are running after her.’
‘That is not the case.’
‘I should have known you wouldn’t be any better, not after what happened with that Fleur woman.’
The flash of regret was immediate, but the words had already been released. They shot through the air piercing Eric right between his ribs.
‘Eric,’ Yvette’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I didn’t—’
‘No.’ Eric silenced her. The sting of her words continued to resonate through his chest. He inhaled and forced it down the best he could. ‘Yvette, I have barely spoken three words to the girl, but even I can tell she’s a train wreck. She doesn’t want to speak to me. She came here to speak to you.’
‘I have nothing to say to her.’
‘I understand, but she obviously has something to say to you. She wouldn’t have come all this way, otherwise would she?’
