Bad Fruit by Ella King

Author:Ella King [King, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-06-20T12:00:00+00:00

19

GREEN JUICE

Mama is putting on her make-up while expounding on her newest theory – that Francie has ‘seduced’ Daddy. The word ‘seduced’ makes me want to laugh, as if Daddy is a ruined maiden, tricked into surrendering his virginity. No one was more willingly led astray.

‘She let him spend so much time with her.’

I’m only half listening. It’s Mama’s first day back at work and she has a client meeting so I’m hunting for her suit jacket that will be too warm to wear. I’ve located the matching skirt; the jacket must have fallen off the hanger. If I can’t find it quickly, Mama will complain I haven’t organised her wardrobes properly.

‘Albie said he was there all the time.’

Inside the wardrobe, I flinch. In the last few months, Mama has started telling Albie that he’s her favourite, and whenever I hear that, a stillness comes over me, like being slowly submerged in freezing water. I say to him, ‘Careful, Albie, careful,’ but when he asks me why, I don’t know what to say.

‘When did you speak to him?’

‘This morning on video.’

Why would Francie let Albie speak to Mama without her? I find the jacket but stay inside the wardrobe, watching Mama through the hinged edge of the door. ‘He’s only two, Mama. Children will say anything.’

Mama’s mascara is frozen in her hand. ‘Albie is completely reliable.’

She waits for me to agree, but Albie and Leo are perhaps the only issue I would resist her on. I change the subject. ‘Found it.’ I hold the jacket to the light. ‘There’s a mark on the corner, see? A bit of pen. I’ll wash it out.’ I head to the bathroom, so Mama has to call after me; the flood of adrenaline will drown out her thoughts.

‘Are you crazy? I’ve got a meeting in an hour.’

‘Sorry, Mama. Do you still want to wear it?’

Mama glances at her watch. ‘It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll just hide the stain behind the desk.’

I smooth the jacket out on her bed.

Mama pouts into the mirror and applies her lipstick. ‘I’m just going to ask her.’

‘Who?’

‘Francie,’ she says through puckered lips.

‘Ask her what?’

‘If she seduced him. I’m meeting her this evening,’ she says. I stare at the crystal pins in her hair, her make-up shades too pale, as if they will answer this new, dangerous question – why is Mama trying to blame Francie?

‘What?’ she says layering on the fuchsia. ‘You think it’s a bad idea?’

‘Do you really think she’s involved?’

Mama neatens her lip line with her ring finger. Her eyes are flint in the mirror. ‘One hundred per cent.’

Jacob picks up almost immediately. ‘Hi.’

‘Why are you whispering?’

‘David’s coming back in a sec, what’s up?’

My brother, who has fought to get into this law firm, who has been interviewed and tested to prove he deserves his place, is whispering in his pristine glass office. ‘Can you step out?’

‘Hang on.’ He puts me in his pocket. When he speaks to me again, a coffee machine splutters in the background. ‘Everything OK?’

‘Does Francie know Mama’s found out about the poems?’

‘Well … no.

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