Jonas by Maguire Eden

Author:Maguire, Eden [Maguire, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844569885
Publisher: Hachette Children
Published: 2010-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

On Sundays Jim is usually home. It’s no big deal. He’s in the house and I try to ignore him.

But that Sunday, after I’d told Jonas goodbye and promised him that I’d try to visit Zoey again as soon as I could, it turned out I couldn’t keep out of Jim’s sight line for more than five minutes at a time.

First it was, ‘Darina, take the trash out for your mom,’ then, ‘Have you cleaned your room?’ and ‘How are you going to pay to get your fender fixed?’ Yackety-yack, on and on with the banal, boring stuff, like he really wanted to nail me. But after four years of it, I’m pretty well immune.

‘Darina, why can’t you try being nice, just once?’

Laura asked when Jim drove to the mall to buy milk and a newspaper.

‘Why can’t he try being nice?’ I snapped back.

Laura was doing Sunday chores with the TV switched on in the kitchen and the dishwasher swirling and swishing in the background. Not looking her best, I’d say, in one of Jim’s grey-white sweatshirts and a pair of faded jogging pants, with her hair scraped back and her face looking saggy.

That’s the bitch in me coming through, and maybe Laura picked it up in the way I was staring at her, because all of a sudden she grabbed a cloth and began to rub hard at invisible specks of dirt on the side of the refrigerator. ‘I can’t take this any more,’ she muttered. ‘You and Jim need to get along, or else I’m out of here!’

The manic cleaning meant she was serious.

‘I mean it. I’ve had enough of the bad atmosphere between you two … Darina, I need you to acknowledge that Jim is the man I love and chose to live with. Also, that, even though you’re grieving for Phoenix, it still doesn’t make you the most important person in the world.’

‘I’m not even the most important person in this room!’ I argued. ‘Hey, I come way down the list – after Jim, somewhere around cleaning the house and watching your favourite TV programme.’

Laura stopped the polishing routine and stood with her back to me. ‘You’re so young,’ she sighed as she stared out of the window.

Where did that come from? Her side swipe made me step back.

Laura turned towards me with tears in her eyes. ‘You still think life is simple, don’t you, Darina? Either black or white, right or wrong.’

I frowned then nodded. ‘So I have opinions. So what?’

Laura brushed the tears away and picked up her cloth again. ‘I guess I remember being that way when I was your age.’

‘But not any more?’

‘No. Right now things are way more complicated than I ever dreamed. Most days I’m treading a tightrope – should I do this, say that, jump this way, or that? Every second of every day I’m just trying to keep my balance.’

‘Because of Jim?’ I asked carefully. ‘Or because of me?’

‘Because of both of you. And you know what I

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