Mother's Day by Laurence Fearnley

Author:Laurence Fearnley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742288796
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

It wasn’t until she left home the following morning that it suddenly hit Maggie that Bevan hadn’t returned the night before. Guessing he was at the car sales-yard, she ran back inside, pulling the first pair of trousers and underpants she could find from the ironing basket and stuffing them into a plastic bag before running back to the car where Justine and Storm were waiting.

Justine had insisted on accompanying her to work that morning. Dismissing Maggie’s suggestion that she might be better off going to town or visiting old friends, she had remained determined to stay.

Justine had started the day by making Storm’s breakfast and packed lunch before hustling him off to the bathroom to clean his teeth. Despite finding it difficult to work around her daughter, Maggie knew it would be unwise to undermine her decision. Nothing was said, but Maggie thought Justine’s offer to help was an apology, a way of atoning for her poor behaviour the previous day.

Certainly, since waking, Justine had made a real effort to be pleasant. She had even managed to stop bitching about Carol and the fact that she had also bought Storm a light sabre for his birthday. Provided Storm played only with her gift, Justine seemed content to let the matter rest. This was a far cry from the previous evening when, for several hours, she had moaned about Carol’s manipulative, self-centred motives and her show-off, superior ways. The list of complaints mirrored those raised by Maggie during the debacle at the party. Nevertheless, Maggie felt obliged to defend Carol. She didn’t like hearing her sister being torn apart. Justine’s nose was out of joint and she was being cruel.

In the short time it took to deliver Storm to school and drop by Bevan, Justine’s mood swung around. What began as snide remarks levelled against Invercargill’s too-wide streets, developed into an attack on her mother: a list of her shortcomings and a critique of her appearance. Maggie knew her daughter was highly strung but she didn’t remember her being as manic as she was now. Justine’s behaviour made her not only uncomfortable but nervous, too.

Then, without warning, Justine suddenly changed the subject. She announced her intention to start a business, to move from Auckland to the Far North in order to be closer to Aaron’s family, and her desire to buy a house with him because it would make their commitment stronger. Forgetting all about her earlier intention to broach the subject of her daughter’s dependency on welfare and credit, Maggie became increasingly agitated as, with each passing minute, she waited with sickening dread for her daughter to mention Storm. Finally, she could control herself no longer. She blurted out her worries, only to hear her daughter laugh, ‘Storm? God, I hadn’t even thought about that!’

‘Him!’ Maggie snapped, her voice far louder than she intended. ‘Not “that”,’ she continued. ‘“Him”.’

She glanced across to her daughter and registered the girl’s startled expression. It was enough to give her courage. ‘He’s settled here … with us.

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