Plain Dead by Andy Maslen

Author:Andy Maslen [Maslen, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Determined to speak to Sam that evening, Ford dragged himself away from his desk at just before six. He’d cook a nice meal and try to find a way to explain what had really happened at Pen-y-Holt.

He parked on the gravel at the front of the house and walked up to the front door. It started to rain, fat drops that slapped his face as he passed the low slate sign reading ‘Windgather’ by the door. He and Lou had named the house after the place in the Peak District where they’d had so much fun together learning to climb. Now it was a permanent reminder of his failure to save her life when she’d needed him.

Inside, he dumped his bag on the pew in the hall and called out to Sam. No reply. But that meant nothing. Sam listened to his music through earbuds. He went into the kitchen and assembled ingredients for dinner, pausing to text Sam. The reply pinged back in segments, interwoven with Ford’s own messages:

u upstairs

ye

tea at 7

ok but not that hungry

it’s burgers

we had chips in town

Ford shrugged. It was the occasion to talk, not the food, that concerned him. He and Lou had agreed early on that if and when they had kids they’d never make a big deal out of cleaning the plate, eating up or any of the emotional pressures their own parents had put on them as children.

Lou had never been a dieter as an adult, but she’d told Ford once that she veered uncomfortably close to anorexia as a sixteen-year-old girl. Their rule, devised spontaneously and parroted by Sam as he grew old enough to understand it, was a simple one. ‘Eat when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re full.’

However, Sam loved Ford’s home-made burgers, and Ford was betting on securing at least a minimum willingness to open up if tempted by a fat, juicy half-pounder. He set a heavy skillet, blackened by many years of use, on to the hob.

Fifteen minutes later, he assembled two towering burgers: bun, meat, cheese, onions, lettuce leaf, tomato slices, gherkins. He balanced the top halves of the rolls on the garnish and took the finished burgers to the table.

‘Sam!’ he yelled up the stairs. ‘Dinner’s ready!’

For good measure, he texted again.

burgers on table

He put a glass beside Sam’s plate, took a swig of his beer and waited. The smell of the food had him salivating like a dog on the wrong side of a fence from its dinner. But he waited just the same.

Three minutes later, he heard the clack as the latch on Sam’s warped bedroom door gave, and then Sam’s feet appeared at the top of the stairs that led into the kitchen.

He took them at speed, amazing Ford once again that he could perform this feat without falling.

He sat opposite Ford, then jumped up, fetched a carton of orange juice from the fridge, filled his glass and gulped down half of it.

Ford picked up his burger and managed to get his mouth around it.

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