Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott

Author:Tim Lott [Lott, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780140284461
Goodreads: 1045559
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2002-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The four of them sit in the kitchen. It is a nice kitchen, thinks Maureen, airy and spacious. She holds a freshly made cup of tea. She is surprised at how calm she feels. Carol is holding the baby over her shoulder, purring to him.

Shh, Charlie.

Maureen smiles. Within her, a battlefield of competing, cataclysmic sentiment, and each separate emotion battles for dominance. The anger, at the moment, is crushed beneath the weight of Maureen’s tenderness. She holds out her arms to the baby.

Can I hold him?

Of course. Of course you can.

Maureen holds the child, the child she has seen dozens of times before, in its pram, on the stairwells, at the shops. In front of her, Carol has always called him Chucky. How can she have been so stupid not to have made the connection.

I have to go to work in a minute, Mum.

What’s your father going to say, Robert?

He’s going to go mad. Please don’t tell him.

How can I not tell him? I see Carol nearly every day. I see his grandchild nearly every day.

Robert’s face sets in a determined grimace. Maureen recognizes that expression. It is inherited from her and so she knows how pointless arguing is. Robert sits on the chair opposite his mother.

You mustn’t tell him. Carol’s moving in here next week, so it won’t be such a big deal.

Won’t be a big deal!. He’s got a grandson and it’s not a big deal!

You don’t understand, Mum! Dad already thinks I’m the flop of the century. This’ll be the last straw for him. I just want… I just want…

It’s wrong, Robert, it’s plain wrong. How can I keep a secret like that?

I just want him to know that I’m not worthless. That I’m not just working as a stinking security guard in Tesco, living in a squat with a six-month-old kid. I want to do the right thing, Mum. I just haven’t had time to do it yet. I haven’t had time to find out what it is yet. Give me some time to sort things out, to get myself on my feet. When he finds out about this, I want him to be happy, not furious.

But what are you going to do, Robert?

Robert looks suddenly crestfallen.

I don’t know. Something. There’s no jobs anywhere. The jobs there are – they’re rubbish for people with my qualifications. Or lack of them.

You’re a clever boy. If you’d tried harder…

If this, if that, if the other. This is how it is, and I’ve got to solve it the way it is.

You need to get in touch with your father. We haven’t heard hide nor hair from you for months.

Robert bites his lip till the flesh turns white.

Come on, Rob. You keep telling me you want to face up to things. If you want me to keep quiet about this, you’ve got to make an effort.

Hmm.

Look. What about going to one of your dad’s card games? As a first step. I mentioned it to him not so long ago.

And what did he say?

Nothing.

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