Simon Says by Jo Wesley

Author:Jo Wesley [Wesley, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-10T22:00:00+00:00

♦

Downstairs Mum and Bill were having a barney about some poxy statue he’d bought with the last of his dole money. I snuck out of bed and jammed my dressing gown under the bedroom door so Mum couldn’t burst in and start on me. When I crept back, I glimpsed something white in the garden. The bed creaked as I knelt, elbows planted on the windowsill, to stare open-mouthed at the thing below. No wonder Mum was mad. This time he’d lost it.

A concrete statue of a half-naked woman had been plonked in the middle of the lawn. It leant to one side, as if about to fall over any minute. I smirked. Even I knew to cut the grass to make an even surface before putting something on it. I gazed at the woman’s boobs, upright and pert with sticky out nipples just like Simon liked. Yuk. Is that why Bill had bought it, so he could stare at concrete boobs all day? Lucky her bits were covered with a piece of cloth.

“I thought you’d like it,” he bellowed at Mum.

“Like it? Bloody like it?” Mum yelled back. “Eighty flaming quid for that.”

“I got a deal.”

“They should have paid you to take it away.”

“I’m not having this.”

I held my breath and waited. True to form, the door slammed. That left me and Mum alone in the house, with her in a right mood too. I jumped, hearing something crash below me. The sound of glass, or plate, hitting the floor.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mum screeched. “Now I can’t afford to buy another one. I’m gonna kill him when he gets back.” Another smash. “Fucking kill him.”

A cupboard door banged, then another. I edged from the bed, heart thumping. Bill had really wound her up. If I didn’t get out, I’d be in for it too. I grabbed my shoes and jacket and tugged the dressing gown free from beneath the door, tossing it onto the bed. At the top of the stairs, I heard the tinkle of glass and the slam of a metal lid. Mum was outside by the bin. I raced downstairs and out of the front door, taking a moment to put the key in the outside lock and turn it, so it didn’t click and alert Mum.

I tried Nina first, but no one answered. They were probably at a family do or something. Unsure where to go, I wandered about until I found myself at the top of Simon’s road. Maybe we could just chat like we used to. Not do that stuff. I headed towards his place, pulling off a bit of hedge here and there, flinging it into the path. When I reached his front gate, I hesitated. His lounge window was open, the TV booming. He said come around tomorrow. But, surely, he wouldn’t mind? I pushed open the gate and, ignoring my growing nerves, I pressed his doorbell.

He’d be nice to me. Unlike Mum.

The door shuddered as Simon pulled it open. He gazed through me, as if he didn’t know who I was, then all-of-a-sudden his eyes widened.

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