Soon (Charlotte Grimshaw) by Charlotte Grimshaw

Author:Charlotte Grimshaw
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780224097642
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Evidence

Karen was standing in the sitting room of the Little House while Elke walked to and fro in the second bedroom. Karen turned, her expression pinched, angry.

He squeezed her shoulder, went to the bedroom door. A twitch of amusement at the sight of Elke’s chaotic open suitcase, then sadness; their girl was packing her bags. And with what touching, what characteristic ineptitude.

She tossed a T-shirt onto the pile of crumpled jeans, tiny shorts, shoes, belts, a hairy brush sticking up at an angle, glossy women’s magazines: Beat Bad Hair Days, What He Really Wants, Great Sex in Eight Steps. Forcing a tennis racquet into one of the side pockets she crammed the lid over the bulging pile.

He stepped over her white bikini with the gold clasp, dropped in a damp puddle on the floor.

‘Nice bikini.’

‘Roza bought it.’

Behind them, Karen made a small hissing sound.

Elke raised her eyes. ‘What?’

Karen said, ‘I don’t see why you need to move up to the big house. Johnnie’s got sleep problems; why should they make you play the nanny? They’ve got that Polynesian.’

‘You mean Tuleimoka. God, Mum.’

‘Surely they pay her to get up.’

‘I’m his sister.’

‘Well, you need sleep too.’

‘He’s not going to wake me up. He likes having me there, at bedtime and that. It’s cosy. And we’re going home soon, what’s the big deal?’

Karen squeezed her fists, a spasm of frustration. ‘Oh . . . It’s Roza, isn’t it. It’s her idea. She wants you up there so she can—’

Simon said, warning, ‘Karen.’

‘Why? Why can’t I say it? So she can claim you, so she can make out she’s the most important person in your life.’

‘Karen!’

But something had come loose, she smacked her palm against the door frame, ‘We loved and cared for you, brought you up, and where was she then? Where was Roza?’

Elke looked at Karen as though focusing on her for the first time.

Simon tried to herd Karen away but she waved him off. Mother and daughter didn’t move, eyes locked. Elke slowly extended her hand. Her tone was formal, polite. ‘Excuse me while I finish packing, Karen,’ she said, and slammed the door in her face.

Elke marched off to the big house and later Simon carried her suitcase up there, handing it over to Chad, who silently vanished with it indoors. Tuleimoka and Johnnie were having their singing time on mats in the cool shade of the veranda. He recognised one of the Maori songs from his own childhood, an action song, to be performed with sticks for beating time. At primary school they’d done their Maori stick songs using rolled-up newspapers.

Sudden memory: the back of Ford’s head in assembly, a humid, windless grey morning, steamy Christmas weather, the sky full of hot rain, Ford’s voice among the others singing while the rolled-up sticks beat time, and the sudden surreal appearance of their mother up the front, red-faced and distraught as she whispered and gesticulated at the headmaster, her voice cracking and rising, so sorry but she’d come to collect them, they were leaving town, escaping from crazy Aaron for the last time.

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