Terror Kid by Benjamin Zephaniah

Author:Benjamin Zephaniah [Benjamin Zephaniah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Published: 2014-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Blood is Thicker Than Water

Rico slept on the couch but got very little sleep that night and in the morning he had stiff shoulders, a stiff neck and a headache. Kim and Lola weren’t feeling much better either. They had slept in their beds, but they had also spent many hours talking about the situation they had found themselves in. As they sat eating breakfast from plates on their laps they compared the strength of their headaches then, for the first time, Lola asked how her parents were.

‘They were OK the last time I saw them,’ said Rico. Then he thought about how panicked his mother sounded the last time he heard her, and of how confused his father would be. His head flopped down and he continued to speak with his head bowed. ‘But I’m sure they’re not OK now. Not after what I’ve done to them.’

‘Hey. Let’s talk about something else. Have they been bad-mouthing me?’ Lola asked, half-smiling.

‘No. They haven’t really been talking about you at all.’

‘Good.’

‘Why is that good?’ asked Rico.

‘Because I’d rather have them not talking about me than have them bad-mouthing me. I’ve had enough of them bad-mouthing me. Just because I wouldn’t do what they wanted me to do.’

‘I thought you fell out with them because they didn’t turn up to your graduation,’ said Rico.

‘Yes. No,’ replied Lola. ‘Well, kind of. There’s more to it than that. I wanted to study Art at university, but they convinced me to do Law. I wasn’t crazy about the idea but I thought, OK, that might be useful, you know, get a law degree, then go out into the world and help people. I really struggled to stay on top of my studies and had very little support from them and, yes, they didn’t turn up to my graduation when I really wanted them to. But what really got me was, the day after I graduated they showed me a photo of some guy from Spain that they wanted me to marry.’

‘What, Mum and Dad did that? Who was the guy?’ asked Rico.

‘I don’t know. I’d never seen him before, and I never wanted to see him again, and never wanted to hear such rubbish again. Actually, it was more Dad than Mum, but when I told them I wasn’t interested in this guy they said they had another one lined up. As if I’d done all that study just to be married off. So I’ve never forgiven them for not thinking about what I want from my life, and they’ve never forgiven me for calling them old-fashioned and backward.’

‘I didn’t know any of that,’ said Rico. ‘I thought they were modern and up-to-date and everything.’

‘Yes, but you’re a boy. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think they’re bad people, I just think they treated me badly, and I guess I wanted to punish them for it. I don’t hate them; if I really hated them I wouldn’t make contact when I do.’

‘That’s not very often, is it?’ said Rico.

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