The Dare by John Boyne

Author:John Boyne
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446497487
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2016-02-09T05:00:00+00:00

By a quarter to nine we were eating the birthday cake when the door opened and quietly, like a ghost, Mam entered the room.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Oh yes, I forgot. You were cooking tonight, weren’t you?’

‘For seven o’clock,’ Dad said. ‘You said you’d be home by then.’

‘I got delayed,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, I—’

‘It’s not good enough,’ he said, his voice holding firm. ‘It’s not good enough at all. It’s Danny’s birthday and you said that you’d—’

‘Russell, I said I’m sorry,’ she snapped. ‘I got delayed.’

‘You were never coming.’

‘Oh just shut up, Russell, for God’s sake,’ she snapped and we all jumped, except for Dad who remained perfectly still before standing up and walking over to her.

‘Don’t. Shout. At. Me,’ he said clearly, pausing between his words.

‘Rachel, dear, why don’t you sit down and I’ll heat you up some—’

‘She can’t have any,’ said Dad, turning to look at Gran, who immediately fell quiet and nodded, knowing who was in charge here. ‘If she can’t make it home in time for dinner, then she doesn’t get any.’

I heard Mam gasp but didn’t want to look at her. She gasped again, almost laughing. ‘If I don’t get here in time, I can’t have any?’ she asked, amazed. ‘What am I, eight years old? Yes, Mother, if you could heat some up for me that would be lovely.’

‘Stay where you are, Belinda,’ said Dad, who stepped up close to my mother now, saying nothing, just staring at her as if he hardly knew her any more. We all watched, holding our breaths. This time when she spoke, her voice cracked a little, as if she knew that there was a long-awaited battle coming up but she really wanted to put it off. Just for another day or so. Just until she felt a little stronger.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly, her eyes filling with tears.

‘I’ve had enough of this, Rachel,’ said Dad. ‘We all have.’

‘You’ve had enough?’ she shouted, finding her voice again suddenly. This was who she was now, I realized. From one moment to the next, I never knew what to expect. ‘You’ve had enough? You don’t have all of this weighing down on your conscience, Russell. You didn’t nearly kill a child. You don’t have to live with that, do you?’

‘And neither do you,’ he said, remaining firm. ‘It was an accident. The boy is still alive. And Danny is alive too, in case you hadn’t noticed. And Pete is alive. What about the kids, Rachel? Can’t you think about them for once?’

I turned in my chair to look at her, feeling the tears beneath my lids now too. She looked at me for a moment and shook her head.

‘There’s only one who matters,’ she said, and I knew she didn’t mean me. I normally would have thought she meant Pete because he was her favourite, but tonight I knew the only kid who mattered was Andy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.