The Last Cuckoo by Maria Frankland

Author:Maria Frankland [Frankland, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Autonomy Press
Published: 2020-03-03T22:00:00+00:00

Iain’s street is quiet this morning. He must be sleeping peacefully, unlike me these days. You’re dead Mum. How can he sleep?

I sit in the car a moment longer, wondering what he’ll say when he sees me. He’s going to get a rude awakening. I push the gate open into his back yard which is now filled with pots of flowers and hanging baskets. He never bothered with all this crap before. He was planning to move in with you Mum, and sit in your garden with your hanging baskets. Claudia’s obviously been busy – or Stacey. I try the back door. Locked. I hammer on it. It’s a few minutes before I see a shadow moving behind the frosted glass.

“Alright. Alright. Just let me find the key.” Finally he flings the door open. “Jamie! I thought it was the bloody police. What the hell are you doing here at this time of day? It’s only seven o’clock!”

“When Mum died, you said I’d always be welcome.” I push past him and flick his kettle on.

“Make yourself at home Jamie, why don’t you.” He closes the kitchen door behind him, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Well you always have in my house.”

“What do you want?”

I turn and face him. His hair’s on end, his face is sleep-lined and he’s wearing baggy boxers. What did you ever see in him Mum? You could have done far better. “Have you been on Twitter?”

“Not for a day or so. Why?” His eyes are boring into me, then reality must dawn. “Oh no, not again. Where’s my phone?”

I point to the microwave - his phone is on top of it. I watch him frown as he reads the tweet.

“Even your ex, if ex is the right word now, is putting her oar in.” I watch as he places his phone on the kitchen counter.

“She is my ex, Jamie, but, yeah, I’ll have a word with her about that – these tweets have got nothing to do with her.”

“So, what’s this about a scan?” I’m facing him. Our eyes lock. “Was mum ill?”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“It does to me.” I don’t move. “Is someone here Iain? You seem a bit on edge.”

“No, not at all. Just me.”

“So. My mum?”

“Ok. Ok. She’d have been three months gone when she -”

“She was pregnant? And you knew?”

“Of course I knew. We were going to get married.”

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

“There didn’t seem to be any point. Not after-”

“Did you want it?”

“Jamie. I’ve had my time as a father. I didn’t want any more. But things happen. We would have dealt with it.”

“It?”

“He? She? Whatever. We’ll never know.”

“What do you mean dealt with it? Would you have made her get rid or something?”

“Of course not. What do you take me for?”

“So, you were happy about it then?”

“No, not at all. But we’d have sorted it, like I said.”

“How come no one else knew?”

“It was too early. Things can go wrong. Your mum was in her forties.”

“I know how old my bloody mother was!”

Iain’s giving nothing away.

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