The Shape of Us_A Hilarious and Emotional Page Turner About Love, Life and Laughter by Drew Davies

Author:Drew Davies [Davies, Drew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1786817098
Amazon: B07GXM5ZB7
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2018-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

As soon as Dylan’s overall health improved, his father introduced a sit-down meal on Fridays – part of Operation: Normal Family – which meant no TV, phones or any other distractions. Tonight’s menu is cannelloni. The pasta is rubbery and oozes a stodgy white sauce, so Dylan surreptitiously circles the plate, trying to find the least offensive mouthful to load onto his fork.

‘We’ll have to check if your trousers still fit,’ his dad is saying, ‘take down the seams if the legs are too short.’

Dylan nods, but he can’t seem to muster up any excitement about returning to school. He stabs a cannelloni with his fork and it haemorrhages sauce.

‘Anything you want me to buy at tomorrow’s shop?’

Dylan shrugs. ‘We’re out of Coco Pops.’

Under the table, Otis yawns.

Resting his cutlery on the side of his plate, his father takes a swig of beer (he hasn’t eaten much of the cannelloni either, Dylan notes), wiping the foam from his moustache.

‘Dylan, I want to ask you something.’

‘I’ll clean Otis’s bowl after dinner, I promise.’

‘Good, but that’s not what I meant. I noticed your Xbox has gone from your room. Have you packed it away?’

‘Not exactly…’

‘Where’s it gone then?’

Dylan pokes at his plate.

‘I wasn’t using it much anymore,’ he says, with a shrug, ‘so I sold it on eBay.’

Dad drops his fork with a clatter.

‘You begged me to buy that – it was all you could talk about for months.’

‘I didn’t like it that much.’

‘You cried when you opened it. I videoed it on my phone.’

‘That was years ago – I was a kid. You promised you’d delete that too!’

‘Dylan – serious talk now – you should have asked me first.’

‘I’m starting school in a couple of weeks,’ Dylan says with a stoic expression. ‘I thought it would help me focus.’

‘That’s very admirable… What about all your games though? We only got that one recently. Battlefield… Battleground whatsit. You were desperate for that.’

‘I sold them too.’

‘For how much?’

‘With the money from the Pokémon cards – three hundred and fifty pound.’

‘What? You sold your cards? Not your rare collectable ones? What about the one you were so happy about, which looked like a fancy fox?’

‘Delphox. Sold it. Wasn’t that rare anyway.’

‘What about the one I had to drive over to Carshalton to pick up? With the holograms?’

‘Sold it too.’

‘Not the legendary card, I thought there’s only five of its kind in the world? The one that boy in Japan rang up about in the middle of the night?’

‘I want to give up all my kid stuff,’ says Dylan with another shrug.

Dylan’s dad picks up his cutlery again and turns his remaining cannelloni tube 180 degrees.

‘What are you planning to spend the money on?’ he asks quietly, cutting the pasta into pieces.

‘I don’t know yet,’ replies Dylan, biting his bottom lip.

‘Maybe you could put it towards a tutor to help you catch up at school?’

‘Yeah, maybe…’

His father plonks his cutlery down and pushes his plate away.

‘You know, when I was in the army I played a lot of poker, and you learned a lot about someone over a pack of cards.

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