The Thing About Clare by Imogen Clark

Author:Imogen Clark [Clark, Imogen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Women, Family Life, General
ISBN: 1503904962
Google: u_bftgEACAAJ
Amazon: B07CKRG8TN
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Published: 2018-11-14T13:00:00+00:00

II

It was Valentine’s Day but Anna wasn’t expecting a deluge of cards and roses from men declaring their undying love for her. Just one would be nice, but when the post hit the mat it was immediately apparent that this year was going to be just as disappointing as the last. Not one silly pink envelope peeped out from beneath the catalogues and takeaway menus. When she’d been a girl, her father had bought the three girls a card each and every year. They’d always known it was from him but Anna had still counted it proudly as she totted up her card count. Clare always received the most, of course.

‘I could paste the walls with mine,’ she used to say, and it wasn’t far from the truth. The boys always seemed to know how to push at that open door. A couple of times Anna had even got a card from Malcolm next door but those had gone into the bin without being displayed. Cards from your father were one thing, cards from a total loser like Malcolm Connors were quite another.

And here she was again, twenty years later with neither man nor card to display. She wondered if River had anyone to send a card to. Did teenagers still do that kind of thing? She had no idea but she liked to think that it was one of those quirky little traditions that would never go out of fashion. Surely you could never be too sophisticated to get a thrill out of knowing someone found you attractive? Would he have cards waiting on his mat at Clare’s squat? It seemed unlikely. They hadn’t been living there so long and Anna couldn’t believe that River would advertise his address. School probably didn’t even know where they’d moved to. As a girl Anna had used the phone book to look up her beaux, but any admirers of River’s would have to try much harder than that to track him down.

It had been an odd morning. The pair of them had overcome a slightly awkward moment on the landing on their simultaneous journeys to the bathroom, she in a dressing gown and he wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. He might be only fourteen but he definitely wasn’t a little boy any more and Anna had made a mental note to hang a bathrobe on the back of his bedroom door before tomorrow. He had not appeared for breakfast with her but when she had shouted up the stairs to say that she was leaving for work, he had come downstairs, fully dressed in his school uniform.

‘Help yourself to anything you can find in the kitchen,’ she had said as she left. ‘See you tonight.’

As she drove to work, Anna played out a little fantasy in her head where she had a partner and a child or two. It wasn’t that far-fetched. She was only thirty-three. There was still plenty of time for her to fall in love and settle down.

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