The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell

Author:Lisa Jewell [Jewell, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781446410769
Google: mnXk_NpVlVUC
Amazon: 0099533677
Publisher: Arrow Books
Published: 2009-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

1979

Another memory:

Jane, sitting on her bed in Matty’s old room, cross-legged and fat, her hair in a plait and her feet in clogs.

The window open on to the street, letting in wafts of chip-fat smell and the banter of Cockney holidaymakers.

A fat ball of aquamarine wool at her feet.

The dog running up the stairs, clickclickclick against the wooden steps.

The morning sun landing in stripes across the far wall.

A radio being tuned in someone else’s room.

Her mother, smiling, glancing down at her fat belly and saying the words: ‘Mummy’s going to have a baby.’

Melody wondering, how can Mummy be having another baby when Daddy’s living in America? And then realising, without anyone grown up having to tell her, that Daddy wasn’t the father of Mummy’s baby. Ken was.

Jane’s baby was due in November. She got fat very quickly. All day long she ate bread and cheese and bananas, and she was sick, loudly, voluminously and frequently. The summer came and went, and by the time Melody went back to school in September her mother was the size of a house and had chopped off all her hair again into the square helmet shape.

Penny’s face did the strangest thing when she saw Melody’s mum for the first time that Wednesday morning. She blinked and then she blinked again, then her jaw slowly lowered and her eyebrows slowly lifted and her nostrils flared open until she looked like her whole face was trying to escape from her head.

‘Your mum’s having that hippy’s baby!’ she declared with glee in the corridor outside their classroom a moment later. ‘She’s having his fucking baby. That makes me want to be sick.’

Melody turned away towards the classroom door.

‘Don’t ignore me,’ hissed Penny. ‘I’m talking to you.’

‘Yes, well, I don’t want to talk to you.’

‘No,’ said Penny, looming over Melody like a vulture, ‘I don’t suppose you do. I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone if my mum was up the duff by some dirty old hippy.’

‘He’s not dirty,’ said Melody. ‘Why do you keep saying he’s dirty?’

‘Because he is. They all are, hippies. My mum said so.’

‘Yes, well, your mum doesn’t know anything about hippies. And anyway, Ken’s not a hippy. He’s a polickital ativist.’

‘Same thing,’ said Penny, ‘same thing. All dirty. All perverts. All fucking disgusting. Just think,’ her face broke into a terrible smile. ‘You’re going to have a little brother or sister who’s a hippy too. A dirty little hippy! Heh heh heh …’ Penny tailed off with a contented smile and pushed past her into the classroom.

Melody followed quietly behind, staring at Penny’s thick yellow plait and wishing more than anything that she could grab hold of it and pull it so hard that Penny’s ugly head rolled off her shoulders, out the door, down the corridor and straight onto the busy street outside.

‘What are you going to call your baby?’ Melody swung back and forth in the bamboo chair that hung from the ceiling in the front room.

Her mum looked up from a crossword and smiled at her, distractedly.

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.