The Visitor by Angela McKenna

Author:Angela McKenna [McKenna, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublishNation
Published: 2020-11-23T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Hickory, Dickory Dock

The next few days passed in relative peace. Helen spent a considerable amount of time on campus and although this meant she couldn’t be sure what Gary had been up to, Ingrid seemed bright enough so she presumed things must have been to some degree, reasonable. Mealtimes were polite affairs but as the days progressed, Helen’s tolerance of meaningless small talk grew thin and there had been one or two tense moments when things almost boiled over. Overall, though, it was bearable and relief arrived at last in the form of Wednesday evening when Gary departed in a taxi for the airport and Oskar, with impeccable timing, arrived back from Kieran’s house.

Oskar was on good form when he returned, fresh from a marathon gaming session of Half Life and what he had called serious college time. Helen wasn’t averse to some game time herself but she was happy to admit to him she wasn’t anywhere near his level. Sensing a willing victim, Oskar issued a gaming challenge and she agreed to a few games of FIFA at the weekend but forgot to tell him she had a skill level of insanely good when it came to soccer games. He would find out soon enough.

With Gary gone, both Sophie and Ingrid had returned to what Helen now thought of as normal and by the time Friday night arrived, they had all settled back into a cosy domestic routine, topped off with take-out food, some beers, and a few games of Jenga. Ingrid won every game which prompted accusations of cheating and although she denied this, her passion when doing so persuaded everyone to agree she must have been cheating. Before heading to bed, Helen had mentioned her first cookery lesson the following day and she had been feeling pretty good about it until she discovered it would involve deconstructing a whole salmon. Her reaction, when Ingrid revealed she expected her to cut the head off a dead fish, prompted peals of laughter from Sophie and caused Oskar to lie his huge frame flat on the floor as he pretended to be the dead fish. Why Ingrid chose a fish autopsy as the first lesson was a mystery but Helen thought she had guessed what the reaction would be and that it would be amusing. She certainly seemed to find it very funny and in turn, Helen had found Ingrid’s reaction very funny and the night had ended on a rather upbeat note.

Of course, now, standing half-dressed in her bedroom on a Saturday morning and preparing to confront Moby Dick in the kitchen, Helen didn’t find the situation quite so comical. Despite facing the prospect of blood and guts, she took a plain white T-shirt from the wardrobe and matched it up with faded, black jeans and a battered pair of Converse sneakers. A quick blow dry of her hair was the last touch, after which it was all systems go. She glanced at her watch again, noting it

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