The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes_A Novel by Ruth Hogan

Author:Ruth Hogan [Hogan, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Women, General, Friendship, Romance, contemporary, Later in Life
ISBN: 9781643852102
Google: oF1-DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07LDDP6LK
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Published: 2019-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Four

Alice and Mattie

‘Incy wincy spider climbed up the water spout …’

It was the first song Mattie had learned at nursery. The veins in Alice’s arms looked like spiders’ legs; black and gnarled and spindly. And they throbbed and ached, weary of the poison pumped through them time and again. But today was a good day. She would take no drugs today. Outside the sun was shining. A spring sun, brittle and bright, but not yet ripe enough to bring any real warmth. Alice was still in her nightdress and her feet were bare as she wandered around the garden trying to remember why she was there. A spider’s web caught in the rosemary bush trembled in the morning breeze. Alice crushed some of the eau de nil leaves between her fingers and breathed in their pungent aroma. She would cook something nice for Mattie’s tea as a surprise. He had football this afternoon (at least, she thought it was this afternoon) and would come home ravenous. The spider was frantically repairing the tear in its web that Alice had made when she had plucked the leaves.

‘Incy, wincy spider climbed up the water spout …’

Alice couldn’t remember the rest.

Mattie was trying to make the walk home from the bus stop take as long as possible, but he knew that he was only postponing the inevitable. It was like eating all the things you enjoy first from your Christmas dinner; you’d still be left with the Brussels sprouts to eat at the end. He didn’t want to go home at all. It didn’t feel like home any more. He never knew which Alice was going to be waiting when he got there. Some days it was almost like it used to be. His mum would have showered and got dressed properly, and even made some dinner. She would ask him how school had been and then after he’d done his homework they might watch something on TV together. But on other days she seemed almost surprised to see him, as though she’d forgotten she even had a son. The house would be a mess and Mattie would have to get his own tea while his mum lay on the sofa still in her dressing gown, drifting in and out of sleep. In spite of all his teenage bravado with his friends at school, he felt too young to be dealing with this alone.

He didn’t know what to do – whether to do anything. There were no grandparents or aunties and uncles that he could ask. He had almost told his teacher at school. His grades were suffering; nothing too disastrous, but a noticeable decline from last year, and Mrs Jackson had asked him if everything was all right at home. She was about the same age as his mum, but that was all that they had in common. Mrs Jackson was a brisk and confident woman who took no prisoners if anyone crossed her in the classroom. But she also had

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