The Other Son by Alexander Nick

Author:Alexander, Nick [Alexander, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: BIGfib Books
Published: 2015-10-17T07:00:00+00:00

Once Ken’s Megane has pulled away, Tim sets the kids up with “Bug’s Life” in Boris’ bedroom, then joins Natalya in the lounge. “Phew!” he says, chucking himself onto the sofa. “Thank God that’s over.”

Natalya shrugs. “You invite them here,” she says.

“I know. I think it’s like childbirth.”

“Childbirth?”

“Yeah,” Tim says. “People say that you always forget the pain and end up wanting more. I always forget what hard work they are. It’s weird.”

“Yes,” Natalya says. “Only is a myth. A woman never forget what childbirth is like. Believe me. Is like shitting a bus.”

“OK,” Tim laughs. “I’ll take your word on that one.”

“So why did she say that thing?” Natalya asks. “The one about Dot.”

Tim shrugs. “Mum’s mind works in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform.”

“I think she says we will split up.”

“Us?”

“Yes. I think it’s what she wants to say.”

Tim pouts and shakes his head. “Nah,” he says. “It won’t be anything as calculated as that. Being Mum, it was probably pretty straightforward. She probably just suddenly remembered that she hadn’t told me.”

“She thinks I stop you seeing her,” Natalya says. “She said this, yes? So she thinks if we split up it’s better for her. This is what I think.”

Tim shakes his head. “You’re slipping into full-blown paranoia now,” he says.

“In Russia we say that just because you feel paranoid...”

“It doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you,” Tim completes. “Yes, we say that here too.”

“But it’s Russian,” Natalya says. “It’s from Soviet times.”

“OK. Sure. But Mum loves you to bits. They both do. You know that.”

Natalya pulls a face. Because, no, she doesn’t know that at all. “I can’t believe she hit Boris,” she says – a remark specifically selected to get Tim to close ranks with her.

“Yeah, well, they were very slap-happy parents,” Tim says. “My childhood was like an episode of Punch and Judy only without the crocodile.”

Natalya is looking puzzled.

“Never mind. You don’t know about Punch and Judy, do you?”

“No. What is...”

“It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that I told them. We both did.”

“Yes,” Natalya says. “Thanks to you for that.”

“It will be so difficult to heat in winter,” Tim says, mocking his mother’s Brummy accent.

“You see how she cleaned the window?” Natalya says. “With her handkerchief?”

“Newspaper and vinegar,” Tim says, still mocking Alice’s accent. “That’s what you need, love, newspaper and vinegar.”

“And this soup is so pepper,” Natalya says, trying to join in but sounding more like a Russian-speaking Pakistani than she does like Tim’s mother.

Tim runs one hand over his face and groans. “I don’t know why we bother,” he says. “Really I don’t.”

And having got Tim to the conclusion she was hoping for, Natalya steps back from the precipice. Tim would never forgive her if she pushed him over the edge. If he chose, one day, to leap, on the other hand...

“Well, they’re your parents,” Natalya says. “This is what we do.”

“Indeed they are,” Tim agrees.

After half a minute of silence, Natalya moves to the kitchen. She starts to stack the dishwasher.

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