Transformation of Minna Hargreaves, The by Beale Fleur

Author:Beale, Fleur [Fleur Beale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775530466
Publisher: Random House New Zealand
Published: 2012-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

fifteen

In the morning Dad was making breakfast when I hit the kitchen. The room was warm, it smelled of bacon, eggs sizzled in the pan — what a picture of domestic harmony. I hope the cameras caught it all because the camera never lies.

Mum was still in bed and there was no sign of Noah, surprise surprise. Dad disappeared and I could hear the murmurings of calm and patient from him and exactly nothing from Noah. Dad reappeared. Noah snarled his way into the room not too many minutes later.

‘You stink,’ I said.

Dad sniffed. ‘Go and have a shower, son.’

Noah sat down — didn’t grunt, didn’t answer, didn’t shower.

‘Breakfast after your shower,’ Dad said, doing calm and patient again.

Noah got up but headed for the pantry not the bathroom. ‘Where’s the bread?’

Well, well — here was another delightful surprise. We’d eaten all the bread and when that happened, we had to make our own.

‘Why didn’t you say something last night?’ I asked Dad. ‘We could’ve put the breadmaker on.’

He tried for a hearty grin but to my expert eye, it was just a touch frazzled round the edges. ‘There’s no breadmaker, Min. We do it by hand.’

He was learning something, I guess. He hadn’t said you — meaning me — do it by hand.

Noah must’ve been hungry. He tried to score some bacon. Dad fended him off. ‘Shower then food.’

Noah caved, but it’s my bet that not a molecule of soap touched his skin. He came out with wet hair and the stink intact. Dad gave him food.

‘Dad,’ I said, ‘do not even think about leaving me here by myself to make bread.’ I glared at him.

He glanced out the window, then at the sofa where Mum hadn’t yet appeared. ‘All right. Just this once. Till you get the hang of it.’

I smiled and felt as dangerous as a shark. ‘I’ll make it every third time.’

‘Grow up, Min.’ No calm and patient for me.

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘From where I’m sitting, grown-up doesn’t have a lot going for it.’ I could have said a lot more — like if I had to grow up then I wanted my boyfriend with me and seeing as how he and Mum weren’t using the double bed, then could Seb and I have it? But in the interests of self-preservation I opted for, ‘I’ll feel like growing up when you sit down and talk to me about what’s going to happen with this family.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ he said and shut his mouth with a snap that Lizzie, Jax and Addy probably heard at home in their nice, warm houses that had telephones and computers and life.

Dad made Noah help him make bread. I did the listening watch. Dad found a jar of yeast in the pantry, which apparently you need for bread, and lucky for us it had a recipe on its label just like the macaroni had. It takes even longer to make bread than it does to cook a roast, and when it’s cooked, it’s awful — solid and sticky in the middle.

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