You Never Told Me by Sarah Jasmon

Author:Sarah Jasmon [Jasmon, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473508583
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2020-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

‘Charlie, you have to breathe.’ Eleanor’s voice was steady down the phone. ‘I want to help you, but I don’t know what the matter is.’ Charlie could hear the words, but she couldn’t remember how to respond to them. She was trying to do what Eleanor wanted, but her chest wouldn’t let any air in. The tears that had started inside the store were still shuddering through her and she wasn’t sure how to make them stop. A man came round the corner of the building with an empty trolley, turning away abruptly as he saw her standing there. She moved further along, sinking down onto the line of gravel that bordered the wall. ‘Charlie?’ Eleanor’s voice came from her phone. ‘Charlie, talk to me.’

‘I’m here.’ She lifted the handset up again. It weighed so much. She wasn’t sure Eleanor had heard her.

‘Charlie, listen. I want you to tell me what you’re looking at.’

Charlie let the words filter into her brain. What was she looking at? She gave a gulp. ‘There’s some grass.’

‘Good, what else?’

‘An empty Coke can. And some flowers.’

‘That’s good. What kind of flowers?’

‘I don’t know. Yellow ones.’ The world was beginning to settle down around her, getting back to manageable proportions. What had she done with her shopping? It wasn’t with her, so she must have left it inside. She didn’t think she’d paid for it. On the other end of the phone, she could hear Eleanor telling Poppy to be careful on the climbing frame. Then she was back.

‘Sorry, she’s all over the place today,’ she explained, her tone calm and unruffled. ‘Are you going to tell me again about the name? I didn’t really understand what you were saying.’ She listened in silence as Charlie went through the previous evening.

‘And I told Martha she could come and stay,’ Charlie finished, giving a last hiccuping sob. ‘Though you probably won’t want to send her now.’

‘I can just hear what she’d say if I tried to stop her. She hasn’t shut up about it yet.’ Eleanor’s voice was so normal. ‘Look, I’m going to have to go. The park just filled up with about a million kids, and I can’t see Poppy. Are you going to be all right? Have you had anything to eat?’ She didn’t wait for a response. ‘It’s a nice thing that Mum wanted you to have her name, you know. Maybe she was trying to make up for something.’

‘I don’t know.’ Charlie watched as another shopper came round the corner, paused, disappeared, though she wasn’t really thinking about them. ‘Sorry for calling like this. Is everything all right your end?’

‘Not bad. We’re due to exchange next week.’

‘Exchanging?’ Charlie realized she meant the house, with all the space and garden, the annexe. She had an uncomfortable feeling about the whole thing, but what did she know? For some reason, she remembered how crushed Martha had sounded the day before. Was that anything to do with tensions at home? Maybe she should at least mention that she wasn’t sure Eleanor should be doing this.

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