A Cupboard Full of Coats by Edwards Yvvette

Author:Edwards, Yvvette [Edwards, Yvvette]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781851687626
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2011-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Sam was in a serious strop. She was vexed, her face was screwed up hard, and she did little more than grunt back when I said hello to her.

‘What’s up?’ I asked.

She raised her hand in a Stop sign and shook her head. She was blushing badly. I didn’t ask anything else, because I knew if she had said a word about whatever it was, she would have started to cry. If I was honest, her mood suited me. Though I couldn’t get anything that had happened out of my head, I couldn’t talk about it either. And it wasn’t because of what my mum had said, the reason was even weirder: I was ashamed. I couldn’t understand why I felt that way about what Berris had done to my mum, but I did. It was as if somehow what he’d done reflected on us, on my mum, as though in some way we deserved it or it was our fault, her fault. I felt embarrassed to hold my mother, with her outward-pointing toes, up to Sam’s scrutiny. So even though I could have burst with the words stuck deep down inside me, I said nothing.

When we got to the bus stop, she carried on walking and I followed without question. She was doing some kind of funky walk, kind of like she was kicking imaginary leaves out of her way with every step and, at the same time, didn’t really care if they were kicked out of the way or not. It took nearly fifteen minutes, till we were nearly at Dalston Junction Station, before her walk returned to normal and she finally spoke.

‘So what happened to you yesterday?’

‘I came on. I had really bad cramps so I stayed home.’ ‘Lucky you,’ she said.

‘Bloody lucky,’ I threw back.

Though the lie came easily to my lips, I didn’t look at her as I spoke because I was sure the fact I was lying my head off would be painted across my face. Desperate to get off the subject I asked, ‘So did you speak to Donovan?’

‘I’ve got better things to do than waste my breath on that renter,’ she said. I took that to mean the talk hadn’t gone well.

‘Bet your mum bought you loads of stuff,’ she said, but it came out sounding kind of resentful and for some reason made me feel embarrassed.

‘Just some jeans,’ I said.

‘Nice.’

‘I’da preferred it if she hadn’t needed to suck up to me in the first place.’

‘My mum smacked me! And now she’s bought me jeans,’ she whined. ‘You’re acting like you got the worse problems in the world, man. Grow up!’

She cut me deep and the rest of the way to school we trod in silence.

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