Away with the Penguins by Prior Hazel
Author:Prior, Hazel [Prior, Hazel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2020-03-04T16:00:00+00:00
28
Patrick
Bolton
December 2012
I CLEAR MY THROAT. âTell me honestly,â I say to Gav, âdo you think I look a teeny tad Mediterranean?â
Iâve persuaded him to come for a swift after-work pint at the Dragonâs Flagon. He looks at me curiously. âMaybe a little bit Italian, for example?â I add. âMy nose, perhaps?â
âLetâs see you in profile.â
I turn my head.
âNo, Iâd say not,â he says. âItâs not a Roman nose. Longish, but not Roman. Your skinâs quite brown though. Itâs got definite undertones of olive.â
âOK. Right. Thanks.â
âDo you want to look Italian?â
âDo I?â
âIâm asking you , mate!â
God, I donât fricking know!
âI think those diaries are getting to me,â I tell him by way of a reply.
âMmmm?â
âBecause I grew up without any parents, this granny thing is kind of important.â
Saying that out loud makes me realize the truth of it. And the diaries are quite a revelation. In a way, history has repeated itself. Like Granny V, I lost both parents pretty early on and had to learn to fend for myself. But then, most of my foster parents were OK. Young Veronica didnât have anyone like that â she only had that awful religious nutter of an aunt. And she didnât have drugs to fall back on. Man, it must have been grim. No wonder she went off the rails a bit, no wonder she tried to find love wherever she could.
I never knew my dad at all but itâs clear Veronica doted on hers. I lost my mother when I was six, which was horrendous, but I guess in some ways itâs even worse when youâre fourteen. Youâve got all that love built up over the years, all those hugs and conversations and things you do together and then all of itâs just snatched away. Harsh. It must have done stuff to that poor kidâs head.
âSo you think you might have some Italian blood?â Gav asks.
âLooks like itâs a possibility. But then â¦â
Veronica only went out with Harry the one time, but Iâm not clear how it ended. She didnât go into any detail in the diary about the cycle ride home. She wasnât a happy bunny about it, though; that much is obvious. He didnât ⦠Surely he didnât â¦? Shit. No, he canât have. Sheâd have written it down ⦠wouldnât she? Iâve only been skim-reading, skipping some of the long, boring bits about school, but Iâm sure I havenât missed anything that big. Still, now that horrible doubt has entered my thick skull, Iâm going to have to race through the rest of the diaries to find out what I can.
I slurp down the rest of my pint in one go. âSoz, mate, Iâm going to have to dash.â
My pulse has gone fricking crazy.
Iâm being ridiculous.
It must be Giovanni whoâs my granddad â mustnât it?
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