Breaktime Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers

Author:Aidan Chambers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448102082
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK

1/‘Bubby, it’s the boy who turned over this morning,’ Mrs Gorman carolled when she opened the door that evening. A fog horn on bennies.

‘Fetch him in then.’

His voice came from the kitchen along with a whiff of curry.

Leading the way, Mrs Gorman said, ‘He’s been a bad boy, my Bubby. He came to the shop this afternoon. On his day off. I tell him he shouldn’t. Week in week out I tell him. All work and no play …’

‘Hi,’ I said. He was at the table, finishing a meal.

‘Thanks for the clothes.’ I put the bundle down on a spare chair.

‘But still he does it,’ Mrs Gorman said. ‘On his day off!’

‘Smells good,’ I said.

‘Want some?’

‘Just eaten, thanks.’

‘What good is a day off if he goes to work?’ Mrs Gorman started clearing dishes from the table, clattering them under a tap before stowing them in the dishwasher. ‘He’s worse than his poor father, who was a slave to that shop. For twenty years a slave. And look what it did to him. Dead.’ She rounded on me. ‘And I thought you were his friend!’ She flicked her fingers at my nose. ‘Ha!’

I looked at Barry for help, not knowing whether to treat what was happening as a joke.

‘Well,’ he said, comedian to fall-guy, ‘answer the lady. Are you my friend?’

Routining the patter, ‘Am I your friend?’ I said.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, exaggeratedly puzzled, ‘I think you’re my friend. But are you my friend?’

‘If you think I’m your friend …’

‘… then you must be my friend. In which case I think we can safely say …’

‘… that I am your friend.’

‘There you are, Mother,’ he said, holding out his arms. ‘He thinks we’re friends. I think we’re friends. So we must be friends.’

Mrs Gorman sniffed with polythened disdain. ‘Some friend! He lets you go to work on your day off when you should be enjoying yourselves together. Having fun. Relaxing.’

‘He didn’t know I was coming to the shop, Mother. He had an appointment to keep. It wasn’t Hal’s fault.’

‘Hal …?’ Mrs Gorman turned her full measure at me. It was like being turned on by a brontosaurus. ‘Hal! What kind of a name is that? Is it short for something? Hal … Halibut? I didn’t know people were named after fish.’

‘It comes from Shakespeare, Mother.’

‘Shakespeare? I thought he was a William. Halibut was also his name?’

‘You’re being deliberately cussed.’

‘Henry the Fourth, Mrs Gorman.’

‘Shakespeare had four first names! What extravagance! What was his third?’

‘No, no, Mother,’ Barry said with heavy patience. ‘Hal is short for Henry.’

‘Well I’m glad it’s not short for a fish. He doesn’t look a bit like a fish.’ She took my head between her damp hands and smacked a suction-cushion kiss firmly on my brow. ‘Even though he is good enough to eat.’

‘You’ve already had your supper, Mother dearest,’ Barry said, getting up from the table. ‘And aren’t you missing Take a Card?’

‘It’s time? My God, and I haven’t finished the dishes!’

‘We’ll do that. Then I’m taking Hal to a film, okay?’

‘All right, my darlings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.