Cat's Eyes by Eryl Samuel

Author:Eryl Samuel [Samuel, Eryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916371309
Publisher: A Fold in the World
Published: 2020-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

Day Eight

Sunday 29 April

We sit on barstools in the kitchen as Mr Ambrose makes us waffles with bacon and syrup for breakfast (yummy). He says it will do him good to have a break from his marking, indicating a stack of school books on the table. I notice there’s also a pile of Sunday newspapers and magazines strewn across the table. One of the papers is open at the sports section.

‘Where’s Mum?’ says Cariad.

‘She’s had to go into work again. She says she’s sorry.’

Cariad exhales and sighs. ‘She was meant to take me to the stables to see Sven today.’

I see Mr Ambrose glance at his pile of marking. ‘It’s okay, I’ll take you.’

‘I don’t suppose there’s anything about our match yesterday in the paper is there?’ I say, to lighten the mood.

‘In the Observer? I’m afraid not,’ says Mr Ambrose laughing. ‘Not very good for local news I’m afraid, although there is one article that does mention this town in it.’

‘Oh, what’s that then?’ says Morgan carving a slice of waffle and mopping up the syrup with it.

‘It’s about that young lad they found dead near here. Sad case. Suicide they reckon. Apparently the poor kid had a record of self-harm, and mental illness and had tried to kill himself on at least one occasion before. Stolen money from his foster parents too. The curious thing is, they don’t quite know how he ended up in south Wales. They think he might have come here to search for his birth parents.’

I can sense Morgan’s eyes scrutinising me.

‘Excuse me for a moment,’ I say, ‘I’d just like to go and sit down. The food was delicious, thank you very much.’

I scrape the stool away and walk into their lounge and sit on the sofa. I stare blankly at the fireplace and try to work out what this all means. But my head is all fuzzy and buzzy, like I have a beehive for a brain.

I’m still staring into the fireplace when Morgan and Cariad walk in.

‘I hate Mum,’ says Cariad, ‘she’s always doing this.’

‘It’s her job,’ says Morgan. ‘She can’t help it.’

‘Yes she can. She can decide that her children are more important than her stupid job for once. Dad has to do all his marking and preparation of lessons and stuff but at least he makes an effort, she’s just selfish. Everybody I know has a better mother than us.’

I see Morgan grab Cariad’s arm and whisper something into her ear. Cariad holds her hand to her mouth.

She comes up to me and puts her arms around me. ‘I’m so sorry, Loti. Sometimes I can be such a thoughtless cow.’

‘Most of the time, actually,’ says Morgan.

Cariad sticks her tongue out at him and tries to slap him over the head but he dodges out of the way.

‘At least you don’t have the misfortune of having a brother,’ she says.

I look at Cariad. ‘Actually, I think I do have a brother. At least, I did have a brother until last week.

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