Clover's Child by Amanda Prowse

Author:Amanda Prowse [Prowse, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781781854235
Google: WVA-AAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00BOE1DGQ
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2013-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

10

Dee spun round and round in a circle until she felt so dizzy that she had to lie with her eyes closed on their mum and dad’s bed. It had been pushed to one side, giving them the maximum space to get ready in. After a few seconds the room stopped spinning and she assumed the same position with her arms spread wide and started twirling again.

‘Look, Dot! I’m a bally dancer! ’Cept Miss King said I can’t do bally cos I’m a fairy elephant. I don’t care anyway cos I’m going to be a air hostess. Look, Dot, look at me petticoat, it’s like a bally petticoat, all sticky out. I’m going to jump off the stairs and see if my frock makes me float down. How high up shall I jump from – shall I go halfway? Dot, how high shall I jump from? Dot?’

Dot sat at the dressing table under the window in her parents’ room and stared at the reflection of her sister in the triptych of mirrors. The plastic daisy headdress had slipped from the crown of Dee’s head and now sat half under her chin and half around her face. Dot felt exhausted watching her as she twirled and jumped, all the while emitting her incessant babble of chatter and questions. She was like a hyperactive meringue.

‘Be careful, tin ribs.’

‘I’m always careful, and I’m strong, Dot. Punch me in the arm as hard as you can and I won’t even cry!’ Dee slipped her arms from her white hand-knitted cardigan and pushed a scrawny bicep towards her sister. ‘Go on, punch me as hard as you can and I won’t cry, I promise. Go on!’

‘Dee, I am not going to punch you.’

‘Shall I punch you first and then you punch me back?’

‘Dee, I’m not going to punch you, ever. And please don’t jump down the stairs, you won’t float, you’ll only break your bloody leg.’

‘If I break my bloody leg, can I still be your bridesmaid?’

Dot hated the word ‘bridesmaid’. It reminded her that she was a bride. If Dee broke her leg it would only delay proceedings. She was quite sure that even if she broke her leg – or her neck, come to think of it – her parents would find a way to cart her up the aisle and get her off their hands.

It had all happened so fast and she’d had precious little chance to stop it. ‘Wally is a good bloke and he wants you,’ her mum had said after another of those interminable Sunday lunches. ‘It’s time you started to look at the glass as half full. We ain’t gonna let you sit around here with a face like a smacked arse all day, doing bugger all and looking miserable. We’ve got to act while there’s a chance, Dot, or you will be an old maid. It’s not as if you work…’

Dot had bitten her bottom lip at that. The shame – even more shame ladled onto the pile of shame that filled her gut.

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