One of THEM! by Peter Wells

Author:Peter Wells [Peter Wells]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775531623
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Where was Lemmy’s mother, you ask? I asked myself that, but I knew more than to say it out loud.

I’d only ever seen her once, that night after the St James, when she came into the kitchen while we were heating up the jug for coffee. She was very short, like Lemmy, but dark and brooding like she carried this storm along with her. And when she saw some crumbs on the floor, she just fell on them, letting out this cry, like she was killed by them. I looked at Lemmy quick, I didn’t know what to do. I was standing up ready to say Howdoyoudo, like you do to people’s mothers, but Lemmy’s mother hadn’t heard of that game, I could tell. Lemmy just said, speaking to her slowly, ‘Mum, this is Jamie, he’s from school.’

It was like they were speaking code. Then her eyes, Lemmy’s eyes, turned and focused on me and looked all over me, from my shoes up to my hair. I got very embarrassed and the words howdoyoudo suddenly seemed very stupid.

She looked embarrassed too and almost ashamed. ‘’Ello,’ she said in a small hurried voice. Then she was gone. It was as if she was hot on the trail of more crumbs. For once Lemmy didn’t say anything to me and I knew not to say anything to him. Later on, just when I was about to catch the bus home, I said it was nice to meet your mother. Lemmy looked away. I said ‘She’s not from here, is she?’ And he said, covering it over quick, because it is a flaw, a blemish, a terrible thing not to be like we all are, born here: ‘No, Dad met her in the war. She’s from Italy’ ‘Italy?’ I say and feel sorry for Lemmy. And he says as if he just wishes I’d stop talking about it, ‘Hey, do you want to see my postcards I found at the tip, of Mamie Van Doren? She’s got the cutest colour hairdo.’ And I say yes. After that we never talk about it ever again. It’s what Lemmy wants.

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