Taming Mr. Walker by Rosa Lucas

Author:Rosa Lucas [Lucas, Rosa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

19

Charlie

I’m waiting outside Kentish Town tube station at 10am on Saturday morning. It’s going to be a long day.

I hear them before I see them.

“To the right! Stand to the bloody right woman!” Callie bellows.

I can hear Mum tutting. “If they want to pass me, they can ask.”

Their two heads appear at the top of the escalator, my mam’s rollered to within an inch of its life, and Callie’s now crimson ( is that food colouring?) crop. Callie grins when she sees me, but Mum looks tight-lipped, and I groan silently as I clock the bum bag fastened tightly around her midriff, one hand clasping it with an unyielding grip for fear of dirty Londoners stealing her loose change.

At the barriers, Mum makes a great scene of stepping aside to face the wall while she opens her bum bag to get her ticket. With a look of triumph, the ticket is produced and placed in the ticket slot in slow motion.

I watch as she places the ticket in the wrong gate’s slot.

The barriers to her right bang open, waiting for someone to walk through them. Mum frowns down at the barriers she is at and tries to push them open.

“These ones aren’t working.”

“Go round the other one,” I beckon furiously at the open gate, waiting for someone to come through while Callie sniggers behind me. “The other one. That’s the one you opened with your ticket. The one that’s open. The OTHER one.”

I point at the barriers she has put her ticket into like I’m doing a ridiculous mime show. “You are supposed to walk through THAT one.”

She tuts but finally moves to the correct ticket barrier.

“Well, that’s annoying. Why don’t they all open when you put your ticket in? Then you could go through any.”

“What?” I look at her in exasperation. Half of me wishes I’ve never explained how to get out the barriers so they would be stuck in there.

“You should have seen her trying to open the toilet door on the train,” Callie sighs. “And then the screams when the train started moving!”

Mum is out of touch with modern transport. She only started to visit London when Tristan moved here, and he usually sends a driver for her. This time she decided to go rogue and slum it.

After the barrier ordeal, Mum announces she wants to go back to mine for a cup of tea before sightseeing. I knew what she was up to. She was mad with nosiness and wanted a poke around our flat to see how clean it was.

We trudge back through Kentish Town to the flat.

“Hello,” I shout tentatively through the flat door. No reply, great! “Cat is in bed, so you will have to be quiet.”

“At this hour?” Her lips purse into a thin line. “and I was looking for a tour of the bedrooms.”

“Why don’t you sit down, and I will make a nice cup of tea?” I bundle them into the living area where they can do minimal damage and give it a once-over for signs of drug abuse or sexual activities.

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