The Insect Room by Felicity Hughes

Author:Felicity Hughes [Hughes, Felicity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chocolate Albatross Press
Published: 2022-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter twelve

Chris was in the doghouse. Even after sloping off to ask for permission from Lacy to stay another night, he hadn’t been forgiven. Instead, Tink ignored him and cuddled up with Rosie, reading her fairy stories all evening and even falling asleep in her bed, leaving Chris to sleep on his own in the van. Caz, of course, would be sleeping on the sofa.

The next day it seemed that Rosie too had cooled towards Chris. Gripping the bedsheet to her chest when he entered the room, she refused to respond to any of the bribes he offered in exchange for setting off for Tipton and wept at even the suggestion of moving downstairs.

They had all been gathered round Rosie’s bed, trying to decide what to do when Chris frowned and asked Tink if they couldn’t ‘have a quick word’ downstairs. After they’d gone, Caz went over to the window. In the distance, the manor sat squat and sombre above a boiling tumult of foliage. A volley of raindrops battered the windowpane.

‘You know we can’t stay, don’t you? I mean we’re pushing our luck as it is,’ said Caz.

Rosie didn’t reply.

‘You know what I think. I think you’re faking it, like that time you didn’t want to go to school and drank a bottle of Tabasco to make yourself puke.’

At first it seemed like Rosie hadn’t heard her. The rain continued to fall steadily outside. It wouldn’t be much fun setting up camp in Tipton with the weather like this.

‘Mr Lacy wants us to stay. He needs us to find his little girl,’ she said quietly but firmly, as if stating some indisputable fact.

‘You are completely off your nut. You do know that, don’t you?’

Though they were looking each other in the eye, Rosie didn’t seem to be focussing on Caz, it was as if she was looking beyond humdrum reality into some other private world. That was the aggravating thing about Rosie, there was no appealing to her sense of logic because she inhabited a totally different universe. Reasoning with her was like trying to explain the rules of Scrabble to a cat.

Outside, the noise of Chris’ engine gunning in the driveway seemed to blast a hole in her chest. Gravel churned beneath the tires, mangling her insides. They weren’t going to Tipton after all, they were stranded again. Maybe now she could get Tink to call grandma and granddad and they could finally go back to Radlett.

She found Tink crumpled up on the sofa in the lounge. This latest tragedy seemed to have shrunk her mother even more, so that her flesh barely filled the folds of loose fabric.

‘Mum?’

Tink didn’t respond but continued to nibble at the sides of her nails, tearing off tiny strips of skin. Not even wincing when a bauble of blood formed on one of the raw slivers of exposed flesh, but instead gazing at it with an abstracted look of satisfaction.

‘Mum.’ She took Tink’s hand away from her mouth. ‘Shall I call grandma and granddad to come and get us?’

Tink looked at Caz.

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