A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon [64]
“You mean, will Dad be able to cope?”
“I mean, is he nice?”
“I’ve only met him once.”
“And…?” asked Mum.
“Well, if the leather shorts and the blond fun wig are anything to goby…”
“You are teasing me, aren’t you.”
“I am.”
Mum looked suddenly serious. “I just want you to be happy. Both of you. You’re still my children.”
Katie took Mum’s hand. “Jamie is sensible. He’ll probably choose a better man than either of us.”
Mum looked even more serious and Katie wondered whether she’d overstepped the mark a little.
“You are happy with Ray, aren’t you?” asked Mum.
“Yes, Mum, I’m happy with Ray.”
“Good.” Her mother readjusted her glasses. “Now. Flowers.”
After an hour or so, they heard footsteps and Katie turned round to see Jacob grinning in the doorway, his trousers and nappy dragging from one leg.
“I did a poo. I did it…I did it in the toilet. All on my own.”
Katie scanned the perfect beige carpet for brown chunks. “Well done you.” She got up and walked over. “But you really should have given me a shout first.”
“Grandpa said he didn’t want to wipe my bottom.”
After she’d put Jacob to bed Katie came downstairs to find Mum pouring two glasses of wine and saying, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
Katie took the wine, hoped it was something trivial and the pair of them went through to the living room.
“I know you’ve got a lot to think about at the moment and I know I shouldn’t be saying this to you.” Mum sat down and took an uncharacteristically large gulp of wine. “But you’re the only person who really understands.”
“OK…” said Katie, gingerly.
“Over the last six months…” Mum put her hands together as if she was about to pray. “Over the last six months I’ve been seeing someone.”
Mum said the phrase “seeing someone” very carefully, as if it were French.
“I know,” said Katie, who really, really, really did not want to be talking about this.
“No, I don’t think you do,” said Mum, “I mean…I’ve been seeing another man.” She paused and said, “A man who is not your father,” just to make it absolutely clear.
“I know,” Katie said again. “It’s David Symmonds, isn’t it. The chap who used to work with Dad.”
“How on earth did you…?” Mum gripped the arm of the sofa.
It was briefly rather fun, having Mum on the back foot. And then it wasn’t, because her mother looked terrified.
“Well…” Katie cast her mind back. “You said you’d met him in the shop. He’s separated from his wife. He’s an attractive man. For his age. You said you’d met him again. You started buying expensive clothes. And you were…you were holding yourself in a different way. It seemed pretty clear to me that you were…” She let the sentence dangle.
Mum was still gripping the arm of the sofa. “Do you think your father knows?”
“Has he said anything?”
“No.”
“Then I think you’re safe,” said Katie.
“But if you noticed…”
“Girl radar,” said Katie.
Girl radar? It sounded wrong as soon as it came out of her mouth. But Mum was relaxing visibly.
“It’s OK, Mum,” said Katie, “I’m not going to give you a hard time.”
Was it OK? Katie wasn’t sure. It looked a bit different now it was out in the open. So long as Mum didn’t want sex tips.
“Except it’s not OK,” said Mum, plowing doggedly on.
For a short, fuddled moment Katie wondered if Mum was pregnant. “Why not?”
She examined the varnish on her nails. “David has asked me to leave your father.”
“Ah.” Katie stared into the wobbly orange light coming from the fake coal fire and remembered Jamie, years ago, taking it apart to examine the little metal propellers turned by the hot air coming off the bulbs.
“Actually,” said Mum, “that’s unfair to David. He said he wants me to come and live with him. But he understands that I might not want to. That it might not be possible.”
Now Katie was on the back foot.
“He doesn’t want to rush me. And he’s happy for things to stay as they are. He just wants…He wants to spend more time with me. And I want to spend more time with him. But it’s very, very difficult. As you can imagine.”
God, he smoked those weird ladies’ cigars, didn’t he. “What about Dad?”
“Well,