Junk - Melvin Burgess [56]
‘Hello? Mr Brogan?’ he said.
‘Who’s that? Who’s that?’ yelped my dad.
‘I’m a friend of Gemma’s, Mr Brogan. I just want to tell you, you’ve got a beautiful daughter. You ought to be proud of her, Mr Brogan,’ he said.
My dad said, ‘Oh, so she’s found a bloke, has she? I suppose you know she’s under age, whoever you are…’
I began trying to pull the phone away from Rob. I was so angry, I was so embarrassed for him.
Dad was going, ‘Gemma? Gemma? I’d like to speak to my daughter now, please.’
Then Lily grabbed the phone. ‘I think she’s beautiful too,’ she said. ‘And if you want to know, I’m under age as well. And don’t start telling my bloke he’s messing around with my best friend, okay, Mister Man?’
Then it turned into a bit of a fight with everyone yelling and snatching for the phone to tell my dad what for. Tar started really screeching.
‘My turn, my turn!’ he was screaming. He was so loud he got hold of it and then he held it to his ear and he just stood there. I could hear my dad’s voice going, a little tinny crackle. But Tar just stood there listening. I guess he just wanted to hear, he didn’t have anything to say. We were all quiet, watching him. Then the tinny crackle changed and I could just make out my mum.
‘Hello, Mrs Brogan,’ Tar said.
‘Hello, David? Is my daughter there? I’d like to talk to her, please,’ my mum said, and Tar handed me the phone with a funny little look. Everyone gathered around me with their heads close to the phone and listened in.
My mum said, ‘Gemma… Gemma, is it you? Is it really you?’ I was so pleased to hear her voice. I forgot all about the things she did to me.
‘Mum, hello, Mum, I love you, Mum, I love you,’ I was saying, and Rob was nodding and Lily was going, ‘Yeah, yeah.’
‘Are you all right? Have you got enough to eat? Do you need anything?’ she was saying.
‘Yeah, Mum. I’m fine, I’m great, everything’s fine. How are you?’
‘Gemma, come home, please come home… please…’ she said. And she started crying.
I wanted to hug her and hold her. I had to hug the phone, it was the nearest I could get to her. Dad made me angry, but Mum just made me love her.
‘I can’t come back, not yet, Mum, not yet. But I’m okay, I really am and I miss you, Mum, and I’ll come back as soon as I can,’ I blabbed. I was just about crying already.
‘Oh, Gemma,’ she said. ‘Oh, Gemma…’ And she couldn’t even talk, she was crying so much.
I wished she wouldn’t cry.
I could hear Dad trying to get the phone back but she pulled herself together. He was going on in the background, raising his voice to her. It made me cross.
‘What’s he going on about now?’ I said.
She said, ‘Don’t be angry with your father, Gemma. It’s been a terrible strain. He hasn’t been sleeping, the doctor’s put him on pills.’
I felt rotten then, but Tar reached over and put his hand over the receiver so she couldn’t hear and he said, ‘Bloody junkie.’
It was so funny. It was awful. There was a second’s pause and then everyone started spluttering and laughing silently. Lily clapped her hand over her mouth and slid down to the floor of the booth and hid her face in her hands. I had to bite my cheeks to stop myself laughing.
I gritted my teeth and said, ‘What sort of pills?’
‘Sleeping pills, you know. Quite strong ones.’
Rob and Tar were holding on to each other.
‘He’s in the most awful state,’ finished my mum.
I was howling and laughing and laughing and I had to do it all without making a noise. It was so funny! All that stuff about him worrying about me and there he was, packed up to the eyeballs with downers and smoking fags. Lily got up off the floor and hissed, ‘Ask her if he’ll send some down. We’ll give him a good price…’
I was killing myself. Mum was saying, ‘Are you all right, Gemma? Are you all right?’ And then I heard Dad saying ‘She must be on drugs or something…’ And of course that made me howl even more. I could barely stand up. We were all getting really hysterical.
Then Mum started crying again and I felt rotten so I just said, ‘Look Mum, there’s a spot of bother here, I’ll ring you back later