by Fiona Field
Maddy picked up Rose again and went back down the stairs. She glanced at the crèche as she made her way to the front door. If it wasn’t for the Caro-sized fly in the ointment she’d be chuffed to bits about the way the community centre was working, because to judge by these early signs it looked as if it was going to be a success. And the crèche was a success – just not one she would be able to reap the benefit from. She had a feeling of satisfaction that this project that she’d worked so hard on had come together. It made it almost worth working with Camilla. Almost... but not quite. As Maddy pushed the front door shut behind her and posted Rose back into her pushchair she wondered if she ought to ask Seb to have a word with Will about Caro boycotting Rose from the crèche. Or would that be like taking a mallet to crack the proverbial nut? And Seb had told her that things in B Company offices weren’t exactly tickety-boo; that he and Will were behaving professionally but no more than that. They certainly weren’t best friends for ever, not any more, and Maddy was sure it would just make things worse if she told Seb about Caro and the crèche. No, better all round if she kept shtum.
*
When Jenna got home at lunchtime she was surprised to see Dan waiting for her. God, she hoped he wasn’t expecting her to cook for him, she was completely knackered after working in the salon all morning. Well, ‘working’ might be a bit of an overstatement but she’d been at her place of work and mostly on her feet. It was just a crying shame she’d only had the one customer. But her morning hadn’t been completely wasted, in her free time she busied herself making a poster to put up on the noticeboard, just in case it had passed anyone by that there was now a hairdressing salon open above the café. And, also on the positive side, her one and only client had been delighted with her cut-and-colour so she would be a walking advert for a week or two.
‘How did it go?’ asked Dan as Jenna took off her mac and hauled Eliot out of his buggy.
Jenna wrinkled her nose. ‘So-so.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means no one tried to slap me or have words with me about my past, but that was only because hardly anyone came to the salon.’
‘Oh.’ Dan looked disappointed. ‘But it’s early days, love.’
She stared at Dan as she stripped off Eliot’s all-in-one waterproof. ‘So, is that “early days” till they find out who I am and send the lynch mob round or “early days” till I make enough money to make this all worthwhile?’
‘Come off it, love, you know what it means. Any new business takes time to get going.’
Jenna put Eliot on the floor so he could crawl around and headed for the kitchen. ‘Tea?’
‘What’s for lunch?’
‘I was offering tea,’ she countered. ‘I wasn’t expecting you back so unless you want to share a scrambled egg with your son...’ Jenna opened the fridge to show Dan how empty it was, ‘...there isn’t much else. I’m going shopping this afternoon.’
Dan frowned. ‘What, nothing?’
‘As I said, I’m shopping later. You can’t expect me to run around after you, cooking, cleaning and skivvying now I’ve got a job. If you want a hot meal I suggest you go off to the sergeants’ mess.’
‘Is this how it’s going to be from here on?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You working to rule? Because that’s what it looks like from here.’
‘Working to rule?’
‘Yeah. You’re punishing me for suggesting you ought to use your skills instead of sitting on your arse reading stupid magazines all day.’
‘I did not read stupid magazines all day.’
‘All right, half the day.’ Dan gave her a wink and despite herself Jenna’s mouth twitched.
And she couldn’t deny it – she had read a lot of magazines. ‘You’re a bastard, Daniel Armstrong,’ she said with a grin.
‘Yeah, but you love me, admit it.’
Jenna gave him a peck on the cheek. ‘Only sometimes.’
‘Got any bread?’
‘Half a loaf.’
‘Then I’ll pop a couple of slices on and have that and some peanut butter. I’d rather stop here with you than go back to the mess.’
‘Have it your way.’ Jenna got the egg out of the fridge and cracked it into a Pyrex jug.
‘And tonight I’ll get a nice takeaway and a bottle of fizz to celebrate your first day back in harness. How does that sound?’
‘Sounds ace.’ Jenna put the jug on the counter and gave Dan a hug. ‘If you’re going to treat me like this, maybe it’s worth the hassle of working again.’
*
When Ella and Katie got off the school bus by the barrack gates, Caro was waiting for them with Ollie and Josh. The other kids tumbled off and headed towards the other ranks’ patch leaving the twins to accompany Caro to the officers’ one. They could see the looks the other kids were giving them as they turned right, not left, and they both knew that this would be yet another reason to be called even more names when they caught the bus again tomorrow.
‘Hi, girls,’ said Caro, cheerfully. ‘How was your first day?’
The twins exchanged a glance. Did they tell her the truth?
‘All right,’ mumbled Ella.
‘Bit different from your old place,’ said Caro. ‘Still, it must be nice to come home at the end of the day instead of having to board for weeks on end.’
Katie shrugged as Caro dragged her two boys along the road towards the patch. ‘Suppose,’ she said.
‘Anyway,’ said Caro, ‘I suggest that when we get in you have a nice drink of tea or squash or whatever you like, and a biscuit or two and then get your homework done before you mum comes to pick you up. Does that sound like a plan?’
The girls nodded.
‘Got much prep?’ said Caro.
‘A bit,’ they admitted in unison.
‘What have you got to do?’
Ella spoke first. ‘I’ve got some French – just some sentences to learn.’
‘OK. Well, if you need any help my French is not too bad. A bit rusty but I can still remember bits. What about you, Katie?’
‘English. Got to write a story.’
‘That’s nice.’ They turned into Caro’s road. ‘Nearly home,’ she said.
The girls stared at their old home which was still standing empty. The grass at the front needed cutting and the window of their old bedroom looked blank with no ornaments arranged or books stacked up on the window sill.
Caro let them into the house and the boys raced into the sitting room and switched on the TV with the remote.
‘I suggest you girls use the dining room to do your homework. You’ll get a bit of peace and quiet.’
Silently the twins went through into the dining room and dumped their school bags down.
‘Those bags look heavy,’ sympathised Caro.
‘Yeah, because it’s a shit school and you can’t have lockers or leave your kit there,’ said Katie.
‘Oh, it can’t be that bad,’ said Caro.
Katie stared at her. ‘It’s a dump.’
‘Oh.’ There was a pause then Caro changed the subject. ‘Tea? Squash?’
The girls opted for squash and Caro brought their drinks to them, and a plate of digestives while the girls unpacked their bags.
‘I expect,’ she said, as she put the glasses on the table, ‘that your new school won’t seem so different from Browndown, when you get used to it.’
Ella shook her head and sighed. ‘It’s horrible. Rank.’
‘You’ll be fine in a week or so, when you’ve settled in.’ Caro went back to the kitchen where the kids could hear the sound of her chopping something up.
‘What’s your tutor like?’ Ella asked Katie, now they were alone. They both wanted to talk on the school bus but the behaviour of the other kids had left them so horrified they’d just huddled together in miserable silence. They’d both learnt separately and swiftly at school that the way they spoke made them the butt of bullying and unwelcome attention, so
they didn’t open their mouths when they could be overheard by their fellow pupils unless absolutely necessary. The whispers and the sniggers were almost unbearable.
Katie shook her head. ‘She’s all right, I suppose. We only saw her for register this morning. We get her for double science tomorrow. What’s yours like?’
‘I’ve got Mr Jakes. He’s supposed to teach PE but I can’t see how, ’cos he’s fat and old.’
Katie stared at her sister. ‘So not like Miss Merry.’ Miss Merry had been their housemistress at Browndown.
‘No.’
They sighed in unison. They’d both had a bit of a crush on Miss Merry who had been young and slim and had taught tennis in the summer and lacrosse in the winter.
Ella opened her French text book. ‘And there’s a kid in my class who smells.’
Katie stopped rummaging through her exercise books to find her English one. ‘Yuck.’ Then she added. ‘I hate it.’
Ella nodded. ‘Me too. And the lessons are so babyish. We’re doing stuff in maths we covered in prep school.’
Katie leaned in towards her sister. ‘They’re all mongs.’
Ella nodded. ‘And we’re in the top sets. Just how thick are the others?’
When Susie came to get them a couple of hours later they’d long since finished their homework and were watching TV with the boys while Caro was busy in the kitchen again.
‘So how was your first day?’ she asked breezily.
‘What do you think?’ said Ella.
‘What do you care?’ added Katie.
‘Don’t be silly, of course I care.’
‘The kids there are rude, they smell and they’re stupid,’ said Ella.
‘Don’t exaggerate,’ said Susie.
Ella and Katie looked at each other. What was the point?
Chapter 23
Mike looked at his local government colleagues in the big open-plan office. They were all so scruffy, he thought. No sense of pride in their appearance, no proper bearing with their slouching posture and hunched shoulders. Not for the first time he wanted to stand behind each and every one of them, put his knee in the small of their backs and pull on their shoulders to force them to straighten up. But it would be useless, they wouldn’t understand that if they stood properly they would be doing themselves a favour, to say nothing of looking like professionals instead of a bunch of layabouts. He sighed and applied himself to the paperwork on his desk. The cut in the budget that his department was being forced to implement was going to be a bugger to apply. He’d tried explaining about risk management, putting lives in jeopardy, about short-term gain versus long-term consequences, but no one was really interested. Besides, the general attitude seemed to be that nothing was going to happen in their area. It wasn’t a place where disaster was going to strike. What was the point in wasting any of the over-stretched finances on something that probably wouldn’t happen? The whole point of Emergency Planning seemed to be lost on them.
Mike threw his pen on the desk, leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair. He admitted to himself that he hated the frustration of his job. No, that wasn’t entirely true – he hated his job. Full stop. When he’d got it, back in the summer, he’d been thrilled and he’d come to it fired with enthusiasm, geed up with euphoria at actually, finally, landing a job, but then the day-to-day drudgery of it began to wear him down. That, and the petty office politics and the attitude of his workmates. God, he wished he was back in the army where there was a hierarchy and order and people did as they were bloody well told.
He returned to the budget cuts and resisted the temptation to scrawl ‘You’ll be sorry’ across the proposals. Instead he began to work out a way of explaining to these morons, in words of one syllable, what could not be cut, what should not be cut and what, if it were cut, they might just conceivably get away with. He beavered away at the document, trying to implement as much damage limitation as was humanly possible, given the financial constraints.
The phone on his desk rang. ‘Rob here. Can you come and see me?’
Mike looked across the office to Rob’s workstation and hoped he was masking the feelings on his face. The git couldn’t even be bothered to walk across the floor and make the request. ‘Sure. I’ll be over right away.’
At least the summons spared him from working on the finances for a few minutes. He hit the save button. He knew it would be just his luck, if he didn’t, that something would happen and he’d lose the lot. He pushed his chair back and wandered over to Rob’s corner of the office. Shit, he was getting as bad as his co-workers; he should be walking with a purpose, not loafing across like some idle teenager. He lengthened his stride for the last few paces.
‘Rob, what can I do for you?’ It irked him that this twenty-something oik was his boss but Mike was savvy enough to keep that thought hidden too. In fact, the space where he kept his views about the local government offices and his colleagues hidden was getting incredibly crammed.
‘Um... let’s go somewhere more private, shall we?’
At the far end of the big workspace were a couple of private offices for interviews or small meetings. They made their way between the desks to one of them while Mike wondered what the hell Rob had to say to him that ought not be overheard.
Rob shut the door behind them and then turned to face Mike. No ‘have a seat’, he noticed. He felt a faint flicker of apprehension.
‘I’ve had a complaint,’ said Rob.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, what now? ‘Oh, really? I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘You are not in the army now and you can’t just order people around.’
‘I understand but, with all due respect, Rob, I don’t think I do. I am very careful to ask people nicely... say please and thank you.’ He stopped himself from adding, ‘that sort of crap.’
‘It’s your tone.’
‘My what?’
‘You see – you’re doing it to me.’
Mike paused for just a beat before he spoke. ‘I am really sorry, Rob,’ he lied. ‘Old habits. I’ll try and do better.’
Rob put his hand on Mike’s shoulder. Mike resisted the urge to shrug it off. Who was this little turd who thought he could be all chummy-chummy?
‘We are all one big, happy team here,’ said Rob. ‘And I know we’re a fair distance from the sea but we don’t want anyone rocking the boat.’ He laughed.
Pathetic, thought Mike.
‘And your brusque tone and rather demanding style is rather alarming to some of the workers – especially the women. The women in the office are our equals, we’re all equals and we must respect all the views, genders, ethnicities. I’m sure you understand that, Mike.’
He did, only too well. God, this lot needed to man up. Only he suspected that was yet another phrase he wouldn’t be allowed to say. Too gender-specific, probably.
‘Of course, Rob.’
Rob removed his hand and stared intently into Mike’s eyes. Oh God, he was going to get all caring now. Mike wanted to gag.
‘Thank you, Mike. I really respect the effort you are making to integrate with our team.’
‘No,’ said Mike, ‘thank you for pointing out my errors.’ God, his own hypocrisy made him want to vomit.
Rob opened the door and Mike went back to his desk. He glanced at the clock. Twelve thirty. He grabbed his sandwiches from his briefcase and made his way to the lift. It was nice enough to go and sit by the river to eat his lunch today. Besides, even if it hadn’t been he needed to get out of the office before his feelings escaped. He could feel them writhing around inside him like the eponymous Alien and sooner or later they were going to bust out of him and rampage round the office uncontrollably. Jeez, if he heard any more of that politically-correct-caring-blue-sky-thinking-low-hanging-fruit-one-hundred-and-ten-per-cent-outside-the-envelope-buzzword bollocks he might be very tempted to punch someone.
He passed the Red Lion just as a burst of laughter and a waft of beer came out of the open door. He looked at his san
dwiches. They’d slip down so much better after a pint. Just one wouldn’t hurt – and he so needed it today.
*
Susie was making supper when he got back. He really had only had ‘just the one’ but he still muttered something about ‘needing a slash’ when he got in rather than kissing her. He dashed up to the bathroom where he had a quick swill of mouthwash – just in case – as he took a leak, before returning downstairs. He could hear the twins chatting in Ella’s bedroom as he clattered back to the kitchen.
‘Good day?’ he asked casually as he pulled out a chair and sat at the table.
‘Fine, thanks,’ she replied as she half-filled a saucepan with water. ‘You know, it’s so nice still seeing the old friends. Maddy was in the office again today about the Ladies’ Guest Night and we had such a lovely chat. It was great to catch up on all the gossip from the patch and hear what’s going on in B Company. How about you?’
She had her back to Mike and didn’t see the look of anguish on his face. He longed to be back in his old environment, where it was all safe, he knew his place in the scheme of things and he was respected.
‘Oh, you know...’ Actually, I had a patronising interview with a bloke who is my boss but I wouldn’t have had as an unpaid acting lance-corporal, I was juggling figures that now make no sense because if the balloon does go up around here, fuck knows how we’ll cope and I fell off the wagon again at lunchtime. ‘Fine.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Want a cuppa?’
‘No, I’m fine,’ said Susie. Mike stood up and went over to the counter where he plugged in the kettle. ‘The girls are still mutinying about Winterspring.’
Mike sighed. He didn’t need any more problems. ‘What’s their gripe now?’
‘Same old,’ said Susie. ‘They don’t like the other kids, they don’t like the tutors, the lessons are boring, breaks are awful because no one wants to be their friends...’ She sighed. ‘I think most of it stems from them being split up. Do you think we ought to ring the school and tell them they’re wrong? Ask them to put them together?’
‘Look,’ said Mike, ‘if we stir up a shit-storm we’ll probably make things even harder for them. They’ll get used to it.’
