It Always Rains in November

by Richard Hoffman

Gary had been more of a catch. Driven to succeed, dynamic, a corporate arse licker, but essentially a piece of shit. And shit always rises to the top. Gary’s superficial assets – good looking, intelligent, and well dressed – had attracted Marie. At the core though was a selfish and disloyal womanizer. He was hardly ever home and when he was there he showed little interest in Gemma. Marie wondered why he had wanted to marry her. Maybe he had decided that he should be married. She didn’t know and didn’t care anymore.

  Even so, she dreaded telling her Mum about a second failed marriage. She was determined to put off that conversation, which would include “I told you so” several times, for as long as possible. Marie arrived late to collect Gemma, who had fallen asleep in Grandma’s living room. The two had a brief chat and then Marie picked up her daughter, placed her in her car seat, kissed her Mum goodbye and began the 40 minute drive home, arriving after 9.00.

  She had already received a text from Gary saying he would not be home tonight. This was becoming the norm. Although she had had a long day she had to do some washing. As she began to put all of the clothes together, she found a credit card bill inside Gary’s jeans. There were three payments for a Holiday Inn booking at Croydon. Not a great surprise. Merely confirmation. This clearly was not work related. It crossed her mind to do something dramatic such as go round to the Hotel. He would probably be there now. She decided he wasn’t worth it. Besides, she was exhausted and couldn’t leave Gemma on her own.

  Marie didn’t break down and cry. She spent the next few hours on the internet, moving funds from one bank account to another, checking out the services of various private detectives and calculating how much half the value of her house was likely to be.

  Marie thought about the positives in her life – two fabulous daughters, money in the bank, a promising career, and plenty of friends. When she finally went to bed she shed a few tears for her second failed marriage. But not many. And when she left this time, her daughter would be leaving with her.

  Chapter 10

  Saturday November 6th

  Carly Price was at home when the house phone rang. She answered in the hallway and jumped up the stairs two at a time when she heard her Mum’s voice. She sat down on the top stair.

  “Mum, where have you been? I was like, getting well worried about you. You hadn’t rung me for almost a week. How are you? How’s Gemma?”

  “She’s fine, love, excited about seeing you tomorrow. She wants to go to the zoo though. I know you used to like…”

  Carly liked the fact that her Mum sounded almost as excited as she was. On the top of the stairs was an extended window ledge. There were a few family photos placed there, including one of Carly, Gemma and her Mum. With the phone pressed against her ear, she picked up this photo and in turns held it and gazed at it.

  “No, Mum that’s great, I’ll…”

  At that moment Carl emerged from the kitchen.

  “Who is that on the phone?”

  “It’s Mum, can you go away, please – now.”

  “That’s not a nice way to speak to your dad, Carly.”

  “Well, he’s a prick. I’m sorry Mum, but he is. You must think so too. You left him.”

  “Carly, don’t say that. He’s your dad and he’s a good man. He’s the one who’s been there all your life – more than I have.”

  Carly wanted her mum to agree with her. She was annoyed that Marie was defending him, and resented him listening to their phone call. She could have taken the phone into her bedroom, and shut the door, but she stayed where she was.

  “If you, like, had loved him more you would still be here. You told me that, Mum. You didn’t leave me! You left him!”

  “Yes, of course that’s right. Don’t get upset, love. I didn’t mean that I left coz of you.”

  “I hope so, because...”

  “Look, we can’t have this conversation on the phone. I’ll pick you up at 9 tomorrow. We’ll spend the whole day together then, a girls’ day out. We can talk about this stuff then.”

  “Isn’t Gary coming?”

  Carly was not bothered about Gary coming. She didn’t particularly like him, but she hadn’t seen him for ages. When he had been around, he hadn’t said much, but had always given Carly lots of spends.

  “No, love, Gary isn’t coming, just the ....”

  “He never comes with you anymore – is there something wrong with..?”

  “No, of course…look I can’t talk to you now, but we’ll have a long chat tomorrow. I promise, I’ll talk to you then.”

  “OK.” Carly could tell from her Mum’s reply that something was wrong.

  “You’re OK, yes? Don’t be upset or worry. We’ll have a great time tomorrow, I promise. We’ll talk then.”

  “OK, Mum, See you tomorrow. Love you.”

  “Love you too. Lots and lots. See you at nine – on the dot.”

  “OK, bye, Mum.”

  Carly put the phone back. Still holding the photo, she went and sat back on the stairs, again, gazing at it. She kissed her mum and Gemma and replaced it on the ledge. Spending a day with her mum, and Gemma also, was one of the few things that she genuinely looked forward to.

  Carl had gone back into the kitchen, but now he popped his head into the hall.

  “How is she?”

  Carly shrugged. She did not want to speak her dad right now. He irritated her. Mum had left because of him; he had not been good enough for her. Mum had the flash car and the good job, whilst he was an idiot, and worse.

  “What do you care?”

  “I’m only asking, that’s all, you don’t need to be so bloody rude.”

  “You’re the one swearing, that’s being rude.”

  As she stood up to walk to her room she muttered under her breath, “prick.”

  Carly watched as he came running after her. He had started to speak but instead he was dribbling. He was angry but it looked funny. Carly was laughing. At her dad.

  Carl reached her before she had escaped to her bedroom and, placing a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, pulled her round to face him. Carly was pinned against the wall, his face was so close to hers, admonishing her with his finger – she wasn’t laughing now.

  “Carly, I’m warning you. Don’t speak to me like that – I deserve better than this.”

  “No, you don’t. Think I give a shit about you, living in this shit house with your shit car and your shit job, and you – the biggest shit of all?”

  At that moment, Carly’s mobile rang. She hoped it was her Mum, but it was Jacquie. Carl took a step backwards. The Price’s upstairs hall was a small space. Carl paced up and down, while his daughter spoke to her friend on her mobile, deciding that, rather than go to her bedroom, she would wind him up more.

  “Yeah, I’ll meet you in half an hour ….My dad’s going crazy…I think he’s going to beat me up … I’ll have to call Childline …Laters…Love you.”

  Carly could see the anger in her father’s face and his eyes, but she had no fear. He had never hit her before and he wouldn’t dare do it. If he pushed her too far she would make him regret it, by telling her Mum everything.

  “Go on then, hit me, see if I care. You’ll probably miss – you’re such a useless prick,” she taunted.

  But he didn’t miss.

  * * *

  Saturday morning at the Richardson’s and Janice had woken up around 8 o’clock and spent the morning ironing, cleaning and washing. Nathan had demanded that she clean his trainers and she decided to put them in the washing machine, while she hoovered the living room. A few cheese and onion crisp packets and associated crumbs, but not too bad. After she finished, she sat down in her living room, waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle.

  Solace for the drudgery came from listening to her music. Janice loved Tamla Motown and the Beatles from the 60s. Although she had not been born when they broke up, she had become addicted from listening to her parents play their LPs. She had trie
d to influence Nathan similarly as he had grown up, but it had not permeated. Finishing her chores, she put on a tape of Revolver and was singing along to Taxman and For No One when she heard Nathan coming downstairs. It was just after one.

  Janice wanted to talk to him before he hit the Waddon streets. The letter from the school about his truancy had arrived on Tuesday and he had been arrested on Thursday. Janice was very worried that Nathan, her beautiful baby boy, was going off the rails and there appeared to be little she could do to stop it. Nathan slumped on the living room settee while his mum began cooking bacon and eggs plus a piece of toast. While she dished it up from the kitchen, he turned off her CD player, replacing the Beatles with Kiss on the TV and as she placed the plate on the table, his one word response was “ketchup.” Having returned to the kitchen and fetched the ketchup, Janice tackled him about the truancy.

  “Nathan, I know you haven’t been going to school.”

  He looked up, surprised.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So, it’s important. You have to go to school. I know you don’t like going but you have to go. Try and get some GCSEs. Apart from which, if you don’t go we’ll both be in trouble with the police. And you’ve been cautioned, so you’ll be in real trouble.”

  “Whatever.”

  Janice took a deep breath. She had spent the morning rehearsing this conversation and had anticipated Nathan’s dumb insolence. She knew if she started shouting they would have a slanging match. So she persisted, calmly and quietly. Quietly was difficult as she had to compete with the TV, but he would only turn it louder if she turned it down or off.

  “Look, Nathan, I will be in serious trouble if you do not go to school. I’ll be held accountable.”

  “So this is all about you. You don’t care if I go to school or not?”

  “No, that’s not…” It was futile arguing with him. At that point Nathan received a text. He started chuckling whilst Janice stood over him. She wanted to scream at him, or to hit him, but she managed to control herself. Screaming at Nathan never worked.

  “Please go to school from now on, OK?”

  Nathan looked up, surprised at his Mum’s tone. She was being reasonable, asking him nicely. No screaming and crying. Meanwhile, Janice congratulated herself for keeping calm. She appeared to making progress.

  “What have they sent you anyway?”

  “What have, who...?

  “The school, this letter. What have you been sent?”

  “Oh, I get you. It’s a letter from the authorities – they are coming round to see me, well, both of us actually, next Tuesday, to see if the situation can be resolved before it all goes to court.”

  They were having a sensible discussion. Nathan turned the TV down without being asked. Janice sat down on the sofa next to her son. He finished his breakfast, while she sat next to him, amazed. She was having a rational, reasonable debate with her teenage son. It was going so well.

  “So, we’ll tell a lie.”

  Maybe not that well.

  “What do you mean – tell a lie?”

  “We’ll come up with some reason why I can’t go to school – some lie – anything that gets them off our backs.”

  “What?”

  Nathan shrugged.

  “You’ll think of something – you’re the one with O levels. Don’t worry about it – I’ve got to go – I’m meeting Kelly. See ya.”

  With that, Nathan was up and out of the house. Janice picked up Nathan’s breakfast dish and walked to the kitchen. She began singing For No One again, because it was on her mind. For the rest of the afternoon, she began formulating the perfect lie.

  Chapter 11

  Sunday November 7th

  Although the skin below Carly’s eye was purple and blue, the eye itself was fully open and there was no bruising above the eye. Carly was pleased that her mum accepted her daughter’s version of events as to how she had acquired the black eye. Mucking about with her dad, he had accidentally caught her with his elbow. Carly wasn’t surprised that Marie believed her. She had never seen her dad hit her mum when they were together, and this was the first time he had raised his fists to her. Carl had been full of remorse. Immediately after he hit her, he had put his arms around her and apologised. Carly had pushed him away, run into her bedroom, shut the door and told him to leave her alone.

  Carly accepted the black eye as her own fault. She had given her dad significant verbals before he hit her so she deserved punishment. Why tell her mum and cause trouble? She’d asked for it, and he would never do it again. They hadn’t seen each other since then. Her Mum had rung her mobile at nine this morning and Carly had left the house without breakfast.

  Carly always enjoyed visiting London Zoo. Today, it was sunny and not too cold. As the three of them walked along Regents Park Road, Gemma was having great fun kicking the fallen leaves. At first, Marie told her to stop, but Carly joined in, and as the two girls walked along laughing, the leaves blowing back into their faces, even Marie had a kick. Giggling, they reached the turnstiles and Marie paid for the three of them to walk round the bastions of white concrete enclaves, filled with lions, tigers, giraffes, hippos and rhinos.

  London Zoo was not the usual choice for a twelve year old, more used to being around the streets of Caterham with her wifeys, dissing boys, Miss Payne, neeks and Goths, chatting about boys, who would win X Factor, boys and planning a visit to Primark to buy as many decent clothes as possible for £20, texting boys, comparing hair straighteners, mascara and boys. But Carly liked animals.

  What Carly mostly enjoyed was spending some time with her Mum and baby half sister. As she walked around the zoo hand in hand with Gemma, her little sister chatted away.

  “Carly, I haven’t seen you for ages.”

  “That’s because I only see Mummy at weekends. She is really busy making loads of money for us, and I’ve had sleepovers at my friends for the past couple ...”

  “Sleepovers are fun. I always have sleepovers. Last night...”

  “Carly, Gemma, come over here – the elephants are coming out of their enclosure.”

  Carly wondered for a moment why Marie was excited about the elephants. Last time they had come here, her Mum had been on her mobile the whole time. Still at least her Mum appeared to be more into the zoo this time.

  She wanted to talk to her Mum about her problems doing maths at school and how she hated Miss Payne. She wanted to tell her Mum that Anna had been screwing her and that she was worried that Bethany and Jacquie were starting to leave her out of stuff. But she did not think her Mum would want to hear all that. Marie had left Carl because he could not make her happy. So today, however she felt, Carly was going to try and make her Mum happy.

  “That monkey looks like my Daddy.”

  Carly, holding her hand, pointed out two others. “That big fat one there looks like my dad. And that lady gorilla looks like Mummy.”

  Marie joined in. “And those two baby monkeys, sitting around all day with their bums in the air, are you two.”

  Carly enjoyed the day out at the zoo, but she wished that she could be six again. Gemma seemed to be so happy, no worries or problems for her.

  * * *

  After the zoo, they went to McDonalds – Gemma’s favourite. As Gemma ate her kid’s fatburger and the other two had a bag of fries each, Carly wondered whether she would have an opportunity to talk to her Mum on her own.

  “Mum, when you take me home are you coming in?”

  “Maybe for a minute, love.”

  “Me and Mummy aren’t going home. We are staying in a hostel,” Gemma piped up.

  Carly saw the look of horror on her Mum’s face and everything fell into place. Too good to be true, Marie taking an interest in the elephants at the zoo. Gemma had been about to say something she shouldn’t have. Her mum was so annoying, always keeping things from her, such a lying cow.

  “Something you’ve forgotten to tell me mum?”

&nb
sp; “Gemma’s just a bit...”

  “Please don’t tell me Gemma’s lying. There’s only one person full of shit round here.”

  “Don’t speak to...”

  “A hostel, Mum. What are you doing in a hostel?”

  “I don’t want you...” Marie stopped and sighed. “OK, Carly, I didn’t want to tell you like this. We’re staying in a Travelodge, not that far from you actually.”

  “And you didn’t tell me – because…” Carly was disappointed in her mum. Keeping where she was living from her. Trying to lie. This was like talking to her dad.

  “I wanted to. I would have done, but…” and she nodded towards Gemma.

  “So it’s Gemma’s fault. You couldn’t have, like, phoned me yesterday or told me at some point today?!”

  “I’m sorry, love, but it’s not the easiest thing to come out with.”

  “You’ve still not explained. What’s going on? Where’s...?”

  Up until now Carly had been boxing her Mum into oblivion, as Marie was on the ropes attempting to apologise or explain. But now, Marie fought back.

  “Not having this conversation now, Carly. It will have to wait.” Again, she nodded towards Gemma. Carly pigeoned her mum.

  “Take me home, now!”

  Carly was up and out of McDonalds before Marie had a chance to respond. She heard Gemma’s voice behind her.

  “Is Carly angry with you, Mummy? Is she?”

  Marie never answered and, as the three made their way to the BMW, not even Gemma spoke. As they got into the car and Carly slammed the door shut, she couldn’t help thinking how her day at the zoo had been too good to be true. They’d had such a fun time but, as always, a crappy parent had ruined things.

  * * *

  As they drove back Marie was thinking about when she left Carl seven years ago and Carly’s face when she tried to explain that Mummy wasn’t going to live at home anymore. Carly had cried for hours, probably for weeks, but Marie had left by then. At the time, Marie had promised herself that would be the last time she would make her little girl cry.