Genie

by Kitty French

  ‘Lizzie, you’re here!’ she said, hugging her quickly as Abel stood and turned around.

  Lizzie kept hold of Genie’s hand as she looked up at her big brother for the first time. ‘Abel?’ she said, tentative and awkward.

  He nodded, silently taking her in.

  ‘Lizzie was our nanna’s name,’ he said gently, and then he pulled his little sister into a hug and held her to him tightly.

  Genie stepped back, choked with emotion for them and for herself. She reached for her jacket and walked out of the cafe, knowing that Abel and Lizzie could take it from here.

  Genie sat on the foyer floor with her back resting against the theatre’s welcome desk, her fingers tracing the intricate pattern of the floor tiles. It was so familiar to her that she could have drawn it with her eyes closed.

  She watched people rush past the steps outside the glass doors in search of their lunch and wondered how things were going further on down the road in the cafe. She didn’t doubt Abel; she knew that she’d passed Lizzie into safe hands.

  Wrapping her arms around her knees, she laid her head on them and closed her eyes, trying to commit every micro detail of him to her memory forever. The clean, warm scent of him, his reassuringly powerful presence, the curve of his cheek. She’d wanted so much for him to walk in and pull her into those strong arms of his, to love her as much as she loved him, a scene from a cheesy Valentine movie come to life. She caught herself, gave herself a mental shake. When did she get so pathetic? He’d promised not to leave before they had the chance to talk. It was something. Maybe, just maybe, if she said the exact right things, she had a chance. She just wished she knew what the right things were.

  A knock on the glass made her heart thump. Were they done already? She jumped to her feet, but it wasn’t Abel and Lizzie outside. She frowned as she unlocked the door, not in the mood to deal with a stranger.

  ‘Is she here?’ the woman on the steps said without preamble or introduction.

  ‘I’m sorry?’ Genie said, folding her arms across her chest, her hackles up. She’d never seen this woman before, but she’d know those eyes anywhere.

  ‘Don’t give me that,’ the woman said, rolling her eyes. ‘Get her out here right now. She’s skipping school.’

  Genie hadn’t given a thought to the fact that Lizzie was still of school age. ‘She isn’t here.’

  ‘You’re lying. Whoever you are.’ The woman – their mother, Genie supposed, though it didn’t feel right even thinking of her that way - tried to look past Genie into the theatre. ‘Elizabeth!’ she called out in a harsh voice. ‘Get your backside out here this minute!’

  ‘I’ve told you once. She isn’t here,’ Genie sighed. She wanted rid of this woman and fast and gambled on the best way to do it. ‘Check for yourself if you like.’

  Abel and Lizzie’s mother looked at Genie suspiciously and then stepped past her into the foyer. She was shorter by a head, a slight figure in a fake leather skirt. Genie watched as she stuck her head into the auditorium and then came back out and stood in the centre of the foyer.

  ‘This place needs bulldozing,’ she observed, curling her lip.

  Genie ignored her, still standing by the door. ‘Have you seen enough?’

  The other woman narrowed her eyes, her face calculating. ‘She’s been here today, hasn’t she?’

  ‘No,’ Genie said, glad that she didn’t need to lie.

  ‘I’m surprised he’s living in such a dump,’ Abel’s mother said, and the careless way she referred to her son made Genie’s hand itch to grab her and fling her out. ‘If he’s still here, that is. He doesn’t stick around. He lives a charmed life these days. God only knows how.’

  ‘I think you should leave now,’ Genie said, keeping her voice indifferent.

  ‘I bet you do.’ The smaller woman’s brittle smile didn’t touch her eyes. ‘I know she’s meeting him, so don’t even bother lying for them.’

  Genie didn’t. She just stood there with the door held open, waiting for her unwelcome visitor to give up and leave. She didn’t.

  ‘Maybe I’ll just wait around here for them.’ There was a sort of veiled threat in the words, making Genie dislike her all the more. The woman shoved her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes. ‘Smoke?’

  ‘No. You can’t do that here, it’s no smoking,’ Genie said firmly, all the same aware that citing their smoking policy seemed rather a moot point given the state of the place. Abel’s mother laughed and lit a cigarette anyway, a none too subtle challenge to Genie’s authority. It was difficult to see how a woman with so few discernible redeeming qualities had managed to produce two decent human beings as offspring.

  Behind her Genie heard voices, and turning, she saw Abel and Lizzie coming up the steps, laughing together. For a split second her heart leapt at the simple sight of his beautiful smile; and then panic set in right after.

  ‘Abel, Lizzie,’ she said, shaking her head and trying to alert them to oncoming trouble with her eyes.

  Too late. The smiles slid abruptly from their faces as their mother stepped into the doorway behind Genie.

  ‘What the fuck is she doing here?’ he said, looking from Genie to his mother and back again.

  Beside him, Lizzie gasped then turned to make a run for it. Abel shot his mother a murderous look and then cursed and followed his sister, catching up with her easily at the bottom of the steps.

  ‘Lizzie, don’t run,’ he whispered, gathering her to him and speaking against the top of her head. ‘It’s the worst thing you can do. Trust me. It’s taken me a lot of years to work that one out.’ He set her away from him, his hands on her fragile shoulders as he looked down into her big, tearful eyes. He could feel her palpable anxiety, and he understood just how much she wanted to run and keep on running. ‘You’re not on your own now Lizzie, okay? Come on. We’ll do it together.’

  She nodded, and let him lead her back up the steps with his arm around her shoulders.

  ‘How did you know where to find me?’ Lizzie asked, staring baldly at her mother.

  ‘Because I know you, Elizabeth. As soon as the school called to say you weren’t there again I knew I’d find you sneaking around this place. I knew you wouldn’t keep your nose out, despite what I said.’ She dropped her cigarette onto the stone steps and ground it out with her shoe. ‘You’re a stupid, disobedient girl and you’ll come to a bad end. Come on. We’re leaving.’

  Abel felt Lizzie stiffen beside him and held her closer against his side. ‘She isn’t coming with you.’

  His mother’s laughter was like nails down a blackboard. ‘What’s this, Abel? Big brother to the rescue?’ She looked at Lizzie. ‘He hasn’t cared about you for the last fourteen years, Elizabeth. What do you think he’s going to do?’ Lizzie stiffened, and Abel hated his mother more than ever in that moment. ‘I’ll tell you, shall I?’ his mother went on. ‘He’ll give you five minutes of his precious time and then disappear again.’

  ‘That’s not exactly what happened, is it?’ he said. ‘You never saw fit to even tell me I had a sister.’

  ‘Half sister,’ his mother corrected, ever spiteful.

  ‘She’s my fucking sister,’ Abel said, stepping up so close to his mother that she stepped backwards inside the theatre.

  He followed her in, Lizzie’s small hand in his. He was aware of Genie on the edges of this circus and hated that she had to witness it.

  Their mother looked them both over assessingly then lit up a fresh cigarette and blew the smoke slowly into the air.

  ‘Do you want to know why I never told you about her?’ she said, her tone conversational.

  Pin drop silence echoed around the foyer. He watched her, hating that her explanation even mattered to him.

  ‘Because you knew I’d take her from you?’ he retorted, aware of the sound of Lizzie’s soft gasp beside him.

  Lazy amusement crossed his mother’s face, as if she found the notion absurd.

  ‘I did it to protect
her from you, Abel.’ The revelation winded him like a punch in the guts. ‘I knew you’d turn on her like you turned on me. Because that’s what you do, son. You abandon people.’

  He opened his mouth but the words wouldn’t come. She was wrong, the rational part of his adult brain knew it, but the emotional side of it pressed forward, greedy to agree with his mother. He had abandoned her. But worse than that, he’d let history repeat itself; he’d turned on then abandoned Genie. Would he abandon Lizzie in time too? Was he a terrible, unreliable man?

  He could see the triumph slide into his mother’s eyes. She’d got him and she knew it.

  Except she hadn’t counted on Genie.

  Wow, their mother was a piece of work. Genie had forced herself to stand by and watch as she worked her children like puppets, but she couldn’t let it go on any longer. Abel’s faltering uncertainty filled her with rage on his behalf, and she found herself stepping forward to stand between them.

  ‘Enough,’ she said, staring his mother down, her voice low and deadly serious. ‘This ends here. You don’t get to come here and spout your crap in my theatre. You don’t get to come here and pass judgement on a man you neither know nor love. Do you hear me?’

  His mother stared at her appraisingly, her hands on her hips. ‘You’ll see. He’ll leave you soon enough,’ she said, taking a long, slow drag on her cigarette.

  Genie saw red and stepped forward, plucking the cigarette right out from the other woman’s fingers and dropping it to the floor. She stamped on it and then looked back up, blazing.

  ‘I never knew my mother,’ Genie told her, shaking inside with red hot fury. ‘And right now I’m just glad she had the decency to leave me with someone who’d love me rather than do her best to screw me up. And you know what? You’ve failed. Spectacularly. Getting away from you was the single best thing Abel ever did, because in spite of you he’s managed to grow up into the best man I’ve ever known.’

  All of the pent up emotion she’d held deep inside spilled out right there and then for them all to see.

  ‘You failed because he’s good, and he’s kind, and he’s decent,’ she said, her voice ringing clear and strong around the foyer. ‘You failed because he’s funny, and he’s honest, and he’s loyal.’ She moved closer. ‘But most of all, you failed because despite your best efforts, he’s happy, and he knows how to make other people happy.’ Genie turned at the touch of his hand on her shoulder. The look in his eyes told her all she needed to know. ‘He makes me happy, and he’ll make Lizzie happier than she’s ever been,’ she said, feeling the younger girl move to stand at her other side.

  They stood there united, Genie in the centre, Abel’s arm around her shoulders, Lizzie’s hand clutching onto hers.

  ‘You can leave now,’ Genie said, her blazing eyes daring their mother to defy her.

  For a moment it looked as if she might, as if she were scrabbling around for something clever to say. In the end she said nothing, just shook her head and stalked out as if it had been her idea to leave in the first place.

  Beside her, Genie felt Lizzie begin to cry, and she turned and wrapped her arms around the younger girl.

  ‘Sshhh, it’s okay,’ she murmured, holding her tight. Abel wrapped his arms around the both of them, kissing the top of Genie’s head, resting his chin on her, comforting her every bit as much as she comforted Lizzie.

  ‘You lied,’ Lizzie said, taking a seat with Genie in the cafe again a little while later. ‘He is your boyfriend, isn’t he?’

  Genie’s eyes followed Abel as he chatted easily with the guy behind the counter.

  ‘No. He isn’t, but I wish he was,’ she murmured, as much to herself as to Lizzie. How very much she wished he was hers.

  Lizzie rolled her eyes in that way that teenagers do, as if they think adults are the dumbest people on the planet. She’d cried herself dry back in the theatre and seemed to feel much better for it.

  ‘Ask him then. I’m pretty sure he’d say yes.’

  Genie smiled sadly. ‘It’s not as simple as that.’ She shrugged, struggling to summarise what had happened between them in a way that was suitable for teenage ears. ‘Stuff happened with us… it’s kind of complicated.’

  She looked up as Abel made his way across to their table with three mugs.

  ‘Hot chocolate,’ he said, sliding a mug topped with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles towards Lizzie. She grinned, scooping up cream with her finger and licking it with her eyes closed blissfully. Abel placed a cappuccino in front of Genie then pulled up a chair and sat down.

  ‘So, Lizzie. You’re never going home again,’ he said, right off the bat. Lizzie’s eyes opened wide. ‘Unless you want to, that is,’ Abel added, as an afterthought.

  Lizzie shook her head. ‘Oh my God, no! But where will I go?’ She squared her shoulders, suddenly frowning. ‘Will I have to go back into care again?’ she asked, still far more a child than a woman.

  ‘No way,’ Abel said, straight to the point. ‘Come and live with me.’

  Lizzie gawked. ‘In Australia?’

  Abel nodded. ‘You’ll like it. The sun shines, and I live on the beach.’

  Laughter bubbled up from Lizzie’s chest as she clamped her hands flat against her cheeks. ‘Can I really?’

  Genie smiled when Lizzie’s shining, excited eyes moved between them both. She looked younger than ever without the heavy make-up that her crying session had washed away, and already well on the way with that big brother hero worship thing. Genie loved him for the simple way he took Lizzie’s fears and squashed them beneath his boots, and envied the younger girl so much that she could barely speak.

  ‘I’ll be back in a sec,’ she said, scraping her chair back and heading quickly for the safety of the bathroom to take some deep breaths and pull herself together.

  Abel watched Genie walk away with his brows knitted together.

  ‘Is she your girlfriend?’ Lizzie asked, stirring the cream into her hot chocolate with a long spoon. ‘Because I like her a lot.’

  Abel dragged his eyes back to his sister. ‘No. I like her a lot too though.’

  ‘I don’t get it. You like her. She likes you. What’s the problem?’

  He didn’t know how to answer that. There were lots of problems.

  ‘Just drink your chocolate,’ he said, softening his words with a small smile.

  Lizzie sipped her drink and then set her mug back down, still eyeing him speculatively. ‘She’s pretty though, isn’t she?’

  Abel sighed. Pretty didn’t begin to cover it. She was his kind of beautiful, he knew that now. ‘I guess,’ he said, cursing himself for sounding even more juvenile than his kid sister.

  Genie re-emerged from the bathroom and he watched her pick her way lightly back towards their table, arching her back to squeeze between two chairs, reminding him of how she’d arched beneath him over the lamp. His body kicked in, appreciating the memory more than he’d like to admit. She’d surprised him back there at the theatre today. More than that. She’d awed him, and she’d humbled him with her protective strength, turning herself into a goddamn warrior princess right in front of his eyes.

  He’d come to London all those months ago expecting to teach it a lesson, and instead he’d been given a master class in life skills by Genie Divine. She’d had her own unconventional upbringing, and she’d taken it on the chin, run with it, and turned it into a life full of glittering positives. She’d never known either of her parents, and yet she remained the most secure person he knew, forging her own path through life, unencumbered by the crippling need to compensate for the shortfalls of others.

  If she could do it, then maybe he could too, and maybe in time he could teach Lizzie the same attitude. Jesus, he hoped so. Reaching for his coffee he knocked back a bitter mouthful and looked away as Genie sat back down.

  Lizzie hugged Genie tightly outside the cafe a little while later. ‘Will I see you soon?’ she said, her dark eyes hopeful when she stepped back.

 
Genie looked quickly at Abel and then back to Lizzie. ‘I’m sure you will,’ she said brightly, putting her bag over her shoulder. ‘And you can always call me.’

  Lizzie felt around in her pockets for her phone. ‘I don’t have your number…’

  ‘I have it,’ Abel said quickly, not quite meeting Genie’s eyes. She didn’t let herself remember how sizzlingly sexy it had been, writing her number onto his bare skin. It seemed a lifetime ago now. Would she still have let things play out between them as they had, if she’d known? There wasn’t really any question. It was hard to regret loving someone when they’d made you feel everything more brightly and deeply and fully than ever before. The stars were more dazzling, desserts tasted sweeter; life was just bigger and better in every way for having him around. She knew this with certainty, now that he was here, however fleetingly, once again. Things may not have turned out how she wished they would, but she’d never regret him, or forget him.

  The tricky bit was learning how to live on the opposite side of the world from him without crawling into bed and staying there forever.

  ‘Genie,’ he dipped his head now to brush his lips over her cheek in goodbye. ‘I’ll call you,’ he murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear. She looked down at the pavement, choked up, nodding.

  ‘Okay.’

  She watched him walk away, and grew lonelier with every step he took.

  Abel noticed the bookshop just around the corner and steered Lizzie inside.

  ‘What are we doing?’ she said, twisting to look up at him.

  ‘Buying you books.’ She’d mentioned earlier that she loved to read. He was already looking out for any opportunity to do kind things for her, to give her some of the generosity and thoughtfulness that he knew full well had been missing from her so-called home life up to now. ‘A girl who loves to read needs books,’ he told her. He pushed her forward gently. ‘Go choose some. As many as you like.’