Hurry Up and Wait

by Isabel Ashdown

  ‘Jason!’ shouts Kate’s mum, breaking into the calm of the night. She’s flung open the back window and is leaning out looking annoyed. ‘Jason!’

  ‘Oh, blimey,’ he says under his breath. ‘Looks like I’m in for a bollocking.’ He makes a fearful face behind his hand, then replies, ‘What is it, Pats?’

  ‘You’ve wedged open the back door with your bloody extension lead. While you’re busy playing Prince Charming, I’m freezing my tits off in here!’

  The girls snort with laughter and Patty looks even more furious than before.

  ‘Oh, come on, Pats, it’ll only be for a bit longer. I’ll be doing the fireworks in a sec. Give me five minutes, OK?’

  Patty pulls the window shut with a clunk and glares out of it while she tidies around the sink.

  ‘Women, eh?’ Jason says. ‘Can’t live with ’em; can’t live with ’em.’

  ‘Shut up, Dad,’ Kate laughs. She turns to Sarah and Tina and whispers, ‘Down in one.’

  They throw back their necks and swallow the cider in large gassy gulps, glug-glug-glug, until Kate crushes her can in her hand and throws it over her shoulder victoriously.

  ‘Steady on, girls,’ says Jason.

  Sarah chokes and splutters, spraying cider out sideways and descending into giggles as she places her empty can by her side, discreetly covering her mouth to conceal a small belch. Tina nips off to the loo, tiptoeing across the grass like a long thin shadow against the light of the kitchen window. The fire roars and spits momentarily as a fleeting breeze passes through the garden.

  Kate throws a crust of bread at her dad, bouncing it off his knee. ‘So what about these fireworks?’

  Jason finishes his lager, and stands, brushing himself down. ‘OK. Tell you what. You go and get the fireworks and me and Sarah can move the logs back away from the lawn.’

  Kate sprints off to find Tina and fetch the fireworks from the box room. Sarah bends and rolls her tree stump back towards the fence where Jason has indicated. As she flips it over, Jason bumps into her, catching her around the waist with one hand.

  ‘Oops. Sorry, love,’ he says, bringing his second hand to the other side of her waist. They’re in the shadows.

  ‘Oh,’ says Sarah, stepping back.

  He keeps his hands on her waist, and gives her a squeeze. ‘You’re a slim little thing, aren’t you?’ he says, then he turns and walks back across the garden to fetch another log. Sarah’s glad the garden is in darkness, to disguise her blushes. She can still feel the imprint of his large hands around her ribs.

  ‘Haven’t you finished yet?’ Kate calls out as they return with the fireworks.

  ‘Nearly there!’ Jason replies, ‘We almost had a collision, didn’t we, Sarah, love? Nearly there!’

  Once he gets started on the fireworks the girls coo and scream as the coloured lights fill the sky. Kate’s mum still doesn’t come out and join them. They end the evening with sparklers and marshmallows on sticks, until Patty bangs on the window, beckoning them in.

  Jason gives the dying bonfire a final prod, and throws a last stick into the embers.

  ‘Alright, girls. It’s half-ten. Time to call it a day.’

  At the base of the stairs, Kate gives her dad a hug before she dashes up ahead of Tina and Sarah. ‘Night, Dad,’ she calls over her shoulder.

  Tina follows her up, with Sarah behind.

  ‘Night, girls,’ says Jason.

  She feels his hand pat her backside lightly, and she spins round.

  Jason winks up at her boldly, leaning his elbow on the final stair post. ‘Sleep tight,’ he says.

  Sarah runs up the stairs and into Kate’s bedroom.

  On the first Saturday in December Mrs Gilroy asks her to stay behind and help John to put up the Christmas decorations. When all the other shop assistants have left, Mrs Gilroy switches off the main lights and disappears into the back office to do the paperwork, leaving John and Sarah to get on with the front window.

  Sarah starts to empty out the current display, while John fiddles around at the back till, loading a tape into the cassette player under the counter.

  ‘What’re you putting on?’ she calls over her shoulder.

  John walks back towards the window, carrying a big cardboard box full of tinsel and decorations. ‘Christmas crap,’ he says as the first track starts to play. It’s Band Aid: “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”’

  ‘Brilliant!’

  She takes the box from him and slides it up against the opening to the window display.

  He laughs, sprinting back up the shop. ‘How can you listen to this stuff? I can’t believe you like it.’

  ‘I don’t! But it’s compulsory listening for when you’re decorating Christmas trees or wrapping presents. She sings purposely off key and waves her arms above her head.

  ‘Nice,’ says John, returning with a box of Maltesers and two cups of tea. Sarah helps herself to a chocolate and they get to work, putting together the little fake tree, bending its wiry branches out until it looks vaguely presentable.

  ‘It’s a bit shabby round the edges,’ says John, balancing it on a small stool in the corner of the window. He stands back and stares at it critically. ‘I think it’s seen better days.’

  She puts her hands on her hips and looks at the tree too, dropping another Malteser into her mouth. The tree creaks and falls back into the shop, snapping off a branch as it hits the floor. ‘I dunno. I think it’s fine.’

  They manage to wedge it upright by tying a length of string from the stool to the base of the tree, before spreading the decorations out on the floor. After a while a comfortable silence descends, and John works at the tree while Sarah wraps empty boxes with gold paper and ribbon, to create a faux gift scene inside the window.

  As John occupies himself winding the coloured lights around the little tree, Sarah stretches across him and ties a pair of big red baubles to the top of his ponytail, giggling to herself through a mouthful of chocolate. He stands up and reaches round to work out what she’s done.

  ‘Oi!’ he says, trying to undo it. ‘It’ll look like I’ve got a big knob on the back on my head!’

  She howls with laughter, spinning him round to take another look. ‘It does!’

  ‘Aarghh! Get these big bollocks off me!’ he laughs, frantically trying to untangle the baubles. He hides his face in his hands as a group of kids walk by on the other side of the glass, pulling monkey faces and pointing at his head. Eventually, he gives in and they finish dressing the window, with John’s baubles still in place, lightly clacking together every time he moves his head.

  ‘Here,’ Sarah says, when they’ve finished, putting her hand on his shoulder to turn him towards the window. She gently unties the baubles and smoothes out his hair.

  ‘Thanks,’ he says, taking one of the baubles from her and hanging it on the tree.

  ‘Pleasure,’ she replies, hanging the second bauble next to his so that they almost touch.

  He looks at her uncertainly, as if he’s about to say something important.

  ‘Parumpapumpum,’ she sings, turning away swiftly to avoid his eyes. She pops the last Malteser in her mouth and starts to pack up the leftover decorations.

  ‘I’ll get the dustpan and brush,’ he says after a pause, and he walks back up the shop, his soft suede desert boots squeaking with every step.

  It’s the last day of term and Sarah, Kate and Tina meet at the school gates to walk into town for hot chocolate in Marconi’s. It’s full of Selton High School pupils, out celebrating the start of the Christmas break, and the queue along the counter stretches all the way to the door. The noise is instant, the moment they walk through the steamed-up door: a steady clamour of teaspoons on crockery, adolescent banter and kitchen clatter. A tidy group of sixth form boys sits just inside the door. The boys look up, assessing the girls and turning back to each other, casually raising approving eyebrows. They drink coffee, with no cakes or biscuits. Their returning gaze makes Sarah feel juvenile in her
school uniform and flat slip-on shoes. The queue is slow, and as they wait she inadvertently catches the eye of one of the boys, who’s pulling a vomit face at his friend and indicating towards Tina.

  Sarah looks at Tina, who is oblivious to the attention, scratching away at the skin between her fingers. She’s so pale. There’s something about her that reminds Sarah of a Jacob’s cream cracker.

  ‘Is there anywhere to sit?’ asks Sarah, pulling off her gloves and standing on tiptoes to see past the throng of green uniforms.

  Kate is looking too, drawing her fingers down through her fringe, her eyes flitting from one boy to the next. ‘Go down the back and see if you can bagsy a seat. We’ll get the drinks in – want a cake?’ She’s noticed the boys to their right and her mouth turns up slightly at the corner.

  ‘Flapjack,’ Sarah replies, pressing some coins into Kate’s hand, and she moves down through the crowded café until she finds a small table for four beside the alleyway window at the back. She hops up on to the chair to wave to the others.

  Kate gives her a thumbs-up.

  Sarah plucks a paper napkin from the stainless steel box on the table and runs it across the formica top to sweep the crumbs on to the floor. She can see some girls from her French group over on the other side of the café, giggling and dunking shortbread into their hot chocolates. There’s tinsel draped around their necks like garlands and one of them has tiny silver baubles hanging from her earrings, which swing and rotate every time she moves her head. They all look so young. Make-up-less and natural-haired. She gathers up her own hair and inspects the ends, wishing they’d gone to the Coffee Garden instead.

  Through the window in the alleyway, pedestrians walk back and forth with shopping bags and pushchairs. A young woman further along the path wrestles with her red-faced toddler, who rigidly screams and refuses to get up off the pavement. Eventually, the mother scoops the child up under her arm and marches along the path towards Sarah. As she passes, Sarah sees that she’s only about nineteen or twenty, and her expression, nakedly exposed in the privacy of the alleyway, is one of pure despair. She disappears from view, replaced by a leisurely snake of school kids and sixth formers on their way home for Christmas.

  Sarah realises too late that Dante is among them, strolling along the alleyway with his hands in his pockets. Her heart lurches momentarily. They haven’t spoken since they last argued, and she’s told herself that he will have to make the first move if he wants to make up. Everything slows down, and as he progresses towards her their eyes lock, but his expression doesn’t alter. There’s no smile, no warmth. He just looks at her straight and walks on past the window and out of sight.

  Tina puts the tray down on the table with a rattle. ‘Your hot chocolate’s a bit spilt,’ she says. ‘Some plank knocked the tray when I was walking through.’ She sits opposite Sarah and pulls the tray along, yawning.

  ‘Where’s Kate?’ Sarah asks.

  ‘Chatting up some sixth former down by the door,’ Tina replies, licking the sugar off her jam doughnut.

  ‘Really?’

  Tina pulls an indifferent face and pours two spoonfuls of sugar into her hot chocolate.

  ‘Hasn’t it already got sugar in it?’ asks Sarah.

  ‘I like it sweet,’ she says. ‘It warms you up.’

  Kate joins them, waving a torn piece of lined paper in the air with a satisfied smile. ‘His name’s Christian,’ she says, taking her mug. ‘What a great name.’

  ‘Maybe he is one,’ says Sarah.

  ‘What?’

  ‘A Christian.’ She peers into Kate’s cup.

  ‘It’s coffee,’ Kate says.

  ‘You don’t drink coffee,’ Sarah laughs.

  ‘Who says I don’t?’

  There’s a moment of silence between them, while they stir their cups and nibble at their cakes.

  Sarah picks up the slip of paper. Christian 677898. Kate smiles and snatches it from her. ‘He’s lush, isn’t he, Teen?’

  Tina nods.

  ‘And he’s definitely not a Christian. I’d be able to tell. We might go out over the holidays. He’s going to phone me, but I thought I should get his number just in case.’

  ‘I just saw Dante,’ says Sarah. ‘Through the window.’

  Kate drops her slip of paper and leans into the table. ‘Who was he with?’

  ‘No one.’

  ‘Did he see you?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Nothing. He didn’t smile or wave or anything. He just looked at me and kept on walking.’

  Kate and Tina are wide-eyed. ‘What a bastard. If he’s finished with you, he should at least let you know.’ Kate suddenly laughs. ‘What a bastard.’

  Tina scratches her eczema, shaking her head. ‘That’s really bad, Sar. You should forget about him.’

  The crowd in the café is starting to thin out a little and Sarah can now see the sixth form boys down at the front. They’re standing to leave. One of them turns and looks over to where they’re sitting. Kate jumps up and waves; he puts up a cool hand and exits through the steamy front door. She sits down, her silly bosom jiggling excitedly as she bounces her knees under the table.

  ‘So, presents?’ she says, taking a swig of coffee and wrinkling her nose.

  The girls reach into their bags and each place two presents on the table in front of them. They open Tina’s first. She gives Sarah a bar of Fruit and Nut chocolate, and Kate a long jade necklace. ‘I know how much you like jade,’ she says. ‘But don’t wear it round my house, in case my mum sees it.’

  ‘Did you nick it off your mum?’ asks Kate.

  Tina smacks her lips together. ‘She never wears it.’

  Kate puts it round her neck, wrapping it twice.

  ‘Looks nice,’ Sarah says.

  Sarah gives them both the same thing, a handmade beaded leather pouch, containing a small bottle of perfume she bought from the chemist’s. ‘I made the pouch. They’ve got loads of really nice leather remnants in the bead shop. Thought you could use it for jewellery or something.’

  Tina looks really pleased, and is already dabbing the perfume behind her ears.

  ‘Sweet,’ says Kate, dropping it quickly. ‘Now look what I got you!’

  Sarah can tell from the weight of the small tissue-wrapped parcel that it is a gift of greater value than those she gave. She unwraps the paper, to reveal a beautiful plum-sized silver frog, hinged at the back to reveal a secret compartment. Tina has a ladybird version.

  ‘They’re gorgeous!’ says Tina. ‘Where’d you get them?’

  ‘Newcombe’s silver department. Good, eh?’

  ‘Thanks, Kate. It’s so lovely.’ Sarah turns it over in her hands, inspecting the smooth lines and delicate markings.

  ‘Did you nick ’em?’ asks Tina.

  ‘Of course,’ says Kate proudly.

  They all laugh. Tina clears up the cups and plates and carries the tray back down to the counter.

  Kate twizzles the necklace around her finger and gives Sarah a little nudge. ‘It’s not even real jade, you know,’ she whispers, pulling a face at the back of Tina’s head. She lets the beads fall back against her chest. ‘It’s bloody plastic.’

  Sarah works in the chemist’s every day of the holidays in the run-up to Christmas. On the first day, she passes Dante’s house, furtively glimpsing through the metal gate as she slows her pace. There’s no sign of anyone, and she can’t see his dad’s car in the drive. She wonders if they’ve gone away. It’s over a month since they argued, and they still haven’t spoken. She’s still mad with him, but starts to wonder if she over-reacted. Or maybe he did. As she turns on to the Parade, she sees Kate and Tina outside Marconi’s.

  ‘Kate!’ she calls out, breaking into a jog. The path is icy and she slips, throwing her arms outwards to stay upright.

  Kate grins.

  ‘Didn’t expect to see you at this time in the morning. What’re you up to?’ Sarah asks.

  ‘Christmas shopping!
Thought we’d beat the crowds if we came early.’ Tina shakes her purse in front of her. ‘We’re getting a drink first.’

  ‘Wish I could come,’ Sarah says, glancing over the road at the chemist’s. ‘I’ve got to work. I won’t be buying any presents if I don’t.’

  Kate nods at the blue A-line pinafore hanging out from beneath Sarah’s coat. ‘Yeah, I saw you had your nice dress on. Never mind, we’ll be thinking of you when we’re in Dotty P’s trying on our New Year’s Eve outfits.’

  ‘I’ve seen this amazing dress,’ Tina says, stamping her feet on the pavement to keep warm. She doesn’t have any gloves on and her little knuckles are almost grey. ‘It’s really short, Lycra, with electric-blue sequins all round the neck and bottom. It’s gorge!’

  ‘What’re you doing for New Year?’ Sarah asks, looking back over at the chemist’s. It’s nearly 8.45.

  Kate raises her eyebrows. ‘I reckon my dad might agree to a party at ours.’

  ‘Really?’ Tina and Sarah say together. They laugh.

  ‘Maybe. You’re gonna be late, Sar.’ Kate pushes open the door to Marconi’s. ‘See you later!’

  Sarah dashes across the road, checking her watch as she goes. She sees Barbara and Kerry a bit further along the pavement, also making their way to work. As she rushes into the alleyway at the side of the chemist’s, she steps on to a thick sheet of black ice created by the leaky guttering overhead. She crashes to the floor, thumping heavily on to her side, spilling the contents of her shoulder bag across the pavement.

  The two women turn into the alleyway and Barbara shrieks with laughter. ‘Have a nice trip?’ she asks Sarah, casting a wide shadow across the ground.

  Sarah’s arm is in agony, and she can’t even feel her thigh. Barbara steps over her, smirking, whilst Kerry follows sheepishly. Sarah tries to push herself up with her other arm.

  ‘Hey!’ John shouts, entering the alleyway just before Barbara and Kerry disappear around the corner. ‘Hey! You don’t just leave someone lying there!’