The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler (electric book reader txt) 📕
Read free book «The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler (electric book reader txt) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Jackie Kabler
Read book online «The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler (electric book reader txt) 📕». Author - Jackie Kabler
She looks at me and winks, and I feel a warm glow.
The family. My family.
And then, predictably, it all goes wrong.
‘I’m going on a school trip to London next week,’ Eloise is saying now. ‘We’re going to see a matinee in a proper West End theatre, Matilda the Musical. I’m sooooo excited!’
‘Sounds amazing!’ says Liv, but I raise a hand, puzzled.
‘Erm … what? I don’t know anything about this, Eloise.’
She turns to me, the smile fading from her face.
‘Of course you do. I gave you the letter on Tuesday.’
‘Tuesday?’
I think for a moment. Then I shake my head.
‘Darling, you didn’t give me any letter …’
‘I did, I did!’ She interrupts me, starting to look anxious now.
‘When you were out in the garden after work, remember? I told you there was a letter from school and you said you’d look at it when you came in … Oh Muuuuuum!’
I clap a hand over my mouth. I do remember her telling me about a letter now, the day I saw those footprints outside the window, but I can’t remember seeing it when I came in from the garden. Where was it? And— Oh heck, does that mean …?
‘Muuuuuum!’ She’s wailing now, the tears starting to flow. ‘You had to call the school and pay by yesterday. It was a last-minute thing, and if you haven’t done it that means they won’t have got me a ticket and I won’t be able to go and all my friends are going and I was so looking forward to it and … Muuuuuum!’
She slumps forward, hands over her face and sobs. Across the room, Finley is watching wide-eyed and Liv is staring into her champagne glass, clearly ill at ease.
‘Eloise, darling, I’m so sorry. I just didn’t see the letter. I’ve no idea where it went, and then I forgot all about it … Look, let me call the school on Monday and see if I can do anything. Maybe they can still—’
‘It’s too late!’ she howls. ‘It absolutely had to be done by yesterday. Why are you so useless, Mum? You’re always losing things and forgetting things and not doing things properly and falling out with everyone. And now you’ve ruined my life.’
She’s risen to her feet and on the word life she turns and flounces dramatically from the room, still sobbing loudly. Moments later we hear footsteps pounding up the stairs and then a bang as her bedroom door slams shut.
‘Oh dear,’ says Mum mildly from the kitchen. Liv, Finley, and I look at each other.
‘Liv, I’m so sorry. She’s not normally like that, and I can’t think what happened to that flipping letter …’
‘Oh honestly, don’t think anything of it; these things happen,’ she says, but she still looks horribly uncomfortable. ‘Look, I’ll go and help Mum with the food, you go up and sort her out.’
‘I wouldn’t bother. I don’t think she’ll talk to you,’ Finley says darkly, his blond, barely-there eyebrows raised disapprovingly.
‘I think you might be right,’ I mutter, but I go upstairs anyway. I should have listened to my seven-year-old; Eloise is inconsolable, sobbing into her pillow (on her bed which, of course, has been freshly made up for Liv, and which now will be creased and tear-stained, I think ruefully) and she won’t even look at me. And then, of course, Jacob arrives. He’s not due to have the kids until tomorrow night, but he’s decided to pop in on his way home from work to meet Liv and see how Finley’s ankle is (healing beautifully, by the look of it; he’s already hardly using his crutches). When he hears that Eloise is crying in her room, he runs upstairs, and comes down again twenty minutes later looking irate.
‘Beth, can I have a word?’
Mum’s about to dish out the food, asking Finley if he’ll run up and try to persuade his sister to come down. I apologise and tell them to start without me, my heart sinking. Out in the hallway I brace myself. My ex-husband does not look pleased.
‘How could you forget to contact the school about the London trip, Beth? She’s heartbroken.’
‘I just didn’t see the letter, Jacob. I’m sorry. I don’t know—’
‘She says she left it right there in the kitchen for you, and you said you’d deal with it! It’s not a lot to ask, is it? The poor kid. And it’s not as if it’s the first cock-up you’ve made recently, is it? What the hell’s going on in your head at the moment? The trampoline accident, and now this? Seriously, Beth, it’s not good enough. The kids are getting more and more frustrated and so am I. I said it the other day and I’ll say it again. Get it together, Beth. Just sort yourself out.’
His voice has got louder and louder as he’s speaking, and I’m sure Mum and Liv will be able to hear him clearly from the kitchen. I cringe inwardly. Today of all days.
‘Jacob, please, shh,’ I hiss, but he’s finished now. He gives me an exasperated look as he turns and stomps out of the front door, slamming it nearly as loudly as Eloise slammed her bedroom door earlier. I stand there for a moment, guilt and humiliation washing over me.
How on earth have I messed up again? Where did that letter go and why didn’t I look for it? Why didn’t I remember?
I’m wondering now if I might have thrown it in the recycling bin when I was doing my usual pre-bed whizz around the house on Tuesday night, but it doesn’t really matter now, does it? I will call the school on Monday and see if this can be salvaged, but if it really is too late for Eloise to get a ticket and go on the trip …
I slink back into the kitchen. There’s a moment of awkward silence as Mum and Liv look at me, then at each other, and it’s obvious they’ve heard every word.
‘Dinner, darling! That will make us
Comments (0)