The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler (electric book reader txt) 📕

Why is my bedroom so hot? Is it just me, is the hangover kicking in, or … oh shit, have I messed up the heating again? Last night, when I was drunk? Did I …?

There’s another noise, right behind me this time, and I jump violently. The sudden movement jars my skull, making my head throb even more painfully. I turn to see Finley standing in the doorway.

‘Mum … I’m too hot to sleep. My room is horrible,’ he says with a sob, and rushes across the room towards me, flinging his arms around my waist. He feels as overheated as I do. His skin is damp and his T-shirt is sticking to his back.

Oh God. What have I done now? Liv’s here; she’ll be awake too. They all will …

‘I’m going to go and sort it out, darling,’ I whisper. ‘It’s just the heating playing up, I’m so sorry. You go back to bed and I’ll open your windows to cool your room down, OK? It’ll feel better soon.’

He sobs again, nodding with his head still pressed into my tummy, and I think I might be sick again. I lead him back to his room, grabbing a towel from the bathroom to mop him down with. Eloise is, thankfully, still asleep, curled up on one side of Finley’s small bed. There’s a sheen of sweat on her forehead too though, and I check the radiator and find it unbearably hot, my fingers barely grazing the white painted steel before I have to pull them away. My confusion growing, I open the windows wide, take another few deep breaths to try to quell the nausea, then creep down to the hall, flicking the light on then groaning again. My eyes feel as if someone’s been rubbing them with sandpaper; they’re gritty and painful, but I force myself to study the heating control panel on the wall.

Twenty-one degrees. My usual setting. This doesn’t make sense …

And yet I’m already feeling cooler, already sweating less profusely. I walk slowly around the ground floor, feeling the radiators. The rooms are warm – too warm – but the radiators seem to be cooling rapidly now.

I must have set a timer or something last night and now it’s gone off again. But why? Why would I do that? And why don’t I remember?

As I make my way slowly back upstairs, I think again about Barbara and Brenda and how I wish I could pop round later and ask them for their advice about this stupid problem, and about the face I saw outside the window, and about everything else that’s been going on too. My heart twists with sorrow that I can’t. And then I think about Robin and how upset she was with me, and I wonder.

Could Mum be right? Could Robin be behind all this? The heating, the missing letter? But why? What on earth would she gain from it? It just isn’t logical …

I’m back in my room now, fumbling in my bedside drawer for paracetemol, washing two down with some water from the glass that’s somehow sitting by my bed – Mum, I assume. I strip my pyjamas off and go to the chest of drawers for a fresh pair, and as I do so I catch a glimpse of my naked body in the full-length mirror. I stop and look for a minute, watching a trickle of sweat running slowly down my chest, making its way between my breasts, and wonder if I have the energy to take a shower. I don’t. I get back into bed and when I open my eyes again the sun is streaming in through the open curtains and somehow I’ve got through the night.

Remarkably, I don’t feel too bad – a lingering feeling of mild nausea, a slight headache, and a raging thirst, but I’ve felt worse. I’m still dreading facing Mum and Liv though, and when I go downstairs they are, of course, already up and chatting in the kitchen, mugs of tea in hand. Liv looks fresh and lovely, dressed in a denim jumpsuit with pristine white trainers, while Mum’s in slinky grey yoga pants and a cream sweater, her feet bare and her toenails painted scarlet. I glance down at my own ancient, creased T-shirt – a Minnie Mouse one Jacob bought me for a joke about five birthdays ago – and sigh inwardly.

Always, always such a mess.

‘Morning!’ I say brightly, and they both look round and smile.

‘Morning, sis!’ says Liv. ‘Sore head this morning?’

She winks and I immediately feel a little better. Maybe she’s not judging me after all.

‘A bit,’ I admit. ‘Sorry about last night. I had a bit too much, I think!’

She shakes her head and pulls out a stool for me to sit down.

‘Don’t be silly. We’ve all been there, trust me. I only took it easy because I’ve got the long journey back tonight. Nothing worse than public transport with a hangover.’

I sit gratefully and Mum stands up.

‘I’ll make you a cuppa, love. By the way, did either of you notice how hot it got in the night? I woke up in the early hours and thought I was going to suffocate!’

‘Gosh, yes. It was awful. I woke up too and it took me ages to get back to sleep.’

Liv puts her mug down on the countertop and turns to look at me.

‘Is your heating on the blink or something?’

Shit, I think.

‘I’m not sure what’s going on with it,’ I say. ‘I’m really sorry. I woke up too, and poor Finley …’

BZZZZZZZ.

The doorbell rings suddenly and, literally saved by the bell, I go to see who’s there, hoping the conversation will have moved on from the damn central heating by the time I come back. To my surprise, Jacob’s standing on the doorstep looking handsome in a blue polo shirt and jeans, his hair freshly trimmed.

He was at the barber’s early, I think, then glance at my watch, and see to my surprise