Each Way Bet, page 14
‘Your mother loves that damn cow,’ commented Jack crossly at Kate, who ignored him completely to rush to the dog’s side. ‘She’s going to notice it’s gone as soon as she comes in and she’ll be really upset.’
‘That was from me!’ Cricket folded her arms and glared. ‘I bought it for her!’
‘No worries, I’ll glue it up.’ Matt started gathering together the pieces.
‘Why?’ muttered Sybil, nudging the teat over towards him with the toe of her shoe.
‘What is going on?’ repeated Megan, looking even more confused.
‘Well,’ replied Adam helpfully, ‘it appears that when your brother was playing carpet bowls he managed to throw one of the bowls through the window, which obviously broke.’ He paused to wave at the evidence. ‘And then it seems to have hit the dog.’
‘Not Lassie?’ Megan ran over to the window.
‘Yeah, ah – Lassie. Hey, are you kidding me?’ Adam paused and looked at Megan with disbelief. ‘You didn’t really name that thing Lassie?’
‘Why not?’
Adam raised his eyebrows at Emily, who was stifling a grin. ‘For starters, the real Lassie was an elegant collie who risked life and limb in a heroic sense, not by wandering past a window just in time to be hit in the head by a flying carpet bowl.’
‘We love Lathie.’
‘Of course you do,’ Adam nodded agreeably at Cricket, who was swinging her legs and regarding him dubiously. ‘Doesn’t matter. Where was I up to? Oh yes, Lassie is okay. Well, he’s alive, anyway. Your dad’s just taking him to the vet.’
‘Humph,’ said Jack from down in the yard, obviously not too thrilled about that part of the story. As they watched, he finished wrapping the dog and, with a rather unbecoming grunt, hoisted him up while Kate fussed around him, tucking in various hanging bits of the blanket.
‘I’m missing one teat,’ announced Matt as he stood up with his hands full of china cow. ‘Anyone seen a teat?’
‘Kate, grab my keys.’ Jack started to stagger off with the dog. ‘I’ll meet you out the front.’
‘No.’ Sybil joined them at the window. ‘We’ll take my car. No arguments. You can hold the dog and I’ll drive. You just need to show me where.’
‘Whatever,’ replied Jack. While he didn’t seem completely happy with this plan either, he lacked the strength to argue. ‘I’ll meet you in the driveway.’
‘It’s sort of a pinkish colour. Can everyone look for a teat?’
‘I can hold the dog,’ said Kate crossly as her father strode off, ‘while Dad drives.’
‘It’s all organised now.’ Sybil smiled at her sweetly. ‘Now hurry on, dear, or you’ll get left behind.’
‘Okay,’ said Adam with a clap of his hands as Sybil left the room, ‘now let us get organised! Matt, glue up the cow later – put it in your room so your mother won’t see it. For now, could you finish cleaning up the glass, and don’t forget to use the dustpan and brush. We don’t want any splinters left around. And I’ll get this sliding door back on its tracks while you’re doing it. Then we’ll put that sofa over there in front of the broken window to hide it. Now, Cricket, how about you get the carpet bowl from outside and pack it up with the rest. Be careful of the glass out there. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be playing carpet bowls today. Charlotte – perhaps you could keep Mr and Mrs Carstairs and Nannie entertained? Megan, how about some more coffee?’
‘When did you get so damn bossy?’ asked Emily crossly. ‘I’m the one who swapped with Jill, so I’m the one who’s in charge.’
‘Okay,’ said Adam agreeably, ‘take charge, then.’
‘Fine.’ Emily hesitated and looked around as everybody waited expectantly. ‘Um, you can all do what he said. Except Megan. You can, ah, put your stuff away –’ she gave her niece a meaningful look – ‘while I make the coffee.’
‘Do you have a piano?’ asked Charlotte politely. ‘For me to entertain with?’
‘Sure we do,’ answered Matt quickly, ‘we love piano. But I can’t remember where Mum put it. Have a look around, it’ll be somewhere.’
Emily frowned at Matt fleetingly but didn’t bother to correct him. ‘Now c’mon, everybody – go! Hop to it!’
Megan left the room, looking a bit nervous, as Matt got to work cleaning up the glass and Adam, with much grunting and groaning, lifted the sliding door up and fitted it back onto the tracks. Cricket scrambled down from her stool at the island bench and ran through the sliding door before Adam closed it and then, two minutes later, ran back through with the killer carpet bowl nestled in both hands. She knelt down by the box and started to arrange the bowls within. Charlotte, who had gone back into the lounge-room, could be seen standing just inside the bi-folds, glancing around with a puzzled frown.
As the kettle reached the boil, Emily realised that the plunger was still in the lounge-room on the tray. She was also starting to wonder whether Megan needed not so much a helping hand, but perhaps a hand with the instructions. She turned the kettle off and glanced over at Adam, who was sliding the glass door backwards and forwards on its tracks with an air of accomplishment.
‘Adam?’
‘Yep?’
‘If you’ve finished there, could you take over making the coffee? I’ve got to do something. Important.’
‘Oh. Okay,’ Adam replied, less than enthusiastically. ‘If I must.’
‘Thanks! And the plunger’s in the lounge-room.’ Emily flashed him a grateful smile and headed out of the room in search of Megan. She found the girl sitting on the end of her bed, frowning as she read the label of a discreet pastel-coloured package. As Emily slid inside the room and shut the door behind her, Megan looked up guiltily and then sagged with relief when she realised it was her aunt.
‘Oh, I’m so glad you came! I can’t, like, understand this at all!’
‘Let me see.’ Emily sat down on the bed next to her niece and took the package from her. It looked fairly standard – a boxed home pregnancy test with results in ten minutes. Actually, Emily double-checked the label, two boxed home pregnancy tests with results within ten minutes.
‘Why on earth did you get two?’
‘Oh, you know, it was cheaper.’
‘Two tests were cheaper than one test?’
‘Well, not exactly cheaper,’ Megan explained, ‘but more economical.’
‘More economical,’ Emily repeated with disbelief, ‘but . . .’
‘And Mum always says to, like, check the prices,’ continued Megan seriously. ‘It’s often cheaper in the long run to buy in bulk, you know.’
‘Megan, when in hell do you expect to use . . .’ Emily paused as she looked at her niece’s attentive face. ‘Oh, never mind.’
‘But I can’t work out what it wants me to do!’
‘I’d say at a guess it’s pretty straightforward,’ Emily mused, turning the package over and skimming the instructions. ‘You just have to pee on it.’
‘What?’
‘Pee on it,’ repeated Emily, looking up and registering the horror on Megan’s face. ‘What did you expect?’
‘Not that!’
‘Well, Megan,’ Emily tried to be patient, ‘how did you think it’d be able to work out if you’re pregnant or not? ESP?’
‘Like, no, of course not. But nobody said anything about . . . well, you know.’
‘For god’s sake, if it has to be done, you just do it.’
‘I’m not doing that.’
‘Of course you are.’
‘I’m totally not.’
‘That’s it!’ Emily’s patience snapped and she looked at her niece with no attempt to disguise her irritation. ‘Grow up! You want to act like an adult but you won’t take the consequences, is that it? You have no problems having bloody sex without precautions, risking pregnancy and who knows what types of bloody awful diseases, but you draw the line at peeing on a little stick? Well, fine, the alternative is a frigging huge needle so the doctor can check your blood, okay? And you’ll still have to pee on the damn stick down the track, anyway. It’s a rite of bloody passage.’
‘You’re mean,’ Megan said in a little voice, her eyes welling up again.
Emily gazed at her in frustration. She was mean? All she was doing was trying to be practical because someone had to be. She had listened to the girl, mopped her tears, advised her, and was even sitting here totally prepared to help her do it. And it wasn’t like she was the girl’s mother, either. No, that particular person appeared to have done a runner, leaving Emily to cope with deserted husbands, odd relatives, broken windows, dead dogs, pregnant teenagers and god knows what else, given that it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Emily took a deep breath and then suddenly, like a flash of psychic transferral, she realised what the problem was. Why the girl was digging her heels in, being obstinate and totally unreasonable. Megan was scared. Scared quite literally out of her wits. But before Emily could act on this insight, there was a polite knock on the door followed, immediately, by it opening to reveal Charlotte, looking slightly irritated.
‘Hello? Could you tell me if the piano’s in here?’ Charlotte caught sight of Megan’s face and her eyes widened with interest. ‘Megan! Are you crying?’
‘She’s just had a little accident,’ Emily said quickly, getting up to usher a reluctant Charlotte back through the doorway, ‘and, do you know, I think I might have seen a piano in one of the other rooms.’
‘But I’ve already searched –’
‘Great,’ said Emily, shutting the door firmly on her niece. She sat back down on the bed and took one of Megan’s hands within her own. ‘Look, I’m sorry about before. I really am. I’m just worried for you, that’s all.’
‘I know,’ Megan sniffled, and then wiped her eyes with the heel of one hand. ‘And I’m sorry too. For acting so, you know, stupid.’
‘So you’ll do it?’
‘If I have to.’
‘You have to.’ Emily patted Megan’s hand and then released it. ‘If you want to find out for certain, anyway.’
‘So what do I have to do? Like apart from that bit.’
‘Simple.’ Emily stripped the cellophane off the package and freed two identical boxes. She opened one and, with a little manoeuvring, slid out the clear insert. Then she removed the pregnancy test applicator itself, which was a narrow piece of white plastic about fifteen centimetres long and half a centimetre thick. One end was slightly narrower than the other and there was a small, clear window about a quarter of the way up. Emily lifted it by the thicker end with a finger and thumb and showed Megan. ‘This is it. You need to hold this end and pee on the other end.’
‘Gross,’ said Megan, playing with her bangles nervously.
‘Yep, gross – but necessary. Then you wait for ten minutes to see if a line appears there –’ Emily gestured at the little window slot. ‘You can come back here and I’ll wait with you if you like, or you can wait in the bathroom.’
‘I’ll wait in the bathroom. Thanks, anyway.’ Megan took the test from her aunt gingerly and stood up. ‘Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck.’ Emily smiled at her supportively, and then watched as the girl exited the bedroom, leaving the door wide open so that her aunt could see her as she walked slowly up the passage and turned left into the toilet. She looked like she was heading down the green mile, with the electric chair all primed and waiting at the other end. After Megan disappeared, Emily cleaned up the discarded packaging from the test, and scrunched and shoved it into one of the dresser drawers with the unused test box. After all, if it was negative (please god), there was no point in advertising the close call.
When she arrived back in the lounge-room, she found it permeated with silent boredom. Matt had disappeared, hopefully only temporarily, and Cricket sat on the floor, lethargically lining up some miniature horses. Adam was sitting on the two-seater couch, drinking coffee and half-heartedly watching the coverage on the television. Next to him was perched Charlotte who, obviously having given up on the piano, had a book spread open on her lap and was reading intently. On the three-seater, James Carstairs still held pride of place and, to all intents and purposes, didn’t seem to have moved an inch since his arrival. His wife had rejoined him now and she looked up as Emily entered, giving her a rather nervous smile. Nearby in the armchair, Emily’s mother, who appeared to have missed the debacle with the window and the dog entirely, was crocheting steadily and seemed to have added a considerable amount to the multicoloured square spread over her lap. She was the only one who looked even remotely content.
Emily plastered a smile on her face and attempted to look cheerful. ‘Well, when’s the next race?’
‘Another seven minutes,’ replied Adam dolefully.
‘Uh-oh!’ Cricket looked up at nobody in particular, and suddenly dashed from the room.
‘No time for a game then.’ Emily watched her go and then folded herself neatly on the two-seater next to Adam. ‘You can tell me everything you’ve been up to instead.’
‘Everything?’ Adam raised his eyebrows and grinned.
‘Another time, perhaps,’ Emily said, glancing across at James Carstairs, who let out a rather rude snort. She decided to push a few of his buttons. ‘But you can fill us in on that new relationship of yours. You know, the one you were telling me about a while back. Great body, cute, funny . . .’
‘Finished,’ said Adam shortly.
‘Oh, sorry. What happened? Was there someone else?’
‘Long story. See, we were at –’
‘Look!’ James suddenly leant forward in his seat and pointed at the television. ‘They’re going up to the barriers. So shut up!’
‘Can I ring Mummy?’ asked Cricket, sticking her head around the doorway and ignoring her grandfather’s edict. ‘I really mith her.’
‘Me too,’ said Mary suddenly, pausing in her crocheting to gaze sadly at the far wall.
‘Yeah.’ Matt made an entrance in time for race three. ‘No offence, Aunt Emily, but Mum puts out a lot more food. And I’m starving.’
‘Tho can I wing her? Pleath?’
‘Look, guys,’ Emily held up her hands placatingly, ‘I’d like her over here too. Believe me. But I tried before and she’s not answering. Matt, just go grab the fairy-cakes and stuff from the bench and pass them around. Your mum’s obviously enjoying herself too much and ringing up isn’t going to help if she won’t pick up the phone. You’ve just got to accept that she’s going to turn up when she’s good and ready and not before. We’ll have to be patient.’
‘But I can’t!’ Cricket wailed, stepping out from the door-frame and revealing the fact that her overalls were missing entirely and her hot pink tights were marred by a large wet patch around her groin area. ‘I wetted myself!’
‘Cricket!’ said Emily, shocked.
‘How did you do that, poppet?’ Margaret asked sympathetically.
‘Megan wath in the firtht toilet so I ran up to Mummy’th one but I couldn’t get my panth down!’ Cricket started to cry. ‘I jutht couldn’t!’
‘Hey, it’s okay.’ Adam smiled at her soothingly. ‘Everything’s fine. Auntie Emily will take care of it. That’s what she’s here for.’
‘I want Mummy!’
Jillian
Jill lifted up the telephone receiver and checked to make sure it was working. Then she readjusted the phone on her lap and sighed. Was anybody ever going to ring? She had eaten her pastry, flicked through the magazines, even swept out the kitchen area. And she had thought about her problems so much that now, even in theory, they were giving her a headache. Not that they were solved by any means, but right now she just wanted to go home. To see how the function was going, who had turned up, who was winning, and who wasn’t. To be there when Jack leapt up and hissed at the television in support of a horse that had the winning post in its sights, to be there when Matt confused carpet bowls with overarm cricket, to be there when Kate accidentally stuck a foot out and tripped Charlotte over onto her smug little face, to be there when Megan tried to act like the adult she patently wasn’t, to be there when Cricket filched the horses from the horserace game to take outside and simulate a herd of wild brumbies bent on attacking the dog. And to be there when . . . actually, just to be there. Full-stop.
A while ago, when she had acknowledged that what she really wanted was to go home, Jill had told herself that she wanted this mainly because she wanted to witness Emily stuff things up. Because if all you keep in your fridge is hommus and whipped cream – in a can – and your lifestyle includes midnight male callers and seventeen different types of garter belts, then how on earth can you possibly cope with the demands of teenagers and toddlers? It was, Jill had decided self-righteously, quite impossible.
But as the minutes ticked by and the phone resolutely refused to ring, Jill started having doubts. Because if Emily was doing such a bad job, surely someone would have rung to enquire about her estimated time of arrival? And even if Emily was doing not too bad a job, surely someone would have still missed her enough to ring? But they hadn’t, and this must mean that no-one was particularly fussed about whether she was there or not. So now she wanted to see why.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Emily
Race Three, 11.55 am
‘That’s it.’ Adam ripped up another ticket and threw the scraps in the air. ‘I now officially declare myself the worst punter in Australia.’
‘Well, I picked a winner,’ Matt announced proudly, getting up to place a tick on the large sheet of paper that had been Blu-tacked to side of the television and was being used to record the first, second and third place-getters of the children’s choices. The night before, as Megan was drawing separate columns on the paper for each child, Matt had announced superciliously that, as he was now seventeen, he would no longer be taking part in this particular tradition. Emily smiled to herself as she noted the crooked column he had added, with his name clearly on top, at some point this morning.
