Читать книгу For The Love Of Sara - Christopher Lee - Страница 9

CHAPTER 4

It was too hot in the disco and besides, Craig was getting on Sara’s nerves. Why the others looked up to him she didn’t know, maybe because he was older than the rest. She left the dance floor and went into the lobby to the video games machine. It was one of the early Space Invaders. They had one just like it in the fish and chip shop in the village. Sara reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin. She put it into the machine and pressed Player One. She was up to 27,000 before she lost her first life and that was only because Craig had jogged her arm as he had come past with the Conga chain. Her concentration went and she lost her second life with only the addition of 3000 points. Her last was wiped out by a bomb. 39,000. Way below her best.

She walked over to the hotel reception desk and looked through the postcards. She wanted to send one to Jeff, but they were all too boring – the market at Ciudadela, a donkey on a beach, a plate of lobster soup, oh yeah, he’d really think I was a dork if I sent him that, she thought.

She walked out of the front reception into the street. Next door to the hotel was a car hire agency where “Uncle” Alan had hired a car that afternoon. He had taken her mother out for dinner. Sara had pretended to feel unwell to avoid going. The truth was she felt she would be in the way. They had been spending a lot of time together since her father’s death.

She walked down the side of the hotel smelling the sweet hibiscus and oleander bushes. She walked over to the diving pool and sat on the springboard gazing down into the dark depths of the deep end. It was hypnotic staring at water. She suddenly shivered and her arms and neck became covered in goose pimples. It was getting cold. She decided not to wait up for her mother, but have an early night instead.

It was gone one o’clock when she heard the key in the door. They were back. She heard giggling. It was her mother and she sounded tiddly. Sara propped herself up on one elbow craning her neck to listen.

“Shush,” she heard her mother whisper. “Stop it, you’ll wake Sara. Let me check that she is asleep.”

She heard Alan grumble something then heard the extractor fan in the bathroom. She dived back under the covers and shut her eyes as her mother opened the bedroom door. She couldn’t see her, but she felt her come across to the single bed where Sara slept. She wished they were not sharing a room. She wanted to be on her own, needed her privacy.

Her mother moved to the other bed and sat down heavily. She took off her blouse and tossed it on the floor. Next she stood up and fumbled with the zip of her skirt. It must have caught the lining and got stuck. She obviously tugged it too hard and Sara heard a rip, followed by a curse. The skirt fell to the floor and her mother stepped out of it. She stood with her back to Sara in just her black bra and panties. Then she went across to the chair in the corner and reached for her dressing gown. She put it on and did up the sash as she went out of the bedroom and back into the lounge. The voices were muffled. Sara pulled back the covers and hopped out of bed, crossing to the door. She put her ear to it, but all she could hear was her own heartbeat. She twisted the doorknob and opened the door the merest fraction. The lounge was in darkness but a chink of light through the balcony curtains gave enough light for Sara to see the room was deserted. The door to Alan’s bedroom was slightly ajar, although there was no light on. Her heart was beating even faster now and she thought about going back to the bedroom, but she couldn’t. She had to know if anything was going on. She owed it to her father to find out.

She was just feet away from the door, trembling in her short cotton nightie. Just as she was about to push open the door a voice called: “Sara, what are you doing?”

It was her mother coming out of the bathroom.

“Don’t go in there, dear. Alan is probably sleeping. I think he’s had a little too much to drink. Sara, are you ok?”

“Erh, yes, I guess so,” said Sara. “I guess I’m just a bit disorientated, being in a new place. You know?”

Her mother led her back to their bedroom and closed the door behind them. Sara climbed in to bed and her mother bent down and kissed her gently on the forehead. Then she climbed into her own bed.

“Goodnight, Sara,” she whispered.

“Goodnight mother,” she replied, then added; “you did love daddy, didn’t you?”

Her mother sat up. “Of course I did darling. Now get to sleep.” She couldn’t see her daughter’s face in the shadows. She couldn’t see the single tear that trickled down her cheek and onto the pillow.