Читать книгу The Elephant in the Room - Maya Fowler - Страница 14

The brown envelope I’ve been worrying about lies on the table. Last term, Jane got into trouble with her dad for getting a C. He said she should jolly well pull up her socks, young lady. God has given her a good brain, use it.

Mom smiles at me as her fingers touch the letter.

“We’ll have to celebrate,” she says, squeezing my shoulder.

I smile.

“Well done, Lily, I’m happy. Chocolate-cake happy. How does that sound?”

Beth and Gracie are staying at home, because today is my special day.

Mom reads from my sister’s report card: “Beth needs to work harder at her obedience. She should remember she is here to be taught, not to teach. We are not in a position to reward a bad attitude. Should she improve her demeanour, Beth stands a chance at scoring an A symbol next term.”

I can’t resist. She’s sitting there, staring out the window with her jaw stuck out.

“Ha ha, Beth, looks like you’re going to trip over your own lip!”

Mom looks at me, just looks at me, and my face burns. I sit down.

“Beth, this is something I can’t reward, my sweetie. You’re just going to have to stay here while we go get a treat. And don’t tell Gracie. She’s too young for this.”

They’re both ignoring me now. My heart’s bouncing from the good marks and Mom loving me and me getting a treat. But it stops and I feel little pinpricks when I see that Mom isn’t so pleased with me after all. I think she’d have liked it if Beth scored higher marks, and she could have rewarded her.

* * *

Fanny’s is on the main road, opposite the post office. It’s the only place you can get a cup of coffee and some cake in Kalk Bay, unless you go to the Brass Bell, but that’s a proper restaurant, not a coffee shop.

The cake is dark and heavy. That’s the best. I don’t like very spongy ones. They taste like air, and make your teeth feel all blunt. No, this cake is first rate. The icing shines like the snowy Alpine slope on Gran’s calendar.

“You enjoying that?” Mom asks. It’s the first time she’s spoken since we ordered. It’s always a little difficult to find things to say to Mom, and anyway, there are so many things to think about or notice that there isn’t that much time to talk. I think she feels the same way.

I notice stuff like Mom’s hair. When she bends over to reach for her handbag, the grey stares at me like a dead campfire, with those strips of ash at the roots. This gives me a little shock. I get the pinpricks up my arm and right in the heart again, and I have to concentrate hard not to suck in air like a person saved from drowning, because it gives Mom a fright when I do that, and getting a fright always makes her cross.

The feeling I get is the same as the time I ran into Mom without clothes on, last year. I’d never have imagined that her bum was really that big and round, or that her boobs were that long and flat. I shiver thinking about the long brown nipples. Mine are little and pink, as if they came off a kitten.

“Be– I mean, Lily, did you hear me?”

I swallow. I’d been chewing this whole time while I was thinking. I didn’t even realise.

“Thanks, Mom, it’s yummy.”

She smiles, and looks very pleased to hear it. She’s staring through the window, looking at a train go by and licking the last crumbs off her spoon.