Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture! (18 page)

‘Sounds like a dog,’ commented Dad, finishing his chips.

Oops! Jess realised she must be careful not to make her characters too weird and colourful.

‘Yeah, anyway, Elly hardly ever gets to see her dad because he lives such a long way away.’

‘Curses!’ said her dad. ‘I should have escaped to California. I never thought of that.’

Jess began to feel that her dad wasn’t in the right mood for her serious talk about stepmothers and stepbabies, but she ploughed on.

‘Well, Elly goes there once a year,’ said Jess. ‘And she really gets on well with her stepmother. And she adores the babies.’

‘Look! There’s a cormorant!’ said Dad, pointing at a large black bird with a long neck, perched on a distant rock. ‘They hold their wings out to dry them in the sun.’

Jess sighed. Her dad was mad about birds. Maybe when they got back to his place, she’d find a swan’s nest in the sitting room and he’d introduce her to a couple of step-cygnets.

‘No birds yet, Dad! Please! You and Mum are always trying to stuff me with education. Let’s just go back to your house now. I’m dying to see it. And I need to make a couple of phone calls. My mobile needs recharging. Do you mind? Please may I, Dad?’

Of course Jess’s mobile hadn’t run out of charge. But she wanted to put pressure on Dad to go back to his house. This was no time for watching surfers or birds.

Her dad started to look a bit anxious again. He scratched his head, looked at his watch, rubbed his left cheek, pulled his collar up, brushed the sand off his knees, and then said, ‘Sure! Just let’s watch a couple more waves first.’

You couldn’t miss the change in him. He was definitely hiding something.

Chapter 27

Jess thought she would have one last try. Surely he’d feel hugely relieved if they could just get the subject out into the open.

‘Loads of people in my class have divorced parents,’ she said.

‘Oh, well – glad to find we’re fashionable,’ said her dad, becoming flippant again. But there was a nervous undertone to all this wisecracking.

‘There’s loads of advantages, too,’ Jess went on. ‘Especially when the parents marry again. Or just get involved in a new relationship. There’s twice the number of Christmas presents, for a start. And two houses to stay in. So kids are really OK about their parents splitting up, as long as they don’t fight. And if their mums and dads get involved with other people afterwards, it can make it a lot easier.’

Her dad looked keenly at her for a moment. Jess saw reflections of the cloud and the sea in his eyes, but behind all the reflections there was a glimmer of understanding.

‘Jess – are you trying to tell me something?’

‘Well, sort of,’ admitted Jess. She waited.

Her dad looked thoughtful. Any minute now he would confess all. He would admit he had a beautiful blonde bimbo stashed away back at the Pilchard Loft, with a possible baby or babies.

‘Well, I’m really pleased for her,’ said her dad. ‘Who is he?’

Jess’s mind reeled, as if suddenly it had fallen into brambles.

‘What?’ she stuttered. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

‘Aren’t you trying to tell me that Mum has got a new man in her life?’

‘No, you dingbat! I was trying to find out if you had a new woman in yours!’

Dad looked uncertain for a moment, and then laughed.

‘Relax, you peculiar little octopus,’ he said, mussing up her hair. ‘There is no woman in my life! I swear it’s the truth!’

They walked back to the Pilchard Loft hand in hand. Jess was relieved to know there wouldn’t be a strange and possibly hostile beauty queen waiting for them, or even worse, a nasty baby who had replaced her in her dad’s affections.

‘Do you think Mum ever will get a new man in her life?’ asked her dad.

This was interesting. It was even encouraging. Maybe this was the beginning of a reconciliation.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Jess. ‘I’m beginning to think Mum hasn’t really got over splitting up with you.’

She peeped up at her dad’s face. He looked suddenly awful. Really gutted.

‘Really?’ he said. ‘Don’t say that. I feel so guilty.’

‘So was it you who wanted to split up, then?’ asked Jess.

‘Well . . . I think I should leave it to your mum to tell you how it all happened.’

‘But I want to hear your side of it.’

Her dad gave a thin, anxious smile. ‘I promise I’ll tell you everything from my side of it, but not right now. I’ve got to have a bit of time to come up with some convincing excuses.’

‘OK.’ Jess grinned. ‘I’m really looking forward to seeing your house. Can I have a shower or a bath, Dad?’

‘Sure,’ said Dad.

They had reached the front door. Dad got his keys out. Jess could see his hand was shaking slightly. Or did it always shake like that? She wasn’t sure. Dad unlocked the door, pushed it open and politely ushered Jess in. She stepped inside. The first thing she saw was the huge vase of flowers on the hall table.

Suddenly Jess heard a footstep in a further room. Oh no! There
was
someone here! She braced herself. Then somebody appeared at the far end of the hall. Thank goodness! It was only a man. He was short and muscular with curly black hair and blue eyes.

‘Oh, Phil!’ said Dad. ‘I thought you said you’d be going out. This is my daughter, Jess. Jess, this is Phil. He’s just staying here for a while. He split up with his girlfriend and she threw him out.’

Phil strolled across to Jess, grinning, and shook her hand.

‘Hi, Jess!’ he said. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’ His hand was warm, and his smile was a mile wide.

‘Sorry to hear about – your break-up,’ said Jess, embarrassed.

‘Oh, I don’t mind!’ said Phil. ‘It was the best thing that could have happened really. I found out later she was seeing another guy behind my back. A bodybuilder from Hayle.’

‘No need to go into details,’ said Dad nervously. There was a slightly awkward silence for a few seconds.

‘Anyway,’ said Phil, ‘I’m going shopping. I’ll see if I can find some little treats.’ And he gave Jess a special smile.

Jess decided she liked him quite a lot. She had hoped there would be nobody else at Dad’s house, but this Phil guy was certainly an improvement on tragic solitude.

‘Thanks,’ said Jess’s dad. ‘Er – come and see my studio, Jess.’

He led Jess upstairs and into a room with a high ceiling and velux windows. Canvases were propped everywhere, and there was a painting on an easel. Last time Jess had seen her dad’s paintings, a few years ago, they had been landscapes and seascapes in blue, grey and white, with possibly a bird or a fish.

This time, Jess could hardly believe her eyes. The paintings were a riot of colour: fireworks fizzing, bands playing, clowns, sunflowers, jewels. There were still birds, but they were sheer fantasy: pink and purple parrots laying sky-blue eggs. There were still fish, but they weren’t pale and grey and flat and dead. They were enormous weird creatures of the deep, with flashing lights and antennae and big laughing lipstick mouths.

‘Wow!’ said Jess. ‘Wow! Amazing!’

‘I’ve changed my style a lot since you last saw my work,’ admitted Dad.

‘Changed it?’ said Jess. ‘It’s a breakthrough, Dad. What happened?’

‘Coming to live down here had a big effect on me. Somehow, I felt, well . . . set free.’

‘You didn’t feel free, then, living with me and Mum,’ said Jess, plunging suddenly into deep, jealous sorrow.

‘It wasn’t like that, exactly,’ said Dad. ‘It was just, you know – as if Mum and I were, well, different species. As if she was a sparrow and I was a – well, a tortoise or something.’

‘You’ve got the species all wrong!’ said Jess. ‘You’re a heron, and Mum’s a hedgehog.’ It did seem to explain things in a way which was rather cute instead of deeply sad.

‘Well,’ said Dad, ‘if it’s any comfort, I do miss you a lot, and I hope that when you’re older you’ll come and live with me sometimes. But only when you’re rich and famous, of course. I wouldn’t be seen dead with a daughter who wasn’t in
OK! Magazine
.’

‘I’ll come and live here with you all of the time, right now, you idiot!’ laughed Jess. It was only a joke, a fantasy, of course. After all, Fred lived back home, two hundred miles east of here. But maybe, one day . . .

‘Anyway . . .’ Her dad seemed lost in thought for a moment. ‘Um – you said you wanted to make a phone call?’

‘Oh yes, please!’ said Jess. She could ring Fred on her dad’s landline. But could she tell her dad about Fred? She had better be careful. Sometimes Dad seemed really mad and zany. But she’d never mentioned boyfriends to him and she didn’t know how he’d react.

‘I want to phone my friend Flora,’ said Jess. ‘And Frederika, if you don’t mind.’

‘I don’t mind at all,’ said her Dad. ‘I’ve heard a lot about Flora, but who’s Frederika?’

‘Oh, she’s just another friend of mine,’ said Jess. ‘I’ve known her since we were at playgroup, but we only got close recently. Flora’s really jealous. But who cares? Frederika is ace.’

Now all she had to do was have a conversation with Fred while pretending he was a girl.

Life seemed to have got quite complicated recently.

Chapter 28

‘Hi, Frederika!’ said Jess.

‘Hey! Miss Jordan! How are you?’

‘I’m just great – I’ve come to St Ives to see my dad. My mum went off to the Eden Project today, and my granny wanted a day by herself. I was just walking round Penzance and suddenly I saw this bus which said St Ives, so, naturally, I jumped on.’