Narrow Minds (15 page)

Unable to bear her darling pets being upset, she dragged the huge cage out of the car and staggered with it over to the van. Placing it carefully into the passenger seat she pointed a warning finger at the rather embarrassed looking vermin. ‘There, the nasty scary hamster's gone now.' She shook her head and wandered off toward the office, following Geoff and Sam.

I stared at the enraged hamster. ‘You've got flaming Napoleon complex you have.' Then shutting the door on Lu's screaming I followed the rest of the family.

The children were much more enthusiastic about the changes to the boat than I could ever have imagined. Charlie immediately claimed the boatman's cabin but stated that she wouldn't sleep in it until we reached Cambridge. But at least it was a place she could store her rats. Lu was brought in and positioned on a table in the kitchen. Her screams, amplified by the mostly empty shell, echoed down the boat, she lasted about twenty minutes before she was relegated to one of the toilets where we could shut the door on her. I really hoped that she'd calm down fairly soon.

By the evening we were all unpacked, clothes had been carefully stacked into big plastic boxes at one end of the boat and we were all huddled on the floppy sofa watching telly, the kids were relaxed and happy watching some loud cartoon; Geoff was making lists as usual and I was desperately trying to stop Lu from burrowing into the back of the sofa.

It seemed all so normal and cosy that I couldn't stop smiling, in fact I was so happy to be out of the house and back on a boat that the children finally asked me to stop grinning as it was beginning to un-nerve them a bit.

At about ten o'clock, exhausted after a day of unpacking and rushing about, we packed the kids off to bed and managed to get ten minutes to ourselves to review Geoff's numerous lists of ‘things to do'. I have to admit they did seem a little extensive.

‘So how much of this do we have to do before we can actually leave?' I poked the piles of paper with a finger. ‘Surely we can put a new fire in when we get to Cambridge, can't we?'

Geoff looked up from the laptop where he was job-hunting, pricing fires and desperately trying to get his head around the plumbing that should be put in when installing a log burner with a back boiler.

‘I need another couple of days to have a good check on the water system.' He paused and picked up one list that had a lot of red marks on it. ‘And I need to dismantle the heating system, but honestly, I think it's completely defunct, I've never even seen anything like it before.'

I have to admit our heating system was a cause for concern. When I had first seen it I had thought someone had strapped a bomb to the back wall of the engine room. It looked ancient and was made by a company called Wallace.

Completely unlike our last heating system which executed the normal process of running hot water through radiators, this thing blew hot air through huge silver ducts that ran along the floor of the boat, opening occasionally in little grills set into a shelf at ground level. It was a right pain as it took up at least six inches either side of the boat, I had tripped over it on numerous occasions and was hoping that we could get rid of the wretched thing at the earliest opportunity.

Geoff grinned over at the snoring children, each secure in a little dinette sleeping compartment. ‘Charlie's sleeping on the diagonal in that thing,' he said, shaking his head. ‘Really, the sooner we get home and she feels comfortable and safe enough to sleep in her bedroom the better, at least she'll be able to sleep straight.'

I yawned. ‘Maybe we ought to get some sleep as well?' I yawned again. ‘Those kids are going to be up at dawn tomorrow.

Geoff nodded and dragged himself to his feet. ‘OK, come on let's get this wretched bed together.'

Our bed was actually a futon and doubled up as the family seating. It was going to be irritating to change the thing from sofa to sleeper every night, make it up with sheets and duvet as a bed and then put the whole thing away again in the morning, but it was either that or sleep on a blow-up mattress on the floor. The thought did occur to me that the one thing I was going to miss about a house was the ability to just throw myself into bed as soon as I was tired. It also occurred to me that maybe I ought to talk to someone about this need to make my life, and the lives of those around me, as difficult as possible; I had no doubt that any therapist would have a field day.

I woke up the next morning with a huge groan. Two days of hard manual labour and a night sleeping on something that resembled a collection of wooden pallets had done nothing for my aches and pains. Geoff woke at the noise and then joined me in the pained moaning. Charlie's sleep-tousled head appeared over the top of our bed.

‘What's the matter with you two?' she asked, ‘You sound like a couple of old hippos in a territorial scrap.' She laughed and sauntered past with a big bowl of munchies and fruit, obviously off to feed her rats.

Geoff stuck his tongue out at her as she passed, then pulled himself slowly upright with another moan of pain.

It actually took us nearly two hours to get ourselves together, by that time, Sam and Charlie had helped themselves to breakfast, trashed the kitchen while doing so and had rushed off out to explore the canal side in the sun, taking most of our bread with them. (Ducks get fed so well, I'm not sure why I have to do without toast so that they can get fat.)

In the quiet, Geoff and I sat comfortably on the sofa and alternated between sipping tea and taking pain-killers.

With his aches and pains finally deadened to the point he could move, Geoff sauntered off to his engine room to have a look at the heater and I was left in the sunshine, in blessed silence, to unpack some more boxes and make a futile attempt to turn this heap into a holiday home that, even if we couldn't actually live in it, we could camp in for a couple of weeks.

An hour later I had my head in the last box and was happily singing along to Radio GaGa by Queen at the top of my lungs. The kids were kicking up a row of their own outside, they had absconded with the next door neighbour's dog and there was a huge scrum of kids, dog, sticks and balls going on outside the window and Geoff was beating some sort of large piece of metal into submission in the engine room. With all the noise, I only just heard my phone, I caught it on the very last ring before it went to answer phone.

‘Mum?' Amelia screeched in my ear. ‘You took your time answering, where are you?'

I panicked for a moment. I had told her we were moving hadn't I? I racked my brains, trying to remember the conversation; yes I had definitely told her we were moving this weekend.

‘We're at the boat, where are you?' Oh please, please don't say you're standing outside a deserted house I thought.

‘Reading.' Her voice became even more tetchy. ‘Where did you think I'd be?'

This was not an Amelia in a good mood, I decided to take a huge leap and change the subject entirely.

‘So what are you up to?' I smiled down the phone and hoped she would calm down a little.

‘Looking for somewhere to bloody well live,' she yelled at me.

I sat down with a wince, I knew immediately what she was going to say. ‘Have you and Huw finally split up?'

There was silence for a moment then a little sniff which deteriorated rapidly into a sporadic, sniff- and gurgle-punctuated, tearful rant.

‘We had a row.' Sniff, gurgle. ‘It hasn't been good for ages.' Sniff. ‘I walked out.' Sniff. ‘Nowhere to go.' Gurgle. ‘All my stuff.' Sniff. ‘Need somewhere to live …'

Oh dear. I took the phone away from my ear and holding a hand carefully over the mouthpiece counted to ten. Then taking a deep breath I brought the phone back to my ear.

‘Better come home.' I stared around the boat and wondered where the hell I was going to put her.

‘Really?' Amelia took a deep shuddering breath and there was silence as she gathered her thoughts. ‘Erm, Mum?'

‘Yes, love?'

‘Where the hell are you?'

After I had given Amelia directions to the marina and had made a placatory cup of tea, I went in search of my obliging and loving husband.

‘Geoff, are you busy?' I held out the big mug of steaming tea.

Geoff stared at me, his hair was sticking up in oily tufts, his face was covered in mud and grease, and he was currently beating seven hells out of a particularly sticky panel on the side of the bomb-shaped heating system. I winced and listened carefully for any sign of ticking.

‘No dear, not at all.' He glared at me and then aimed a particularly vicious kick at the heater. ‘This is me doing very little, I am, in face, having a most relaxing bloody DAY!'

‘Good.' I decided to ignore the sarcasm. ‘Amelia has split up with Huw and is coming down, is there any chance we could get the boatman's cabin ready for her to sleep in?'

Geoff gave me an absolutely incredulous look. ‘Are you completely bonkers?' He ran two black, oily hands through his hair, they left streaks, he now looked like a terrified badger. ‘Where are we going to put her and how long is she staying for? This really isn't a very good time.'

I held my phone out to him. ‘Tell you what, you give our lovelorn and weeping daughter a call, and tell her that we don't want her either and that it's really inconvenient that she's found herself homeless at the moment and could she put it off for a couple of weeks until it's more convenient for us to deal with.'

Geoff sighed and staggered to his feet, giving the heater a final kick he wandered off toward the back of the boat to start unloading all the bits and pieces that had been carefully stacked into the back cabin.

Watching him stamp away, I sighed, I really hoped that Amelia didn't mind sleeping with rats then laughed, there was a joke about boyfriends there somewhere but I doubted whether she'd laugh right at this very moment.

I sidestepped quickly as Sam, Charlie and borrowed dog came hurtling past me, then headed for the boxes stacked carefully in the one toilet we had designated as storage, intending to hunt out some bedding for Milly.

I had only managed to unpack three boxes when the lady in question flung herself through the door trailing Charlie, Sam and dog in a bewildered line behind her.

‘What's the matter, Leelee?' Sam, empathic as ever, wandered over and patted his big sister on the head. That was all it took to set her off and watching her face crumple, I rushed over, putting the kettle on as I went past and handed her a box of tissues, then ushered Charlie, Sam and stolen dog outside. With only a few complaints they went, but sat on the side of the bank in a huddle staring with big worried eyes through the window, the dog, (evidently its name was Capri), unable to understand why all the games had stopped, looked sadly at Charlie and Sam. They made a mournful little group.

We sat for a while, waiting for the water overflow to stop, I made tea and gave her a big hug. We must have sat in near silence for about twenty minutes Until, eventually there were no more tears to cry. Amelia gave her ravaged face a final wipe. It's a fact of life that pale-skinned blondes do not cry prettily. Sniffing a decisive sniff and tossing the tissue into the growing pile on the saloon floor, she looked so young without all the black make-up and the Goth outfits that she normally wore.

I raised my eyebrows at her, not quite trusting the reaction to an actual ‘spoken' question.

‘What am I going to do, Mum?' Her voice broke slightly on the question, she coughed, then pursing her lips together shook her head and got to her feet.

I watched her heading over toward the kettle. ‘I don't know, love, but you know you can come with us.'

She stared around. ‘Mum, this place is tiny, where would I sleep?'

I acted nonchalant. ‘There's a cabin at the back and we'll make do.'

She shook her head. ‘No, I have to go back to Reading, I have friends there and a job.' She hesitated then turned slightly red, her eyes dropped toward the floor and she sucked on her lower lip. ‘There are other reasons as well.' She concentrated as she put teabags into mugs.

‘What exactly did you and Huw argue about?' I asked.

Silence …

‘Milly?'

She gave a huge sigh. ‘Huw decided that I was seeing someone else.'

‘Hmm mmm.' Again an unspoken question.

She looked down at the floor, ‘I'm not actually seeing him,' she sniffed again, ‘It's this bloke from the pub.'

‘Hmm mmm?' I raised my eyebrows at her and waited.

‘We're just good friends.' She raised her eyes and stared, unseeing out of the window.

‘Hmm mmm?' I tilted my head toward her and waited.

‘Huw and I have had issues for ages, we've just grown apart, I think.' She shrugged. ‘I can't see the point of arguing with him about Chris, because I think if the opportunity arose I probably would and if that's the case and that's how I feel then it's obviously over.'

‘And how does this Chris feel about it all?' I sighed Oh great, another useless bloke that worked in a pub, at least Huw had a decent job. I frowned and gave myself a mental slap, that was a completely hypocritical thought, here we were desperately trying to stick two fingers up at conventional society and with one weeping daughter I had fallen straight back into the ‘What's best for my child' mode.

‘I think he's interested.' Amelia gave a small smile. But I think I need to sort myself out before I explore that option, don't you?'

‘Hmm,' I replied, nodding, ‘more tea?'

Two hours, a big lunch, more tea, a packet of chocolate biscuits and four phone calls later and she had worked it all out. In fact she had found somewhere to live, decided to go back to college and was full of plans for the future. Charlie and Sam were relieved that she was smiling again. Geoff had merely sighed and put the boatman's cabin back as it was. The dog had been fed with leftover dinner and was asleep on the sofa, (who owns this flaming thing?) As we wandered back towards her car I tried to make sense of all the sudden changes.