Pig Boy by J.C. Burke Read Free Book Online

at her. I reckon the bear’s grin is evil. It makes me claustrophobic.
    â€˜Put the kettle on, son.’ Her handbag makes a thud as she drops it onto the table. Thankfully she starts to wrestle herself out of the jumper. Today that bear is enough to push me over the edge.
    Mum asks if I saw the note she left.
    â€˜What note?’
    â€˜That note on the fridge.’
    â€˜No.’
    Mum’s leans over and rips it off. The ‘WORLD’S BEST MUM’ magnet I made in Year 4 slips to the ground. She kicks it under the table and screws the bit of paper into a ball.
    â€˜Guess I don’t need to read it now,’ I say.
    Mum sucks on her Ventolin, lights a cigarette and, as she’s blowing a perfect chain of smoke rings, tells me she’s just had a meeting with Pascoe.
    My mouthful ejects onto the plate. ‘Tell me you’re joking!’
    â€˜I have every right to go an’ speak to him so don’t start on me, Damon.’
    I frisbee my sandwich crusts across the counter. They hit the window and fall into the sink. ‘Ohhh, I haven’t started yet.’
    â€˜It’s ya educashun I’m worried about.’ She always pronounces it ‘educashun’ because she’s had none. But at this moment correcting her is the furthest thing from my mind.
    â€˜It’s none of your bloody business, woman! Don’t you get that? I’m an adult, now, eighteen. Remember I had a birthday last Friday? Remember that real good slap-up meal you put on, almost as good as last year’s?’
    Mum is staring at the wall and tapping her foot. She doesn’t realise I’m not a kid any more. Her lame attempts to ignore me are as lame as the idea that I would go back to school because she wants me to. ‘I told you last night I’m not going back there!’ I hiss. ‘Get it? Never ever …’
    â€˜But ya don’t have to. Mr Pascoe, he says he’s made arrangements with –’
    â€˜Pascoe!’ My fist slams the drawers. The cutlery jumps. ‘Why would you believe a thing that comes out of that arsehole’s mouth! Pascoe’s a fraud, a traitor! I tried to tell you that. I mean nothing to him. Forget your teddy bear jumper and its magic charms. If he was smiling it was because you’re so pathetic. You’re a joke, woman. Look at you. You’re stuck, stuck in your daytime soapies and those cryptic crosswords you can never get out. Why the fuck would Pascoe take us seriously?’
    The vision of her waddling into the school grounds, all sweaty and puffing and blue in the face while the teddy bear’s grin sits tight across her gut is too much. I pull out the cutlery drawer and hurl it across the room.
    I lean across the table and into her face I spit the words, carefully pronouncing each one. ‘Get. Out. Of. My. Life. Woman.’

    The road is beginning to blur, I’m breathing so hard. The long white line is swirling and contracting like a kaleidoscope but I keep driving.
    I had to fight hard to keep you out of the system. What’s best for you concerns me just as much, Damon. Balls of spit hit the windscreen as I recall the insincerity of Pascoe’s words. Mr Tebble wanted charges laid but I have given him my word that I will work through this with you. Your wellbeing counts just as much as any of my other students. ‘You liar, you fucking liar,’ I hiss. ‘ I want you to feel protected! I want you to feel …’ The road in front of me is disappearing and I realise I’m crying, sobbing. I pull onto the side of the road and wrap my arms around the steering wheel.
    â€˜Pascoe, you fraud. You prick. You prick. You prick!’ It’s all I can say. The pain is soaring through me. It’s ripping my chest in two. It has my heart in its hands and it’s squeezing it so tight that my roar fills up every tiny space in the car.
    â€˜AAARGH! YOU PRIIICK!’
    The sobs are coming