Closed Doors by Lisa O'Donnell Read Free Book Online

a drink,’ says Da.
    ‘Don’t do that, Brian. She’ll go mad if she thinks you’re following her. This is a good thing, son. She’s getting on with her life. It’s what she needs.’
    ‘Since when did my Rosemary ever go to bars without her husband? These are all new things she’s doing! The haircut. The Shakespeare. The knitting till her hands hurt. It’s not getting on with life, Ma. She’s erasing who she was. She’s pretending what happened to her happened to someone else and not the woman with the blonde cropped hair.’
    They are talking about the flasher again and when they remember I am standing there in my pyjamas they stop. Da strokes my head and suggests we have some hot chocolate.
    Granny makes terrible hot chocolate. It’s all watery, just like her stew, but Da doesn’t mind because she slips whisky into his. We have some fairy cakes and Da asks about the talent show again. He asks me to show him some keepy-uppies, but I bounce the ball into the sink and annoy Granny. Da thinks it’s funny. I tell him all about Marianne and all the things she’s going to be doing in the show and about how upset she is about Bardo losing the Eurovision Song Contest just like Ma was. Everyone looks sorry for Marianne and for Ma.
    ‘The Eurovision Song Contest has upset a lot of people, son. A lot of people,’ says Da. ‘Now off to bed.’
    I do as I’m told, but I want to stay up for hours and hours with them. I like to talk to Granny and Da, but before I’m even off my chair the doorbell rings.
    ‘Can I get the door, Da? Can I?’ I beg.
    I love to answer the door, but when I open it I find Ma with Tricia and Kenny Stuart’s da who drives the ambulance about the town. Kenny thinks this is a brilliant job as if his da is a doctor or something but he’s really just a taxi driver for the hospital.
    ‘Jesus, what happened, Rosemary? You’re as white as a sheet, lassie,’ says Granny, grabbing at Ma.
    ‘She collapsed in the Bull,’ says Tricia.
    ‘Drunk?’ yells Da at Ma.
    ‘She never touched a drop,’ snaps Tricia.
    Ma looks scared.
    ‘She fainted, must have been the heat in the place. She’s OK now. We took her up the hospital and had her checked out,’ says Kenny’s da.
    ‘And you couldn’t have called the house?’ says Da.
    Ma starts to babble and everyone is staring at her.
    ‘I couldn’t stand it, Shirley. All those people, so many of them,’ she cries.
    ‘I think she must be coming down with some sort of virus,’ whispers Kenny’s da. ‘Best put her to bed, Brian.’
    ‘What’s wrong with me?’ Ma asks Da.
    ‘It’s OK, love,’ Da says and takes Ma upstairs.
    ‘What’s going on round here?’ says Tricia. ‘That lassie hasn’t been the same since your precious Brian gave her a hiding.’
    ‘I’m away, Shirley,’ Kenny’s da says. He doesn’t want to hear Tricia talking like that to Granny and neither do I.
    ‘Hope Rosemary gets better soon,’ he says to Granny.
    Kenny’s da is out of sight in no time, but Tricia won’t leave.
    ‘My Brian never laid a finger on her. She fell down the very steps you’re standing on.’
    Granny reddens and it looks like she’s telling a fib and she is but not like Tricia thinks.
    ‘She’s my friend, Shirley, you remember that, and I won’t have anyone hurting her again, right?’
    ‘My Brian wouldn’t let the wind blow on Rosemary. Now get the hell off my doorstep!’
    Tricia goes all red and leaves, but you can tell she wants to say something else but can’t think of anything. Tricia swaggers away; she’s had a few for sure. Granny shakes her head at her, like when Da says something he shouldn’t to Ma or when I won’t eat my dinner or when Ma uses up all the hot water.
    ‘How you getting home, Tricia?’ Granny shouts after her.
    ‘What the fuck do you care?’
    ‘I don’t care, but that’s some state to be walking around in by yourself. Anything could happen.’
    Granny’s thinking of the flasher and so am