In the Kitchen by Monica Ali Read Free Book Online Page B

sullen above the chimneypots.
    The stars were weak too and few in number; they did not twinkle so much as flicker, as though at any moment they might go out. When Gabe was a boy there were more stars and they were brighter. That was the way it seemed. His sister's voice went on and on and it was a wonder she didn't run out of breath. He would finish her sentence if he could. If only he knew how, or when, or if it would ever end.
    '... Dad wanted to tell you himself but, you know, by the time you get around to ringing him ...'
    If Jenny had got out of Blantwistle. If she hadn't saddled herself with a baby. What was the point, anyway, of thinking about that? She wore velour tracksuits now in purple or green. She had her hair done at Curl Up and Dye, drank in the Spotty Dog or the Turk's Head, and every Thursday was bingo night. It was strange how knowing every last thing about her made him feel as though he didn't know her at all.
    '... so it looks like they didn't manage to catch every bit of it when they cut out part of his colon and it's spread to his liver now.'
    Jenny had finally come to a halt.
    'Oh,' said Gabe. 'I see.'
    'Gabe,' said Jenny. She was crying.
    'Jen?' He had heard the words but not listened. Spread to his liver. But Dad had not been ill. 'Jenny?'
    He heard her blow her nose. 'He didn't tell me, either, about the colon cancer. He was only in hospital a couple of days and I didn't even know he'd been in 'til Nana told me and he said it was a "spot of bother with me bowels"
    and, well, I left it at that because Bailey was playing me up and Harley'd been in a fight and with one thing and another ...' She tailed off.
    'Nobody told me he'd been in hospital. When was this?'
    Jenny sniffed. 'About eighteen months ago, maybe.'
    'A year and a half ago? Nobody told me.'
    'Nobody told me. Nobody told me. Is that all you can say? Honest to God, Gabriel. I never thought I'd say this but you've surprised me, you really have. I thought I'd never be surprised again by how selfish you are but I've got to hand it to you, you've managed it this time.'
    Gabe turned on the tap. He twisted it until it would go no further. The water hit the steel sink hard and splashed out against the window, the wall, Gabe's shirt. He turned it off. 'So,' he said, keeping his voice even and low, 'he'll get over this too. There's got to be a decent chance.'
    'Not with liver cancer,' said Jenny, sounding oddly prim. 'I've been reading up.'

CHAPTER THREE
    THE MORNING WAS BRITTLE-BRIGHT AND GABRIEL STOOD IN THE frost-starched loading bay watching the cheese van pull in through the gates. A single white cloud stood in the hard blue sky. Beyond the courtyard London hummed its morning song, endlessly reverberating, one crescendo piling into the next. A blackbird flew down from the wall and pecked the moss between the cobblestones. It returned to its perch and sang, its flute rising over the dying engine of the van. Gabe stepped forward, and the bird sang the warning call, flicking its wings and tail. Chook, chook, chook. A final rattle and it was gone.
    Ernie sidled up with his hands in his pockets and a bobble hat on his head. He addressed Gabe in his usual manner, with his head ducked down, gazing up at a vacant spot approximately three inches to the right of Gabe's face. It made him look mentally deficient, which Gabe sometimes suspected he was.
    'The blackbird is a canny wee fellow Wi' his coat of black and beak of yellow When the wind blows in fresh harm He is the first to raise the alarm ...
    'Ach, it goes on but Ah cannae quite remember how. Something, something every morn, watch something, something and warn ... No, Ah think Ah had morning and warning. One of ma early ones, that.'
    'Hello, Ernie,' said Gabe. 'You got the order printout?'
    'Oh, aye,' said Ernie, his chin practically on his chest.
    Gabe held out his hand.
    'On ma desk.' Ernie took a few sideways steps towards his wooden booth. 'Ah know their beaks are more, you would say, orange,