Mad About You by Sinéad Moriarty Read Free Book Online

– very genuine. I liked her immediately. I could tell already that she didn’t have any agenda or angles: she was exactly who you saw.
    ‘Do you have babies?’ Lara asked our neighbour.
    ‘Lara!’ I said, embarrassed. ‘I’ve told you it’s rude to ask people that.’
    ‘It’s OK,’ Carol reassured me. ‘Actually, Lara, I have two boys.’
    ‘Are they big or small?’ Lara asked.
    ‘Terry is nine and Freddy is seven, but he’s tall so everyone thinks he’s nine, too. They’ve gone to the park with their granny.’
    ‘Yuri isn’t big at all. Mummy keeps trying to get him bigger. It’s cos of the yucky food in the orf’nage.’
    What was going on? The kids were never normally so forthcoming with information. Before I could interrupt, Carol turned to Yuri and said, ‘I think you’re a perfect size.’
    Yuri beamed at her and climbed up on a rock to look over her fence. ‘Wow! Your garden’s a big mess,’ he said.
    Carol laughed. ‘Well, it’s actually an organized mess. You see, I grow all my own food.’
    ‘Do you grow cornflakes?’ Yuri asked.
    ‘No, but I grow rhubarb and strawberries and courgettes and aubergines and carrots and tomatoes and cucumbers and beans and lots of other things, too.’
    ‘Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. The only thing I like is strawberries,’ Yuri announced.
    ‘Yuri! Don’t be rude. It’s incredible that Carol grows all those vegetables and fruits in her garden.’
    ‘What’s a corgette and what’s a oberine?’ Lara asked.
    I could feel my face going red. I was mortified that my daughter didn’t know those vegetables. I’d probably have Jamie Oliver knocking on my door tomorrow, berating me for being a bad mother. I’d been very conscientious about vegetables with Yuri because he really needed them to strengthen him when we’d brought him home from the orphanage. But Lara spat out every vegetable I put into her mouth, and dinner time had become a war zone. Yuri would eat vegetables if they were hidden in a sauce, but Lara could spot, smell and sense a vegetable at ten paces. She refused to eat anything except the plainest of food and, if I’m being honest, I’d kind of given up. I knew I needed to try to introduce vegetables again, but I hated fighting with Lara every night and it nearly always ended in tears – either Lara’s or mine. Sometimes even Yuri joined in.
    ‘Why don’t you come over and I’ll show you the garden?’ Carol suggested.
    ‘Thanks. We’d love to!’ I was delighted to be getting some quality time with someone new. Carol definitely seemed like my type of person, so hopefully we could be pals.
    We got to her garden via the side entrance to her house. While our side of the wall between the two houses was black, Carol’s was white and it had vegetables painted on it in bright colours. Yuri and Lara were very impressed.
    As for her garden, I was stunned. What Carol had achieved with a fairly small space was incredible. I couldn’t believe the variety of fruit and veg she had managed to plant and grow. I had killed every plant I’d ever owned, including a cactus,and they were supposed to live for ever. We ate the sweetest strawberries I’d ever tasted – even Lara liked them. I was thrilled that she didn’t spit them out. Then Carol served us apple juice, made from her own apples. It tasted fantastic. We all drained our glasses. The fresh fruit tasted so much better than supermarket stuff that I made solemn vows to myself to be a better mother from that day forward and feed my children fresh things. I’d have to find a farmers’ market or something.
    Carol even had a hen coop tucked behind the glasshouse. She kept four hens, which laid all her eggs. The children went from being curious to enchanted in ten seconds flat – they loved this garden of colours and scents and hidden surprises. Back over the fence, ours contained a paddling pool and overgrown grass.
    ‘Carol, this is amazing! Have you been working on the garden long?’ I