Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby by Laura Marney Read Free Book Online

sees him in Asda.
    Her first instinct is to hide because he’ll think that she’s stalking him, that she’s become a bunny boiler after all. But then, this is the Partick Asda, the Asda he refuses to set foot inside for fear for bumping into his ex-wife, there’s no way he can accuse her of stalking him in here. He is coming towards her. He looks a changed man, the separation really has done him the world of good, he looks relaxed and he’s smiling as he walks towards her. And now he’s laughing, he hasn’t seen Daphne yet so who is he laughing with? Oh yes, now Daphne sees, he’s laughing with his ex-wife. He’s shopping and laughing with the woman he supposedly hasn’t spoken to in six years.

Chapter 6
    Daphne is squeezing a pineapple, feeling its bottom for ripeness, when she hears his voice. It’s not so much that she hears his voice, more that she feels it, cutting through the supermarket sounds: the mumsy music of Radio Asda, a squeaky-wheeled trolley, the hum of the refrigeration cabinets, a wheedling child, a frazzled mother. Though he’s not speaking loudly, his voice blares at her like a factory hooter. She can’t pick out the words but she can tell from the tone he’s in a good mood. Bertha, his ex-wife, his shopping partner, is responding to what he’s saying, she’s cracking jokes too and Donnie is laughing.
    Trapped here in the fruit aisle with Donnie and Bertha advancing on her, like in a bad dream, Daphne wants to move but is paralysed. This is too much information, too contradictory, it doesn’t make sense and if it did, its meaning would be dreadful. They haven’t seen her so they’re not avoiding her but they don’t make it as far as pineapples. Donnie turns left into dairy goods. Bertha had headed back to tomatoes. They have split up, working as a team, buying dinner together, in exactly the same way Daphne and Donnie buy dinner. Daphne knows his next stop will be the beer aisle.
    She gets there before him, her mind working faster than she can properly think through. San Miguel is on a buy-one-get- one-free , he’ll go for that. She’s waiting for him when he turns into the aisle. His face lights with automatic polite recognition, as if he has unexpectedly bumped into a colleague or a distant cousin but realisation makes an ugly mask of his face. He shakes his head sadly, disappointed, Daphne has somehow let him down. Shetries to speak but her brain is not working in words, it’s trying to process what she’s seeing, trying to find some interpretation that will makes this acceptable.
    Bertha walks up the aisle as, Daphne remembers, she has done once before. Donnie, staring hard at Daphne, puts out a hand to curb Bertha’s progress, to protect her from Daphne. From Daphne? Then he turns and walks briskly, resisting breaking into a run, out of the shop. Bertha, bemused but apparently understanding that something is wrong, takes a passive look at Daphne and follows him.
    Daphne’s knees buckle. She falls on the floor below a pyramid of Asda own brand lager. A woman stops and looks at her.
    ‘Are you okay, hen?’
    Daphne can’t answer, the power of speech has not returned. She tries to get to her feet but the shop is revolving around her. This is embarrassing, she thinks, people will think I’m an alcoholic.
    ‘Just stay where you are, hen, don’t try to stand up, I’ll get somebody .’
    But she does try to stand up. She’s not making it and then she feels an arm around her ribs lifting her from behind. She is scooped up effortlessly. It is not entirely an unpleasant feeling. This fainting sensation is infinitely preferable to the sick panic she felt a moment ago.
    A spotty youth with an Asda badge that identifies him as ‘Dale’ has returned with the woman. The person who has pulled her from the floor comes round in front of her and is dusting down her jacket. It’s Pierce. This strikes Daphne as funny, funny ha ha as well as funny peculiar that he should be in the shop