The Facts of Life and Death by Belinda Bauer Read Free Book Online Page B

have a closer look. Now that she could see how it was made, the sound wasn’t scary at all, only pretty. She felt like a fool.
    He put his boot up on the coffee table. ‘Look at that workmanship,’ he said, running a finger across the silver shanks. Horseshoes and tumbling dice were hammered into the metal in little dots. ‘They’re the real thing, Rubes. All the way from Wyoming.’
    ‘Wyoming,’ she breathed. ‘Like a real cowboy.’
    He grinned. ‘You should see the stuff you can buy, Rubes. Real genuine cowboy things.’
    ‘I bet they cost
loads
,’ she said.
    Daddy said nothing and picked lint off his knee.
    Ruby’s awed expression flickered. ‘Does Mummy know?’
    He frowned and took his boot off the table with a clink. ‘She isn’t the only one around here who can buy things, you know.’ Now she’d upset him.
    ‘I know.’
    He jingled into the kitchen and back out again with a bunch of red roses. ‘See?’
    Ruby’s eyes popped. ‘Are they for Mummy? They’re
beautiful
.’
    ‘They should be. They cost enough.’
    ‘She’ll
love
them.’
    ‘Yeah, I know.’ Daddy smiled at the roses and everything was fine.
    Ruby plumped down on the sofa. ‘Make them go again!’
    Happy to oblige, he jingled around the room in his spurs. He kicked up his heels and tapped his toes, and Ruby laughed and clapped in delight.
    And the fun only stopped when Mummy opened the front door.

10
    THE ROW WENT on longer than any row Ruby could remember. The job and the shoes and the car and the job and the window and the spurs, and the job and the job and the job.
    Ruby bit her thumbnail. It wasn’t Daddy’s fault he lost his job. It was the recession. He caught fish for them, didn’t he? He cleaned the house and he made her dippy eggs and baked beans for tea. But all Mummy ever did was be mean to him and yell. She never
used
to yell – neither of them
used
to yell. They used to laugh and show each other things on the telly, and go for bus rides to the beach. Not
this
beach with its rocks and pebbles, but a
real
beach with sand.
    They used to love each other.
    Ruby turned up the TV, but she could hear the ebb and flow behind the kitchen door. Finally it flew open and her father strode past the TV, the Jingle Bobs quiet in his fist.
    ‘Where are you going, Daddy?’ said Ruby.
    ‘To cool off!’ he said, then looked at the kitchen and shouted, ‘Before I do something I regret!’
    Mummy appeared in the doorway, tea towel in one hand, a plate dripping in the other. ‘Something
you
regret? What about
my
regrets? Living in this dingy little
hole
. Working all hours while you go fishing and dress up with your friends and buy stupid
toys
instead of taking care of your family!
That’s
what
I
regret!’
    ‘If you think you can do better, then leave me and Rubes here!’ yelled Daddy. ‘And you go off with your fancy man!’
    Ruby gasped.
    Daddy yanked the front door open and slammed it so hard behind him that the little china dog trembled on the window sill.
    ‘Fuck you!’ Mummy hurled the tea towel after him, but it flopped on to the rug halfway across the room.
    Ruby got up and went after Daddy.
    ‘You stay
right here
, Ruby Trick!’
    Ruby hesitated, then pulled open the door – her heart thumping at her own disobedience – and ran down the hill, tripping and slipping across the green cobbles in her white school socks.
    Daddy was already in the car.
    ‘Can I come with you?’
    ‘No,’ he said. He turned the key and the car started.
    Her face crumpled. ‘Please, Daddy! I don’t want to stay with
her.’
    His jaw clenched.
    ‘All right then.’
    She climbed in beside him.
    ‘Put your belt on.’
    Ruby did.
    They drove in silence. First towards Bideford, and then away from the sea through the unlit lanes, where the lights of oncoming cars could be seen from miles off, lighting up the sky over the high hedges.
    Ruby didn’t know where they were and she didn’t care. Daddy and Mummy had argued before, but