The Norway Room by Mick Scully Read Free Book Online

mug, spoon coffee into two others, pour boiling water into all three. While Sophie took the hot Oxo to her mother Ashley put milk and sugar into their coffees. He looked out of the kitchen window at the estate and beyond it. In the distance stood the metal fretwork of three enormous horseshoes, the new hospital they were building. And above the frameworks, cranes, five of them, reaching high into the cold silver sky then dipping down into the nest of the construction site.
    When Sophie returned to the kitchen Ashley stuck his hand up his hoodie. Sophie watched him pull out a red Babygro and put it on the kitchen counter. Then another, white this time. A white cardigan. A blue one. Some white booties. ‘Present for you.’
    â€˜Nicked.’
    â€˜Nah.’ He grinned.
    â€˜Course they ain’t.’ She was grinning too.
    â€˜The market. I tried Mother’s Pride. But everything’s tagged so—’
    â€˜Mother’s Pride?’
    â€˜What’s it called?’
    â€˜Mothercare.’
    â€˜Yeah. Well I need to do that when it’s crowded. People to weave in and out of. So I can do a runner. I reckon I can get you a buggy though.’
    Sophie collected up the baby clothes. ‘I’ll show these to Mel.’ Ashley frowned. ‘It’s okay. She’s cool.’ Ashley followed Sophie but remained standing in the doorway. ‘Look, Mel. What Ash got me.’
    Mel slid her head away from the television and pushed her shades above her eyes. In her other hand she held the remote. She muted the sound. ‘Oh Christ. Baby clothes. That’s really cheered me up. I feel about forty now.’ She reached for the bundle. ‘Nan. Christ.’ She examined the clothes. ‘Nice though. Useful.’ She looked towards Ashley still in the doorway. ‘Where you knock these from?’
    â€˜Market.’
    â€˜Be careful.’ Then, to Sophie, ‘Some people think it’s unlucky to get stuff too early. Still. Useful though. Thanks, love. I couldn’t half do with a new leather purse next time you’re down that way.’ She handed the clothes back to Sophie. ‘The Somali lads, at the end of the curtains row, do some nice ones.’ She returned her shades to her nose, her head to the arm of the settee and sound to the television.
    There was confusion in Mrs Graham’s eyes. She looked around. ‘The dogs. Where are they?’ The woman’s face seemed to grow. A monster. The giant’s wife. Ashley could see the small lines around the mouth, pouches at the end of the lips, some tiny hairs beneath the make-up. When she opened it again he was sure he would fall in.
    â€˜Nicked.’
    â€˜Nicked?’
    â€˜Yes. I’m sorry, Mrs Graham.’
    Her hand reached for support, but she was further from the door than she thought, and she stumbled against it. ‘What do you mean? Nicked? Three Staffs, nicked?’
    Ashley stopped trying to fight the tears and let them fall. ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Graham. Really.’ He started to shake. ‘A bloke I see sometimes when I’m walking them down the canal. He’s all right. Least I thought he was. Always stops and talks, plays with the dogs. Friendly. This morning when he was playing with them, two other blokes, well one was a kid really, jumped out of the bushes and got hold of me. The kid had a knife. He held me round the neck. The other punched me, twice, in the belly. They leashed the dogs and took them up the towpath a bit and through the bushes. The kid was saying things like—’ Ashley started sobbing. ‘Things like could I swim. He pulled me to the edge of the canal and said, it’s more difficult with a cut throat. I thought he was going to do it, Mrs Graham.’ Sobs halted him again. His body shook. ‘I really did. I thought he was going to cut me. But he just pushed me in, and ran after the others.’
    Ashley stood crying before Mrs