The Rotters' Club by Jonathan Coe Read Free Book Online Page A

her relief at the other end of the line. An emotion swelled inside him: pride, or gratification. A tender feeling; there was almost something paternal in it. ‘So what time are you calling the meeting?’
    ‘Seven-thirty? Can you make it by then?’
    A final sigh: thick with weariness and resignation. ‘OK, Kev. I’ll be there. We’ll sort this thing out once and for all. But after this, you owe me one – OK? I mean it.’
    ‘’Bye, Billy,’ said Miriam, using an endearment he would never have tolerated from Irene.
    ‘Ta-ra then,’ said Bill, and replaced the receiver.
    They had tea together, the three of them, sausage, beans and chips, and it wasn’t until Doug had gone back upstairs to do his homework and listen to the new record again that Irene broached the subject.
    ‘Do I gather that you won’t be coming tomorrow night, then?’
    Bill spread his hands in apology. ‘This has got to be sorted out, love. We’ll have a proposal on the table from the management tomorrow morning. We’ve got to get together to discuss it, and we’ve got to decide what we’re going to do about Slater. Disciplinary action.’ He wiped his mouth with a piece of kitchen towel. ‘It’s a bugger, I know, but what can I do?’ More softly, as if to himself, he repeated: ‘What can I do?’
    Irene looked at him for a few seconds, the light in her eyes warm but oddly inscrutable. She stood up and kissed him, gently, on the top of his head. ‘You’re a slave to the cause, Bill,’ she murmured, and drew the curtains against the thickening night.

5
    On the morning after the parent-teachers meeting, Chase came into their form room, threw his briefcase down beside his desk, went over to the window where Benjamin was sitting and made a dramatic announcement.
    ‘I’m going to come to dinner round at your house.’
    Benjamin looked up from his book of French verbs (they had a test later that day) and said: ‘I beg your pardon?’
    ‘My parents are going to dinner at your parents’,’ Chase said, pleased with himself. ‘And I’m coming too.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘Next Saturday. Didn’t they tell you about it?’
    Benjamin was quietly indignant at not having been consulted or even informed about this startling proposal. He quizzed his mother about it that evening, as soon as he got home, and found out that everything had been arranged the night before, at King William’s, where Chase’s parents and his own had met for the first time.
    Benjamin had, incidentally, been nursing fond hopes for this particular parent-teachers session. Not because he expected to receive glowing reports from the masters, but because it meant his mother and father would be out for most of the evening, and there was every possibility that Benjamin might have the living room – and more importantly, the television – all to himself for some of that time. This was a fantastic stroke of luck, because there was a film on BBC 2 at nine o’clock that evening, made in France and billed as a ‘tender and erotic love story’, which was almost certain to contain some nudity. Benjamin could hardly believe his good fortune. By dint of reasoned argument and persuasion – backed up, as always, by the threat of physical violence – Paul could easily be packed off to bed by 8.30 at the latest. His parents would not be back until ten o’clock. That allowed a whole hour in which one – surely, at least one – of the three lovely young actresses featured in this ‘intense, provocative and revealing study of amour fou’ (Philip Jenkinson in the Radio Times ) would have the opportunity to strip off for the cameras. It was almost too good to be true.
    And Lois? Lois was going to be out. Lois was doing what she did every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night. She was having a date with the Hairy Guy.
    They had been going steady now for almost three months. His name was Malcolm, and although he had rarely been allowed by Lois to cross the threshold of the Trotters’