The School Gates by Nicola May Read Free Book Online

effort to talk to her.
    ‘The silly girl walked out on me last night, but she’ll be back when she realises the grass isn’t greener, I’m sure,’ Alana explained.
    ‘Oh dear. I do hope she hasn’t gone far. She said she’d babysit for us next Saturday,’ Emily boomed.
    ‘Did she now?’ Alana said, suddenly quite annoyed that her ex-employee had already been moonlighting. Her phone buzzed again. She looked down; it was Stephen McNair.
    ‘Right, must get on, nice to see you again, Emily. Joshua really must come round and play soon.’
    ‘It’ll probably cost you,’ Emily winked, leaving Alana none the wiser as to her daughter’s antics.
    Mo ran up the steps to the GP surgery. She nipped to the loo and hurriedly swept her hair up into its usual bun and powdered her shiny nose. She looked at her reflection and quickly looked away, disgusted at her bloated appearance and grey-flecked hair that was badly in need of a cut. She looked far older than her forty-one years.
    She scrabbled in her bag and found an old cover-up stick. Whisking it over the small red mark on her cheek, a present from Ron for getting in late after looking after Joan’s children, she sighed loudly.
    If only she could just get enough money together to leave him. It was Wednesday – she must remember to get a Lottery Lucky Dip.
    She was thankful that Joan was back home and on the mend. Colin had been completely distraught when he had returned home and found out what had happened to his wife. It was a relief, for all that it was Type 2 diabetes, which wasn’t so serious that it needed injections, just a change of diet and exercise habits.
    The ever-effervescent Ffion immediately cheered her.
    ‘Morning! Grim Lynn is on the war-path as Dr Delicious spilled a drop from a urine sample on her jumper. Heads down, here she comes.’
    Mo got so close to her screen to avoid eye-contact that she actually hit her nose on it, sending Ffion into hysterics.
    ‘This is a serious doctors’ surgery, not a Kindergarten, thank you, ladies,’ the grim one expressed, her cropped grey hair and crinkly jowls making her resemble an old man’s testicles.
    ‘How many hours till lunch?’ Ffion enquired at ten o’clock.
    ‘Just the three,’ Mo laughed.
    ‘Shall we go to Rosco’s?’ Ffion wanted to know. ‘I SO need some lard. I got very drunk on tequila last night – like lighter fuel it was,’ her Welsh accent tilting an octave.
    ‘I’ll come with you, but just salad and water for me,’ Mo replied. ‘I have to lose this weight now; it’s just getting too ridiculous. It’s a vicious bloody circle though. The more fed up I get, the more I seem to eat.’
    ‘Bless you, Mo, I promise to keep the biscuits away from you from now on.’
    ‘Please do, and put both Nil by Mouth signs on my desk!’
    A pretty Czech waitress took their order in Rosco’s. Mo thought she recognised her from somewhere but couldn’t think where. She had a Diet Coke to alleviate the guilt of the chips she’d just ordered with her salad – couldn’t resist them – whilst Ffion ordered a burger and gulped back lemonade by the pint.
    ‘Now tell me about this son of yours,’ Ffion said inquisitively.
    Mo Stubbing’s life path had never been an easy one. In and out of care homes as a youngster, she was determined that her own family life would be different. However, being a very promiscuous teen, she found herself pregnant at seventeen. Wanting more than anything in the world to love another human being and have them love her unconditionally in return, there was no question, despite several stern conversations with her carers, that she wouldn’t have the baby.
    Oh, how she loved Charlie’s father, but he too was immature at seventeen – a free-spirited boy who lived in the same care home as her. His heart was big and in the right place, but his own issues from an abusive upbringing were significant. She couldn’t or wouldn’t want to rely on him for security, so she went