The Waitress by Melissa Nathan Read Free Book Online Page A

emerged, leaving her enough time to pull out comfortably. She glanced behind her again – a queue of cars – there was no alternative, she would have to get on to the roundabout. Hoping that somehow there would be more clues once on it, she edged forward and, staying in the middle lane, went round as slowly as possible, reading the signs intently.
    Still nothing. Not one sign gave her any information she could do anything with.
    She was now grimacing heavily, panic having levelled out into misery. She completed the roundabout once more. Still nothing. Of the three exits, one was a no-go. She could see that it took the drivers on a dual-carriageway from which there was no return. Just looking at it traumatised her. Of the other two exits, one extended as far as the eye could see, with no possibilities of a U-turn, the other, seemingly, went straight back to London.
    She rounded the circle again, muttering uselessly to herself.
    After her fourth round-trip, she phoned home on the hands-free.
    ‘I’m on a roundabout,’ she shouted.
    ‘Well done!’ cried her father cheerfully.
    ‘I can’t get off it.’
    ‘I’ll get your mother.’
    It only took Deanna two roundabout trips to get to the phone, by which time Katie was starting to get giddy and a bit depressed.
    ‘What are the exits?’ Deanna asked calmly.
    ‘I’m just coming up to them again . . .’ said Katie, slowing down accordingly. She read them all off to her mother.
    ‘Hmm,’ Deanna said thoughtfully. ‘That’s odd.’
    ‘Why?’ Katie’s voice trembled. ‘Am I on the wrong roundabout?’
    ‘Ah! Just as I thought. You want the third exit. How misleading.’
    The never-ending road.
    ‘Are you sure?’ she asked. ‘I’m not going to end up in Birmingham?’
    ‘Sweetheart,’ said her mother. ‘Would I ever send you to Birmingham?’
    ‘Right, I’m indicating now.’
    ‘Good girl.’
    ‘I’m going off the roundabout.’
    ‘Good girl!’
    Almost immediately she drove past another sign, and this one now mentioned, bottom of its list, the location she needed.
    ‘It’s right!’ she cried. ‘You were right! I’m going the right way!’
    By the end of the journey, her entire family had been navigating her from home via one phone line and three extensions. It had not been a smooth process. Deanna had shouted at Katie’s pregnant sister, her brother had said ‘Bugger’ while his parents were on the line and, horrifyingly , her father had said ‘Bollocks’ while all of them were on the line. The shock waves of silence that reverberated down the phone after that almost caused Katie to miss another turning.
    ‘Darling,’ she heard her mother’s voice cut through the silence, ‘are you still there?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said in a small voice.
    ‘Bea?’ Deanna asked Katie’s older sister. ‘Are you still there?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Bea, ‘but I might have lost the baby.’
    ‘That’s
not
funny,’ said Deanna. ‘Cliffie? Are you still there?’
    ‘God yes,’ came the voice of their younger brother. ‘I wouldn’t miss this for the world.’
    ‘Sydney?’ said Deanna. ‘Are you still there? Or would you like to go and calm down?’
    ‘No I would bloody well not like to go and calm down,’ came the voice of Katie’s father.
    When she finally heard the comforting sound of gravel crunching under her car’s wheels and saw the warm lights of the family front room through the topiary, Katie almost wept with relief.
    Deanna came to the door followed by her two golden retrievers. Katie stepped out of the car, her leg muscles doing a Bambi, and within minutes everyone was feeling much better. The journey hadn’t caused any permanent damage to the Simmonds family – at least nothing a swift round of whisky and some group therapy couldn’t sort out.
    Later, her mother and sister joined her in the cosy cliché kitchen, complete with Aga, oak table and dresser, while she ate her re-heated dinner. Meanwhile her father, brother and