thanks again. I’m so glad I spotted your shop. I hadn’t even noticed it until today.’
Outside, she shows Lara and Emily her purchases. ‘Well, that was very slick,’ Lara remarks, ‘but now we’re late and you know what Miss Pettifer’s like if they miss the bell.’
Be like that then, Kerry muses as they march onwards in a tense, stony-faced group. Pour scorn upon my Egyptian offerings that I managed to pull together less than twenty-four hours after my marriage went tits up.
*
Perhaps, Kerry surmises later, she has managed to pull off a small feat today, and not just for the school banquet. She has, after all, survived the first morning after Rob’s announcement. She may have shed a few tears but she hasn’t lain weeping with the children stepping over her in a puddle of gin on the kitchen floor. And when Anita arrives that evening, having driven down to Shorling straight after work, Kerry has already decided that, somehow, she’ll find a way through this thing that’s exploded in her face.
‘He’s the last person I’d have thought would do this,’ Anita declares, sipping tea in Kerry’s kitchen.
Kerry nods. ‘I know. Nice, reliable, respectable Rob – maybe it serves me right for being so complacent.’
‘But it’s insane, Kerry. It’s as if he went mad that night. You don’t think he’s ever done anything like this before, do you?’
‘No,’ Kerry says firmly. ‘I really don’t …’
‘And …’ Anita pauses. ‘I don’t suppose you can forgive him?’
‘How can I possibly when she’s pregnant?’
‘But …’ Anita pauses. ‘What if she’s lying and it’s not his?’
Kerry rubs her hands across her face as the sound of The Bare Necessities drifts through from the living room. ‘The thing is, it could be, and he’s certainly assuming it is.’
‘Why, though? He can’t even remember it happening. She might have made the whole thing up. Maybe they didn’t even do it—’
‘Oh, he’s got a history of being unable to remember whether he did it or not,’ Kerry cuts in bitterly. ‘Said it happened with me.’
Anita frowns. ‘Like some kind of blackout thing, you mean?’
Kerry nods miserably, the tears flowing unchecked now as Anita envelops her in a hug.
‘I’d want to kill him,’ her friend murmurs. ‘I can’t believe the stupid sod has done this …’
‘Me too, and you know what the worst thing is right now – the thing I’m most dreading?’
‘Yes,’ Anita says softly. ‘How you’re going to tell the kids.’
And so later that evening, bolstered by Anita’s mercy dash, Kerry sits with Freddie and Mia on Freddie’s bed. ‘Listen,’ she begins, resting the storybook on her lap, ‘you know Daddy’s been staying in London these past few weeks?’
Mia nods while Freddie investigates his left ear with a finger. ‘Yeah. Read the story,’ he commands.
‘In a minute, darling. It’s just …’
‘Are you getting revorced?’ he cuts in.
‘Why d’you ask that?’ Kerry’s heart judders.
‘Tom’s mum and dad are getting revorced. He told me at school. He’s gonna have two bedrooms.’
‘Oh,’ Kerry says as Mia throws her a startled look. ‘Well, er, the word’s actually divorced, honey, and I don’t know. I mean, yes, maybe …’ Her children’s dark eyes are upon her, radiating alarm. ‘Daddy-has-a-new-girlfriend-they’re-having-a-baby,’ she blurts out in a rush.
There’s a startled silence. ‘They made a baby?’ Mia exclaims.
‘Um, yes.’
‘How?’ demands Freddie.
‘They just …’ She clears her throat. ‘They just did, like we made you.’
‘With kissing?’ Freddie asks.
‘Er, I expect so, yes …’ Kerry is aware of Mia snuggling closer and wrapping her arms around her.
‘Is Daddy gonna live with the new baby,’ she whispers, ‘and not us?’
‘I don’t know, darling,’ she says, pulling both of them close. ‘We’ll have to see.’ Silence seems to fill the small room with its jumble of books and games piled messily onto shelves. Kerry can’t even hear the sea.
‘I know what men and ladies do,’ Freddie says, brightening. ‘They take their clothes off and bounce on the bed.’
Mia glares at him, then up at her mother. ‘No they don’t. It’s seeds and eggs. I read it in a book.’
‘That’s right, sweetie. It was in that bodies book I gave you.’
‘Daddy did that,’ Mia adds, turning to her brother. ‘His seed met her egg.’
Freddie frowns. ‘Where?’
‘In London,’ she says knowledgeably.
‘In … in her body actually,’ Kerry says firmly.
‘Whose body?’ Freddie asks.
‘His girlfriend’s. She’s, um … called Nadine.’
Cupping a hand over her mouth, Mia leans in to whisper into Freddie’s ear, making him dissolve into giggles. ‘What’s that, Freddie?’ Kerry asks.
‘She said it’s in her vagina.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘The baby’s in there, in her vagina.’
‘Well, not exactly but you’re nearly right – it’s not too far away from there and that’s probably where it’ll come out …’ Kerry blows out air and feels herself sweating. ‘Anyway, enough about babies. I don’t suppose you’re hungry, are you? Would you like a treat before bed?’
‘Can I have Coco Pops?’ Freddie asks, as if startled by his good luck.
‘Coco Pops?’ Mia repeats. ‘Are we allowed them at bedtime after our teeth?’
‘Sure. Why not?’ Kerry says. ‘In fact, I’m going down to get two bowlfuls right now and you can both eat them in bed.’
‘Yeah!’ Freddie exclaims. ‘And I’m not doing my teeth again neither.’
Kerry gets up, relieved that her children have been so easily cheered up after her shock announcement. She’s grateful, too, to have a simple task
