Read Online Lessons for a Sunday Father by Claire Calman - Free Book Online

the Lambs.
You know, Hannibal Lecter and all his food and papers has to go through this slot otherwise he’ll take a bite out of you as soon as look at you.
    “Just open the door a crack.” I figure if I can just get my foot in the door, I can keep her talking a bit longer, get her to see reason.
    She’s just the other side of the door. Then I hear her slam the bolt across and double-lock the door. I watch her through the letterbox, the backs of her bare feet as she climbs the stairs to our bedroom alone.
    “Gail!”
    Ha! She’ll probably come down in ten minutes to let me in. She’s just trying to get her own back, punish me by having me freeze on my own front doorstep. Still, what if she doesn’t? Anyway, I couldn’t stay out there all night. I get in the car and start the engine to warm it up, thinking what the hell do I do now? Where can I go, where can I go?
    And that’s how I ended up spending the night at work.
Rosie
    Nat’s a big, fat liar. He said that Dad’s left us and he’s not coming back, he said Dad never came home last night and Mum was lying when she told us he’d gone out with a friend and that’s why he wasn’t eating with us. Mum says it’s wrong to lie. That time when I broke the yellow teapot and I hid all the pieces in the garden behind the shed and said I hadn’t seen it, then Mum said you have to tell the truth and if you do everything will be all right. Nat tells lies the whole time. He says he’s doing his homework when he’s playing on his computer. He says he hasn’t any money for the bus, so Mum gives it to him and then he walks to school and keeps the money. He says it is all right and not really like lying because he might need the money for the bus and anyway it is not hurting anyone.
    Dad wasn’t at breakfast this morning, and he didn’t say goodbye again, same as yesterday.
    When Mum wasn’t looking, Nat kicked me under the table and said, “See?” He nodded at Dad’s empty chair. I kicked Nat then tucked my legs up under me so he couldn’t get me back again.
       *   *   *
    Then Mum told us we were going to Nana and Grandad’s for the weekend. Nat made a face, but he likes it there really. Nana makes the best roast potatoes in the whole wide world and last time Grandad told us he had a picture of the Queen each for us behind the clock on the mantelpiece and when we looked there were two ten pound notes. Nat asked Mum if Dad was coming too. He took an orange out of the fruit bowl and started throwing it up in the air and catching it in one hand. Then Mum said, actually, no he wouldn’t be coming and then her face went all funny and she sat down in a chair really quickly and said she needed to talk to us.
    Nat turned round and dropped his orange.
    “See, Rosie! I
told
you!”
    “Nathan! Don’t shout at Rosie.”
    “I’ve got to go.”
    Mum looked at the clock.
    “You’ve got a minute. Please come and sit down.”
    “I’ll stand.”
    Mum sighed, then she said that she and Dad had decided that they were going to have a little bit of time apart and so Dad wouldn’t be living with us at home for a while. She said it wasn’t because of us and we must understand that Mummy and Daddy both still loved us very much. Nat was standing to one side and he poked his finger in his mouth, like he does if something makes him sick.
    Nat picked up his orange and dropped it on the table like a ball, as if he thought it would bounce.
    “Don’t do that, Nathan. You’ll spoil it.”
    “So?”
    “I realize you must be upset, Natty …” Mum stretched out her arms, like she was going to give him a hug, but he stepped back away from her.
    “I’m not. I don’t give a toss what you two get up to.”
    Then he kicked his chair and went out into the hall.
    “Wait, Nat! We really need to—” Mum started to get up.
    “Got to go. You’ll make me late.” Then the front door slammed. Mum sat down again.
    “Rosie? Do you understand what I’ve been saying?”
    I