Read Online A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Judith Flanders
Ads: Link
everything, was the air Viv breathed. And if Steve was a keen gardener, even if he had almost no space, it was a given. ‘Wait, I’ve just thought. I have a front garden – not big, but bigger than a window box. Would Steve like to use it? It’s planted with bushes, because I don’t do anything with it.’ I know I’m supposed to love gardening, it’s the national obsession, but to me it’s like making your bed: you do it, then you go to sleep and have to do it again the next day. Except gardening is worse. If it’s not watering, it’s mulching, or weeding, or pruning, or dead-heading, or any of the other ninety-seven things gardens require. I was always looking for new ways of not-gardening. ‘We could trade. If he keeps me in salad, or cauliflower, or whatever, he can have the rest.’
Mo put her hand to her mouth and her eyes teared.
‘Mo? You’re supposed to cry when you peel onions. Not when you talk about them.’
That brought a smile. ‘Everyone is being so kind, and it’s not like we really live here.’
‘Of course you live here. And I’d be getting a great deal: someone would look after my garden, and I’d get all the broccoli I could eat.’
She pushed the salad box she’d packed over the counter and waved off payment. I wrote down my number again, and told her to get Steve to call. He could come and look at the garden and tell me if he thought the idea would work.
I was buzzing with the brilliance of this scheme when Jake got home, and as we sat down to dinner I began to expand on the possibilities. I’d been building, if not castles in the air, at least an elaborate greenhouse in my front garden, and it took me a while to realise that Jake was not only not contributing, he wasn’t eating, either. Instead he was looking at me as if I’d started to speak in tongues.
I stopped abruptly. ‘What?’
He chose his words carefully, which he did when he was very angry. ‘Did you miss the part earlier where I told you that your friends the squatters had drug dealing going on in their house?’
I stiffened. ‘Yes, I think I did miss that part. Because what I heard you say was they’d allowed their shed to be used by a youth worker. A youth worker who, if he was working with minors, had to have passed a criminal records check. So I heard the part where you implicitly told me he’d been approved by the police. I entirely missed the part where there were drug deals being made in the house belonging to “my” friends.’ I let my voicemake the quotation marks for him and stared him down.
He broke first, pushing his hand through his hair, frustrated. ‘You don’t know these people,’ he said finally. ‘You don’t even know their last names. A drug dealer and arsonist was operating out of their front garden. And now you plan to give them the run of your house?’
He had a point. Not a good one, but a point, so I tried to match his care in my answer. ‘I agree, having a drug dealer operate in your front garden is not a good sign. But we don’t know that they had any awareness of it – after all, the council who employed him, and the police, thought he was OK. I don’t think, therefore, that we can hold the house’s residents responsible for his criminal acts. As a separate issue, I agree, I don’t know Steve’s last name, but I can find it out.’
Jake threw up his hands and flung himself back in his seat.
I didn’t wait for him to say anything. ‘I’m not giving Steve the run of my flat. There’s a tap outside, and there’s no reason for him to come into the house. But I will add, there’s never been a problem before.’
Jake had loosened up when I said there was no need for Steve to come inside, but I’d blown it to hell with that last sentence. ‘Before? Why was he here before?’
‘I told you, and so did the woman in the street yesterday after the fire. Mike’s the local electrician, and he does some plumbing too. He’s probably worked for everyone in the
Mo put her hand to her mouth and her eyes teared.
‘Mo? You’re supposed to cry when you peel onions. Not when you talk about them.’
That brought a smile. ‘Everyone is being so kind, and it’s not like we really live here.’
‘Of course you live here. And I’d be getting a great deal: someone would look after my garden, and I’d get all the broccoli I could eat.’
She pushed the salad box she’d packed over the counter and waved off payment. I wrote down my number again, and told her to get Steve to call. He could come and look at the garden and tell me if he thought the idea would work.
I was buzzing with the brilliance of this scheme when Jake got home, and as we sat down to dinner I began to expand on the possibilities. I’d been building, if not castles in the air, at least an elaborate greenhouse in my front garden, and it took me a while to realise that Jake was not only not contributing, he wasn’t eating, either. Instead he was looking at me as if I’d started to speak in tongues.
I stopped abruptly. ‘What?’
He chose his words carefully, which he did when he was very angry. ‘Did you miss the part earlier where I told you that your friends the squatters had drug dealing going on in their house?’
I stiffened. ‘Yes, I think I did miss that part. Because what I heard you say was they’d allowed their shed to be used by a youth worker. A youth worker who, if he was working with minors, had to have passed a criminal records check. So I heard the part where you implicitly told me he’d been approved by the police. I entirely missed the part where there were drug deals being made in the house belonging to “my” friends.’ I let my voicemake the quotation marks for him and stared him down.
He broke first, pushing his hand through his hair, frustrated. ‘You don’t know these people,’ he said finally. ‘You don’t even know their last names. A drug dealer and arsonist was operating out of their front garden. And now you plan to give them the run of your house?’
He had a point. Not a good one, but a point, so I tried to match his care in my answer. ‘I agree, having a drug dealer operate in your front garden is not a good sign. But we don’t know that they had any awareness of it – after all, the council who employed him, and the police, thought he was OK. I don’t think, therefore, that we can hold the house’s residents responsible for his criminal acts. As a separate issue, I agree, I don’t know Steve’s last name, but I can find it out.’
Jake threw up his hands and flung himself back in his seat.
I didn’t wait for him to say anything. ‘I’m not giving Steve the run of my flat. There’s a tap outside, and there’s no reason for him to come into the house. But I will add, there’s never been a problem before.’
Jake had loosened up when I said there was no need for Steve to come inside, but I’d blown it to hell with that last sentence. ‘Before? Why was he here before?’
‘I told you, and so did the woman in the street yesterday after the fire. Mike’s the local electrician, and he does some plumbing too. He’s probably worked for everyone in the
Similar Books
