Read Online Henry’s Daughter by Joy Dettman - Free Book Online Page B

getting that excited look.
    â€˜He said that her heart will give out, that she’ll be dead before she’s forty,’ Martin says.
    â€˜Unless she has her stomach clamped,’ Lori adds, mouth full.
    Martin nudges her. She elbows him back. They are elbow to elbow, sharing the outdoor stool from the verandah.
    Mavis’s eyes narrow; she places a sliver of chicken in her mouth and her throatmuscles try to get it, toss it down but she forces herself to chew, keep chewing. ‘It’s a genetic condition, passed down the male line – as you well know, dear .’
    Eva looks down at her plate, cuts a lump of potato and puts it in her mouth. It’s scalding hot and she can’t spit it out onto her plate, which Henry says is bad manners, so she swallows it, gasps, swallows hard again, helps herself toa slice of bread, eats it dry, breathes deeply, letting in some air which is almost as hot as the potato. At least that changed the subject away from stapled stomachs. The doctor also said tubes tied, and Valium tablets for sleeplessness, because Henry dobbed. He told about how Mavis does most of her eating at night.
    The plates are emptied fast, except Eva’s plate. It’s still half full, and that’swasted chicken, and wasted potato. Then Henry puts a supermarket apple pie on the table, with one candle stuck in its middle, and everyone sings ‘Happy Birthday’ – except the twins. They look at each other, cover their mouths and start laughing. Eva tries to hush them with her eyes and when she can’t, she takes two envelopes from her purse, hands one each to the boys. They hand them to Lori,but the little mongrels are still laughing.
    She doesn’t even say ‘Ta,’ just gives those two a dirty look. Maybe those envelopes have got money in them, not just cards, and she’d like to open them and look but she’s not going to give those laughing little mongrels the satisfaction of seeing her accept their money.
    Anyway, Henry is cutting the pie into wedges, then cutting a second one, servingit with ice-cream. Nelly from over the road always has ice-cream in the freezer and cones in her cupboard, but Mavis can polish off four litres while she watches Play School , so Henry only ever buys it when he’s going to serve it all out. He doesn’t even leave a lick for later and Mavis’s big eyes threaten to murder him because he’s only given her a tiny wedge of pie and a baby dollop of ice-cream.
    Lori eats her giant serve slow, dipping from the outside, working in, licking the spoon clean between each dipping while she watches Mavis sling her serve down; she can’t pretend to chew ice-cream.
    Tea is poured into a mess of cups and mugs. Martin passes Eva a chipped cup, notices the chip, snatches it back and replaces it with an unchipped mug. He hands the chipped cup to the solicitor, whosees chip, thinks germs, turns the cup, holds it in his left hand and drinks from the unchipped side. Alice pushes her chair back, lights a cigarette just to keep Mavis company, then she’s puffing smoke and drinking her tea, not caring about the crack in her mug one bit, due to her being used to biting heads off dead rats.
    The ferret glances at Eva. He’s in shock, shocked silent. It’s plain obvioushe just wants to get those papers signed and get the hell out of this place. Henry offers him more tea. No, thank you. He eases his chair back.
    Eva glances at her watch. That solicitor is probably charging her by the hour. ‘Well, goodness me. Just look at the time ,’ she says. ‘If you could get the papers out now, Mr Watts.’
    â€˜You’re still gullible, Eva, still greedy. Gullibility and greed don’tmix well.’
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’
    â€˜Thanks for bringing them home. You can go now,’ Mavis says, helping herself to one of Lori’s envelopes, ripping it open. There’s a five-dollar note in it. Lori rips