Read Online My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal - Free Book Online

steps over his mattress and closes the curtains.
    â€œComing down for your tea, love?”
    He knows she sees the biscuits that have fallen on the floor. If she tells him off he’ll have to be angry with her again. But she picks her way through the mess, gathers them up, and puts them on his bedside cabinet next to a photo he’s only just noticed. It’s of him and Jake on a cream shag carpet before Jake had his rash. And Maureen has put Jake’s Big Red Bear next to the picture frame.
    â€œYou need something to remember your brother by. Jake won’t need Big Red Bear where he’s going. He’ll have lots more.”
    Maureen picks up Big Red Bear with its pale blue satin ribbon and tries to snuggle it next to Leon.
    She pretends that Big Red Bear can speak and moves it from side to side.
    â€œTime for tea,” says Maureen, trying not to move her lips.
    â€œI’m not hungry.”
    â€œNor me,” she replies.
    Then Maureen kisses him on top of his head, which she has only done once before, when he had a nightmare about drowning. She touches him lightly on his neck-back.
    â€œCome on,” she says in her own voice. “We’ll skip our tea today. Skip tea and go straight to ice cream. We’ll tidy this up later.”
    Leon shuffles off the bed and follows Maureen downstairs.

II
    At first Leon thinks he’s in a dream about fighting a dragon. But then Maureen is shaking him and he can’t seem to open his eyes.
    â€œLeon! Leon!”
    Somehow he is sitting next to her on the bed, and when he opens his eyes he can see from her face that something’s wrong.
    â€œYou’re grinding your teeth again, Leon! It’s four o’clock in the bloody morning. Wake up!”
    One side of his face hurts and it feels like he hasn’t been asleep all night. He was fighting an evil monster that was picking up people with his claws and eating them. Blood dripped from the monster’s lips and some of it splashed on Leon and then the monster saw him and started chasing him. Leon ran and ran and then when he couldn’t run any more, he turned round and just when he was about to stab the monster and win, Maureen woke him up.
    â€œHonestly, Leon. I wish you could hear yourself. I’ve neverheard nothing like it. Goes right through me. Leon! Don’t go back to sleep! Leon!”
    First of all she makes him take a pee even though he doesn’t want to. She stands at the door and the bathroom floor is cold on his bare feet. She tells him to sit down to pee because he’s too tired to stand, so it’s really hard to concentrate on making the pee come out but she won’t let him get off the toilet until he has done it. Halfway through he nearly falls off, so he has to hold on to the sink with one hand. Then the stairs feel wobbly under his legs and he’s grateful when Maureen says he can sit on the kitchen chair and have a biscuit.
    â€œNow where’s this all come from, eh?” she says, filling her spotty mug with boiling water. “As if I didn’t know.”
    Leon tries to rest his head on the table but she’s having none of it. She makes him sit up straight like he’s in school and drink his juice. He tries to eat his biscuit but it feels too heavy and it drops on to his lap and onto the floor. Leon is so tired and so angry with Maureen.
    â€œRight,” says Maureen, poking him in his neck-back. “I know you’re upset but you and me are having a talk. Take this and wipe your face.”
    She hands him a tea towel for his tears. It smells of mashed potato.
    â€œIn there with you, on the sofa, and get the green blanket over you. Come on.”
    He does as he’s told and puts the green blanket over his legs even though he isn’t sick. Maureen sits down next to him and puts her coffee on the floor.
    â€œRight, mister. You awake now? You listening?”
    Leon nods.
    â€œAnswer me this. How many