Read Online The Zoo by Jamie Mollart - Free Book Online Page A

The one time I actually haven’t done anything is the one time the silly old broad flips her lid and takes action.’
    I watch two raindrops race down the window. He’s muttering something.
    â€˜What was that?’ I ask.
    â€˜Can’t even iron my own bloody shirt. How pathetic is that? No idea how to use the washing machine. I’ve been buying a new shirt every day. I’m completely incapable of looking after myself. 59 years old and I’m like a bloody baby. Should be ashamed of myself. You can use the appliances in your own house I presume?’
    I nod.
    â€˜Thought so. Different generation. Truth is if she goes through with the trial separation I’m going to have to buy someone in. Hired help. A nanny or something.’
    â€˜Buy a Thai bride,’ I say and then regret it looking at his thin smile.
    â€˜Baxter’s going to need some help with the bank. Start looking for an exec.’
    Â 
    I meet with Baxter and the creatives. The original presentation is spread out across the table on A3 boards. I push them around. Pick one up and put it on an easel in the corner.
    â€˜Start with this,’ I say, ‘This. But not this. They liked the pitch, but don’t want to run with anything we presented. The idea is right, but the execution isn’t.’
    I turn over a sheet on a flip chart. Uncap a pen. Sniff it.
    â€˜Okay, who wants to start?’
    Â 
    Later I phone the newspaper and book an advert in the recruitment section. I speak to our web developers and get the job put on the website. Account Executive required to work on blue chip client. Experience in the finance sector preferable. Good basic and potential for promotion . Something like that. The web developer types it in without looking at me. I expect him to type ‘something like that’ at the end. He doesn’t.
    I put my head back around the door of the room where Baxter and the creatives are still working. They are huddled around the whiteboard surrounded by snow drifts of discarded paper. They don’t look up.
    I leave the office. It’s 4.30. The roads are quiet. I stop at the Cock Inn on the way home. Drink a pint of lager and think about banks and money, what it means and how we rely on them, how they let us down and how we don’t have any choice. I find myself getting angry and realise that this is going to be harder than I thought. I drop three pounds on the bar top and leave. Phil Collins serenades me out into the world.
    When I get home Sally and Harry are curled up on the sofa. I kiss them both on the tops of their heads. They’re watching Fawlty Towers. John Cleese is contorted with rage, his body screwed up.
    â€˜He’s f-funny,’ says Harry looking up at me.
    â€˜Yes he is,’ I say, imitating Cleese’s walk.
    They both laugh at me then return to the TV. I go into the kitchen and get a beer from the fridge, then smoke a cigarette out the back door. Sally joins me, takes the cigarette from between my fingers and drags on it. I watch her lips on the filter. When she passes it back she’s kissed it red.
    â€˜I know what we should do for his birthday.’
    â€˜Yeah?’ she asks.
    â€˜Let’s take him to Monkey Kingdom. I think he’d love it.’
    â€˜You’d love it.’
    â€˜Yes. But he would too.’
    â€˜I think he might.’
    She kisses me on the cheek and goes back inside. I gaze up at the night sky and try to recognise some of the constellations, but I can’t grasp them at all.

18.
    Mark is talking, telling us about his family.
    â€˜I don’t want them to see me like this,’ he is saying. ‘I don’t want me daughter to think of her Da as a mad person. I want to get better so I can hold her again.’
    He begins crying, his greasy hair falling forward and touching the table, and I can’t help but think that someone has to eat their dinner off it. A nurse puts her arm around him.