Read Online Tree Palace by Craig Sherborne - Free Book Online Page B

wouldn’t she? Maybe not. If she ignored it like always the problem might ignore her. She had to the end of the week to decide.
    Shane’s mood was about Rory. You try to take the boy under your wing and he turns his back on you. He’d rather complain he was bored, go off on his own instead of contributing labour. Instead of learning the difference between Victorian-era goods and cheap modern he preferred to slink away saying he wanted to be a dragon. Of all the fantasies you could have in the world, he chooses something so far-fetched as a dragon.
    The pool business was solved, though. Shane had an idea and was delaying telling Moira because while the idea stayed in him unspoken it glowed in his insides. He had no interest in going swimming at the pool, but his plan would keep him in Moira’s good books. It was a humming pleasure to know he would be in Moira’s good books the moment he let the words go from his mouth. He would wait until she’d tended to the baby and he had her full attention instead of competing with baby feeding. He sat under the porch doing his paperwork and could hear her in the house singing in a lullaby mumble. He couldn’t make out the words but the tune sounded like ‘Michael Row the Boat Ashore’.
    ‘You know how to spell “proprietor”, Moira?’ He knew very well she couldn’t spell it but he thought asking would get her attention focused on him. It didn’t work. Her lullabying didn’t break breath. He wrote the word on the form, spelling it out to himself: Looked for bar work. Spoke to P-r-o-p-r-i-a-t-e-r. At which point Moira came out of the house, saying, ‘Little fella’s off like a light,’ and Shane saw his moment, put down his pen and rubbed his hands together.
    ‘This pool business. I worked it out. Sit down and I’ll tell you.’
    ‘The pool business? Oh, the pool business.’
    ‘What we do is this: I take my bolt-cutters and we wait until the night session, nice and dark outside of the floodlights. And I cut a hole in the boundary fence wire and Zara slips through and has a swim and does any socialising she wants.’
    ‘That’d be great, Shane.’
    ‘Problem solved.’
    ‘You’re very clever.’
    She leant forward and put her hand on his hand, on the sticky knuckles she was careful not to hurt.
    Shane’s glow got warmer. He said, ‘Rory could probably slip through too and they wouldn’t notice him if he kept his head down. And you could slip through for a swim and then you can all slip back out the hole when you’re finished and we head off home.’
    ‘Oh, I won’t be going swimming. I’ll mind Mathew.’
    ‘Mathew.’ He sighed. ‘Mathew. How come you’re getting landed with all the work with him?’
    ‘I don’t mind. I’m enjoying it.’
    ‘He wakes me up at night I’ll kill him.’
    ‘Don’t you say that! Don’t you ever say that!’
    Moira pulled her hand from his with a deliberate chafe over his wounds.
    He flicked his sore hand and sucked on the knuckle. ‘It’s only a saying. Jesus.’
    ‘I don’t like it.’ She composed herself. ‘Let him sleep with us for a while, Shane. Please, honey.’
    ‘Why? What’s wrong with him sleeping with his mother? She shirking her duties?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘The kid got something wrong with him?’
    ‘No. The doctor said for me to help. He said it’ll take the pressure off Zara. She’s young and her body and her mind need time to cope. You know nothing about women.’
    Moira’s particular habit if she was lying was that her neck stiffened and got longer and her chin pushed against her throat. The strain of it stopped any uncertain fidgetiness in her face. She had to be careful of doing it with Shane because he knew all her secrets and would be looking for her traits. She lifted her chin up to make sure he saw her throat and saw no stiffening. She concentrated on making her face remain steady. She fought against her chin dipping down.
    Shane shrugged and sighed again and said, ‘If a doctor says