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Authors: Sandi Toksvig
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reading at the dining-room table. Mother’s door was
closed and the air was thick with silence. My tie was ruined. In my room I took
it off and put it in the bin.
Chapter
Four
The dead end that we lived
in had five houses. Ours was next to the stop sign on to Amherst. Next to us,
on the same right-hand side of the street, lived Sweetheart, Harry Schlick’s
mother. Next to her and at the head of the close were the Dapolitos. Next to
them was the drive to the Yacht Club. Then on the left side were Harry and
Judith and next to them Joey Amorato, the dog catcher, who lived alone.
The Schlicks
invited us for a barbecue as part of the Welcome Wagon’s welcome to the neighbourhood.
I guess it was the barbecue which started everything rolling but I didn’t pay
that much attention to the invitation. I was still obsessed with the idea that,
like the spider, Father and Mother might be harbouring a rich, internal
emotional life about which I knew nothing. I hadn’t been up to the Burroughs
House again after that first time. I spent most of my time hanging around our
road, improving on the number of things my bike could be. Whatever the bike was,
a horse, a pioneer wagon, I was mostly alone. Cherry Blossom Drive was not a
great address for activity. Rich people mainly used it to get to the back
entrance to the Yacht Club.
At
weekends Father was home but he spent most of his time sitting at the
dining-room table working on his project. Our family, the Kanes, came
originally from a small village in England called Ickenham. Father had been
researching the town’s history for some time. This was difficult as Ickenham
was pretty much the sort of English town which history had entirely passed by.
It was not mentioned in the Domesday Book and no one of any consequence had
ever thought it was a good place for a battle. It suggested somewhere not worth
fighting over. However, Father had a trump card. While examining the guest register
of the Ickenham Arms he had discovered the signature ‘ER 1598’. He was
convinced that Elizabeth I had once slept there en route to whatever it
was she was en route to. Consequently he was in endless correspondence
with specialists in the field. Father always meant to be nice. If I came in he
would look up from his work and I always felt I had to stop by the table.
Neither one of us could ever think of a suitable subject for conversation.
‘How’s
school?’ he would whisper.
‘It’s
the holidays.’
‘Absolutely.’
He paused. ‘When it was school, how was it?’
‘Fine.
We did World War One.’ I searched around in my mind for a fact. ‘It was a
terrible war.’
‘Second
one was better. I fought in the Guards, you know.’
‘Yes.’
Father
nodded. We had done enough bonding and I would go to my room. There I pulled
out my secret weapon from Aunt Bonnie. I spent even more hours with it than my
Chinese present, until at last I felt ready. The night of the barbecue, I
wandered down the corridor with it to Mother’s room. I thought she might be up
as she would need to get ready for the outing. I knocked and heard her light, ‘Come
in.’
Mother
was sitting in a white slip and stockings at her vanity table. She stared
blankly in the mirror. Small bottles from the drugstore littered the glass top
among an array of powders and puffs. Mother took a lot of pills. They all came
from the doctor so I guessed she needed them.
‘Mother,
can I speak to you about something?’ She nodded but never swayed her attention
from the mirror. ‘I want to get some new clothes.’ For one brief second we had
a mother-and-daughter moment. Mother smiled in the mirror. I smiled back. In
her mind I think she had leaped with me to the finest stores in New York. In
mine, my Sears, Roebuck catalogue purchases had already been delivered. Then we
looked each other in the eye and the moment was gone. She was so beautiful and
I was so strange-looking. I put the catalogue which I had borrowed
closed and the air was thick with silence. My tie was ruined. In my room I took
it off and put it in the bin.
Chapter
Four
The dead end that we lived
in had five houses. Ours was next to the stop sign on to Amherst. Next to us,
on the same right-hand side of the street, lived Sweetheart, Harry Schlick’s
mother. Next to her and at the head of the close were the Dapolitos. Next to
them was the drive to the Yacht Club. Then on the left side were Harry and
Judith and next to them Joey Amorato, the dog catcher, who lived alone.
The Schlicks
invited us for a barbecue as part of the Welcome Wagon’s welcome to the neighbourhood.
I guess it was the barbecue which started everything rolling but I didn’t pay
that much attention to the invitation. I was still obsessed with the idea that,
like the spider, Father and Mother might be harbouring a rich, internal
emotional life about which I knew nothing. I hadn’t been up to the Burroughs
House again after that first time. I spent most of my time hanging around our
road, improving on the number of things my bike could be. Whatever the bike was,
a horse, a pioneer wagon, I was mostly alone. Cherry Blossom Drive was not a
great address for activity. Rich people mainly used it to get to the back
entrance to the Yacht Club.
At
weekends Father was home but he spent most of his time sitting at the
dining-room table working on his project. Our family, the Kanes, came
originally from a small village in England called Ickenham. Father had been
researching the town’s history for some time. This was difficult as Ickenham
was pretty much the sort of English town which history had entirely passed by.
It was not mentioned in the Domesday Book and no one of any consequence had
ever thought it was a good place for a battle. It suggested somewhere not worth
fighting over. However, Father had a trump card. While examining the guest register
of the Ickenham Arms he had discovered the signature ‘ER 1598’. He was
convinced that Elizabeth I had once slept there en route to whatever it
was she was en route to. Consequently he was in endless correspondence
with specialists in the field. Father always meant to be nice. If I came in he
would look up from his work and I always felt I had to stop by the table.
Neither one of us could ever think of a suitable subject for conversation.
‘How’s
school?’ he would whisper.
‘It’s
the holidays.’
‘Absolutely.’
He paused. ‘When it was school, how was it?’
‘Fine.
We did World War One.’ I searched around in my mind for a fact. ‘It was a
terrible war.’
‘Second
one was better. I fought in the Guards, you know.’
‘Yes.’
Father
nodded. We had done enough bonding and I would go to my room. There I pulled
out my secret weapon from Aunt Bonnie. I spent even more hours with it than my
Chinese present, until at last I felt ready. The night of the barbecue, I
wandered down the corridor with it to Mother’s room. I thought she might be up
as she would need to get ready for the outing. I knocked and heard her light, ‘Come
in.’
Mother
was sitting in a white slip and stockings at her vanity table. She stared
blankly in the mirror. Small bottles from the drugstore littered the glass top
among an array of powders and puffs. Mother took a lot of pills. They all came
from the doctor so I guessed she needed them.
‘Mother,
can I speak to you about something?’ She nodded but never swayed her attention
from the mirror. ‘I want to get some new clothes.’ For one brief second we had
a mother-and-daughter moment. Mother smiled in the mirror. I smiled back. In
her mind I think she had leaped with me to the finest stores in New York. In
mine, my Sears, Roebuck catalogue purchases had already been delivered. Then we
looked each other in the eye and the moment was gone. She was so beautiful and
I was so strange-looking. I put the catalogue which I had borrowed
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