Scrap 59

SCRAP 59
‘We want to ride in Uncle Frank’s car,’ says an excited Robbie Stewart. His mother stops what she is doing and stares into her youngest son’s face. ‘What did you say?’ The boy repeats his statement and Dawn flies up the stairs, shouting for her husband, who is halfway through shaving in the bathroom. He turns away from the cracked mirror just as Dawn enters the room, hands on hips and her face colouring nicely. ‘Tell me you have not invited fat Frank,’ she growls.
Scotty returns to his task, his hand shaking slightly. ‘I could tell you that but it wouldn’t be the case.’ Dawn furiously snatches up wet towels from the bathroom floor and stuffs them into the plastic laundry bin. For once she is temporarily lost for words; she hadn’t seen this one coming. Scotty points out that she invited her mother without prior consultation so he invited Frank. ‘We can’t fit everyone in my car anyway. He’s doing us a favour if you think about it.’
Dawn does not want to think about it. It’s bad enough that the two men spend all their time together when they are working. She had hoped to get away from him for a few weeks at least. Frank is a bad influence on Scotty and his attendance at the holiday camp will scupper all her plans for nights out with her mother. She sweeps out the room, slamming the door behind her and stomps loudly downstairs. Scotty smiles a satisfied smile and rinses the soap suds from his almost smooth face. It’s rare for him to get the better of the lovely Dawn.
Frank pulls his huge American sedan up outside the Stewart house and sounds the ‘Colonel Bogey’ horn, which brings the children rushing out to greet him. Robbie, Stu, Jamie and John pile in to the front seat as Frank eases himself out. Robbie presses the horn over and over to hear the loud tune bellow out, much to the annoyance of the neighbours, who shout for him to shut up. ‘Alright you lot,’ laughs Frank, ‘out you come. We haven’t packed the cases in yet.’
The children follow him into the house, where Scotty greets him, a battered suitcase in each hand. ‘Watch this one,’ he warns, handing over a bulging bag, ‘the catch is a bit dodgy.’ Frank takes the cases and stacks them inside the boot, which already contains his own luggage and a large picnic hamper. The children bring their own bags and Frank stuffs them into the boot. ‘Is that the lot?’ he calls to Scotty. ‘We’ll take the rest in our car,’ says his friend. ‘We’re just waiting for Dawn to stop poncing about then we can go and pick up her mother and get on the road.’
Heather and Janet, the teenage daughters, have elected to ride with their parents and grandmother but the boys get their own way and fight over who is going to sit in front. Frank says they will have to take it in turn and Dawn says if they don’t stop arguing they won’t be going anywhere, but everyone knows this isn’t true so they continue to bicker, but more quietly.
Eventually they get started, stopping only to load Mavis and her many bags into Scotty’s Cortina. ‘I didn’t know he was coming,’ says Mavis, by way of a greeting to her daughter. ‘Neither did I until half an hour ago,’ grumbles Dawn, ‘but we’re stuck with him.’ Scotty ignores the snide remarks, turns the radio on to drown them out and sings along to Summer Holiday, but with all the wrong words. Sometimes, Dawn finds, it is not worth arguing.