Break the Child: Chapter Thirty-Three: Whippersnapper

Chapter Thirty-Three: Whippersnapper

 

Dad kissed me on the cheek and held me at arm’s length. My hair was wet, and my makeup had run and all the people I love were packed into our living room, but I didn’t care that I looked a mess. I didn’t care one little bit.

‘Katie, my darling, I’m so proud of you. It hasn’t been an easy year, and no, I’m not going to show myself up by making a speech, but I just wanted to tell everybody here that you’re the best daughter in the world and Mum and I are so very, very lucky to have you.’

Everybody clapped and I looked around and beamed. The room was packed with people and I was looking from face to face for my mum. ‘Where’s Mum,’ I asked Dad, worried. And there was that split second of terror in his eyes because he’d been distracted shouting, 'Surprise,' and coming to greet to me.

We saw the party hat, appear from behind the sofa first. It was a black and pink cone that said, Happy Birthday. And then the top of mum’s head appeared. and she rested her nose on the back of the sofa so that all that we could see were her eyes and head. ‘Can I come out now?’ She asked, in a tiny, scared voice, ‘Has the rent man gone?’

‘Well, you can take the girl away from her roots, but you can’t take the roots away from the girl,’ said Aunty Linda. We all laughed but I didn’t really know what she meant. I think I get it, but I’m not properly sure.

Dad looked embarrassed as he helped Mum out from behind the sofa. ‘You were supposed to shout ‘Surprise,’ and jump up, Annie. Remember, for Katie’s Birthday?’

‘Surprise,’ said Mum and she waved a pink pom-pom in the air. It was all perfect, as perfect as a day could possibly be, now.

I went upstairs to get a fast shower and change; I must have smelled of river. Somebody put the music on, and I heard everybody laughing and shouting. I felt as though I was going to burst with happiness. I wanted to look at my special present from Mum again, but I knew that if I did, I’d spend the rest of the night crying, so I just took it out of the drawer and kissed it before putting it away.

There was a tap on my door as I was drying my hair. ‘Who is it?’ I shouted, hoping that it wasn’t Danny. He couldn’t come in. I only had my underwear on.

‘It’s only me, can I come in?’ It was Sal. She came in and we hugged. ‘What are you wearing?’ she asked. She didn’t mean what did I have on; she meant what was I going to wear for the party. Best friends always know what the other one means, it’s one of the rules.

‘Those jeans and a tee.’

‘Oh, no you’re not.’ She went into my wardrobe and started sliding the coat hangers backwards on the rail with her nose all screwed up as she decided. She pulled out a short, T-shirt dress with a ruffled skirt part at the bottom. It was pink with a glittery horse motif on the front. ‘This is too cute. Wear this with…’ she was rooting through my drawer and in less than a minute my bedroom looked like a bombsite, ‘…this belt and these shoes.’

‘And leggings?’

 

‘No leggings.’

 

‘I’ll kill myself on those heels.’

‘Danny’ll be there to catch you.’ We giggled. I think Sal knows that I’ll always be there for her. She still gets a bit jealous but me and her, we go back forever.

We posted love hearts sweets saying, ‘Be Mine’ through Paul Cray’s letterbox when we were nine, and his little sister choked on one and could have died. We should have told that it was us—but we never did. And every day, we expected the police to come and arrest us for attempted manslaughter of the baby. But we didn’t know, and when Paul told us about it at school the next day, he did say that it wasn’t very serious because, luckily, his mum was there and knew what to do. But just think what could have happened. I don’t like love hearts anymore.

Sal said that Mum’s looking well. She’s looking fat is what she is. She’s absolutely enormous now and it’s hard for her with the baby because sometimes she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. He'll be born soon and that's something else to be excited about. I told Sal that I didn’t want to talk about Mum because it was a happy day and we decided to go back downstairs.

I was going into the kitchen when a hand reached out of the downstairs bathroom and grabbed me. I screamed a bit and Danny stuck his head out and told me, ‘Sush,’ before pulling me into the bathroom with him. We kissed until I heard Mum shouting my name and then we had to check that nobody was about so that we could leave the bathroom separately. But Aunty Linda came out of the living room at that very second and said, ‘Oh, aye, what’ve you two been up too?’

‘Nothing,’ we said, but it looked dead dodgy and we were both red.

‘Right you, madam, in there, we’ve been waiting for you,’ she said.

I went into the living room and everybody gathered around me. Dad turned the lights off and Aunty Linda and Aunty Helen carried an enormous cake in, and everybody sang Happy Birthday while I blew out my candles—all fourteen of them.

Aunty Helen got Mum up to stand with us. ‘You didn’t think you wouldn’t get one of your Mum’s homemade cakes for your birthday, did you, pet?’ Aunty Helen said. ‘She had to have a bit of help this year, but she did her share of stirring and I know she stirred an extra dollop of love in the mixture this year. Just to make it extra tasty. Didn’t you love?’ she said, turning to mum.

‘Is that cake for me?’ Mum asked and everybody laughed.

The kitchen was set up with a massive buffet that my family had been working on all day. It was perfect. Only one thing could have made it better and that could never happen, We just have to accept her the way she is, now.

While everybody was eating, Dad set up the karaoke machine. Then he made us all play musical statues which was a right laugh because most of the grownups were drunk and couldn’t stand up properly, never mind stand still. Adults are so embarrassing at family parties. I asked him if he thought I was five and he said, ‘Who says the games are for your benefit?’ He’s learned his lesson about musical chairs though and we don’t play that anymore.

One of our dining chairs collapsed last Christmas when Mum and Aunty Linda got too competitive. Aunty Linda fell backwards and cracked her head on the telly, she could have broken it, too, the telly that is, not her head. It’s a wonder she isn’t the one that’s gone nuts.

I’m crying a little bit now because I just had a really bad thought. I don’t want to be sad at all today because, although it’s long past midnight, I haven’t been to bed yet, so my perfect day isn’t over. But it was a bad, bad thought and I feel awful. I didn’t mean it, not really. I love Aunty Linda—it’s just that—I love my mum more, that’s all.

Dad started the karaoke off by singing Delilah, he always sings Delilah, and it’s horrible. I tried to run away when he shouted my name into the mic and said that I had to come up and sing because it was my birthday, and that’s one of the birthday rules. Everybody started clapping and chanting out my name and Danny grinned and winked at me. I wasn’t singing by myself, so I grabbed Sal and we sang Titanium together. Then me and Sal made Danny sing, Lego House. He wasn’t very good.

Dad was recording everything with the camcorder. There’s nothing new there, he always records all the embarrassing stuff, but he says that now it’s even more important that we capture as much as we can. I don’t know if he means for our benefit while Mum’s still kind of here sometimes, or to show Mum, to stop her forgetting us. I didn’t ask.

Aunty Linda grabbed mum’s hand and pulled her up to sing. They used to sing in all the pubs and were in a proper band called Unedited. When the band broke up Mum and Aunty Linda carried on by themselves and were called, Edits. I've seen photos and videos and they were really good, they were sexy, too with skimpy outfits. Dad said they were  known for their tight clothes and tight harmonies. Dad was lucky to get Mum—but my Dad's kind of good looking for a bloke in his thirties, so I suppose Mum was lucky, too.

‘And now, reformed for one night only, Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for Edits.’ Dad said and everybody clapped.

Linda put a microphone in Mum’s hands and she said, ‘What’s this? What do you want me to do with this?' Then she banged it on the end with her hand and said,

‘One two, one two.’ Then she sang, ‘Two little boys had two little toys, each had a wooden horse,’ into it and Aunty Linda had to stop her.

The music started and Mum stood up straight, she smiled out at everybody and bang on cue with the music she started to sing. She didn’t need the words, which is just as well because she can’t read anymore. But she can still sing.

They sang a song called Tell Him by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson and Mum knew every bit of her part. She’s a mezzo soprano and Aunty Linda is a contralto and Mum remembered all the harmonies and everything. When she was singing, it was as though there was nothing wrong with her and nearly everybody was crying. I've heard them singing together lots of times before, but this time was special—everybody felt it.

Aunty Linda wasn’t very good because she was crying too much to sing and in the music break halfway through the song, Mum shouted at her.

‘What’s the matter with you? Has your boyfriend dumped you? There’s nothing we can do about it now. I’ll kick him in the balls for you later, but sing, will you? If we don’t sing we won’t get paid.’

 Linda smiled at her and Mum was still grumbling.

‘Sing, or I’ll give you something to cry about.’

The music came back on and Mum was right in there and Aunty Linda managed to make it to the end of the song. She said it brought back a lot of lovely memories.

When everybody had had a go on the Karaoke, Dad put the disco back on and there were people dancing everywhere. They’d spilled out of the house into the garden until there were only a few people left in the living room. Sal and I were dancing with Mum, but I could see Mum staring at Danny. She kept looking at him and I was worried that she’d be frightened because he was a stranger.

We were holding her hands and dancing, but she pulled away from us and went over to Danny. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up to dance.

‘No, Misses Bell, I can’t dance. Honestly, I can’t.’ He looked over at me for help. Mum didn’t say anything she just kept pulling him. He was really embarrassed but he got up and started swaying a bit. Mum did this really embarrassing dance in front of him where she kind of bounced up and down and her boobs wobbled a lot. Sal and I were killing ourselves laughing.

Next thing we knew, Mum had put her arms around Danny’s neck and she’d rested her head on his shoulder. Danny was mortified. And then I was mortified, too. I watched as my mother actually kissed my boyfriend’s neck.

‘Dad.’ I yelled. ‘You need to get here. You need to get in here, right now.’

Dad came charging in with everybody else. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Look,’ I said pointing, ‘That’s what’s the matter. Mum’s raping Danny.’

Dad went up and prised Mum away from him.

‘Come on my darling, why don’t you dance with your husband, eh? I’ll show you a thing or two on this dance floor that that whippersnapper has yet to learn.’

And he took Mum in his arms and started dancing with her. He handed his can of lager to Danny.

‘Here son, I think you probably need this.’

He winked at Danny and then did this swirly thing with Mum in the middle of the living room carpet. I grabbed Danny’s hand and me and him and Sal went into the garden. He was in shock. As we left the room I heard dad saying,

‘Did that young fella get fresh with you Annie, did he? See what happens when I leave the most beautiful woman in the world alone? I’m going to stay right beside you always, my Annie. I’ll never let you go.’

At the end of the night we all lit lanterns and let them go and we watched them sailing up into the dark sky. It was beautiful. They’d even made sure that baby Andy had his lantern even though he's not born yet.

How can it be the saddest year of my life, but still be my best birthday ever?