‘Yes.’
‘Mum – it’s me.’
‘Who?’
‘Ana. Anabella.’
The crack in the door opened a bit wider. ‘Oh.’
Gay looked smaller than Flint remembered, and much older. But she still had all that jet-black hair pinned haphazardly all over her head and those soulful lilac eyes lined with smudged black kohl.
‘And who’s this?’
‘This is Flint, Mum – he’s a friend of Bee’s.’
Flint prodded her in the waist.
‘And of mine,’ she smiled.
‘Hi, Mrs Wills – we’ve met, actually, once before …’
Gay stared at him intently and interrupted him. ‘You’re very tall. You remind me of Gregor. Come in.’
She hurried them in and pulled the door closed behind them very loudly and very quickly. Flint noticed that she was having trouble catching her breath. She headed straight for the living room and collapsed on the sofa, with one tiny hand clutching her chest.
‘So,’ she said, turning to Ana, ‘how nice of you to come home, finally. Can you imagine? Can you evenbeginto imagine what I’ve been going through for the last week? Can you?’ Her voice was quavering and weak.
‘Yes. I can actually. I can imagine every last horrific second of it.’
Gay looked thrown. ‘Well, then –why?Why did you do this to me?’
‘Because I hate you, that’s why. Because I wanted you tostarveto death.’
‘Oh Anabella, you know I don’t appreciate your sarcasm.’
‘Who said I was being sarcastic?’ Ana murmured, under her breath.
Flint still hadn’t been invited to sit down so he hovered hopefully in the background, waiting for someone to suggest a cup of tea and maybe a scone or two.
‘So – Hugh tells me you’ve been living with a pair of lesbians?’
Ana laughed out loud and Flint stifled a grin. ‘Sorry?’ she said, bemusedly.
‘He says you’re living in a very small house with two lesbians. In aghetto.’
‘A ghetto?’
‘Yes. He wasn’t at all impressed by the locale. He said it was very dirty and very menacing and there were large numbers ofblackpeople. Everywhere, apparently.’
Ana raised her eyebrows and dropped her rucksack on a sofa. ‘Mum,’ she said with her hands on her hips, ‘you arehorrendous.And I can absolutely assure you that neither Gill nor Di is even vaguely lesbian. Quite the opposite in fact.’
Gay clutched her heart. ‘Please, Ana,’ she wheezed, ‘my nerves. Please don’t exacerbate my nerves.’ She pulled herself to her feet. ‘I’ll make some tea.’
She eyed Flint up and down as she passed him, as if she’d only just realized he was there. She smiled. ‘Oh, how rude of me. Sit down, Clint. Please.’ She patted a cushion and Flint saw her pull in her stomach and push her shoulders back. She put a hand to her hair before making her way elegantly towards the kitchen. Flint and Ana looked at each other and flopped on to a sofa.
‘Isn’t she vile?’ said Ana.
Flint shrugged. ‘She’s ill, Ana. Give her some slack.’