Read Out of Shadows for Free Online Page B

voice. It sounded as if it was on the other side of Africa.
    â€œHi. Dad? It’s me. Hello?”
    But for once it wasn’t him who’d picked up, it was my mother. She garbled something incoherent then made a high, strangled noise. I closed my eyes. Had the drinking started this early now?
    â€œMum? It’s Bobby. Can you hear me?”
    â€œBobby? Bobby! Oh my, thank goodness.” I could tell she’d been crying. “My little angel. Are you all right? Tell me. Are you?”
    â€œFine, Mum.”
    â€œYou can tell me. Is everything okay? Are you unhappy? Because if you are I can . . .”
Take you out of there?
Was that what she wanted to say? “Are you coming home?”
    â€œSoon.”
    â€œGood. Because I need to . . . I want to talk to you about . . .” She was weeping again. “I think we should have gone back. We should. Maybe none of this would have happened if . . .”
    She wasn’t making sense and I felt scared. “What do you mean?”
    â€œWe should have gone back!” she said again. “We shouldn’t be here, and now it’s too late.”
    â€œMum?” She disappeared. “Mum!”
    The line crackled and then it was my father, voice snapping down the wire.
    â€œHi, Dad.”
    â€œOh. It’s only you. What do you want?”
    â€œIt’s half term, Dad.”
    â€œToday?”
    â€œNext weekend. Saturday, after the rugby.”
    â€œFor the whole weekend?”
    â€œSaturday until Monday evening.” Just like the term before.
    â€œI see.”
    â€œWe’ll be free from one. Firsts are playing Prince Edward and the buses are taking us in to support so you won’t have to come all the way here to pick me up. We don’t get lunch,” I added, because last time he’d been over three hours late.
    A faint crash. Perhaps a slamming door.
    â€œDad? What’s happened?”
    â€œLook, Robert, to be honest this isn’t really a good time. Your mother’s not well.”
    My heart raced.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œShe’s had a bit of bad . . .” The line dropped for an instant. “She needs rest, that’s all. You know how she gets sometimes. You understand.” He coughed awkwardly. “And besides, the car’s playing up a bugger and I can’t get the spare parts. It’s so difficult to get spare parts in this country! Perhaps you can make alternative arrangements.”
    My hand was gripping the handset tight enough to hurt.
    Yes, I can make alternative arrangements
, I thought.
And so will Mum. And we’ll go back to England without you
.
    Now, more than ever, that’s where I wanted to be.
    â€œYes, Dad.”
    Alternative arrangements
.
    I felt like crying.
    Ivan spotted my face as soon as I went back into the house, and he came and stood by my cubicle.
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    As vaguely as I could, I told him. He actually seemed concerned.
    â€œSo what will you do?”
    What
would
I do? Boys who stayed in school over half terms were the handful that lived abroad, like the Shekiro brothers who came from Kenya, or weirdos like Button, whose mother ignored him most of the time and was shacking up with a businessman somewhere in Zambia. For someone who lived less than an hour away, there was no reason.
    â€œI don’t know. Maybe ask someone if I can stay with them.”
    My first thought was Nelson, of course, though I didn’t dare mention that. Ivan had hardly been angry with me all term and I didn’t want that to change now.
    Maybe he could read minds.
    â€œWho? That Nelson Ndube?”
    I didn’t reply. I thought he’d walk off with a huff but instead he simply said, “Have you ever thought about how he gets to go home all the bloody time while the rest of us only get three weekends a term?”
    â€œTo go training.”
    â€œBut do you