Read Unbecoming for Free Online Page B

– each held to the window by a child with red, red hair.
    Caroline!
    She was startled to find the word laid out in the real world. Startled to find a girl kneeling in front of her.
    ‘She’s making phone calls,’ the girl said. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’
    ‘She drew on the sofa,’ the boy said.
    ‘Serious?’
    The boy pointed. ‘There, look! And Mum’s going to think it was me because she used my pen.’
    The girl peered over to see. ‘Twenty-three?’
    Mary slapped her hand over it, suddenly ashamed. She’d donethis! What had she been thinking? She pulled her hankie from her sleeve and gave the sofa a rub.
    ‘It won’t come off,’ the boy said. ‘It’s a permanent marker.’
    She licked her hankie, dabbed more vigorously. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll explain it. I know the people who run the place.’
    The girl said soothing things about Googling a cure instead, which was kind of her. She got a gadget from her pocket and slid it open. She sat opposite Mary in the armchair, her hair shining copper.
    ‘You look like someone,’ she told the girl.
    ‘Do I?’
    ‘She went missing, so I hired a fellow to find her.’
    The boy sat up. ‘A detective?’
    ‘Charged a fortune. I had to take a smaller room just to pay the fees.’
    The boy looked thrilled. ‘We could hire a detective to find Dad.’
    ‘He’s not lost,’ the girl said. ‘We know exactly where he is – playing happy families in our old house.’
    ‘But a detective would make him talk to us.’
    ‘That’s not what detectives do, Chris.’
    ‘They might. You don’t know.’
    ‘Just leave it,’ the girl warned.
    ‘The detective would go to our old house and knock on the door and find out Dad’s desperate to talk to us, but his girlfriend won’t let him.’
    ‘Christopher Baxter!’ the girl snapped. ‘Would you just stop!’
    He rammed his foot at her and she slapped it away.
    ‘Get dressed,’ the girl said. ‘You’re going to the shop. We need hairspray or insect repellent to clean the sofa.’ She switched her gadget off and pocketed it. ‘So, you better hurry up, before Mum sees it and blames you.’
    ‘I’m not allowed to the shop on my own. And anyway, I’m on guard duty.’
    ‘I’m taking over.’
    The boy shook his head very slowly. ‘You’re not the boss of me.’
    ‘I’ll go,’ Mary said. ‘It’s too hot in here anyway. Just point me in the right direction.’
    The children exchanged glances and Mary understood exactly what they meant. They meant: No, Never, No Way! They meant: You’re crazy and you’d get it all wrong and why would we ever let you?
    The girl said, ‘Mum doesn’t want you to go out.’
    ‘Do we have to tell her?’
    The girl looked at her long and hard, as if working out the right answer. Finally, ‘I think she might notice.’
    ‘She could come too. We could all go. We could have a little sit somewhere and watch the world go by.’
    ‘Mum’s busy,’ the boy said as he stuffed his pens back into their case. ‘And Katie’s got to go to school, even though no one’s talking to her.’
    ‘Shut up, Chris,’ the girl said. ‘You don’t know anything.’
    ‘You told me that!’
    ‘Well, I’m untelling you. And anyway, I’m on study leave. What’s your excuse? How come you get another day off?’
    He paused in his pen stuffing and grinned at the girl. ‘I’ve got a headache.’
    ‘Mum fell for that?’
    ‘We could drive!’ Mary said.
    Both children laughed again. The girl was extraordinarily pretty suddenly. It was quite shocking. Mary wanted to tell her that happiness suited her, but was dazzled by how his girl stirredmemories in her. It was as if electrons in her head were firing for the first time in ages, light jumping into dark and making tentative connection.
    ‘Neither of us know how to drive, Mary.’
    Mary rootled about on the floor for her handbag because she certainly knew how, and adventure was calling. ‘I have keys somewhere, and a driving