Garnethill

Chapter 10

She was dreaming a vague dream with loud banging in it. Someone was banging on the front door. She tried to open her eyes but the sunlight scratched them like sandpaper. She waited for a minute, hoping Benny would answer it or they'd stop it and go away but he didn't and they didn't and she couldn't sleep through the noise. She pulled the duvet around her and felt her way along the wall to the front door, keeping one of her eyes shut. It was Una, with Alistair in tow. "Mum phoned me last night. She was as drunk as a lord, and she said you were missing." Una's voice was louder than most people's. She didn't shout but her voice had extraordinary natural projection.

"Well, you've found me now," said Maureen, wishing she was anywhere other than here now, feeling anything other than this.

"I can see that," said Una.

Maureen raised her hand. One of her eyes was stuck shut with sleep and when she spoke she could feel dried drool cracking on her chin. "Una," she said slowly, "I am hung over today. If you need to speak, please do it quietly. If you can't speak quietly please leave."

She dropped her hand and went into the kitchen. Alistair and Una followed her in. Maureen poured a pint of water from the tap and drank it. A note from Benny was sitting on the table. It said he had gone to the university and that Maureen was a drunken bum.

"I can't believe it," said Una, making a bad job of keeping her voice down. "What are you doing here alone? And look at the mess in here. Where's Benny?"

"He's out," said Maureen, with great effort.

"Maureen, you look terrible. I've been trying to get in touch with you but you've been out all the time."

Maureen's mouth flooded with salt water. She bombed it down the hall to the bathroom and threw up across the cistern. Una was at her back. "Dear God, Maureen, go to bed."

She fussed Maureen back down the hall and put her in Benny's bed. The room smelled strongly of Benny's Brylcreem. Una pulled the curtains against the ferocious sunlight and shut the door quietly.

When Maureen woke up again the radio in the kitchen had been tuned to a pop station and was making an irritating, upbeat noise. Testing her head, she slowly pulled herself upright and opened her eyes. She wouldn't be able to eat for a while but her stomach felt strong enough to take a cup of tea.

Una and Alistair were sitting with their coats on drinking tea in the kitchen. They had cleared a space on the table.

"Sit down," said Una, and turned off the radio. She made Maureen a cup of tea. "Have you been to the doctor?"

Una lived an ordered life, she believed in medicine; doctors were the lieutenants of absolute good. When Maureen was found in the cupboard she had had a terrible shock and wanted her put away immediately and for a very long time.

"I went on Friday," said Maureen. "I'm off work but she said I'm coping wonderfully. She's given me some medication." This didn't seem to be enough to assuage Una's fears. "And she's scheduled extra sessions for me."

"Good. Have you seen Mum?"

"Aye, I saw her on Friday."

"Did she say anything?"

"Anything about what?"

Una blushed.

"Look," said Maureen wearily, "if Mum's starting fights with me behind my back I don't want to know about it. Rope me in later, okay, Una?"

"Okay, then," said Una. "The police came to see me."

"Did they ask about Liam?"

"No, just you."

"That's good. I don't want him involved."

Una shifted in her chair. She knew what Liam did for a living but she didn't like to hear it said out loud. "The papers have been phoning everyone about you."

"I know. They came to my work."

"Oh dear."

"Mum actually asked me whether I'd done it," said Maureen. "I couldn't believe it."

Una stood up suddenly. "We'd better be going now," she said.

"Oh, come on, Una," said Maureen, as emphatically as she could manage, "what has Mum been saying about me?"

"She said she's your mum," said Una, and sat down, "and she'll stand by you, whatever you've done."

"But I didn't do it, I told her I didn't."

Una coughed, politely.

"Una, what did she say?"

Una spoke quietly, like a child caught in a lie and made to finger her co-conspirators. "She said you might not remember properly." She paused awkwardly, waiting for Maureen to lose her temper.

Maureen thought about it with the tired, apathetic calm of a bad hangover. "Mum's nuts," she said.

Una laughed loud and high with relief.

By the time Una and Alistair left it was six o'clock. Maureen phoned Liam.

"Mauri? What the fuck's going on? I came looking for you and Benny let me in and you were crashed out on the settee with an empty half bottle on the floor."

"Have you tidied up?"

"Yeah, totally. Are you all right?"

"God, aye, I suppose. I'm hung over."

"What was the message about?"

"I saw Carol Brady yesterday. She said the police called our family unsavory and I just thought… you know, it might be about you. I might have panicked but she was pretty scary."

"No, it was good thinking."

"She asked me to go for lunch yesterday. She thinks I killed him."

"You?"

"I don't feel too good, Liam," said Maureen. Her voice was trembling.

"I'll come over. I'll get videos out and you can forget about it for tonight."

Benny came back just in time to catch Liam skinning up on the coffee table while Maureen watched the trailers to Hard Boiled, a kung-fu movie with lots of shooting in it. He had his good brown leather jacket on, the one he wore when he went to clubs looking for a lumber. They teased him about it for a while but he wasn't up for it. He was fractious and worried about his exams. He said he'd seen the paper and Liz could sue for defamation because they'd called her by Maureen's name.

"Yeah?" said Maureen. "Why's that defamatory?"

"Because you're a notorious character," said Benny.

Benny wasn't allowed any mood-altering substances because he was in AA. He insisted that he didn't mind them smoking hash in the house but he kept waving the smoke away from his face. Liam told him not to be such a tight-arse and his tense mood deepened.

When the films were over Liam went home and Benny hurried off to bed. Maureen sat in the dark on the edge of the settee and tried to cry but her eyes just stung and burned.

The next morning they were puffy and sore. She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked mad. Anyone with an ounce of wit would think she had killed Douglas. She washed her face, splashing cold water on her eyes, hoping to soothe them. She wanted to go to work, she was missing Liz, but she comforted herself with the thought that it was Tuesday and she'd be seeing Leslie later.

She phoned Liz to tell her she could sue for defamation. Liz said that the booth was besieged by journalists and sensation seekers coming for a peek at her. Mr. Scobie kept trying to shoo them away but the minute he went inside they came back. He told her to shut the ticket office until he could find someone to take her place. So she was sitting alone in the dark booth, answering the single daily call for the hypnotist-show tickets because he wouldn't let her go home without docking her pay. She said that the photograph in the paper made her look as if she had a double chin. "He's dead pissed off with you, Maureen."

"Yeah, well, he's gonnae be more pissed off, because I'm taking a couple of days off."

Liz inhaled sharply. "Shall I tell him?"

"Yeah, go on. I'll see ye later, yeah?"

"See ye, Maureen."