Page 21 of The In-Laws

He sounded like a petulant child and she had two of those already. Did he honestly think she remembered everything he said to her? Did he not know she had forty authors on her list, all wanting big, life-changing book deals? Now they wanted mega-bucks Netflix deals too. They wanted Booker Prizes and Hay Literary Festivalinvites and long lunches and Zoom meetings and phone calls and text messages and FaceTimes and … It was never-ending.

Some of her authors seemed to think she was going to be their best friend, or mother, or co-author, or therapist. In fact, she had to be all of those things every day. She truly loved her job, but some days were draining and it made coming home and dealing with the twins, their sass and outrage intolerable.

‘Of course, you did tell me. I think it’s a wonderful decision on your part. Well, then, have a cup of herbal tea and distract yourself with a movie. I promise you that when you’ve slept on it you’ll be clearer on what you agree and disagree with. We’ll work it out tomorrow. Don’t you worry, all of us want the best for this book, for it, and you, to shine.’

Peter sighed. ‘Well, okay, I do feel calmer now. Do you promise you’ll send me your feedback first thing in the morning?’

‘I promise.’ Melanie said goodbye and hung up just as the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of dinner. Now she had to read the Australian manuscript and Peter’s – she’d get no sleep tonight.

They sat down to eat. Melanie wanted badly to read while she ate, but she thought about what Katie had said about the twins needing her and forced herself to turn her phone face-down.

‘So, how’s school?’ she asked.

Janis and Joni looked at each other. ‘What?’

‘How’s school?’ Melanie repeated.

‘We heard you but, like, what kind of question is that?’ Janis asked.

‘A perfectly normal one, I think.’

‘It’s a pointless question,’ Joni said. ‘School is the same every single day. Boring and then even more boring.’

‘Well, something must have happened that wasn’t boring. When I was at school –’

‘When you were in school they didn’t have electricity or iPhones, and kids were just, like, freaks who read books and played chess.’

‘We did have electricity, I’m not that old, thank you, but we didn’t have mobile phones, and reading books does not make you a freak. You could both do with reading more.’

The twins glanced at each other and cracked up. ‘We have Netflix now, and YouTube, and Insta, and TikTok. We don’t need books.’ Janis shovelled a large forkful of chicken into her mouth.

‘Books make you clever, interesting and curious. They open your mind to the lives and worlds of others.’

It broke Melanie’s heart that her kids didn’t read. If they were readers, she might have been able to connect more with them. Despite all of her efforts to get them to read, the twins had no interest whatsoever in books. They regarded being ‘forced’ to read a class novel in school as a violation of their human rights. Their complete disdain for books really bothered and hurt Melanie. She knew it was silly to feel offended by it, but she did. It was as if by rejecting books, they were rejecting her. Why couldn’t they see how important literature was? Their little cousin Lucy ate up books, and Melanie could talk to her: they had common ground. She totally understood why Lucy was Nancy’s favourite grandchild.

Janis waved her fork in the air. ‘Save the “books are the seventh wonder of the world” speech for your authors.’

‘There are already seven natural wonders of the world. You’d know that if you read books,’ Melanie replied.

‘And you’d know who Olivia Rodriguez is if you had social media,’ Janis shot back.

‘And you’d both do a lot better in your exams if you didn’t waste half of your lives on social media.’

‘You’d actually be normal if you had social media.’ Joni backed up her twin.

‘Dad knows who she is,’ Janis said.

‘Music is your dad’s passion. Books are mine.’

‘Because Dad’s cool and actually has an Instagram account.’

Melanie decided to stay silent. The twins were impossible to argue with, especially when they felt they were completely in the right, which seemed to be all the time.

‘Are you coming to our class play next week?’ Janis asked.

Damnit, she had completely forgotten. She was going to Sloane’s celebration dinner with her editor and publicist, plus the head of sales and marketing at Paper&Ink publishers. They were flying in from London and had booked a swanky restaurant to celebrate the Goldstone nomination.

‘Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry, I can’t. I have to –’

---