Page 32 of The Good Boy

“I wouldn’t have expected you or Kelly to believe,” Nanna Maria tells Miles. “But Eugenie here should have realized. She would have, if she just had a little faith in me, in the family, and in herself.”

“Yeah but... looking at a cloudy sky and predicting rain doesn’t seem that magical,” I say desperately. “Or telling a woman crying her eyes out that she’s had her heart broken? Even choosing an under-twenty-five-pound winning scratch card almost every time isn’t really definitive, is it? Like, you could have turned Dave into stone before my very eyes and that would have been conclusive, but you didn’t and what I am really trying to say is that none of this is my fault.”

“Could you turn Dave into stone?” Kelly asks thoughtfully. “How much would that be, out of interest?”

“Not in my remit, I’m afraid, Kelly dear,” Nanna says. “Genie, I know that’s what you are trying to say.” She purses her lips. “But as a woman of thirty, don’t you think it is time to take responsibility for your actions?”

“Nanna!” I wail. “Please just do your witchy stuff, whatever it is, I beg of you!” I clasp my hands together. “If not for me, for the poor innocent golden retriever?”

“I can’t, my love,” Nanna Maria says, cupping my cheek in her hand. “The wish is irreversible.”

“You can’t be serious?” I ask. “Can’t you go and look in the big book of family lore or something like that? There must have been someone in the whole history of the ancestors who made a mistake that needed correcting. I can’t be the only one since records began.”

“You’d think,” Nanna Maria says, following it with a heavy, sighing “hmmm.”

“What does ‘hmmm’ mean?” I ask her.

“Do you remember my nickname for you when you were little?” she asks me.

“Your sunshine girl,” I mutter, glancing at Miles.

“You were the most optimistic, the most hopeful, the most delightful child. Rainbow colors poured off you wherever you went. And then... then you let the rain get in. And now... Now you are on mute.”

I did not expect those words to sting so much, but they do. They whip right through me and leave a hole on the way out. When did I stop being the girl that always saw the bright side? Of course I can count back to the exact hour, but that doesn’t help.

“That’s not nice, Nanna Maria,” Kelly says, taking my hand. “And it’s not true either. Please don’t take away my boobs.”

“Genie is very loud—you take that back,” Rory says, standing up. “Last night she sang ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ so loudly it set off the neighbor’s car alarm. And Genie is clever and kind and funny. It was Genie who came and got me when I was really scared and hurt in the shelter. And Genie who made me feel safe and gave me Diego the squeaky pigeon to protect me. Genie can do anything she wants. You are the one who needs to have more faith, Nanna Maria. In Genie.”

Rory takes my other hand.

“I have to say I agree with Rory here,” Miles says. “Any other human being on the planet would have checked themselves into a mental-health facility by now. But not Genie. She is determined to make things right again. She is taking responsibility and maybe she doesn’t do things your way, but she does them. And she might seem on mute to you, but to us she’s turned up to eleven.”

“Guys,” I say, looking at them each in turn. “Thank you.”

Nanna Maria thinks for a moment.

“You’re all right, of course,” she says unhappily. “Iambeing unfair. I just want so much for you, Genie, and I know that everything you deserve can be yours if you will only find the courage to take what’s within your reach.”

“So, will you at least try and find out?” I ask her.

“I’ll try,” Nanna agrees. “I’ll speak to my cousin in Valetta and ask her if there is anywhere to look that I might not know.”

“Like through your mind powers?” I ask her.

“No, darling, on Zoom,” she says.

“Thank you, Nanna,” I say, hugging her tightly.

“Thank you, Nanna,” Rory says, joining in.

“Thanks, Nanna Maria, you’re the best,” Kelly says, basically curtseying.

“Thanks, Genie’s nan,” Miles says, offering her his hand. “I’m sorry if I got a bit heated back then.”

“Don’t apologize,” Nanna tells my friends with a smile as she takes Miles’s hand. “You care about Genie, and that’s a beautiful thing.” And then the worst happens. A shadow crosses Nanna’s face, tears spring into her eyes. Miles removes his hand from hers, but it’s too late.

“Miles, your mum wants you to know,” she tells him with a gentle, sad smile, “that she is so proud of you, and now is the time to make the change that will change everything.”

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