Page 43 of Lost Luggage
‘Me too. I’d forgotten what a lift it is, to pull on a cheerful colour in the morning. It’s a little baggier than it used to be. I’ve lost a few pounds. I was thinking – this putting ourselves first business, I’m going to carry on healthier eating, forme. I might even come swimming with you.’ He put his hands behind his head and stretched out, in a pair of comfortable trousers.
The letterbox rapped and Dolly opened the door to a pale face and hooded eyes. Flo slumped in and followed her into the kitchen without taking off her coat or shoes, or bobbing into the lounge to say hello to Maurice and Fanny. She dropped into a seat at the end of the table, elbows on it, not budging a millimetre when Dolly placed a juice in front of her.
‘How was school?’ asked Leroy.
‘It’s all about exams this year. We may as well be at high school already. We keep repeating the same old work.’
‘At least you’ve got your visit to the museum at the weekend,’ said Dolly. ‘I can’t wait to hear about those bug displays.’
Her shoulders sank lower. ‘We had a big argument. Then Mum and Dad cancelled the trip after I told them they’d get bored, said there was no point going and slammed my bedroom door.’
Leroy and Dolly exchanged glances.
‘How’s Guides going, sweetheart? Still okay?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. We’re working on the second badge now, the skills builders one, for the Know Myself theme. We’ve got to do the work over the Easter holidays. I’m on the bit aboutputting your best feelings forward. I’ve got to think about if I ever overreact and which reactions are good and which are bad.’
Dolly raised an eyebrow.
Flo sighed. ‘I know. But I felt so cross.’
‘We all overreact sometimes,’ said Leroy. ‘Usually because we are hurt or scared.’ He winked at her. ‘How about a game of Go Fish?’
‘I think I’ll go and sit in the tree for a while.’
Dolly and Leroy stood by the window. Flo climbed easily halfway up, stopping at a bough wide enough to rest on. It wasn’t raining and the sun hadn’t quite dipped beneath the horizon, having wrapped the day up in its arms, a promise that summer was coming. Yet Flo looked as if it were the middle of winter, arms wrapped around her body, face tucked against her knees. Leroy got on with peeling potatoes for mash – without butter. Dolly grabbed a favourite green gilet from her bedroom; it had been a while now since she’d hidden herself in her brown anorak. She glanced in her full-length mirror. If Dolly were Phoebe, or rather if she had the young woman’s illness, she’d wince at the bulges around the middle, and rue the loose jowls. She turned to one side, imagining Fred’s view: did he miss the thick brunette hair, now wispy and blonde? Did he note the lips that had shrunk, that smooth hands were now mapped with veins? Finally, Dolly as Dolly stared into the glass, nothing but grateful for a reflection so much more cheerful and confident than the one she’d avoided for months. The yellow crystal bracelet caught her eye. She stood up straight. Not looking bad, Dolly, not bad at all.
* * *
‘I’m coming up,’ she called to Flo.
Flo looked down through the branches. ‘You can’t make it up here. Just getting up from the sofa you make grunting noises.’
‘I’m not like that cockroach you found that had lost a leg.’
‘But cockroaches’ legs grow back. What if you fall?’ Flo gave a dramatic sigh. ‘Stay there, I’ll come down to you. But I’m not going inside. Not yet. We can sit on the garden chairs.’ Dragging her feet over the lawn, Flo joined her at the loveseat.
‘Leroy and I sat out here late last night,’ said Dolly.
‘After your meal with Fred. How did it go?’
‘Not good.’
‘Is Leroy back with Tony?’ she asked eagerly.
‘No.’
Flo stared at her through the dusk and simply nodded.
‘How did your evening go?’ Dolly asked, against the backdrop of starlings’ twilight chorus.
‘I found a giant house spider and seeing as my parents liked my elevator pitch, and suggested that museum trip, I thought things had changed so I caught it and took it into their bedroom to show Mum. Her scream surprised me and I dropped it. I told her not to worry, I’d get one of my jars, to catch it.’ Flo zipped her anorak higher. ‘My mistake. I’d forgotten they didn’t know about any of the containers where I keep insects. She marched me into my bedroom and had a look around. She grabbed Lacey.’
Flo explained that Lacey was a two-spot ladybird. She’d flown on to Flo’s shoelaces in the front garden when she got home from school. Flo took her inside, wanted to draw her; she’d never found a two-spot one before. She was going to release her out the back later but her mum emptied the jar outside straight away, said it wasunsanitary. Flo folded her arms. Kaz and Mark had demanded to see all the containers, asked what Flo had been keeping. She tried explaining it was never for longer than a couple of days, but the more she talked about ants and worms, about beetles and caterpillars, the more horrified they looked. Her mum insisted on vacuuming Flo’s bedroom from top to bottom. Another spider appeared and Flo called her mum a murderer when she sucked it up.
‘Oh, love. Did you apologise?’
Flo pursed her lips. ‘The real apology should be from Mum to that spider. She’s the one who overreacted but I’m the one who gets punished. I thought they understood me more, but turns out the only reason they were impressed with my pitch was because I was confident speaking and showed a good memory. In the elevator pitch I’d talked about wanting to study insects, but they just thought I meant as a hobby. Dad said I’d understand when I got older that there was no point going to college, not with all the costs and loans these days unless I chose a subject that was…concrete.’
