Page 47 of The One Plus One
‘It’s fine. You’re the one cleaning it.’
‘I’ll pay for you to get your car valeted afterwards.’
He raised an eyebrow at her. He was laying a plasticbin bag over the seat so that the kids wouldn’t get damp when they sat down again.
‘Well, okay, I’ll do it. It will smell better, whatever.’
Some time later they climbed back into the car. Nobody remarked on the smell. He ensured his window was as low as it could go, and began reprogramming the satnav.
‘So,’ he said. ‘Scotland it is. Via B roads.’ He pressed the ‘destination’ button. ‘Glasgow or Edinburgh?’
‘Aberdeen.’
He looked at Jess.
‘Aberdeen. Of course.’ He looked behind him, trying not to let the despair seep into his voice. ‘Everyone happy? Water? Plastic bag on seat? Sick bags in place? Good. Let’s go.’
Ed heard his sister’s voice as he pulled back onto the road.Ha-ha-ha Ed. SERVED.
It began to rain shortly after Portsmouth. Ed drove through the back roads, keeping at a steady thirty-eight all the way, feeling the fine spit of raindrops from the half-inch of window he had not felt able to close. He found he had to focus on not putting his foot too far down on the accelerator the whole time. It was a constant frustration, going at this sedate speed, like having an itch you couldn’t quite scratch. In the end he switched on cruise control.
Nicky fell asleep. Jess muttered something about him only coming out of hospital the previous day. He half wanted to ask her what had happened, but he wasn’tsure he wanted to know quite how much trouble this family was likely to be.
Given the snail’s pace, he had time to study Jess surreptitiously. She remained silent, her head mostly turned away from him, as if he had done something to annoy her. He remembered her in her hallway now, demanding money, her chin tilted (she was quite short) and her unfriendly eyes unblinking. And then he remembered her behaviour at the bar, that she had had to babysit him all the way home. She still seemed to think he was an arsehole. Come on, he told himself. Two, three days maximum. And then you never have to see them again. Let’s play nice.
‘So…do you clean many houses?’
She frowned a little. ‘Yes.’
‘You have a lot of regulars?’
‘It’s a holiday park.’
‘Did you…Was it something you wanted to do?’
‘Did I grow up wanting to clean houses?’ She raised an eyebrow, as if checking that he had seriously asked that question. ‘Um, no. I wanted to be a professional scuba diver. But I had Tanze and I couldn’t work out how to get the pram to float.’
‘Okay, it was a dumb question.’
She rubbed her nose. ‘It’s not my dream job, no. But it’s fine. I can work around the kids and I like most of the people I clean for.’
Most of.
‘Can you make a living out of it?’
Her head shot round. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Just what I said. Can you make a living? Is it lucrative?’
Her face closed. ‘We get by.’
‘No, we don’t,’ said Tanzie, from the back.
‘Tanze.’
‘You’re always saying we haven’t got enough money.’
‘It’s just a figure of speech.’ She blushed.
