Page 73 of Someone Else's Shoes
‘I didn’t want to tell you because I guessed something was going on with you and Dad and … I didn’t want to bother you.’
‘Ray? Ray. I’m totally fine, I promise you. And I’m going to get you out of that school as soon as I can, okay? We’ll get a little place together and it’ll be just you and me. Wherever you like.’
‘Seriously?’
‘If you want to.’
‘And I don’t have to live here any more?’
‘No. I’ve been putting money aside to get us back together. The problem is, honey, I literally have nowhere for you to stay at the moment. I’m with a friend, and it’s pretty cramped so I just have to get the financial thing sorted with Dad and then we’ll be together.’
‘Please, Mom. Just do it quickly. I hate it here. I hate it. Being in this place makes me feel like there’s something wrong with me.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with you.’ Her eyes have filled with tears. ‘You are absolutely perfect as you are. You always have been.’
She wipes at her cheek with her palm. ‘So you’re really not upset about Daddy?’
‘Why would I be upset? He’s an asshole. He’s horrible to you and he acts like I don’t even exist. You’re always on your tippy-toes around him, like he’s God or something. If he goesand does that to someone else then, frankly, it’s all gravy. He can just leave us alone.’
The pain of hearing her relationship described so brutally makes her feel ill. ‘Oh, God, Ray. I’m so sorry you didn’t have a better dad.’
‘I don’t care.’ Ray sniffs. ‘Like I said. His loss … So when are you coming?’
There’s the problem. She tells him she’s stuck here in England while they sort a financial issue. She figures there’s only so much his mind can cope with at once. ‘I’m fixing it, but you’re just going to have to bear with me. You know he can be a little tricky.’
‘What’s the financial issue?’ Ray’s therapist has clearly been working hard.
‘Uh … uh … Well, he … wants me to give him something before he will give me the settlement. It’s just some kind of game he’s playing. I’m working on it.’
‘What? What does he want?’
‘It’s a thing I don’t currently have in my possession right now.’
‘Mom.’
‘It’s a pair of shoes.’
‘A pair ofshoes?’
‘I know.’
‘Why does he want your shoes?’
‘Well, my friend Jasmine thinks it’s sort of a game. Because he knows they were stolen at the gym. He’s just playing for time while he juggles his money or something.’
‘Which shoes?’
Typical Ray.
‘The handmade Christian Louboutins. The red crocodile-skin ones.’
She waits for his cry of protest. But Ray is silent.
‘I will work it out, baby. I promise. I’ll get some lookalikes made, if I have to. He’s just being a bit of a pain about it all.’
‘Butthey’re the lookalikes.’
‘What?’
