Page 86 of Christmas at the Movies
‘Why, hello, Nicolas,’ said Pam, looking up from the dough she was kneading. She used to work at the Plumdale library and had introduced Nick to manga. ‘Do you want to take over for a bit – this is hard on my arthritis.’
‘Sure.’ Nick rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands. ‘What are you all doing?’
‘We’re making treats for a coffee morning tomorrow,’ explained Nick’s grandma. ‘It’s for charity.’
Nick’s mouth watered as he kneaded the dough. The biscuits looked – and smelled – amazing. And it had been a long time since lunch.
‘Show Vi your drawings, Nick,’ urged Grandma. ‘She’s a painter.’
Wiping his hands off on a tea towel, Nick obediently took his sketchbook out of his schoolbag and showed it to the pink-haired old lady.
‘Your characters are so expressive,’ said Vi appreciatively, turning the pages. ‘And your line work is very sophisticated – is this charcoal pencil?’
Nick nodded.
‘I usually work in oils,’ said Vi. ‘I run a life-drawing course in the recreation room once a month.’
‘Vi’s trying to convince me to be one of her life models,’ said Nick’s grandmother. ‘She says I have excellent bone structure.’
‘You’re very welcome to come along too,’ Vi told Nick.
‘Um, maybe,’ said Nick. Hell would freeze over before he’d draw his grandmother naked.
‘As you’re here, you can do me a favour,’ said Grandma. She led Nick into her bedroom. ‘Can you get that box on the top shelf,’ she asked, opening up her walk-in wardrobe. ‘It’s too high for me to reach.’
Nick dragged a chair over, stood on it and got the box down. It was full of Christmas decorations.
‘I wasn’t going to decorate for Christmas, but my friends insisted,’ she said.
Nick was glad that his grandmother had made some new friends, like him. He was excited to hang out with Julia and Adam outside of school.
‘We haven’t put our tree up at home yet either,’ he said. Picking out a tree was one of his favourite holidaytraditions. When they were little, he and Holly used to play hide-and-seek among the rows of trees. He wondered if his parents had forgotten, as nobody had even mentioned it.
‘Well, your mum has been busy,’ said Grandma.
‘I hate that stupid movie,’ complained Nick. ‘It’s taking over everything.’ He especially hated Noa – what a smarmy show-off. Why couldn’t Mum see that his smiles were fake?
That reminded Nick of why he had come. He had questions, and he could always rely on his grandmother to tell him the truth.
‘Grandma … what’s a libido?’
‘It’s your sex drive,’ Grandma replied. ‘It is perfectly normal to have sexual feelings during adolescence. You mustn’t be ashamed of it.’
What?This wasn’t about him. It was about Mum. Actually, that was worse. Now he knew that when she was talking to Pari, it had been about sex.Gross.
‘I’ve always thought it was a shame that our culture doesn’t celebrate the onset of puberty the way others do.’ Nick’s grandmother sat down on her bed, in a way that suggested she was about to go off on one of her lectures. ‘In many societies, young men go through rites of passage at the onset of adolescence – the Apaches take ice baths, indigenous Australians go on walkabouts in the bush—’
Nick interrupted before his grandmother forced him to take a freezing cold bath.
‘Is Mum ill?’
Grandma looked at him sharply. ‘Why do you ask that?’
Nick sat down next to his grandmother. ‘I heard her telling Auntie Pari that she went to the doctor. And she’s been acting weird and unhappy.’ Admittedly, his mum seemed more cheerful now that she’d thrown herself into working on the movie script. But Nick hadn’t forgottenthe months leading up to it, when her smile hadn’t reached her eyes.
‘I wonder if her anxiety is back,’ said his grandmother. ‘It was bad right after she had you. It’s not that unusual – a woman’s hormones can go haywire after giving birth.’
What?This was news to Nick. He didn’t know that he’d made Mum sick. What if he’d made her sick again? He knew she worried about him.
