Page 84 of The Good Part
On my way to bed I send Roisin a message and photo of Felix beaming behind his cake:One happy boy! Wish you were here too. x
Chapter 31
On Monday morning, Felix and I are at the school gates waiting for Mrs Fremantle as soon as she arrives. I’m holding the heart, now dry and pulsing in a cardboard box.
‘Mrs Fremantle, please can I have a quick word?’ I ask.
She stops, surprised.
‘Felix finally finished his heart assignment. I know it’s late but...’
Mrs Fremantle takes her glasses off and peers into the box.
‘Felix, you really did this?’
‘I helped him put it together, but the design was all his. He spent hours on it.’ I stare at Mrs Fremantle, willing her not to disappoint my son.
‘It’s wonderful, Felix. Highly commendable.’
‘Can I enter it in the project fair tomorrow?’ Felix asks.
‘It’s a little late, I’m afraid. The entries have all been decided.’
My boy looks crestfallen. ‘And the purpose of the fair, Mrs Fremantle?’ I ask, following her as she walks towards the school, eager to get inside. ‘On your website it says it’s to engender a love of creating, of problem solving, a passion for art and science. Well, I’ve never seen Felix more enthusiastic about coming to school than he was this morning, wanting to show you this.’
Please, please, please let him have this.
‘Fine.’ Mrs Fremantle sighs. ‘But it needs to be in the school display first thing tomorrow. You’ll need to make your own signage; I don’t have time to design more.’
Once she’s gone, Felix and I high-five each other.
I take the model back to the car, to keep it safe for tomorrow. As I’m walking away Felix runs back up to me and says, ‘Didn’t I say you were good at crafting?’
‘I guess I am,’ I say, feeling a swell of pride.
As I get back into the car, an alert goes off on my phone. Ninety minutes until the pitch off. I need to hurry – if I miss the next train, I’ll be late.
The Bamph studio is packed. Everyone in the company wants to witness this showdown between me and my Badgers and Coleson and his Ferrets. I didn’t register there would be such a big audience and now I’m relieved Michael’s doing the pitch rather than me. Coleson looks different from how I remember him. He’s dressed in a sleek black suit, with a turtleneck, and his hair is slicked back with gel. He looks, in my opinion, ridiculous, like he’s turned up for the final exam at Villain School.
‘Don’t feel bad, Rutherford,’ he says to me. ‘I’ll give you an internship at Ferret TV, so you can see what it feels like to be on a winning team.’
‘Coleson, I forgot to tell you, Magneto called, he wants his suit back.’
‘Magneto? Bit of a dated reference there, Grandma.’
Damn. It’s hard to make cultural reference jokes when you’ve missed so much culture.As I’m trying to think of a comeback, Michael arrives and I do a double take. He looks terrible, like he’s been up all night drinking vodka and then slept in a skip. Instead of his trademark three-piece suit, he’s wearing baggy jeans and a scruffy grey T-shirt. Something is wrong, something is very wrong.
Grabbing his arm, I pull him out of the busy studio and into the hallway.
‘What’s happened? You look terrible,’ I say as soon as we’re alone.
‘It’s Jane. I think she’s been sleeping with her aqua aerobics instructor.’
‘Oh no. I’m sorry. What makes you think that?’
‘I found them in bed together.’
‘Did she, um, forget she was married again?’ I ask hopefully.
