Page 75 of The Flowers of Bay C
Kat pats her hand so softly, gazing directly into her eyes with such love I can almost taste it.
‘And now I’ve got no one left, have I? Not even Bill. No family left in this world.’
Jodie leans in closer and strokes Barbara’s thin white hair, pulling the hat further down over her ears. ‘We are your family now. We are the Bay C Family.’
I wantto squeeze her hand but don’t dare. I might crush her frail bones.
Kat says, ‘Would you like me to say a little prayer for Maggie Mouse?’
Barbara stares out at the rolling grey ocean for a while. Then, in the tiniest gasp, she says, ‘Yes.’
Kat whispers words into her ear and I watch tears track her sunken cheeks like the blue veins that lace her skin. The wind blows Kat’s words away and we sit in the silence of their breath.
‘My feet are cold,’ Barbara says. I look down at them. They are blue and white all at once, and the red of her nails is like blood on snow.
‘Get her socks and slippers,’ Kat says, and Jodie heaves herself up. She coughs, a little too pale herself, but she shrugs me off when I offer to get them.
‘They’re only just here,’ she says. She gives the stockings and slippers to Kat, and I help Kat clean and dry Barbara’s feet with the corner of the picnic rug, and slip them back onto Barbara’s feet.
‘They’re like ice,’ Kat says, shooting me a concerned look.
‘We should think about going.’
‘I don’t want to go,’ Barbara says.
Kane shouts down from the minibus, but his shout is snatched away by the gathering wind, which is churning up the sand. ‘What?’ Jodie shouts back. He shouts again, but we can’t hear him. ‘I’ll just go and see what he wants,’ she says. ‘Listen, get your stuff together, we should probably go. Anyone know what the time is?’
Kat digs out her phone from her little bag, and glances at me, wide-eyed. ‘It’s already after half three.’
Jodie scowls. ‘It’s ’cause he went and took his own stupid route here. Look, give us a sec and start sorting your shoes out.’
She digs her own dampened, sandy feet into her socks and Ugg boots and stomps back off up the beach towards the minibus andKane, who stands there with arms crossed and a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. He says something to Jodie and she glowers and says something back to him. He starts shouting, waving his hands around, then he grabs hold of her arms. Even from here I can see he’s squeezing too hard. He is hurting her.
Kat pulls her Docs on, grimacing as they resist her, sticking on the dampness of her skin. ‘What’s he doing?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say.
‘I said, didn’t I,’ Violet says, ‘I said he’s a bully. Just look at him now!’
Kane has his arms clamped tightly around Jodie, squeezing her firmly against him. I can hear her coughing, but he does not ease off. He draws her in harder, whispering into her ear.
She shoves back at him and shouts something at him, then stops and pats his arm, trying to inch back closer to him. But he pushes her away, his massive hands pressed into her chest as he jabs at her. She stumbles.
‘We need to get back up there and help her,’ Kat says, struggling with one of her boots.
Amina is up off the rug, shoving her feet into her stilettos, floundering up the sand towards Jodie but making little progress. Violet struggles to get herself up from her walker seat, moaning about her stiff old bones. I pull on my socks and shoes and drag myself to my feet, then tuck my arm into Violet’s, helping her up. The afternoon chill catches at my chest and I gasp. It must be below freezing out here.
‘Leave me alone!’ I hear Jodie yell in a high, strangled voice, as she shrugs Kane’s hands away from her and turns away, looking back at us, her face ravaged with something like pain.
‘Fine,’ he shouts.
Jodie lurches back towards us, her hair flowing loose and wild and whipping her face as the wind rips the Santa hat from her head.
‘Are you okay?’ Amina says, reaching her and laying her hand on her arm.
Jodie shrugs her arm off.
‘Sorry,’ Amina says. ‘I was just a bit worried for you.’
