Page 86 of The Flowers of Bay C
‘I don’t want to get out of the car,’ Barbara says.
‘I don’t care.’ His face is turning a strange, ghostly shade of purple in the reflection of the snow in his side mirror. He bends further in and scrabbles in the glove box, plucking something out and then holding it up. It glints in the light over the rear-view mirror.
Kat draws back and shakes her head at me. ‘He’s got a knife,’ she hisses. ‘Come on.’
He stands there brandishing the knife at us as we crawl out, leaving Barbara on the passenger seat. It’s one of those multi-tool penknives; my dad had one of those back when I was a child, but I wasn’t allowed to touch it, because I was clumsy.
His hand is shaking. ‘Hurry up.’
‘What about Barbara’s chair?’ Kat says.
DCD makes a sound like a dog’s growl and pulls the caravan keys from his pocket. ‘Wait here. I’ll sort it.’
‘Don’t forget my frame,’ Violet says.
‘Shut up, you silly old cow.’
Violet shrinks against the car and doesn’t say anything else.
A few minutes later he’s still not out of there. The caravan is shaking and the air is blue with his cussing. ‘We should give him a hand,’ I say, and march back to the caravan door before any of the others can stop me.
He’s stumbling round in the caravan, shoving at the wheelchair which is wedged in the doorway. ‘Why the hell didn’t you bring a proper folding wheelchair on this little jaunt of yours?’
None of us answer. He slams his shoulder at it and then stumbles backwards over the walking frame, sprawling out on the floor behind him and hitting his head on one of the cupboards. ‘Ouch! Bleedin’ thing.’
Violet peers over the chair and into the caravan. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Get out of the way. Leave me alone.’
‘We should try and inch it out, little by little.’ I grab hold of the bar across the front and pull it and then push it back. It’s stuck fast but as I wobble it back and forth I feel a little bit of give. ‘Okay. Look, it just needs to go back in and then come out at another angle, tipped over a bit, yeah, then bring it round the door, that’s it.’ Kat and me edge it forwards and then back until it’s loose, then gently ease it out and lift it down onto the snow.
Violet is half in the caravan before we can stop her, bending over DCD and reaching out to shift her walker away from him. ‘I can’t get up this step,’ she says. ‘I think he’s hurt.’
He drags to his knees and shoves at the walker, almost knocking Violet flying back from the door. She falls back against Kat. ‘Steady,’ I say. ‘We should go. He’ll be fine.’
Violet shakes her head, peeks back in and stares around at the interior, eyes widened. Her hand flies to her throat. ‘Oh, my word.’
‘What?’ Jodie pushes through, trying to see around Violet.
‘He has a van full of those pad things,’ Violet hisses at us, one eye on him, still on his knees behind the upturned walker.
‘Pad things?’ I say.
‘You know. The telephones.’
I’m mystified, but Jodie jumps in. ‘You mean iPads, right?’
Violet nods furiously. ‘Yes. The pads. Stacked end to side.’
Jodie has her head in the van now, squashing herself up against Violet in the doorway. She whistles. ‘Woah.’
‘What?’ says Kat.
‘Ain’t just iPads in there. He has like a million tons of weed or something.’
We stare at Jodie for a second and then he’s up on his feet and hurling the walker at Violet, who stumbles back into Jodie, who stumbles back into me. We back away, gaping up at him.
Chapter 26
