Where the Memories Lie
By: Sibel Hodge
‘Yeah, he said yesterday he was meeting her for lunch.’
‘Really?’ I asked as Ethan pulled up at our front gates. I got out of the car, opened the heavy wooden doors and then closed them again after he’d parked up on the block-paved driveway in front of the garage. Even though it had been over two years since Abby had left Chris, and the divorce was now final, it seemed strange to think of Chris dating again. I don’t know why. It shouldn’t have been odd at all. In fact, I should be happy for him. It was probably that we’d all been such a happy family for so long ? me and Ethan, Lucas and Nadia, Chris and Abby, and now we’d have to welcome someone new into the fold. I made a mental note to ask Chris if he’d like to bring his date over for dinner one night. Or better still, go out for a meal. I got too stressed when lots of people came over for a meal and usually ended up making a right mess of it, unlike Nadia, who had four courses planned for weeks in advance and slaved over a hot oven, barely breaking a sweat.
‘So, who is she? What does she do? How old is she? What’s her name?’ I asked.
Ethan laughed. ‘I don’t know. He didn’t really say much about her.’
‘Didn’t you ask? This is the first woman he’s been out with since Abby. Aren’t you interested?’ I shook my head at him. ‘Men. You are so useless at finding things out.’
The rest of the day was a lazy affair. Ethan and I snuggled up on the sofa and watched a DVD. Well, I watched it. He fell asleep, although God knows how he could when Anna and Emma were giggling and banging around in her bedroom so loudly.
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Where the Memories Lie
Early the next morning Ethan kissed me awake with a mug of tea in his hand before he travelled back up to York.
‘I’ll miss you.’ He put the mug on the bedside table and sat next to me on the bed.
‘Me, too. Will you be back Friday or before?’
He shrugged. ‘It depends how the job’s going. Hopefully before.’
Poppy flew into the room and put her front paws up on the bed, pushing in between us with a wet nose.
I laughed at her. ‘Yes, I’ll take you out later!’
Ethan kissed my lips softly and stood up. ‘I’d better be off, anyway. I’ll call you tonight. Love you.’
‘Love you, too.’ I pushed Poppy off the bed and hastily dressed in cropped trousers and a vest top. The summer was still going strong. Apparently it was the hottest July for twenty-eight years. How long would it last? It would probably be snowing next week.
Forty-five minutes later I was making Anna’s packed lunch whilst eating a slice of toast with damson jam that Nadia had made last week. I would’ve just had butter on it, but I’d miscalculated the amount I’d needed for all the picnic stuff and we’d run out.
I needed to do another shopping list. I could swear there was a secret food-eating troll who lived in our house. I tried to remember if Anna needed her PE kit today. Mondays? Did they do PE
on Monday? I peered at her timetable stuck on the front of the fridge with a clown magnet Anna had insisted on buying from somewhere or other. It was an evil-looking thing and gave me the creeps but she loved it. Wasn’t there an actual phobia about clowns I’d read about once? I wouldn’t be at all surprised. I’d seen the film It by Stephen King when I was a teenager and it had scared the life out of me.
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Sibel Hodge