No Longer Safe(19)

The sketches looked professional. ‘Sounds like you’ve got lots of ideas.’

‘I dreamt about it last night. Can’t stop thinking about it.’

Mark appeared at the kitchen door, clutching his mobile, and sniggered. ‘Mark doesn’t think it’ll get off the ground, do you?’ she said.

‘Let’s face it, Babe – you don’t have the entrepreneurial know-how.’

‘But I can talk to people who do – not everyone who’s self-employed has a degree in business studies.’

‘She wanders around Notting Hill when I go off to football at the weekends,’ he said. ‘It’s like she’s in training for Portobello Road.’ He bent down and ruffled her hair. ‘She’s been watching that film with Hugh Grant – haven’t you, Doll?’

‘Don’t call me Doll – I hate it.’ Mark grunted and in spite of his slight build, picked her up in one sweep and she squealed with laughter.

I left them to it, made toast and coffee and took it upstairs. I huddled under the bedcovers, thinking about Melanie. Was it a serious relapse or something simple like an ear infection? True to form, Karen hadn’t panicked and had everything under control. Typical, too, for Karen to refuse help and go it alone. She had a resilience I rarely saw in other people and certainly didn’t have myself.

I heard Jodie calling me and went onto the landing. ‘Want to have a go, Alice? I’m making earrings.’

As I went down, I nearly tripped over a hairbrush on the last stair. Jodie had left her mark around the place in other ways too. False eyelashes were lying next to the soap on the basin in the bathroom, her eye-shadow was left open on the toilet seat.

When I joined her, I had to mention that she’d forgotten to put her used wax strips in the bin.

‘Oh, yeah, sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ll clear them up in a minute. I’m just waiting for this glue to dry.’ She was sticking lace around the edge of small box. The kitchen table had become a workbench, covered in tiny hooks, beads, clasps, wires, pincers and pliers. ‘Want to make your own earrings? We can do some with a clasp,’ she suggested.

‘I’d love to. Thanks.’

Mark came in through the backdoor bringing a blast of icy air with him – he must have been out for another cigarette.

Jodie got up. ‘We were going to put up decorations today,’ she said, linking arms with him. She turned to me. ‘Like a homecoming celebration for the baby.’

‘Perhaps we should wait,’ said Mark, ‘given that—’

‘I’ve got balloons to blow up and a Welcome Home banner I could attach over here,’ she said, ignoring him. ‘Or maybe over there…’

‘I think Mark’s right,’ I said. ‘Just in case. It would be awful if…’ I bit my lip. Jodie looked disappointed and sat down again.

Mark started cutting slices of bread the thickness of a shelf. He slid them under the grill and folded his arms, looking at the floor.

Jodie showed me how to drop beads onto a wire and bend the wires. It was harder than it looked.

‘Why don’t we bake potatoes in the fire for supper tonight?’ said Mark, leaning over her, smelling her hair. ‘In foil, like they do in the Scouts.’

‘They’ll take ages,’ scoffed Jodie.

‘Or they’ll burn to a crisp,’ I added.

‘Alright then – how about I go and get chestnuts. We can toast them, instead.’

Jodie faked a gag. ‘Yagh – I hate chestnuts.’

I was faintly amused at the way Mark was treating the break like a camping holiday.

‘Okay – well, let’s stop being so bloody dreary and put some music on. There’s a machine in our room.’ He went upstairs and brought down a dusty portable CD player. ‘It doesn’t have a dock for an iPhone, but luckily – ta da – I’ve brought some CDs.’ He tossed them on an empty chair.

Seconds later the walls were thudding to the beat of some raucous funk band I’d never heard of, using appalling language.

‘This is bloody awful, Mark,’ I said. He looked taken aback.

‘You never used to swear, Alice,’ said Jodie.

‘I’m finally shaking off my puritanical background,’ I replied cheerily, holding up the pair of misshapen earrings I’d just finished.

‘Never mind,’ she said, ‘we can have another go.’ The ones she’d made in the same amount of time looked exquisite.

As I twisted more wires, I wondered what Jodie was making of the person I’d become since Leeds. I’d turned up in Freshers’ Week with no self-assurance whatsoever. I’d had no idea what to wear, what to say – all I’d known then was how to appear desperate. It seemed to me I was the only person in the world who felt that way and I spent most of those three years at Leeds faking my confidence; being chatty all the time to get people to like me, anything not to stand out like a sore thumb.