Belinda Bauer - The Facts of Life and Death

Ruby did.

They drove in silence. First towards Bideford, and then away from the sea through the unlit lanes, where the lights of oncoming cars could be seen from miles off, lighting up the sky over the high hedges.

Ruby didn’t know where they were and she didn’t care. Daddy and Mummy had argued before, but they’d never thrown things; never walked out, never said the F word. She didn’t even think that grown-ups knew the F word. She thought about Mummy kissing a fancy man and tears welled up in her eyes and made the night into coal-coloured cobwebs.

‘I hate Mummy!’ she said, and burst into tears against his arm. ‘She didn’t even say thank you for the flowers. ’ And another wave of weeping broke over her.

Daddy put his arm around her. ‘Women want a man who can take care of them, Rubes.’

‘But you do take care of us!’

Daddy just squeezed her against him while she cried.

She looked up when he stopped the car in a narrow lane between two high hedges.

‘Where are we?’ said Ruby, wiping her eyes.

‘Here,’ said Daddy and nodded at a gap in the hedge. ‘I ever show you this?’

Ruby looked across the road at a little white box of a guardhouse beside a red and white barrier. There was a light on in the hut, and Ruby could see an old man inside, drinking from a mug. His uniform collar was too big for his neck, which made him look like a tortoise.

‘What is it?’

‘This is where I used to work.’

She was confused. The hut was only big enough for one person. ‘Where?’

‘There.’ Daddy pointed.

Ruby looked beyond the hut. For a moment she thought she was looking into the black sky. Then she realized it was an enormous corrugated-iron shed – bigger than fifty houses – looming over the landscape.

‘Wo-ow!’ she said. ‘It’s huge.’

He said, ‘Got to be big, see? We built proper big ships inside. Ships big enough to go all over the world. South America. Africa. Brazil. Places like that. Proper big ships.’

‘Bigger than the ones on the Quay?’

‘Some of ’em, yeah. Fifty thousand tonnes, some of ’em.’

‘Wo-ow!’ said Ruby again, although she had no idea what a tonne was. But fifty thousand of them was a lot.

The shed was gigantic, and being out here in the countryside made it look even bigger – towering over the high hedges, next to the narrow lanes and with no other buildings around it.

Ruby pointed down the lane. ‘How do they get the ships to the sea when they’re finished?’

Daddy laughed and told her they slid straight out of the shed and down into the river on the other side, dripping with champagne.

‘Wow!’ she said. ‘I wish I could see that!’

‘Me too,’ said Daddy sadly. He stared at the shed. ‘We used to have a right laugh here. I remember we used to send the new boys down to the stores for a long stand, or to get a bubble for the spirit level.’

‘Why?’

‘It was just a joke, see? Just a bit of fun.’

‘Ohhh,’ said Ruby, but she didn’t get it.

He wound the window down. The rain had stopped and the night smelled like green and river, and the hedges rustled with small, secret night things.

‘Daddy?’ said Ruby carefully.

‘Hmm?’

‘Are you and Mummy getting… divorced ?’ The word was so hard for Ruby to say that it ended in a tearful squeak.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Never.’ He flicked his cigarette out of the window, and the night was so quiet that Ruby could hear it sizzle as it hit the ground.

‘Don’t you worry, Rubes,’ he said. ‘I’ll always take care of you. I just wish Mummy didn’t have to work. I wish I could keep her safe at home in a glass box.’

‘Like Snow White?’ said Ruby.

‘Yeah,’ said Daddy. ‘Like Snow White.’

Ruby imagined Mummy lying in a box on the kitchen table, with her hair all brushed and a little bunch of flowers on her chest.

It was so romantic that Ruby’s lip wobbled.

They drove back up to the main road and soon Ruby recognized the outskirts of Bideford.

Daddy stopped outside a shop and bought a six-pack of Strongbow for him and a Twix for her. He opened one of the cans and took a few gulps, then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

‘Now eat your Twix, and we’ll go home and have hot milk.’

‘With sugar?’

‘Yes.’

Ruby opened her Twix and took a bite. It wasn’t her favourite, but it would definitely do.

‘Better?’ said Daddy.

She nodded.

‘Good. Hold that,’ he said, and handed her the can and pulled back on to the road towards home.

As they drove, he held out his hand now and then, and Ruby gave him the can. It emptied quickly and she put it in the well behind his seat.

As they left Bideford, they passed a woman standing at a bus stop.

‘That’s Miss Sharpe!’

‘Who’s Miss Sharpe?’

‘My teacher. Can we give her a lift?’

‘Maybe she doesn’t want a lift, Rubes. Women can be a bit funny about taking lifts.’

‘But it’s raining. Please , Daddy!’

Daddy trod on the brakes and peered in his rear-view mirror. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Get in the back.’

The car didn’t have back doors so Ruby scrambled between the seats as he reversed up the road to the bus stop. When he was level with it, Daddy leaned over and wound down the window a few inches.

‘Want a lift?’ he said.

Miss Sharpe peered at him from under her umbrella with a suspicious look on her face. ‘No, thank you,’ she said. ‘I’m waiting for the bus.’

‘Hello, Miss,’ said Ruby, leaning forward between the seats.

Miss Sharpe’s face cleared. ‘Oh, hello, Ruby! I didn’t see you there!’

‘We can take you home, Miss,’ said Ruby eagerly.

‘It’s all the way in Fairy Cross,’ said Miss Sharpe. ‘I don’t like to put you to any trouble.’

‘It’s on our way,’ said John Trick.

Miss Sharpe still seemed uncertain. She looked back up the road towards Bideford, as if she might see the bus coming, but it wasn’t.

‘Well, OK then…’ She got into the front seat and shook her umbrella into the gutter. She also had a gym bag and a badminton racquet.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You’re very kind.’

‘No problem.’

They drove for a bit, with only the sound of the wipers clicking back and forth on the windscreen. Ruby hung between the front seats so she could smile at Miss Sharpe whenever she looked around.

‘Did you like my diary, Miss?’

‘Yes, Ruby, it was very good.’

Ruby looked at Daddy eagerly, but he didn’t give any indication of having heard her.

‘Is that a tennis bat, Miss?’

‘No, it’s for playing badminton,’ said Miss Sharpe.

‘What’s bammington?’

‘Well, it’s a bit like tennis, but you don’t play with a ball, you play with a thing called a shuttlecock.’

‘What’s a shuttlecock?’

‘It’s like a little cone made out of feathers.’

‘Does it fly?’ said Ruby, and Miss Sharpe laughed.

‘Only when you hit it.’

‘Oh,’ said Ruby. She found it difficult to picture that. Hitting one of those with a bat must be like swiping a cartoon bird – with all the little feathers floating down to earth afterwards.

They passed the sign that said FAIRY CROSS AND FORD. From the other direction, Ruby knew it said FORD AND FAIRY CROSS, just to be fair.

Miss Sharpe said, ‘You can drop me just past the pub. Thank you.’

‘But it’s raining,’ said Ruby.

And her father added, ‘It’s no problem to take you to the door.’

‘You’re very kind,’ said Miss Sharpe again.

John Trick followed two more brief instructions, and then stopped the car outside a short terrace of whitewashed cottages.