Lucy Gordon - For The Sake Of His Child

‘Could I stop you?’ she asked lightly.

He gave a rueful grin. ‘Probably not. Let’s call it a day before I say anything worse.’

I T DIDN’Ttake Gina long to find that nature had intended Joey to be a little devil. If his deafness hadn’t damaged his confidence he would have been a real handful. He was still sometimes possessed by an imp of mischief, but had enough charm to win forgiveness.

He reacted to the news that they were going to visit Mrs Saunders by sticking his lower lip out and sitting down, giving Gina a defiant look.

‘We’re going to the hospital,’ she said firmly. ‘Now!’

He eyed her, sizing up the strength of the opposition.

‘Why don’t you like her?’ Gina asked.

Because she doesn’t like me.

Gina knew better than to say, Nonsense, I’m sure she does. Instead, she put a friendly hand on his shoulder. ‘Come on. Let’s do our duty and get it over with.’

He made a face. Gina immediately made the same face back, and they laughed together.

They found Mrs Saunders sitting up in a chair. She was middle-aged and looked bruised and belligerent. She eyed Joey with wary hostility. He eyed her back in the same spirit.

‘I don’t want any of his tantrums in here,’ were her first words.

‘He doesn’t have tantrums-’ Gina began.

‘That’s what you think. Screaming and yelling-’

‘Only because he can’t make himself understood. It gets too much for him. When you come back-’

‘I’m not coming back. I’ve got a new job waiting for me when I come out of here.’

‘What?’

‘I took the day off last week to go to an interview. The next day they called and asked me back for another interview. I was coming home from that when I had the accident.’

‘So that’s why you went out and left him alone,’ Gina said angrily.

‘Well, I could hardly take him with me, could I? Anyway, I’ve got another job and that’s that.’ She set her chin.

There was nothing to do but leave. From Joey’s cheerful expression, Gina guessed he’d picked up the gist of the conversation.

For the rest of the day Gina was thoughtful. A plan was taking shape in her mind. At last she nodded to herself, confident that she had a way to make this work. When Carson called to say he would be late that evening she told him not to worry. She had everything in hand. He hung up with an easy mind.

So his shock was all the greater when he arrived home at ten o’clock that evening and found Gina’s bags packed and standing in the living room.

‘I was just going to take them out to my peanut,’ she explained.

‘You’re not leaving?’ he asked in alarm.

‘Right now.’

‘You can’t do that.’

‘I can. I don’t care what arrangement you’ve made with my employers. If they fire me, they fire me. I’ve made up my mind.’

‘Gina, just until Mrs Saunders comes back-’

‘She isn’t coming back. She’s got another job-’

Carson swore under his breath. ‘All right. I’ll find someone else. But until then-’

‘Joey doesn’t need someone else. He needs his father. You’re his father. Not me. Not Mrs Saunders. Not someone you hire from an agency, but you.’

‘I’ve got a business to run-’

‘The business is just an excuse because you can’t face being alone with him.’

‘Only because I know I’m no use to him.’

‘Well, that can change, can’t it? You can work on yourself until you are of use to him.’

‘How?’

‘You could learn sign language, for a start, so that you two can communicate. You should have done it long ago.’

‘What time do you think I have-?’

‘I’m disappointed in you, Carson. I thought you were an honest man, honest with yourself as well as everyone else.’

‘Are you saying I’m not?’

‘Why don’t you admit the real reason you haven’t learned sign language?’

‘You’re sure you know the real reason, are you?’

‘You’re asking me that, with my background?’

‘All right. Tell me.’

‘Because you can’t face the truth. Learning to sign would have been an admission that your son is deaf. You probably decided not to admit it long ago. Shut your mind and it isn’t true. That’s it, isn’t it?’

‘Maybe,’ he admitted, tight-lipped.

‘But Joey can’t put it aside like that. For him it is true, every moment of every day and night. There’s no escape. He’s trapped in a cage and all your money and success can’t break down the door and pull him out of it. You can only get in there with him, and maybe lead him part of the way out. If you won’t do that, I’m out of here.’

They faced each other. ‘This is blackmail,’ he said at last.

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Just give me a little time-’

‘The time is now. My terms are simple. I want your promise about several things. Joey has six weeks of the summer holiday ahead of him. You’ve got to make use of that time. You learn sign language, and talk to him. And listen to him. He’s very interesting.

‘Plus you leave work early-no more getting home at ten. If meetings overrun, you cut them short. You take at least a week off to give him a holiday somewhere. I want your solemn word. If I don’t get it, I leave this minute. And when Joey wakes up tomorrow you can explain my absence in any way you can.’

‘And what would that do to him? I thought you wanted to help him.’

‘I’m helping him the best way I know. Do I have your word, or shall I get my coat?’

Silence.

‘You warned me you were tough,’ he said.

‘I had to be. You’ll discover that Joey’s tough too, for the same reason.’

‘No prizes for guessing whose side you’re on.’

‘Carson, I see that little boy facing crippling problems with humour and courage. And I see his father, ducking out. Whose side do you expect me to take?’

‘If I give you those promises, I want one in return.’

‘What?’

‘That you’ll stay with us the whole six weeks. I can do it, Gina, but not without you.’

‘If my employers say yes.’

‘They will.’

She smiled. She knew she’d won. ‘Yes, I’m sure they will, if you say so. All right. I promise if you do.’

He held out his hand. ‘Shake.’

‘Shake.’

He gripped her in an echo of their first handclasp. It had been only a few days ago, but they both felt as though they’d travelled a million miles.

‘I’ve got a meal for you,’ she said prosaically.

Over supper her mood was euphoric. She poured his wine and raised her own in salute. It was the salute of a victor.

‘I’d hate to face you in the boardroom,’ he grumbled. ‘You’d bankrupt me in a week.’

‘We ought to establish some ground rules.’

‘Not bankruptcy. Take-over.’

‘Who cleans this house?’

‘Mrs Saunders used to do it, but I’m not asking you.’

‘Good. My time belongs to Joey. I’ll contact an agency and get someone to come in.’

‘Anything you say.’

Over the second glass of wine, he said, ‘You’d better tell me about sign language.’

‘There’s two kinds. Finger-spelling, which has a different sign for every letter. But it would take too long to spell every word out, so some words have signs of their own. Like this.’

She flattened her hand, fingers together and thumb apart, and laid it on her breast. Then she swept it down and up in a circle until it lay on her breast again.

‘That’s the sign for “please”. Try it.’

He did so, awkwardly.

‘No, keep your thumb separate,’ she advised.

This time he got it right.