Mark Haddon - The Red House

But Dominic is listening to Joe Pass. ‘Stella by Starlight’ from the first Virtuoso album. BbMa7…Em7b5…A7…Those incredible runs, just ragged enough to make them feel human. Ever since they arrived at the castle he has been experiencing a disturbing sense of déjà vu for which he is unable to account, having never been to Wales before, until he remembers Robert Plant’s swordfight in The Song Remains the Same . It was filmed here, wasn’t it? He’d owned a Welsh farm during his dungeons and dragons phase. ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp’ and so forth. But there’s no one here with whom he can share this satisfying pop trivia nugget.

Benjy can’t really concentrate on the castle because a weird ginger boy is trying to befriend him. We’re from Devon…Have you seen Pirates of the Caribbean…? My dad’s got a quad bike . He has a dolphin T-shirt and no eyebrows to speak of. Benjy wants to be left alone because if you concentrate and no one disturbs you the knights stand up from their stone tombs and a cornfield of spears rises beyond the moat.

Do you like football?

He still hasn’t quite got the politics of the playground, that low-grade scuffle over space and status. He expects more logic, better tactics. He’s spent too much time with his older siblings. He knows quite a bit about homosexuality and communism and income tax, and with Pavel it’s easy because they both like making potions and Lego massacre tableaux, but if Wayne Goodrich calls him a spaz…

That’s my dad , says the ginger boy, turning briefly, over there .

Benjy runs.

♦

The problem with Jennifer …Richard paused. He had never talked seriously about her with anyone except Louisa. She didn’t really care about other human beings. I’m not talking about the way she treated me. You make your bed and you have to lie in it. But friends, patients . The image of that girl in her wheelchair passed briefly through the headlights of his mind.

Dominic was transfixed by Richard wrestling with difficult ideas in real time. Why did you get married?

We were both ambitious, both somewhat unsentimental, neither of us wanted children. In the circumstances I think that was wise. She would have made a dreadful mother. I’m not sure I would have made the perfect father, but in my darker moments I feel a good deal of regret .

Dominic wondered if he could tell Richard about Amy, but he didn’t know whether clinical detachment would win out over fraternal loyalty.

Plus , Richard laughed, she was a very determined woman who was used to getting what she wanted .

Dominic had met Jennifer only twice, she had no small talk and she watched the children the way a snake might watch a cat. Yet if she had given him her undivided attention? If she had wanted him…? Benjy appeared out of nowhere and tugged at his sleeve. Can we go now?

♦

Do you remember that scary German woman? said Daisy. Or maybe she was Dutch. The one who used to throw her son into the water and shout, ‘Schwim! Schwim! ’

You and Alex had a race .

And I won .

And he never swam again. Men. Honestly . Angela laughed. What was it? The carnival release of holiday? Being out of habit’s gravity? Why could they not do this at home?

They had this amazing toaster. At the hotel .

I’m not sure I remember the actual buffet details .

Benjy was totally in love with it. You put the bread on this conveyor belt and it came out the other side toasted. He called it the Wallace and Gromit toaster. He must have had, like, ten slices every morning .

She glanced over Daisy’s shoulder… Bandits at nine o’clock . Daisy turned round. Melissa, in the window seat of the café on the far side of the road, something hunched and beaten about her.

Daisy said, I’m going to talk to her .

What? Now? Had Daisy not noticed? Their two lives were changing course right now.

Perhaps you should give Louisa a ring , said Daisy, setting off across the road because her mother had become simply her mother again, the person you came back to after the adventure.

♦

Please? said Benjy, holding up a short wooden sword with a handguard of plaited rope.

Benjy . Dominic rubbed his eyes. You’ve already got six of them .

I’ve got five and they’re different . He had two broadswords, a katana, a cutlass and a dagger, whereas this was a gladius for stabbing in close combat with a groove down the centre of the blade to let air into the wound so you could easily pull it out without a sucky vacuum holding it in.

It’s the acquisition, isn’t it? Richard was holding a hardback book about the castle. Don’t you remember? He had slipped into a more casual register as if the Jennifer conversation had made them friends. The football cards which came with chewing gum? A part of you knew it was going to be another Peter Shilton, but that didn’t matter .

You promised , said Benjy. You said I’d get £10 holiday money .

I know, but …Ten pounds was a lot of money. Why don’t you wait for a few days and then decide what you want to spend it on?

On the far side of the window Louisa was examining the ground in front of her feet and hugging her coat tight around her.

But we won’t come back here again. Ever . Benjy was desperate now.

He wanted to say that no means no, but you couldn’t say that these days. You had to be friends with your children. He squatted. You know what always happens. You’ll go into another gift shop tomorrow or the day after…

I’ll get it for you , said Richard. My holiday present .

Dominic’s phone went off. The first ten bars of ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’. He fished it out of his pocket. Richard was handing the sword to the woman behind the till. Hello?

Panic over . It was Angela. We found Melissa in a café .

He felt a vague disappointment. If she’d been murdered they could all go home. I’ll pass on the good news . Though when he did this Richard simply said Excellent , showing neither surprise nor relief so that Dominic wondered for a moment if you could shape the future by predicting things with sufficient confidence.

Thank you, Uncle Richard , said Benjy.

You’re welcome .

And he was off, through the glass door and out into the sunlight of the car park, thrusting and parrying. Oof…! Yah…!

♦

Melissa was listening to Cally’s phone ring at the far end when she saw Daisy come in. She was annoyed and relieved at the same time. She hung up.

Daisy sauntered over. I’m going to get a coffee. Do you want anything to eat or a drink? Super casual, like they were still back at the house. She should have left more theatrically, shouldn’t she? A flapjack would be good . She’d babysat a mug of cold tea for the last hour. And a black coffee .

She watched Daisy walk over to the counter. The steely thing made her uneasy. She had absolutely no idea what Daisy was thinking or feeling or planning. There were Christians at school but they kept their heads down, whereas Daisy…She wasn’t a moose either, she hadn’t got a big arse or a weird face. She knew it, too, something about the way she carried herself, deliberately choosing to make herself look shit, a provocation, almost.

Daisy returned to the table with two black coffees and two flapjacks. They always put the napkin under the food. Which misses the point, don’t you think? Like she was thirty-five. How are you doing?