She looks up from where she’s sitting on one of those foldaway camping chairs, reading a copy of House & Home magazine. “Having fun?”
“I thought you might like a—” I hold up one of the cups.
“That’s thoughtful. What is it?”
“It’s a dairy-free turmeric latte. I know. Sorry.”
She smiles. “No, that’s very kind, Jack.” She takes the cup from me. “Thank you.”
I nod, take a swig myself, and wince. I wish I’d found somewhere that sold normal drinks. “So,” I say. “Are you having a … good time?”
Mrs Nate smiles and sighs. “It’s OK, Jack. You don’t have to make small talk. Go and enjoy yourself, you don’t want to hang around with a stick-in-the-mud like me. Go on, I’m fine.”
“Aww, Mrs Nate!” I say, pulling up the other foldaway chair and siting down next to her. “I don’t think that!”
“You’re the only person who doesn’t.” She sips her drink. “I’m only trying to do my best for everyone.”
“Well, I think you’re great.”
Mrs Nate gives me an unimpressed look.
“Look,” I say. “About Nate. About earlier…”
She shakes her head. “I’m not interested, Jack. I know he had a little heartbreak over Tariq, but that doesn’t excuse his bad behaviour. Sometimes in life you just have to suck it up.”
“But can I say something, though?”
She blinks once at me.
“You can’t get mad,” I add. “I’m just saying this as a … an outside observer.”
“This’ll be good.”
“All it is, I know you’ve sometimes got a downer on Nate, and I get it, because sometimes I have too, but you know, he’s actually a really great person.”
Mrs Nate snorts.
“No, but it’s true!” I protest. “You know, on the way to our cabin in the woods, he actually saved my life? From a gunman?”
“What? Oh, dear Christ, what the hell—”
I put my hand up. “It’s fine. As it turns out, it was just an army exercise, but when Nate saved my life, he didn’t know that.”
Mrs Nate rolls her eyes.
“He’s funny,” I continue. “Often unintentionally, but I’m not sure that matters. And he’s sensitive. And I think that’s a good quality. I think lots of people storm through life and don’t give a damn about other people, but Nate isn’t like that. He cares. He just sometimes doesn’t know quite how to show it.”
“Wow, you’re a big fan of my son.”
I smile, because, you know what? Yeah, I am, actually. I am a Nate fan. Sure, he annoys the hell out of me at least three quarters of the time, but I’m still a fan. I guess there’s just something about him…
“Jack?”
I glance back at Mrs Nate. “Well, I… We were best friends for a long time.”
Mrs Nate’s looking at me. She’s not actually smiling, but her eyes are kind of smiling, if you know what I mean?
I swallow.
“I mean, that’s all,” I say. “That’s all.” I take a sip of the latte. “Turmeric’s good for you, did you know that? It’s anti-inflammatory.”
Now she smiles. I don’t know why.
“So what’s this in aid of, Jack? Is this some roundabout way of getting me to agree to you three going off and doing whatever you like?”
“It’s just … the VegVerse tent? Of all things!”
“Sometimes educational stuff is good!”
“Why is it?”
“Because it’s what people do!”
“What people?”
“People, Jack! People like my sister and my mother!”
I hold my hands out, like, So?!
“They don’t even know we’re at a festival, I dread to think what they’d say,” she mutters.
I think I see what the problem is here, but I’m nervous of slagging Karen off to her own sister. Whatever Mrs Nate feels about her, she’s not going to want me wading in with my opinion, however fabulously devastating that opinion is. So I’m going to have to go with the next best thing. “About Karen’s stew,” I say. “Yours is better. You cook a great casserole, Mrs Nate.”
She narrows her eyes slightly. “When did you have my stew?”
“Last time I came for dinner, which, granted, was about three years ago. But it’s top food, Mrs Nate. So much better than Karen’s. However many ovens she has.”
Mrs Nate laughs.
“Also,” I add, boosted by her reaction to this first Karen criticism. “I don’t really like all those slogans over her walls, like, what’s that about?”
She laughs again.
“Ooh! Ooh!” I mock. “Jonty is at Twickers!”
She stops laughing. “Jonty’s OK,” she says.
“Well, maybe, but point is, Karen made Nate feel bad, when she was going on about him not having a girlfriend, and I don’t think that’s right.” I look at her. “She shouldn’t be making anyone feel bad. Just ’cause she does everything by the ‘rule book’ but, like, who even made up the ‘rule book’ and who said you have to follow it?”
Mrs Nate sighs and looks away.
“So, I got you something else, actually!” I say brightly. “I booked you a one-to-one session with a yoga guru.”
“I’m sorry?”
“He’s going to help you connect with your chakra, among other things. My treat,” I tell her, handing her the details on a piece of A4. “Since you invited me along on this thing.” It’s the least I can do. Mum put enough cash in my account, and I haven’t even contributed for petrol or anything yet.
“But…”
“I’ve booked it now. No refunds. So.”
“Well, when?”
“At three.” I nod. “Oh! Oh dear, that clashes with the VegVerse panel event, doesn’t it?”
Mrs Nate narrows her eyes at me. “You’re unbelievable.”
“It’s often mentioned.”
“So sly!”
“Honestly, I didn’t realize when I booked it.”
“Ooh, I could throttle you!”
“Namaste.” I get up to leave.
“Jack?” Mrs Nate smiles at me. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure!”
“Also … those things you said about Nate? Maybe you should tell him that.”
“Oh, no, no, no. I don’t think Nate would like that. He’d be weirded out.”
Mrs Nate nods. “Well, then, maybe you could just … show him?”
“Show him, how?”
“You know what he really loves?” Mrs Nate says.
I nod. “The tender touch of another boy.”
“Curly Wurlys.”
“Curly Wurlys, right. Does he? OK.”
“I’m sure
