“I bet.”
“Has Elsie sent you?” Charlotte was trying to make her voice sound normal again. “I wondered where she was.”
“She said she won’t be coming in for a while,” Penny explained. “She’s not felt herself just recently.”
“Hm.” Charlotte picked up a china shire horse. Its head had been cracked off at the neck. “She’d had her eye on this.” She set it down. “I could do with her help, cleaning this lot up.”
Penny bunched up her sleeves. “I’ll help.”
“That’s good of you, dear. I was going to phone Big Sue, too, at the Christian Café, see if she’d bring some of her cronies. They’re always well-meaning.”
When Big Sue arrived, full of purpose and with a roll of black bin bags and a few of her religious pals, she was shocked by the mess. “I’ll bet it was those rough lads who took my underwear,” she breathed. “This is the kind of thing they get up to.”
“Now, now,” said Charlotte. “It doesn’t do to cast aspersions.” She was back to her brisk self.
Penny was thinking; what if it was the lads from over the road, from the Forsyths’ old house? Was it the kind of thing they would do, just for a laugh? And a worse thought: had Craig been with them? Last night was another night having a laugh with the boys. Was this how they amused themselves? Yet surely Craig couldn’t have been party to any of this. It was his mam’s shop. He couldn’t spoil that.
This was Andy’s idea, the step machines and the rowing machines. I never used them before. They recommend aerobic exercise as part of your work-out plan, but I always thought it was just the lasses who did all of that. But Andy was into it and said we should warm up on the step machine. You’re up on a height and it’s like running in slow motion. You’ve really got to push down as you run, and the music from MTV helps. Andy always goes like the clappers when Take That or someone come on and you’ve got to laugh, really. He’s not very strong or fit but he can give the step machine hell He goes scarlet and the sweat streams off him. I’m on the stepper beside him, paying close attention to what the computer and its little green displays are telling me, when to speed up, when to cool down. Some of the lads in the next room, doing the weights, are taking the piss. They think you lose muscle and bulk, exercising like this. The woman in charge, Mary, went past a few minures ago, and gave me a smiling nod of approval. So I’m doing it right. She plucked her Lycra pants out of her bum as she went by, thinking no one could see. Like a fuchsia thong. Gave me the horn and I sped up to take my mind off it, but that made me worse. My fifteen minutes is almost up, but I can’t get off here with this stiffy showing through my shorts. That Andy for one is bound to notice.
He still gabbles away even when he’s exercising. He doesn’t understand that you don’t always want to talk when you’re doing the biz. He’s saying that being on a step machine is like running in a dream. All that effort getting nowhere. Mind, I know what he means. Then he’s telling me that he dreamed last night of chasing a leopard and it was like running on this. He tells me all sorts these days and I feel uncomfortable when he does. Like I’m preparing myself for what’s coming next. Like it’s something that’s gonna embarrass me. I don’t know what. I think he talks so much because he sees less of Penny. He’s stuck in her house by himself a lot of the time. I’m most of the company he gets. So he crams in all his talking when he’s down here. I let him go prattling on.
This machine’s good for my bad foot. I never thought of that. Since I’m running on the spot, my foot strapped in secure, it isn’t getting any stress. I’m getting the benefit of running without having to move. That’s smart.
Him going on about his dream reminds me of mine last night. I woke up and felt sick, like you do when you’ve dreamed something awful. When it takes five minutes to convince yourself it wasn’t all real. Penny never woke up and at first I was pleased, because I woke up with a cry. Then I wanted her to ask about it, but she didn’t, of course, because she sleeps like anything.
I was on a shingle beach, a small one like Robin Hood’s Bay. Dad took me and Mam there for a holiday. It looks like someone’s pushed all the buildings right up to the shore, and they all topple one into the next. Quaint, my mam called it. I was on the beach and there was a boat going down, just that bit further out than would be safe to swim. Even though it was that far away, I could see who was aboard. I put my hand up to shield my eyes and saw it was a black dinghy and its rubber was punctured all the way around. Like someone had sunk their teeth into it. Dracula, who came ashore nearby in Whitley Bay, had jabbed his vampire teeth into the rubber.
I was on a jetty and trying to run to its end, see if I could help from there. My foot made me lag behind. My mam was with me,
