“She’s got that all right.”
“My family’s drifted about and split apart. The parts don’t know each other at all.”
“So’s mine,” I said. “When Mam died we all broke up and went off. It’s in the blood, though, I think. You grow up together and something tells you to get away. For a while at least.”
Josh looked sad. “Whatever that is, it isn’t in our blood. Melissa and I were adopted. Our adopted parents were old. They both died. There’s only us.”
“Oh.” I took the cigarette’s lost, hot drag. “I wondered about her accent.”
“Well,” he said. “She lays that on a bit thick, anyway.”
“Did you never want to see your biological mother?”
He turned cold. “No. I couldn’t. My parents were my real parents. I didn’t need others.”
“Did Melissa want to meet hers?”
“She did. And she found her mother. A different one to mine. And it didn’t work out. The woman didn’t want to know.” He finished his own cigarette. “Poor Melissa. She laughs at herself, but most of the time she’s quite unhappy. Shall we go back in? I’m fucking frozen.”
I laughed as we stood up. “Do you know something. It’s daft, but… I love the way you say ‘fucking’.”
“What?”
“So refined and proper.”
“Fucking fucking fucking fucking.”
Behind us, Melinda coughed. “Lovies, Katy wants to say goodnight to everyone.”
Wendy watched him kiss his daughter goodnight. From the doorway she could see walls covered with Spice Girls things and Disney things, but there was some evidence that these had been displaced recently and a whole new space, for a new preoccupation, had opened up. While Josh fussed over Katy, Wendy stared at the wall opposite her and saw a mass of newspaper print, interspersed with glossy magazine clippings. Amongst the text were pictures that Wendy herself knew off by heart. The deep chocolate brown and lemon glow of the video stills grabbed from Timon’s video. The slight, pin-prick figures in the light. And, repeated all around Katy’s collage, the faces of Timon and Belinda themselves, looking alarmed in the photographers’ glare, then more composed and intent, when interviewed. She thought: Katy is a fan of my friends. Then she remembered seeing the child in the baths in a Strange Matter T shirt.
“Wendy looks like she’s going to throw up,” Katy observed.
Joshua frowned. “That’ll be the trout.”
“I wish you wouldn’t cook things with bones in, dad.”
“I was just looking at your bits out of the papers,” said Wendy.
Katy brightened up at this and, in showing her enthusiasm, seemed for the first time like a nine year old. “Timon and Belinda,” she smiled.
Joshua laughed. “Katy has a crush on both of them.”
“I know them,” said Wendy. “I know them very well.”
“No…” whispered Katy. “Are they really from space?”
“Timon’s from Blackpool.”
“And we thought it would be us introducing Wendy to the great and the good!’ said Josh, tucking his daughter in. “Sleep now. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
“Can we meet them?” Katy insisted. “Can I go and meet them?”
“They’re in New York just now, but… yeah. I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”
Katy lay rigid, her eyes wide. “Something new, coming true! That’s what Timon always says.”
“I know,” said Wendy as Joshua led the way out of the child’s room. “And it’s true, too, hon.”
While the others were gone, leaving Serena and Melissa in the sitting room, the plumper woman stopped fluttering and concentrated on the visitor. Her head went on one side and she considered Serena for some time before saying, “You’ve been very successful, haven’t you, lovey?”
Serena poured herself another Martini and then enjoyed carefully lacing the sweetness with vodka. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’m sure it will all work out fine—Godwilling—but you can’t pretend you aren’t putting them together for a reason.”
“Ah. Do you mean you’re objecting to Wendy? What is she, too young? Too stupid? Too northern?”
“None of those things, I’m sure. I’m rather worried about her.”
“I don’t see why you should be.”
“I like the girl, the little of her I’ve seen. She’s a match for Joshua in many ways.”
“Then maybe it’s all right,” smiled Serena. “And you needn’t fret.”
“Can I be frank, lovey?”
“Be my guest.”
“It’s you I can’t stick. I’ve told Joshua, too. You took him up and did for him. I think you’re a horrid, snobby old bitch.”
“Well…!”
“And when you get together with Joshua, it’s like a nasty commingling of natures and you encourage him to behave worse than he is. Alone, I’m sure you’re safe enough. When you’re round Joshua, though, I tend to get protective.”
“The protective older sister.”
“That’s right.”
“Not that he’s even your natural brother.”
“That doesn’t matter a jot.” Melissa clicked her fingers and Serena laughed.
“You might like Wendy, but she thinks you’re a pain. You should have seen the looks she was giving me,” said Serena.
“I don’t care. I don’t need to be liked.”
“That’s just as well.
“I can still warn her that Joshua will make her miserable.”
“Oh, keep out of it. You’re like a black albatross hanging in everyone’s faces. You depress everyone. And if you call me ‘lovey’ just once more I shall slap you.”
“Giving Wendy to Joshua is like throwing good money after bad.”
“Your brother is bad money?”
“He’s a risk, I think.”
“And you don’t approve of Wendy’s money?”
“I don’t know if she’s got any.”
“She’s stinking.”
Melissa craned her heard, mishearing this. “She’s what, lovey?”
“I said, she’s stinking rich.” A thunderous, dead tone.
“Good for her,” cackled Melissa. “She should watch herself.”
“What’s this about?” asked Joshua, frowning, coming in with Wendy.
Serena swore under her breath. “Two old ladies gossiping, what else?”
“What?” asked Melissa, who really was having trouble with her ears. “You know, I’ve asked to be syringed again, but…”
Joshua was glaring at Serena. “Wendy tells me that those alien people, Timon and Belinda, are friends of hers. You never told me that.” His voice was flat and full of warning.
“Didn’t I?” She looked flustered. “I mustn’t have thought it very interesting. It’s a lot of nonsense, isn’t it?”
“Not to Timon and Belinda it isn’t,” said Wendy, going to fetch
