The Girls

The Girls by Lisa Jewell

Book: The Girls by Lisa Jewell Read Free Book Online
Authors: Lisa Jewell
Tags: Fiction, General
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doorway and wiggling his large bottom just once before disappearing.
    ‘Good morning, Mrs Wild, this is Don Feild, I’m your husband’s treatment coordinator at St Mungo’s.’
    Clare drew in her breath, fearing bad news.
    ‘I’m calling because things are progressing very well for Chris. We’ve been trying him on a brand-new medication. And we’re all completely amazed with the results. We’ve set up a meeting, later this week, for everyone in Chris’s team. To talk about the future.’
    Clare pulled herself up on to one of the kitchen bar stools and said, ‘Yes?’
    ‘We were hoping you might want to come along.’
    Clare fell silent for a moment. She’d kept her distance from Chris so assiduously these past few months that she’d almost forgotten she was allowed to be part of his life. ‘Not really. I mean, what’s the likely outcome of this meeting?’
    ‘Well, the way things are looking right now and going forward, my recommendations will be very strongly geared towards starting a discharge programme. Towards getting him home.’
    ‘Home?’ She pulled her spine from a hump into a straight line.
    ‘Mrs Wild, your husband is doing remarkably well. He’s responded so well to the medications that he’s barely the same man who came in here six months ago.’
    ‘But, home? What home? I mean, you don’t mean here …?’
    ‘Well, if not with you then another family member? Chris’s mother for example.’ She heard the sound of papers being moved about. ‘Susan Wild.’
    ‘But she lives in Switzerland.’
    ‘Yes, right, I see. Anyone else? Closer to home?’
    ‘No. I don’t know. But I don’t want him here. Under any circumstances.’
    ‘I really think it might be good idea for you to come and see him, Mrs Wild. To see how much he’s changed.’
    ‘What, the man who set fire to his children’s home without even knowing if they were in it or not?’
    ‘Well. Yes. And I understand, obviously, why you haven’t been to see him. But I also know that his main objective every day since he’s been here has been to get well enough to be accepted back into his family.’
    Through the kitchen window Clare could see the girls. As with almost every moment of this warm and sunny half-term week, they were with the gang at the other end of the garden. They suddenly seemed unimaginably far away, as though they were on a boat drifting far from shore.
    ‘And if he finds us? If he comes here?’
    ‘Please don’t worry, Mrs Wild, nothing bad is going to happen. I promise you. No one will give Chris your new address and you will be absolutely safe. If that’s what you want.’ He paused, as though waiting for her to say something. ‘Anyway,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’ll call again at the end of the week. Let you know the outcome. But if everything goes according to plan, your husband will probably be discharged straight away.’

Six
    Adele was standing at her back door holding a large wooden board piled high with wholesome-looking muffins and bars. She shouted out her daughters’ names and then indicated that everyone was welcome to help themselves too. The whole gang trooped across the lawn and into the Howeses’ back garden. ‘Fresh out of the oven,’ said Adele, pouring out plastic beakers of elderflower cordial.
    Pip looked at the muffins and bars suspiciously. Were those raisins in there? And the bars looked as though they were full of seeds. She did not like seeds. Or raisins. ‘Help yourself, Pip,’ said Adele.
    Pip smiled. She didn’t want to be rude. She picked up a muffin and tore off a small piece.
    Dylan and Tyler took their snacks to the swinging wicker chair in the corner of the patio and squeezed themselves together inside its bulb-shaped basket. Tyler hooked her legs across Dylan’s lap. Crumbs from her muffin fell on to Dylan’s legs and she pushed them off, nonchalantly, with the side of her hand. Pip watched, curiously, somewhat enviously. She couldn’t imagine ever being

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