The Way We Were by Sinéad Moriarty Page B

learning how to do operations. Daddy is very kind. He likes to help people.
    Daddy said Declan knew one of the Eritrean doctors in the clinic because he went there before, with John Lester. Daddy said he was looking forward to teaching them.
    Mummy’s face went a bit red when he said that, but she didn’t get angry with him. I think she felt bad for shouting at him before he left.
    But now he hasn’t rung for thirty-eight hours and I know Mummy’s worried. She keeps trying to call his phone and the hotel he’s staying in, but there’s no answer.
    When I asked if she wanted me to make her toast because she hadn’t had any breakfast, she shook her head. Her eyes went all watery and she looked like she was about to cry. It made my stomach hurt.
    Mummy used to cry sometimes because she was sad about Granny and Grandpa. But now she really doesn’t cry much at all. I can only remember her crying twice recently – once when Daddy shouted at her for being too hard on Jools. He said, ‘You’re making her feel like she’s not good enough. It’s cruel.’
    Mummy locked herself in the bathroom and cried really hard when Daddy said that. I could hear her because the bathroom is next door to my bedroom.
    The other time she cried was on Christmas Day last year when Granddad Harold said that Uncle Kevin was an embarrassment to the family. That time she was angry-crying. She shouted at Granddad and said that Kevin was her only family and he was never to be rude about him again.
    I heard her arguing with Daddy later that night when Granddad had gone home. She said Granddad was ‘out of order’. Daddy said that he shouldn’t have said it but that Kevin was ‘too much’ sometimes.
    Mummy said that Kevin was just sad because he was on his own and Christmas is lonely and that he had drunk too much wine and been a bit silly, but there was no need for Granddad to be so rude.
    Daddy said that standing on the chair and singing ‘On My Own’ at the top of his voice and crying while we were all still eating was ‘over the top’.
    Mummy said it was a song that related to how he felt and
that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted when he was in her house.
    Daddy said in a cross voice that it was ‘our house’ and that Granddad had been ‘mortified’ by Kevin, especially as Granddad’s sister, Prudence, had been there to see it all.
    Mummy said that Daddy’s family were all ‘stuffed shirts’ and they should relax a bit and that it was better for Kevin to ‘let it out’ and not ‘keep it in’.
    I thought about what ‘it’ was for ages and I think she meant sadness.
    I hate it when Mummy and Daddy fight because it makes me afraid that they’ll get a divorce, like Laura’s parents. She is super-sad because her parents live in different houses now. She said her Mummy has sad eyes all the time.
    I asked her if they had loads of fights. Laura said her parents used to fight all the time and then they stopped and that was worse because they never really spoke to each other again.
    I was glad to hear that because Mummy and Daddy don’t have loads of arguments. They only fight a little bit and it’s nearly always about Jools.
    I love Jools because she’s my sister, but she can be really mean sometimes. When I help her with her homework, she never really thanks me. She says I owe her because I got all the brains and it’s not fair. But I think she’s lucky because she’s so beautiful. She looks like Selena Gomez but I’d never tell her that because her head would get too big.
    Even though she pretends she doesn’t know she’s pretty, Jools is ALWAYS looking at herself in the mirror and taking selfies.
    I hope Daddy calls soon. I think I’ll make Mummy toast. It might cheer her up.

Alice
    Alice had felt bad for shouting at Ben before he left. She’d been glad when he called, but they hadn’t had a chance to talk alone because the girls were there and insisted that he be put on loudspeaker. Alice barely got a word