Imogen thought she might have even got through to Rosie as her sadness had subsided and she’d gone very quiet in the way she always did when she was thinking things through. Pleased, Imogen had congratulated herself on some excellent parenting.
SEVENTY-TWO
Monday 18 January
After the police had left, Nancy returned to her wheel. She tried to put the police visit out of her mind. It was only Imogen throwing her weight around as usual. Wanted to remind everyone she was Queen Bee. She’d probably been spooked by the visit Nancy herself had made to the restaurant, was just flexing her muscles.
But thepolice?Warnings of prison sentences? Nancy knew it was very unlikely to come to that but what unsettled her, she realized, was the lengths Imogen was prepared to go to in order to make her point. Phoning thegoddamn police!
She remoulded her slab of clay and threw it back on the wheel. Gently started shaping it back into the bowl she’d been making before she’d been interrupted.
Jesus, the audacity of that woman!She absolutely refused to acknowledge that her child had done anything wrong at all. Even though Rosie had put Lara in hospital!
Nancy tried her best to relax, to work the clay, to feel how it moved under her fingers.
But she was too tense, too stiff. Too angry, too upset.Imogen had sent the police round to warn her off, when she was just trying to stop her child from being bullied.
So she wasn’t even allowed to stick up for Lara, to protect her?
Nancy put a fist through the side of her bowl. She pummelled the clay again and again with her knuckles. Globules of clay splattered everywhere – all over the floor, her apron, wet droplets splattered across her face.
‘Hi, Mum,’ called a voice from the hallway as the wheel slowed to a stop.
Nancy jerked her head up, her furious trance broken. She looked at the mess of clay and was about to clear it up when Lara bundled into the room, closely followed by Beth.
‘Wow, Mum, you’ve made a mess!’ said Lara, both surprised and delighted. ‘It’s all over your face!’
‘Is it?’ said Nancy, trying to wipe it off.
‘Guess who has some pretty special news?’ said Beth.
Lara’s face lit up. ‘Oh yeah. Mum, I’m going to be the Spring Queen at the festival.’
‘What?’ Nancy was deeply confused.
‘We had the vote. I won!’
‘Wow. That’s great.’ Nancy paused. ‘How does Rosie feel about all this?’
‘This is the extraordinary part,’ said Beth.
‘She said it was cool,’ said Lara.
‘She did?’ asked Nancy, astounded.
‘Yes, even gave me a jelly bean at afternoon break to prove there were no hard feelings. Can I get a snack?’
Nancy was so dumbfounded she mumbled a ‘yes’ and Lara scooped up Pebbles, who was weaving his way around her ankles, then scarpered to the kitchen and no doubt the biscuit tin before Nancy could even process what she’d been told.
She looked up at Beth. ‘Can you believe this?’
Beth shrugged. ‘Maybe something’s finally got through to her. Maybe Lara’s near-miss actually frightened Rosie so now she’s woken up to how seriously shitty her behaviour has been.’
Nancy wasn’t sure. ‘Maybe.’
Beth stared at Nancy’s face. ‘Do you always get this messy when you’re doing your pottery? You look like you’ve been in a slasher movie – but with a zombie’s grey blood.’
‘I thought zombies had red blood like us.’
