‘Here, let me show you …’
Bridie’s face suddenly flushed at the thought. She slammed the front door shut, shouted, ‘I’m back!’ and rushed into the kitchen just as her sister was getting out her mobile phone.
‘Ah, there you are.’ Bridie’s mum turned to her. ‘I was getting worried. You were gone a long time.’
Bridie felt like a child as it was without her sister standing there behind her mum, arms folded, shaking her head in undisguised contempt at her situation. She said, ‘When were you going to tell me you’d decided to return home, Bridie? If Mum hadn’t told me …’
I wasn’t,thought Bridie. She said, ‘I knew you’d find out soon enough.’
‘Well, yeah, with it splashed all over social media what happened.’
The thing Bridie didn’t understand was how Kate had got wind of it on social media. It wasn’t as though her sister had any time to be scrolling aimlessly online. In between her commute, during which Bridie was aware she worked on a laptop, and her long hours at the office, Bridie knew she liked to spend as much of her free time as she could either with her children or sleeping.
As if she was mind-reading, Kate said, ‘I was spending the morning with Layla. We had a lady over to do our nails when she showed me what she’d seen on social media.’
Bridie’s face flushed even more. She had a special relationship with her niece, because of their shared love of the theatre – and Layla looked up to her auntie, who had made a success of her stage career. Layla aspired to be like her. Not anymore, though. Bridie realised with a start what impact this might have on her impressionable fifteen-year-old niece.
‘I’ve written to the drama teacher, Oliver, to let him know that he can offer her place in the drama club to someone else.’
Oh, no!Bridie thought. She stared at her sister as she continued her rant.
‘And I’ve told Andy that he is not to sign any more permission slips without checking with me first, nor is he to talk to you about our daughter and her future.’
‘Layla doesn’t want to go to the drama club anymore because of me?’
‘That is none of your concern.’
‘None of my concern?’ Bridie blurted. ‘I’m her auntie.’
‘I wish you weren’t. You’re not a good role model. And until you buck up your ideas, I don’t want you to have any contact with Layla.’
‘What? You can’t do that.’
‘I can, and I have. I’ve told Layla she’s not to see you. I don’t want her anywhere near you, putting ideas into her head about a life on stage.’
‘For your information,’ said Bridie, ‘I did not put those ideas into her head. They got there all on their own. She came to me.’
‘But you encouraged her.’
‘I encouraged her to be true to herself.’
‘She’s fifteen. How can she know what she wants from life at that age?’
‘I did.’
‘Yeah,’ scoffed Kate. ‘And look where that’s got you – jobless and homeless!’
‘For your information, I am not jobless or homeless.’
‘Oh, yeah? Got another theatre production lined up, have we?’
Bridie looked at the floor.
‘Thought not. And of course you’re not homeless, you’re back living with Mum and Dad. You couldn’t have timed that better, could you? When Dad’s just retired, and Mum and Dad want to spend some time together.’
‘I have got a job, and I have got a place to go to,’ Bridie threw back.
‘Yeah, I’ll bet,’ she scoffed. ‘Going to live with Grandad?’
