Where Have All the Boys Gone?(71)

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” said Katie, putting her arm around Clara’s neck. And she was, too. It doesn’t matter how much you might be annoyed with someone, if they truly get their comeuppance, it doesn’t make you feel good in the slightest; especially if they’re family.

Clara sniffed. “So, I got a rickshaw into town then caught a train, which took ages, then I caught a plane—I used your credit card number by the way.”

Katie let this go for the moment.

“And here I am. And I don’t know what I’m going to do, and I’m going to have a baby with a complete pig, and I don’t know where to go or how I’m going to look after it and I’m going to turn into one of those benefits mothers and end up having to go on Trisha . . .”

Her sobs began to take on a hysterical quality.

“You’re just very tired,” said Katie. “We are going to do bath, then bed, then figure out what we’re going to do later. It’s going to be all right, I promise.”

Clara looked at her with an expression that betrayed how much she really really needed this to be true.

“Thanks, sis. I knew I could count on you.”

ONCE CLARA WAS safely despatched to Katie’s bed, they felt it safe to call Louise back.

“Guess I’d better start packing,” Louise said when she returned, refusing Olivia’s tea with some disdain.

“Don’t be stupid,” said Katie, shocked. “Give her two days and I’ll pack her straight off to Mum’s.”

“Your mum won’t want the fuss.”

“Nobody wants the fuss! And Mum started it.”

“Don’t be daft,” said Louise. “You know, it looks like friends aren’t the new family after all.”

Katie looked at her with huge fondness. “Don’t move out. Please.”

“Honestly,” said Louise. “I couldn’t . . . after what she did to me. I couldn’t spend one night under the same roof as her.”

“I understand,” said Katie sadly. “But where are you going to go?”

Louise made a funny noise at the back of her throat. “You know a funny thing? I bet Max would take me back.”

“I bet he would too,” said Katie. “You wouldn’t go though, would you?”

Louise’s eyes were shining with tears. “I’d rather eat kittens.”

Katie crossed the room and gave her a huge hug. Which didn’t quite solve the immediate problem.

Louise’s parents had retired to Wales. Both Katie and Louise were suddenly very conscious of continuously hugging, and not looking at Olivia. Olivia hated having anyone to stay. Olivia wasn’t entirely keen on having people around at all, for any length of time. Olivia’s house was a Feng-Shuied shrine in white, cream, and taupe, with candles burning everywhere and expensive, fragile pieces of pottery. There was a gigantic Buddha at one end of the sitting room, and lots of expensively-covered cushions scattered around to create a “womb space.” Personally Katie would hate to live somewhere you couldn’t spill tea on the floor, but it was Olivia’s temple.

There was a very long silence, followed by a very long sigh from Olivia’s direction.

“Well, I suppose you could stay at mine,” she said. “For a little bit.”

“Are you sure?” said Louise. “I could always go live under Waterloo Bridge. Katie, pass me that newspaper. I’ll need it for insulation.”

“No, no. Please. Come and stay . . . until you find somewhere of your own.”

“That will be very, very soon,” said Louise. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” said Katie, fervently.

LOOKING AFTER CLARA, Katie felt she was getting a sense of what it would be like to have a baby of her own. She cried all day, hated getting bathed and slept at peculiar times. It was fascinating to spend time so close up with a huge pregnant belly. Great big blue veins pulsed from her breasts (now huge) to the top of her stomach. You could actually see it move, kicked from the inside out.

“That is the weirdest thing,” said Katie one day, resting her hand on it as they were watching EastEnders.

“I feel like I’m in Alien,” Clara grumbled. “That I only exist to ensure the survival of this . . . parasite.”

“You do,” said Katie. “That’s how the survival of the species works. That’s why women always used to die in childbirth.”

Clara sighed again and eyed her big belly with some distaste. Max had phoned, but really just to check she was all right (“How can I be all right?” Clara had screamed, “I’m carrying the spawn of Satan!”), and to work out how much money she wanted. When Katie spoke to him, he seemed more interested in getting Louise’s new telephone number than he did in having any access to his baby.

Katie told Clara he’d feel differently when the baby came, but she wasn’t sure about that. Max sounded wretched. He was having terrible trouble getting back in the job market, and now he was carrying the mortgage all by himself, having given his tenants notice. He was, thought Katie, someone who deep down did just want to settle with someone like Louise and have a family. Then he’d seen the men around him swan about with a different gorgeous girl on their arm every night of the week and felt he was badly missing out on something all the other lads were enjoying. So he’d panicked. It wasn’t really him. She’d feel sorry for him, if he hadn’t cheated on her best friend, then got her sister up the duff, then ditched her. So, as it was, she was icy cold on the rare occasions he got in contact.