Big Little Lies(26)

“Mum! Come on!” Josh yanked on Celeste’s arm.
She clutched at her tender right shoulder. “Ow!” For a moment the pain was so sharp, she fought nausea.
“Are you all right?” said Renata.
“Celeste?” said Perry. She could see the shameful recognition in his eyes. He knew exactly why it had hurt so much. There would be an exquisite piece of jewelry in his bag when he returned from Vienna. Another piece for her collection. She would never wear it, and he would never ask why.
For a moment Celeste couldn’t speak. Big blocky words filled her mouth. She imagined letting them spill out.
My husband hits me, Renata. Never on the face of course. He’s far too classy for that. Does yours hit you?
And if he does, and this is the question that really interests me: Do you hit back?
“I’m fine,” she said.

Chapter 14
14.

I’ve invited Jane and Ziggy over for a playdate next week.” Madeline was on the phone to Celeste as soon as she hung up from Jane. “I think you and the boys should come too. In case we run out of things to say.”
“Right,” said Celeste. “Thanks so much. A playdate with the little boy who—”
“Yes, yes,” said Madeline. “The little strangler. But you know, our kids aren’t exactly shrinking violets.”
“I actually met the victim’s mother yesterday when we were getting the boys’ uniforms,” said Celeste. “Renata. She’s telling her daughter to avoid having anything to do with Ziggy and she suggested I tell my boys the same.”
Madeline’s hand tightened on the phone. “She had no right to tell you that!”
“I think she was just concerned—”
“You can’t blacklist a child before he’s even started school!”
“Well, I don’t know, you can sort of understand, from her point of view. I mean, if that happened to Chloe, I mean, I guess . . .”
Madeline pressed the phone to her ear as Celeste’s voice drifted. Ever since Madeline had first met her, Celeste had had this habit. She’d be chatting perfectly normally, and then she’d suddenly be floating off with the fairies.
That’s how they’d met in the first place, because Celeste had been dreaming. Their kids were in swimming class together as toddlers. Chloe and the twins had stood on a little platform at the edge of the swimming pool while the teacher gave each child a turn practicing their dog paddle and floating. Madeline had noticed the gorgeous-looking mother watching the class, but they’d never bothered to talk to each other. Madeline was normally busy keeping an eye on Fred, who was four at the time and a handful. On this particular day, Fred had been happily distracted with ice cream, and Madeline was watching Chloe have her turn floating like a starfish when she noticed there was only one twin boy standing on the platform.
“Hey!” shouted Madeline at the teacher. “Hey!”
She looked for the beautiful mother. She was standing off to the side, staring off into the distance. “Your little boy!” she screamed. People turned their heads in slow motion. The pool supervisor was nowhere to be seen.
“For f*ck’s sake,” said Madeline, and she jumped straight into the water, fully dressed, stilettos and all, and pulled Max from the bottom of the pool, choking and spluttering.
Madeline had yelled at everyone in sight, while Celeste hugged her two wet boys to her and sobbed crazy, grateful thanks. The swim school had been both obsequiously apologetic and appallingly evasive. The child wasn’t in danger, but they were sorry it appeared that way and they would most certainly review their procedures.
They both pulled their children out of the swim school, and Celeste, who was an ex-lawyer, wrote them a letter demanding compensation for Madeline’s ruined shoes, her dry-clean-only dress and of course a refund of all their fees.
So they became friends. And Madeline understood when Celeste first introduced her to Perry and it became clear that she’d only told her husband that they’d met through swimming lessons. It wasn’t always necessary to tell your husband the whole story.
Now Madeline changed the subject.
“Has Perry gone away to wherever he’s going this time?” she asked.
Celeste’s voice was suddenly crisp and clear again. “Vienna. Yes. He’ll be gone for three weeks.”
“Missing him already?” said Madeline. Joke.
There was a pause.
“You still there?” asked Madeline
“I like having toast for dinner,” said Celeste.
“Oh yes, I have yogurt and chocolate biscuits for dinner whenever Ed goes away,” said Madeline. “Good Lord, why do I look so tired?”