The 'Cousins'

Chapter 98 : Martha's Philosophy

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

Martha's Philosophy

"Sometimes it's like living with four kids in this house instead of three."

Martha groaned, tossing her book on the bed beside her, exhaling in exasperation.

The half hour she spent every night reading in bed before the lights went out was sacred to her. She could escape her hardships by losing herself in the book and live another life, in another world with other people who had different problems to her own. She was about to pick up the book again when another crash of a cupboard door slamming closed  downstairs  changed her mind. She sat up in bed to wait patiently for Ali to come upstairs.

She knew from past experience this was his way of crying for attention when worried by a problem he couldn't solve. Pretending to look for drink hidden away in the kitchen when there was none to be had in the house was his way of advertising his distress. Felix's visit had upset him considerably. Her own insistence he and Tomas continue with the job for Greg Mitchell over the weekend instead of cleaning the Walcott chicken shed for Felix put Ali in a turmoil he couldn't handle. This was his way of getting Martha to come downstairs for him to argue his side of the argument with her over again. But, Martha sat unsmiling and strait lipped in bed, with her hands folded one over the other on the comforter in front of her – waiting him out.

Minutes later Ali burst into the room, his own lips turned down in a ferocious grimace of self-pity. He ignored Martha and opened her dressing table drawer to search through her things inside.

She spoke to him like she would a child. "You know we have no drink in the house. If we had you wouldn't want it anyway. So now you've got my full attention, let's go through it again shall we? This is about Felix, right?"

"It's easy fer you to lie there in bed with your book an'all. I'm the one who has to find work to make our livin'. We need the benefits comin' in to get by. If Felix don't get the small producers to sign my benefit form sayin' I've been lookin' fer work we stand to lose them. What'll we do then? There'll be no money fer food let alone books to read in bed at night."

She let the snipe pass. "We've been through this already. If we lose the benefits we'll get by?"

"How fer Chrissake. We ain't got money fer meat fer supper an' that's with benefits." Ali was working himself into a frenzy. Martha ached to verbally rip his negativity from him, but remained calm.

"We had roast chicken and gravy for supper tonight. Have you forgotten?"

"No! No I ain't forgotten an' I ain't forgotten where we got the money fer it either." Ali sat down on the bed, vigorously rubbing his fingernails through his hair to remove the problem as if it was an itch.

"That's good," Martha spoke softly, but firmly, "that's good because if you keep your part of the bargain with Mr. Mitchell there'll be a lot more nights with chicken for supper?"

"Mitchell. Mitchell. He's the problem not the solution. It's like Felix says. The man's a blow-in a flash-in-the-pan. Here today and gone tomorrow. He don't belong here, he's English."

"What does that mean- he's English. His money is as good as anybody else's. If you keep your part of the bargain you'll be able to work as an electrician again and we won't need to file for benefits."

Ali stood beside the bed and shouted at her. "Not if he's gone an' ain't around here no more it ain't."

Martha raised her own voice to answer her man. Fire blazed from her eyes.