I am Amazon

Suspicion

Chapter Eight

Shit, shit, shit! Okay, think rationally Seffie. I couldn’t leave the restaurant – it would only piss off the employees (as we hadn’t paid or even eaten our food). Not to mention how much Idra would freak out if we left abruptly.

Even now she was staring at me rather strangely. “Do you know him, Seffie?”

Faced with no other option, I told a white lie; “Sort of – he’s friends with the other guy… from school.”

The best shot we had was to ignore him; hope he wouldn’t follow Turner’s example and try to approach us. Eventually, I managed to convince Idra to switch seats with me, so she wasn’t looking at the booth.

It was easier said than done. Even then, I had to take her mind off the booth behind her. I asked her what had happened between Phillida and Cassandra. In comparison, the subject seemed like a relief.

“I’m not sure what happened, exactly,” she admitted, twirling her straw around her drink, watching as the bubbles in her coke fizzled out. “I’d just come home from grandma’s room, when Cassandra stormed in, demanding to see mum.”

“Did she say what she wanted with her?” I asked, my eyes darting over to the other booth every so often to see if they were still watching us. Turner seemed to be getting on very well with Sam Harrison, I noticed with displeasure.

Idra shook her head. “Not really. She just kept repeating the same thing over and over.”

Glancing away as Turner lifted his head to gaze at me, I frowned: “What was that?”

“It’s not right. She’s deluded if she thinks it’ll work.”

“Sorry?!”

Idra sighed. “You’re not listening, are you?”

“No, I am.” I had to stop being hyper aware of the other table and pay proper attention. “Just tell me again.”

Idra sighed, staring at me with depravity. “She kept repeating: ‘It’s not right. She’s deluded if she thinks it’ll work’.”

“What happened when mum got back?” I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

“Basically,” Idra drew out the word, took a long, deep breath; “Cassandra went mad: screaming and yelling at mum. Mum just stood in silence for a bit…”

I had to stop her. “Idra, what exactly did Cassandra say?”

“She somehow got the idea that mum was using Damia as a spy against her. She said it was none of mum’s business what she was up to. That’s when mum got angry.”

“What did she say?”

“Not much, at first. Just that Cassandra was upsetting the balance, but she said it in that really gentle, furious tone that she has.”

I knew it only too well.

“Cassandra basically lost it. She told mum that she was the one at fault, and went for her throat.”

“Literally?”

“Lunged at her like a tiger,” Idra shrugged, but her eyes were far from calm. “There wasn’t much talking after that – not until you got there, anyway.”

My sister watched me with wide eyes until the food arrived and she attacked it with gusto. As I cut up Ennea-sized portions and helped her stick them into their mouth, I contemplated the information. Witness or not, Idra’s words were not, by any stretch of the imagination, enlightening. But the more I thought about the scanty details that my mother had given me, the more I felt I was on the edge of something. But that breakthrough remained just out of reach. The pieces of this puzzle wouldn’t line up; I didn’t know the minds of my mother or Cassandra well enough to consider how far they differed from each other.