Snippets

'You Can Make Somebody Buy Your Book!'

  ‘We’re only going for the weekend, will that be enough time for you to do all that?  The children don’t want to go, you know?’

  Ralph now took a deep breath as a prelude to his reply. ‘As long as he’s got all of the stuff I told him to buy at Wickes I can get it done.  It’s all inside stuff.  What are we going to do about the kids?’  Ralph looked up at his wife with his hands on his hips and with an expression that said, “this is a mother thing.” Phyllis stood facing him down.

  ‘It’s up to you really, Ralph. I don’t want you saying one thing one minute and changing your mind afterwards.’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you! Rachel is happy to sleep over the weekend with Stephanie. Mme Lefèbre is keen to have her.’

  Ralph sniffed loudly as a protest. ‘She spends more time there than she does here these days.’

  ‘That’s mainly because they all speak the same language.’

  The accusation in her tone was unmistakeable. Ralph wisely chose not to pursue the matter, as he was the one member of the family who seemed unable to grasp more than a few basic expressions in French.

  ‘That leaves Glen. What’s he planning for his weekend with his folks away and an empty house?’ Ralph chuckled suggestively.

  Phyllis sat down to confront him.

  ‘This is serious; Melanie and her family have invited him to stay. He wants to go.  How do you feel about him stopping over?’

  Ralph waved his hands nonchalantly in front of him. ‘If that’s what they all want, who am I to get in the way.’

  ‘Ralph,’ Phyllis spoke sharply, ‘he’s only fourteen. His voice has broken and you are his father, doesn’t it worry you at all?’

  The acid tone in her voice reminded Phyllis of Angela, but it went over Ralph’s head.

  ‘I’d be a damned sight more worried if I was Melanie’s dad.’

  Phyllis’s hand reached her face too late to stifle her snigger. They both laughed.

  ‘That’s settled then.’ She wagged a reproving finger at her husband. ‘Just don’t change your mind later. Now what was so urgent about Ron’s call?’

  Ralph fiddled with a salt pot as he explained.  ‘It’s odd really. You know he told us they’ve been having a bad time at Ankerman Press, where he works, what I didn’t know was how bad it really is. Ron’s been under threat of redundancy for six months now.’

  ‘Oh that’s awful and he never said anything’ Phyllis gasped.

  ‘That’s right, he told me they were expecting to be laid off at the end of this month, but something came up that might save their bacon.’ He paused for dramatic effect and earned himself a slap on the arm from Phyllis.

  ‘Don’t stop there, go on, tell me?’

  ‘Well, there’s much less book publishing going on now, what with the internet and all, and precious less binding, but they secured a last minute contract with a new publisher and it’s for a hardback…’

  ‘Oh that’s wonderful, who is it?’ Phyllis could not restrain her impatience.

  ‘I’m trying to tell you, if you’d only stop interrupting.’

  ‘Well hurry up then.’

  ‘OK OK! Well it’s none other than Vern Hopkins’ publisher. They want Ankerman to produce his next novel. They’ve fallen out with the people they have been working with up until now.’