Meet Me at Infinity ➵ Ashton Irwin

[4] Swedish House Mafia

{Ellie}

“Don’t you worry, don’t you worry child.” – Swedish House Mafia

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Nemo starts barking as soon as I reach the gate. I stick my head over the high fence and see her round face staring up at me with her little ears perked, her shrill puppy-bark dying as she realises it’s me. Her ears flop back to normal and she relaxes, sticking out her tongue and wagging her otter tail with obvious zeal.

‘Hey, Nemo,’ I say as I open the gate slightly and slip through the small gap. I bend down on my knees and she barks once, placing her paws on my legs as she attempts to reach up further and lick my face.

I pull back and laugh as her tongue slides across my cheek, making a face as I wipe off the doggy saliva. We’d gotten Nemo from the local shelter about a fortnight ago, when we’d moved here. Apparently her previous owners had dumped her as a small puppy, around six weeks, and she’d been found starving and yelping in a garbage bin nearby. Why the people at the shelter had decided to call a Labrador puppy Nemo I have no idea, because her only resemblance to the small cartoon fish was the same energized curiosity.

‘Who’s a cutey-wooty puppy,’ I coo, giving her a rough pat. She does a 360 and starts panting, her tail wagging madly as she runs around me. I laugh, forgetting about Ashton for a brief moment as I’m lost in Nemo’s barks and playful chewing.

I look up as I hear the door being open, and I watch Dad’s face appear behind the thin lattice of the flyscreen door. He waves slightly for me to come in, and I bend down to say goodbye to Nemo before loping up the stairs and into the kitchen.

The door closes behind me with a sharp thud, louder than I intended, and Dad looks up from behind the stove. He’s in the middle of stirring something that smells suspiciously like curry, and smiles at me as he taps the spoon on the pot’s edge to rid it of sauce.

‘Hey, kiddo,’ he says with smile. ‘How was the poetry meet? Was there anyone you like?’

I move over to the breakfast bar, shrugging my satchel off my shoulder and slipping it on the back of stool. I sigh dejectedly, resting my chin on my hands as my eyes follow the curry as Dad pours it from the pot. ‘Mn, it was good,’ I say, avoiding the topic of Ashton. ‘There were some nice people.’

I can feel Dad’s eyes on me as I stare at the marble table. There’s silence for a few moments, broken by the sound of curry flowing into the bowl. ‘Ellie, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ I say quickly. ‘I’m perfectly fine, Dad.’

‘You know I can tell when you’re upset. You should tell me –’

‘Dad,’ I say again. I look up, giving him a frustrated sigh when I see the concerned frown on his face. ‘I’m fine.’

Dad’s jaw clenches, but he nods. ‘Alright,’ he says, although I can hear the tension in his voice. He finishes serving up the curry in silence, then slides my bowl across to me.

‘How’s mum?’ I ask as I take a fork and stir the butter chicken into the rice. Dad takes his bowl and sits next to me, chewing slowly.

‘She’s alright,’ he says through his mouthful. ‘She’s doing better than yesterday, at any rate.’

I nod. Mum had been really bad yesterday – she got all confused and thought that Dad was going to take her to a nursing home, and that Nemo was a stray dog. She must have forgotten how she’d been there a few weeks ago when we’d picked the puppy up.