Phoebe
When I finally got home, dragging my weary body through the door after standing on the train and then sitting next to a rather badly odorous man on the bus, I was disappointed, to say the least, that I couldn’t smell food cooking. Beth always had dinner ready for me.
“Oi, you lazy bugger,” I cried, making my way into the lounge. “Where’s my dinner?”
I threw my bag down next to the sofa and looked at my sister with wide, expectant eyes. As soon as I saw her face, I knew something was wrong.
“What is it?” I asked, plonking myself next to her and grabbing hold of her hand. “Beth?”
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ve found a lump.”
“What? Where? Have you called the doctor?”
I must have squeezed her hand too tightly because she winced a little.
“Sorry,” I apologised. “Have you?”
Beth nodded. “Yes. I went a few days ago, but I’ve had a letter from the hospital. They want me to go in tomorrow for a mammogram. Dr. Phillips rushed it through. That’s bad right?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Not necessarily.”
“I’m so scared, Phoebes.”
Beth’s bottom lip trembled as she looked up at me.
“I’ll be with you, so don’t be scared. What time is the appointment?”
Beth shook her head. “No, you can’t. You need to work. You can’t afford to be away from the set.”
“I can and I damn well will,” I protested. “They’ll have to sack me if they won’t let me take the time.”
“I thought you were doing the reverse shots on your dialogue piece tomorrow?”
She looked so lost and worried, I dragged her against my chest and hugged her tightly.
“Fuck it and fuck stupid Addison Yates.”
Beth pulled away. “No, you need to go. Honestly, I’ll be fine. I won’t hear anything tomorrow and my appointment is early, so I’m sure it’ll be a quick in and out and I’ll be back at work before the first brew is due.”
“Are you sure?” I felt extreme guilt wrap itself around my throat at the thought of letting her go alone. “I’m sure I can get Mr. Roderigo to reschedule it.”
“Nope. Not a chance. If you could drop the boys off at Wendy’s though, that would be a big help.”
Wendy was the boys’ child-minder in the school holidays when both Beth and I worked.
“Consider it done. No problem at all.” I said dragging her to my chest, for my own comfort as much as hers.
The next morning, the boys were not in the mood for doing anything that I asked. Beth had gone off to the hospital for her eight-thirty appointment and I needed to be on set by ten-thirty, which meant the boys needed to cooperate.
“Please, Mack,” I pleaded on the edge of hysteria, “leave the box where it is.”
“But it needs to go into the bin,” my eco/society conscious nephew complained. “People shouldn’t leave rubbish.”
He was right. I knew he was but at that precise moment I didn’t give a shit who had dropped their take-away carton onto the pavement without a care. I was going to be late for my call if I didn’t get to the station within the next hour.
“You’re stinky,” Callum shouted at his twin, while kicking at a piece of dried up dog shit.
“Am not. You are.”
“Boys, please,” I cried, closing my eyes and hoping when I opened them I’d miraculously be on a train heading into Manchester. “Neither of you are stinky. Mack, leave the box and Callum stop kicking the dog shi- poo.”
They both looked at me murderously as if I’d just informed them that that the Easter Bunny was a ridiculously insane marketing ploy made up by chocolate companies to help increase their profits.
“Please, move it.”
“Why are you taking us to Wendy’s anyway?” Mack asked, running his hands along some garden railings.
“Your mum explained this. It’s because she had to go into work early this morning.” I repeated the lie that Beth and I had agreed to tell the boys.
“Oh no.”
I rolled my eyes and prayed for patience as I watched Callum drop to his knees to tie his shoelace – something which he couldn’t actually do, but always insisted he could.
“Callum, please we’re two minutes away from Wendy’s. You can leave that for now.”
The concentration on his face was evident as a tiny tongue poked out of the side of his mouth. If I let him carry on we would be there for at least ten minutes before he gave up and had a frustrated strop.
“Auntie Peepee,” Mack insisted. “We can’t go to Wendy’s today.”
“Mack, will you stop it. You’re going to Wendy’s and that’s final. Callum, please just leave the shoelace.”
Callum stood up with a sigh and crossed his little arms over his chest. “Mack’s right. We can’t go to Wendy’s.”
“Why not?” I cried, almost stamping my foot like the six-year-olds standing in front of me might do.
“Because she’s in Terror reef.”
“Where?” I glanced across the road to where I could see Wendy’s house. The porch door that was usually open, wide and welcoming, was firmly closed.
“Terror reef,” Callum repeated.
“See I told you,” Mack added. “We can’t go today because she’s in Terror reef.”
“Where the hell is Terror reef?” I muttered, anxiously glancing at the house once more.
“It’s on holiday,” Mack said in a voice that indicated I was the most stupid adult ever to darken his doorstep. “You go on a plane to it.”
“It takes ages to get there,” Callum offered.
I looked at them both wracking my brains and suddenly realised what they meant.
“You mean Tenerife?”
“That’s what we said,” Callum sighed.
“You mean she’s not there.” I pointed at the house.
Mack shook his head. “That’s what I’ve been telling you for the last hour.”
I pulled my head back and furrowed my brow. “Excuse me, I think you’ll find it was about five minutes tops.”
“Well, it seemed like an hour,” he grumbled.
“Auntie Peepee, please can I tie my shoelace now?”
“No.” I gave Callum a cursory glance before turning back to Mack. “So, you’re telling me Wendy, her husband, and kids have gone on holiday?”
“Yep. They went yesterday.”
“So how do you know this, but your mum doesn’t?”
“Mummy does. She properly forgot.”
“Probably forgot,” I corrected.
It wasn’t surprising that she had forgotten - going to the hospital was probably the only thing on her mind. I pulled my mobile out to call her, but when I thought about what she was in the middle of dealing with, changed my mind.
“Okay boys, let’s turn around. You’re coming to work with me today.”
“Do we have to?” Callum groaned.
“It’ll be fun,” I said, grabbing hold of both boys’ hands and walking back the way we’d came. “You’ll be able to see all the cameras and the actors.”
“Will we see Addison Yates?” Mack asked excitedly, ever the little boy enthralled by action.
“Yes, dickhead will be there,” I muttered under my breath.
“Who’s Dick Head?” Callum asked. “Is he an actor too?”
Shit those kids had bionic hearing, unless it was when Beth was shouting for them to get to sleep.
“Oh, it’s no one.”
“Is that Addison’s real name?” Mack asked. “Dick?”
“Well, no not really.”
“So why did you call him that?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did,” Mack replied. “You said, yes Dick Head will be there.”
I looked down at the two earnest faces looking up at me and conceded defeat.
“Yes, that’s his secret name, but only certain people are allowed to call him that. It’s short for Richard.”
“Will we be able to call him Dick?” Callum asked. “Or do we have to call him Richard?”
“Should we call him Addison?”
“Or do we call him Mr. Head?”
“God no,” I snapped, quickly crossing the road to the bus stop. “You can call him Addison or Mr. James.”
“Why Mr. James?”
Please let me close my eyes and start the day again. And what sort of school do they go to that they’ve never heard the phrase dickhead before?
“That’s another one of his names. He only lets his friends call him Dick, so maybe just call him Mr. James or Addison.”
I felt Mack shrug. “Okay, but I think I’ll call him Addison.”
“He might let us call him Dick,” Callum added, stumbling over his untied shoelace.
“Can I tell my friends that I met Addison Yates?” Mack asked. “When we get back to school after the holidays.”
Having reached the bus stop, I let go of the boys’ hands and stooped down to Callum’s shoe.
“I don’t see why not.”
“We’ll have to get evidence,” Callum added, placing his tiny little hand on the top of my head to steady himself, while I tied his lace. “Auntie Peepee will need to take a photograph.”
“Woah that would be cool.”
Mack high-fived his brother and giggled.
“Just think Cal, me and you on a photograph with Dick Head, everyone will be dead jealous.”
“Yeah, us and Dick. How cool is that?”
I groaned inwardly and knew without doubt today was going to be challenging to say the very least.