‘But Miss said no, and that is so tight. Polly was bare good too.’
Bare, Janet knew, was the current slang for very.
‘And if you want tickets, I need the slip and money by Friday.’
‘Tomorrow!’ said Janet.
‘Duh,’ said Taisie.
‘Where’s the slip?’
‘I gave you it,’ Taisie said.
‘No,’ said Janet.
‘I did – I left it on here.’ She rapped her knuckles against the table.
‘Well, I didn’t see it.’
Taisie gave a huge sigh.
‘Look, can’t you just get the tickets if I give you the money?’ Janet said.
‘OK.’ Crisis averted as quickly as it had erupted. Taisie was all drama. ‘Go on,’ she said, nodding at the script.
‘Your hand Leonato; we will go together,’ Janet read the cue.
‘Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?’ said Taisie.
They’d almost got through to the finale, Taisie word perfect, when Elise came in. ‘Did you talk to Dad?’ she asked Janet.
‘Shut up,’ Taisie yelled, ‘I’m doing my lines.’
‘This is important,’ Elise sneered.
‘What – a stupid party?’ Taisie said.
‘Just ’cos you’re too young to go,’ said Elise.
‘So are you, isn’t she, Mum? Tell her.’
‘Elise,’ Janet said, ‘let us finish this.’
With ill grace Elise leaned, arms folded, against the counter, a derisory look on her face, and Janet knew she was trying to unsettle Taisie. She suspected that Taisie was made of sterner stuff and was proven right as her younger daughter finished her part faultlessly.
‘Brilliant!’ Janet said. ‘Perfect!’
‘Finally,’ Elise complained.
Perhaps it was healthy, this antagonism between the sisters, an indication that they felt secure enough to bicker and spat. The solidarity, the drawing together there’d been when Ade had left, now easing with the reinstatement of the status quo. The girls no longer relying on each other while the grown-ups messed up. And if/when they got divorced, if the house was sold? Janet felt a shiver, a sour taste in her mouth.
Taisie rolled up her script and skipped off.
‘I haven’t spoken to your dad yet,’ Janet told Elise, ‘I’ve only just got in. Weren’t you supposed to be getting some more details?’
‘I have. It’s Matthew Planter’s party, it’s at his house and we’re invited because his brother is in our year and he’s allowed to invite people.’
‘Where do they live?’ Janet said.
‘Middleton Road and we can get a taxi home to Olivia’s and we have to be back for one o’clock.’
‘Come on,’ Janet said and they went through to the lounge.
‘This party,’ Janet said.
Ade paused his programme, something about the Pharaohs.
‘Tell him,’ Janet said.
Elise rattled off the facts she’d given Janet.