Page 113 of We All Live Here
My mum used to put on this posh voice. I used to call her Your Majesty when he was around just to wind her up.
They travel in Jensen’s pickup truck. It has three seats in the front, which is actually quite cool, not that Celie is going to let them know she thinks that. Bill, Mum says, is going to meet them there with Penelope. When they get to the school Penelope is helping Bill out of the car, like he’s an invalid or something. He’s wearing his tweedy suit with the matching waistcoat and Penelope has dressed up in a sort of Chinese silk shawl with a big sparkly comb in her hair. It’s kind of amazing that people that old even try.
Dad had texted to say he was coming to the play but told her he would be sitting with Marja’s mother because Marja is still in the hospital and Hugo is “a bit wobbly.” He still hasn’t said anything about the perfumes. She thinks he’s worried about the baby and a piece of her wants to thank the baby because she’s secretly glad that it’s keeping the attention off her. Celie mostly just hopes her mum and dad aren’t going to start arguing, like they did at the Christmas pantomime.
The school is already packed with people, even though Celie thought they would be early. She spies a couple of her old teachers and ducks away so that she won’t have to talk to them. People are helpingthemselves to glasses of wine from a long table at the back and taking their seats, dads looking like they’d rather be at the office, and mums trying to control small children. There are paper cups of squash and chocolate biscuits on the end table for the kids. Celie takes two and puts them into her pocket in case she gets hungry in the performance. She is a bit cross with Mum for insisting that she comes to the stupid play. She has to get her character studies finished for Animation Club, and they are going to take hours, and she still can’t do hands that don’t have sausage fingers. She spots her dad on the right-hand side of the seated area. When he stands and waves she makes her way over to say hello, hoping Mum won’t notice because she and Jensen are finding seats with Bill and Penelope. Even though Mum would say it’s fine to sit with Dad, she knows, but it would probably make Mum feel weird, and then she would hide it by beingüber-cheerful and acting like everything was totally fine, which sort of feels worse. Sometimes she feels exhausted by all the feelings going on in her family all the time.
It feels odd not having seen her dad for this long, like he doesn’t even belong to her family anymore. He looks older than he did when she last saw him and he definitely needs a haircut. Marja’s mother, who is very glamorous for an old woman, with thick blonde hair like Marja’s, stands up to give her a hug and Celie accepts it, though it feels a bit uncomfortable. She’s not like her actual grandmother or anything. But then, she observes, neither is Bill. Maybe her family is just going to be this endless bunch of not-quite-connected people from now on.
Dad seems grateful that she took the hug. He keeps touching her shoulder and saying it’s good to see her and he’s sorry he hasn’t been around. Celie doesn’t want to tell him she’s been quite happy without him.
Then Dad asks her who Violet is playing and Celie says she doesn’t know. He says Hugo has a big part and he’s very nervous about remembering his lines, like Celie’s meant to care, and Celie tries to lookinterested, because Dad always wants her to act like Hugo is her brother. Really all she wants to do is head back to her seat because she’s worried that Mum won’t save her one and then she’ll have to sit next to people she doesn’t know, so she says she has to go to the loo, walks around the back of the main hall, and comes in again on the other side just so it won’t hurt his feelings.
Mrs. Tugendhat, who looks exactly the same as she did five years ago when Celie left, comes over and tells Celie she can’t believe how much she’s grown (why do old people always say this?), then takes Mum to one side and says her father is amazing, that he’s been amazing. Everything is going to be amazing. Mum glances at Bill and looks a bit confused. Celie is watching them, trying to work out what is coming next, but then someone comes up and whispers something to Mrs. Tugendhat, who makes her apologies and hurries away backstage.
It turns out Mum has saved her a seat—right beside her, with Jensen on Mum’s left, and Bill and Penelope beside them. They are four rows behind Dad and Marja’s mother and Celie feels anxious because Mum will definitely be able to see them, though at least Marja isn’t there. Penelope keeps fussing around Bill, asking if he’s warm enough and checking he’s happy with his water. Celie can tell he’s a bit irritated by it, but he pats Penelope’s hand and tells her she’s very kind and really must stop worrying. So Penelope keeps pointing out kids she’s taught piano to, then blushing, like she’s boasting or something.
If my mum and dad have another fight here I am going to kill myself, she texts Martin.
Hey, at least it will get you out of watching a kids’ play, he responds.
The wooden chairs are the exact same ones from when she was at school here. Celie has a weird flash of memory sitting in one: the feeling of boredom and safety that she always had at primary school, before everything went wrong, before her friendships evaporated and Mum and Dad split up.
And then it happens. She hears Mum say: “Ohhh, no.” For a momentshe thinks it’s something to do with Dad and Marja and her stomach lurches, but when she looks up, following Mum’s gaze, she sees Gene at the side of the hall, wearing his leather jacket and a really skanky T-shirt with a man smoking a joint on the front. He is making his way toward them. Mum looks at Jensen, and says something. She gets up, which is difficult because pretty much everyone else has sat down by now. Celie has not told Mum about Gene, and feels the knot of anxiety solidify inside her.
“Stay away. I’ve asked you to stay away. I do not want to risk anything happening to Bill. Why can’t you see that?”
Celie is only four seats away from the end of the aisle and she can hear everything Mum is saying. She suspects all the other parents can hear it too, because everything has gone a bit quiet and people are definitely looking. She glances to her left. Jensen is watching Mum, and Bill is staring straight ahead but with the kind of tense look that says he knows Gene is there too.
“I just wanna talk to him.” Gene’s voice is always too loud.
“Absolutely not.”
Oh, God, she texts Martin.My other granddad has turned up and he and Mum are fighting. Now I do want to die.
Martin doesn’t respond for a minute and then he just says,Oh shit.
“Sweetheart,” Gene is saying. “He needs to know the truth.”
“He absolutely does not. You are not talking to him.”
Everyone is looking now, heads swiveling, a low rumble of conversation rippling around the seats. Celie sinks in her chair. Why is her family literally the only family in the world who does this kind of thing? Why can’t she just have a normal family where people turn up to stuff and get on with each other?
“Lila. Honey. Let me talk to him.”
“Gene, I swear if you do not get out of my kid’s school right now I am going to call the police and have you thrown out.”
“Two minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
Mum’s face is pink and furious. She hisses at him. “Go home, Gene. I am going back to sit with Bill now, and you need to leave.”
At the mention of the word “police,” Jensen had risen and made his way past Celie toward Gene, meaning that the four people between have to stand up again. Oh, great. Now more people are involved. Someone in the chairs behind them is asking in a whiny voice what is going on. Celie wonders if she can just go and hide in the toilets. Mum comes and sits down beside her, and leans across, apologizing to Bill.
“We’ll make sure he leaves. I’m so sorry.”
Bill doesn’t say anything.
Jensen is standing in front of Gene, pretty much blocking Gene’s view of them. Gene puts his hand on Jensen’s arm. “Jensen. Help me out here. I wanna sort this.” As Celie watches, they have a whispered conversation. Jensen is leaning in close and nodding. Gene does not look like he’s leaving any time soon.Please just go, Celie thinks, feeling the eyes of the whole school hall on her family. People in the front are actually turning round in their chairs to see what’s going on.
