‘Well, have a good time.’
As Anna made her way out of the now-full pub, the Friday-night crowd seemed ready to enjoy the weekend. What did the weekend have in store for her? she wondered. Washing, ironing,cooking and cleaning would be the limit of what she was doing, and then Monday morning would come round soon enough. Another week ahead of her facing Mark and his new girlfriend. Not exactly a lot to look forward to.
With a sigh of relief, Anna reached the terraced house she called home, eager to be rid of her painful shoes. Compared to the beautiful Georgian terrace of Daniel Redfern, the house she lived in was undeniably working class, but it had always been her home and, for that, she loved it. She put her key in the lock, opened the door and walked down the short hallway towards the living room. The blare from the television told her that someone was watching the football and, sure enough, she stepped inside to find her dad and her elder brother, Jack, sprawled on the two large sofas, each with a beer can in hand. Their eyes were fixed on the large TV as one of the strikers took a shot. As the ball went wide, both men groaned in mutual dismay. She looked around the room and compared it to the pristine mansion of Daniel Redfern. She did her best to keep the house clean and tidy, but the shabbiness of the room, which was long overdue redecoration, filled her with dismay.
When the noise died down, Anna said hello. Both men turned to face her, a look of shock on their faces as they hadn’t realised she’d come into the house, let alone the room.
‘Hello, love.’ Her father, Andrew, was the first to recover. Jack didn’t even bother to say hello and, after taking a glug from his can, fixed his eyes firmly back on the football match.
‘Have you had a good day at work?’ Andrew asked.
‘I wasn’t at work today, Dad. I told you I was going to an interview.’
‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. The posh photographer. How did it go?’
She sighed at the memory of it once again. ‘Well, let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be getting the job.’
Andrew snorted. ‘Well, that’s his loss. Shame. You could do with getting away from that idiot of an ex-boyfriend of yours.’
‘I know. But I’m not going to be pushed out before I’m ready.’
‘Quite right,’ Andrew replied, then added, ‘So what’s for tea, love?’
Anna stared at him in disbelief. She’d had a disastrous day, her feet were killing her and here were her father and the eldest of her brothers, sitting in the comfortable living room, each with a can of lager in their hands, waiting for her to get home so she could cook them dinner. Something inside her snapped. Daisy was right, she’d pandered to them for far too long. She wasn’t a wife or a mother, and just because she was the only female in the house didn’t mean she should have to wait on them hand and foot.
‘No idea,’ she said, resisting the instinct to head to the kitchen and see what was in the fridge. ‘To be honest, I’m not really hungry. I’ve had one hell of a day, so I think I might just have a soak in the bath. I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff in the freezer if you want to sort yourselves out.’ She rushed out of the living room before they had a chance to protest. She’d quite happily go hungry tonight if it made a point.
As she reached the top of the stairs, her younger brother, Harry, opened the door to his bedroom.
‘Hiya, I thought I heard your voice. How did your interview go?’
Gratified that at least one member of her family had remembered, she told him all about it.
‘Oh, that’s a shame. It sounded like the perfect job for you.’
‘In theory, yes, but things aren’t always as they seem. I’m going to have a bath now. Dad and Jack are sorting out tea.’
Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Or not as the case may be,’ he said. ‘I can always do it if you like?’
Anna smiled at him. If anyone else pulled their weight in the house it was Harry. But his A-level exams would start in just over a month and he needed to revise.
‘No, let them get off their backsides for once — you’ve got enough to do.’
He smiled back. ‘Well, I was hoping to go through some past papers tonight.’
‘Then that’s what you should do. If they don’t get anything sorted, make something for yourself. I’ve been too soft with them for too long.’
Chapter Three
On Saturday afternoon, Anna escaped the house for a few hours, enticed by the April sunshine — and a desperate need to get away from the chores of washing and cleaning that had mounted up during the week. She loved to walk around the streets of Rotherhithe, taking pictures. As she walked she noticed that the trees were starting to bud, a sure sign that spring was on its way after the drabness of winter. Her passion was architecture, both old and new, and she liked recording buildings through the different seasons. Before she realised, several hours had passed and her legs were beginning to ache. With a sigh she decided to head for home.
As she walked she contemplated her life. She certainly wasn’t where she’d expected to be at this age. She’d hoped to have achieved so much more by the age of thirty but, with her twenty-ninth birthday approaching in the next week, time was rapidly running out. And here she was, still living at home, looking after her dad and brothers, in a job she was desperate to get out of, with no boyfriend and very few friends. Not so long ago, she and Daisy would have been out on the town together, drinking in a bar or a club, with or without their boyfriends, or going out for meals or to the cinema as a foursome. But now that Daisy’s relationship with Tom seemed to be getting more serious, and Mark had dumped her for the boss’s daughter, Anna was like a spare wheel. Daisy had mentioned that she and Tom were contemplating moving in together, so Anna imagined she’d be seeing even less of her friend in the future. Binge-watching Netflix looked to become a Saturday night norm for her. She’d spent a large part of last night scouring through job ads, but nothing had appealed to her. Maybe she should be less picky, keep her photography as a hobby and find a job, any job, which was better paid and gave her some chance of a social life.
But it wasn’t just her job that needed to change. Daisy had been right yesterday. She really needed to do something about her home life too. While she continued to pander to them, her dad and brothers weren’t likely to get up and help her out. They were used to living on easy street. Why would they want to change that?
After she’d flounced out of the living room last night, she’d hoped it would be enough to galvanise one of them into doing some actual cooking, but instead her dad had gone to the chippy and brought back fish and chips. At least he’d bought a portion for both her and Harry, but it was still a takeaway and required little effort on his part. This morning she’d got up to find their plates left on the worktop in the kitchen, with congealed smears of ketchup, and an avalanche of empty beer cans on the coffee table in the living room. So, before she’d started her weekend clean, she’d spent a good hour tidying up their mess. Part of her had been tempted to leave it and see how bad the squalor would get before they actually did something about it, but the other part of her was unable to live like that. Her mum had been house-proud and for the house to be anything but neat and tidy, even if it was to make a point, would feel like she was betraying her mother’s memory. Also she didn’t want any rows or arguments — she wanted a tranquil environment for Harry to study. With his A-levels approaching, he needed peace and quiet to make the most of his education, to give him the chance she’d never had. She decided she would try to start putting her foot down gently, to try to get the boys to do more, and then when Harry had finished his exams she’d sit them all down and tell them how she felt and how she wanted things to change. For the meantime, though, she decided she would just have to carry on.
* * *
