"So, Mara, what did you learn at school today?" Mum asks me, fixing her gaze and cold smile on me. She's trying the whole let's-pretend-we're-a-happy-family thing again. It worked a lot better when Dad was still here.
"Nothing," I say.
"You must have learned something," she says, and I can tell it's through gritted teeth. She's annoyed because Jake rattled off a whole bunch of stuff while we were eating dinner. Now that we're onto dessert, she's onto me.
"Well, there was one thing," I say around a mouthful of yoghurt. Strawberry. I'd rather have raspberry, but she doesn't listen to me.
She winces, like she wants to tell me not to talk with my mouth full but is too relieved that I'm talking at all to give me any kind of grief about it.
"They've invented this soft steel stuff."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm serious. It's steel, but soft."
Mum laughs, her tinkly little laugh. I'll give her credit for that at least, her fake laugh sounds just like her genuine one. Or maybe I've never heard her laugh for real.
"It's not funny," I tell her. "It's a real thing."
"Oh, pray tell, wise daughter of mine, what on earth would anybody use soft steel for?"
"I don't know," I say, and then an idea hits. I struggle to keep my face straight and wait for her
to take another spoonful of her own yoghurt. Low fat vanilla that says more about her than I ever could. "I guess you could use it for condoms."
Her jaw drops.
"And you really should keep your mouth shut when you're eating."
No comments:
Post a Comment