A Proper Family Christmas (7 page)

‘I think this is the worst hangover I have ever had,’ she said when Richard placed a plate before her. ‘In fact, it’s so bad—’ She got up from the table and made a dash for the guest cloakroom, where she heaved over the toilet bowl. Nothing came up but she didn’t trust herself to keep anything down. So Richard shared her breakfast with a very grateful Leander, who was on course to be the fattest Labrador in the county. They really must walk him more often. Richard needed to get more exercise too.

A couple of hours later, Annabel made herself some toast and after eating that she felt much better. The weather was great again so they set deckchairs in the garden and lounged there all day, listening to the sort of music that would have had Izzy rolling her eyes. It was just like when they were first married and had all the time in the world for each other.

For just a moment, Annabel felt slightly guilty that she missed Izzy far less than she expected. She was worrying about her far less than she had thought she would too. She was having a wonderful time.

Izzy too was having a wonderful time. She went with Saul to find breakfast. Jessica and the other girls weren’t awake.

Izzy liked Saul more and more. He told Izzy that she was his favourite of Jessica’s friends. She was adventurous but she didn’t make a big deal about it, he elaborated. Like when he asked her to roll all those joints. The other girls would have been shrieking and making out like he was trying to send them straight to jail, but Izzy just got on with it. She didn’t draw attention to herself. She may only have been sixteen but she acted as though she was a whole lot older. More sophisticated.

‘Do I? Do I really?’ Izzy wanted to squeak. She wanted to hear Saul tell her she was sophisticated again, but she guessed that wouldn’t be cool in the least, so instead she just nodded and said, ‘Thanks, Saul.’

At the catering van, Saul borrowed forty quid off Izzy to buy breakfast for the whole gang. He got two bacon butties for himself. Izzy had two as well. One to eat right then, before they were even three steps away from the van, and one to eat with everyone else later on. When Izzy got tomato ketchup on the side of her mouth, Saul gently brushed it away with his thumb. He looked into Izzy’s eyes as he did it and she felt her insides liquefy. He looked at Jessica like that all the time. Lucky cow. Izzy gave him a quavering smile in return. It didn’t mean anything. She had to remember that. Saul was her best friend’s boyfriend. Izzy made a point of talking to anyone but Saul for the rest of the morning. But later on Saul drew her into a conversation he was having with Jessica.

It was about drugs. Saul didn’t just want to drink beer and cider and smoke Izzy’s perfectly rolled joints all weekend. To him, the festival would only really get going when they took some ecstasy. Jessica wasn’t having it.

‘Well, I’m not doing it,’ she said.

‘What? Because your mum told you not to?’ Saul teased.

‘Not because of anything my mum said,’ Jessica told him. ‘Because I don’t want to. Smoking weed is one thing but when you take tablets, you don’t know what you’re getting. And I’m not stupid enough to take that risk. Though you obviously are.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with these,’ said Saul, pulling a small plastic bag of pills from a pocket in his poacher’s jacket. ‘I’ve been buying off the same guy for years.’

‘And who does he buy them from?’ Jessica asked.

‘He always gets them from the same place. I’ve never had any trouble. He just wouldn’t give me the dodgy shit. Though there was this one time …’ Saul began to chuckle at the very thought of the story. ‘There were these kids here last year. A bunch of stuck-up gits from Eton. They swaggered over, all full of it, like they were in
Breaking Bad
. They had wads of cash. Big thick bricks of it like you see in gangster films. They asked Josh what he was selling. Didn’t even try to haggle on the price. And he sent them off with a handful of his girlfriend’s aspirin, for her migraines, like. The best bit was …’ The memory was so amusing to Saul that he could barely get the next part of the story out. He lay on his back on the floor, trying hard to keep the hilarity in, holding on to his stomach.

‘What was the best bit?’ asked Jessica. She did not look amused in the least.

‘The best bit was, they were completely taken in by it. They had a tent about fifty metres from us and all night long they were dancing and giggling and falling over like they were completely out of their heads. The next morning, they even came by our tent and asked if we had some more, because it was the best ecstasy they’d ever taken in their lives.’

Saul slapped his thighs.

‘Fucking idiots. It was aspirin. Aspirin! And they were totally off their heads.
The power of suggestion.
’ Saul waggled his fingers in a stage magician’s gesture. ‘Josh says he’s brought a whole load of aspirin with him this year in case those dicks turn up again.’

‘And how can you be sure he hasn’t given you aspirin too?’ Jessica asked.

‘I’m not that stupid,’ said Saul.

‘I’ll check for you,’ said Izzy. ‘If it’s aspirin, it should be printed on each one,’ she added, though she didn’t know that for sure. Saul handed the tablets over and she peered at them closely through the clear plastic.

‘What if one of those kids had been allergic to aspirin?’ Jessica carried on.

‘You can’t go to prison for selling someone something they could buy over the counter in Boots,’ said Saul.

‘That’s not the point,’ said Jessica. ‘The point is, when you buy drugs you don’t know what you’re getting. You just don’t. And that’s why I won’t touch anything like that.’

‘When did you get to be so dull?’ said Saul. If he meant it to come out gently, as a joke, it didn’t.

Jessica’s eyes flashed with anger.

‘I’m not dull. I just don’t want to take anything and I don’t want you to take anything either. I care about you. I don’t want you to die.’

Saul snorted.

‘You sound like that drug talk we got at school. No one’s gonna die, babe. Banning drugs is just another part of the conspiracy to keep the ordinary man down. If drugs were legal, they wouldn’t generate so much cash. And arms sales.’

‘Why do you even want to be involved with something that leads to arms sales?’ Jessica asked. ‘You’re an idiot.’

‘And that’s your old man talking,’ said Saul.

Evidently, Jessica’s parents weren’t terribly keen on her beau, which is why she had told them that Saul would be surfing in Cornwall that weekend. He wouldn’t be anywhere near the festival. She’d promised on her life.

‘Maybe Dad’s right,’ Jessica said.

Jessica got up and walked off. Gina and Chloe followed her, leaving only Izzy with the boys. Saul shrugged his shoulders.

‘Aren’t you going to go after her?’ Izzy asked.

‘Time of the month,’ said Saul. ‘She always gets like this. She’ll calm down eventually. I’m not going to let her ruin my night.’

‘I don’t think these are aspirin,’ said Izzy, handing back the pills Saul had given her to inspect.

He nodded his thanks.

Izzy felt torn. On the one hand, she probably should be with her best friend, offering the kind of sisterly support she usually would in these circumstances. But lately she’d been feeling that Jessica hadn’t been quite so supportive of her. She’d been snippy and unkind about all sorts of things, belittling her and calling her ‘Izzy-Wizzy’ in front of people whose respect Izzy valued. Perhaps they were drifting apart. Izzy wanted to stay here with Saul. Right now, he was paying her all the attention she craved. And Jessica was overreacting. Just because she didn’t want to take any ecstasy didn’t mean she had to give Saul and the others a lecture. They were adults. They could make their own decisions.

Now Izzy made the decision not to run after her bestie, like they were starring in some Disney made-for-TV movie about high school friends. She wasn’t Jessica’s Siamese twin. She could make her own choices. Instead, Izzy sank back on to the cushions next to Saul. His leg was brushing against hers. She could feel the heat through her jeans. Saul was rolling another joint, hopelessly. Izzy asked him if she could help.

‘Yeah. You’re the best at this,’ he said.

Izzy deftly manoeuvred the rolling paper between her thin fingers to make a tight little tube of tobacco and the last of the weed. She licked the edge of the paper to make it stick. She fixed her eyes on Saul’s while she did it. He looked straight back at her.

‘You’re a top girl, Izzy. You’re different,’ he said. ‘Yeah.’

Back in the garden at the Great House, Annabel and Richard were enjoying a bottle of prosecco in the last of the sun. Well, Richard was enjoying it. Annabel thought the prosecco tasted like licking zinc. Anyway, the conversation had moved, as it always seemed to, on to the subject of their daughter. They were both proud of her and enjoyed these moments, when it was just the two of them in private conversation, when they could reminisce and brag without worrying about boring their company. They were their daughter’s biggest fans.

‘I worry about Jessica though,’ said Annabel. ‘She’s not the kind of friend I would have chosen for Izzy. She cares so much about what she looks like. She dresses like she’s auditioning for
TOWIE
and she doesn’t seem terribly sensible. I wish Izzy wouldn’t just follow what Jessica does all the time.’

‘But those other girls. Gina and Chloe. They’re very sensible,’ said Richard. ‘And so is Izzy. The thing is, the more we try to discourage her from hanging out with girls like that, the greater appeal they’ll hold.’

‘Well, I suppose Jessica is doing all right at school. And her mother, while she isn’t the sort of person I would choose to have around, does seem to be very caring.’

‘We should have them over,’ said Richard. ‘Jessica’s parents. What are their names? Jodie and—’

‘No way! You’d spend the whole evening looking at her cleavage.’

‘Perhaps they’re swingers,’ said Richard. ‘Perhaps we could reinstate the swingers’ evenings here.’

The rumour in the village was that the previous owner of the Great House had used it as a venue for wild sex parties. He’d imported hookers from Russia especially.

‘There were no swingers’ evenings here,’ said Annabel. ‘That’s just envy talking. He never invited anyone from the village to the house and so they made up all that ridiculous nonsense about swingers’ parties to get their own back.’

‘We never invite anyone from the village here. I wonder what they say about us,’ Richard mused.

‘I invite people from the village here all the time,’ Annabel protested.

‘In your role as Lady Bountiful.’

‘I think I did my part this year. I let God-only-knows-who traipse all over the house. That family …’ Annabel shuddered. ‘The ones with the little boy who knocked over the suit of armour.’

‘Our family heirloom!’ Richard exclaimed, laughing at the very thought of it. The armour from the French junk shop. ‘Thank goodness it was OK.’

‘I know, but why couldn’t they just keep their child under control? They were feral. Next year, I want you to do the tour with me. You can bring up the rear. Make sure no one is hanging about. Like that girl Izzy claims she caught in her room.’

‘You’re doing it again next year?’ Richard frowned. ‘Do we have to?’

‘Yes,’ said Annabel. ‘We do.’

‘Anything for you, my love.’ Richard planted a kiss on Annabel’s neck and started to growl lasciviously.

‘Richard,’ said Annabel. ‘Remember your blood pressure!’

Then Izzy texted.
I hope you’re behaving yourselves!

Just after Izzy texted her parents, she finally got a text from Jessica. Jessica said that she and the other girls were going to watch Creepers on the main stage and Izzy should meet them there.

‘Is that from Jess?’ Saul asked when Izzy got the text.

‘Yeah.’

‘Is she still in a mood?’

‘I think so. She says she’s going to watch Creepers.’

‘Are you going to meet her?’

Izzy shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. I don’t really like Creepers,’ she added.

That was a lie. Izzy loved the band. She’d been looking forward to seeing them enormously. But earlier that day, she’d heard Saul say he thought they were
derivative
, the kind of band you got into if you weren’t old enough to know what was really good. She didn’t want Saul to think she didn’t know good music when she heard it. So she was going to miss a live show by her heroes.

‘I’d rather stay here and listen to the didgeridoo,’ she claimed.

A man three tents down had been playing the didgeridoo non-stop for what seemed like hours. Just two notes. Over and over and over. He could only have found that kind of stamina on drugs. Izzy secretly wished he would shut up but Saul claimed that the noise of the ancient instrument connected with the human soul at its very deepest level. He insisted that Izzy lie on the ground and feel the spiritual vibrations.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I totally get what you mean.’

Really she just felt dizzy from all the cider and the weed.

Saul had been waiting for the right moment to take a tablet. There was no point taking one when you were in the wrong mood, he explained. The reason why people had bad experiences with drugs wasn’t because of the drugs but because of their own brain chemistry. If you were in a bad place to begin with, then the drugs could only take you to a worse one. If you were in a good place, however, you’d have the time of your life. And, as they listened to the didgeridoo, Saul said he was now getting towards that good place. Arguing with Jessica had put him into a bad mood but having talked to Izzy he was feeling much better. Together with the ancient rhythms of Australia, she had brought him back to that buzzed state he spent most of his life trying to achieve.

Izzy was flattered.

Saul dug in his jacket pocket for the little plastic bag.

‘So are you going to have one?’ he asked, as he shook some pills out. He held his hand out towards her. There were two tablets in his palm. Izzy stared at them. If she was honest, she had rather hoped this moment wouldn’t come.