“What on earth is this? Where are you off to? Whos going to cook dinner? Why are you rushing off like that? Someones got to make the food!” the man fretted, watching what Antonia was doing after her row with his mother.
Antonia glanced out the window. Grim clouds loomed, though spring had only just begun. In their little northern English town, sunny days were rare as hens teeth. Maybe thats why the folk here always seemed so sour-faced.
Lately, Antonia had noticed shed stopped smiling altogether, and the crease between her brows had aged her a decade.
“Mum! Im going out,” announced her daughter, Maisie.
“Right,” Antonia muttered.
“Whats that supposed to mean? Give us some money.”
“Since when do walks cost anything?” Antonia sighed.
“Mum! Why dyou always ask questions?!” Maisie snapped. “Come on, hurry up! Thats barely anything!”
“Itll cover an ice cream.”
“Cheapskate,” Maisie huffed before slamming the door behind her.
Antonia shook her head. She could hardly believe this was the same sweet little girl before the teenage years hit.
“Toni, my stomachs growling! How much longer?!” grumbled her husband, Thomas.
“Help yourself,” she replied flatly, dropping a plate onto the table.
“Or bring it here?”
Antonia nearly flung the pot across the room. Who did he think he was?
“Eat in the kitchen, Tom. Take it or leave it,” she said, sitting down alone.
Fifteen minutes later, Thomas shuffled in.
“Its bloody cold gross.”
“I left it out longer.”
“I asked you nicely! Not an ounce of care in you! You know Ive got the match on!” He shoveled chicken into his mouth. “Tastes like cardboard.”
Antonia rolled her eyes. Football had turned him into a different manbets, scarves, overpriced ticketswhen in his youth, he couldnt have cared less.
Grabbing a can of lager and a bag of “Springfield Crisps,” he stormed back to the telly, leaving Toni to clear the mess.
Why did she even bother? No one appreciated it.
She was dead on her feet after her shift as a senior nurse at the hospital. Patients came to her with their aches and tempers, and shed end up soaked in stress at work, only to come home to another shiftfetch, carry, wash, tidy.
“Any more left?” Thomas yanked another can from the fridge. “Whys there never any?”
“You drank the lot! Am I supposed to buy those too? Have some shame, Tom!” Antonia finally snapped.
“Look whos all high and mighty,” he sneered before slamming the door, off to “restock” for the next match.
Antonia decided to turn in earlytomorrow was another long day. But sleep wouldnt come. She fretted over Maisiewhere was she? Who was she with? It was pitch black outside, and still no sign of her. She dared not calllast time, Maisie had screamed down the phone.
“You embarrass me in front of my mates! Stop calling!”
After that, Toni stopped checking, telling herself Maisie was eighteen now. No job, no unijust a “gap year to find herself.”
Dozing off, Antonia was jolted awake by Thomass drunken whoopingsomeone mustve scored. Then he started bellowing about the game with the neighbour whod popped round. Later, the neighbours girlfriend joined, and the three of them carried on like a rowdy pub crowd.
Maisie finally stumbled in near midnight, clattering plates before padding off to bed. Just as silence fell, the cat yowled for food.
“Am I the only one in this house who feeds this bloody cat?!” Fuming, half-mad with a migraine and exhaustion, Antonia stormed out, hoping someone would hear. But Maisie had her headphones in, thumbing her phone, and Thomas was already snoring with a can in his hand.
“Ive bloody had it,” Toni thought.
The next morning, her mother-in-laws call woke her.
“Antonia, love, dont forgetits time to plant the veg. And we need to sort the cottage.”
“I remember,” Toni sighed.
“Well go tomorrow.”
Her one day off was spent toiling under her mother-in-laws watchful eye.
“How dyou hold that broom?! Do it properly!” Vera barked from her perch on the garden bench.
“Im nearly fifty, Vera. I can manage,” Toni dared to retort.
“And wheres Thomas?”
“Wheres your Thomas? Why didnt he drive his own mother here? Whyd we have to slog three hours on the bus? And youalways on about him, him, him!”
“Hes tired.”
“And Im not?”
Then it started. Toni regretted speaking upVera loved a good lecture, though her idea of fairness only ever went one way. Her whole life, shed doted on Thomas while treating Toni like some grudgingly tolerated servant.
They rode back in silence, sitting at opposite ends of the bus. The next day, Vera complained to her son, and Thomas blew his top.
“How dare you talk back to my mum?!” he snarled. “If it werent for her”
“What?” Toni folded her arms. Shed had enough.
“Youd still be stuck at that clinic!” He pulled his trump cardVera had pulled strings to get Toni the hospital job. Better pay, but it cost her sanity. More than once, shed wished shed never left the quiet local clinic. “Where dyou think youre going?”
Thomas was stunned when he saw what Antonia did next.
He never wouldve believed it in a million years.
