Final Demand by Deborah Moggach Page B

like some fountains with tears overflowed . . .
’
    The lavatory flushed and Chloe came out.
    â€˜Oh,’ she said, her face reddening.
    â€˜You should take it up professionally,’ he said. ‘Why did you stop the guitar?’
    â€˜Were you outside all the time?’ Her blush deepened. He had been listening to her on the toilet!
    â€˜No – I just heard . . .’
    But she hurried away into her bedroom and closed the door.
    David tapped and let himself in. Chloe was sitting on her bed.
    â€˜I was only trying to say—’
    â€˜Please, Dad—’
    â€˜I was only trying to say you should do something with yourself.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ Her hands flew to her face.
    â€˜You’ve got a nice voice. You’ve got – well, a lot of things going for you . . .’
    â€˜Like what?’
    â€˜Chloe! Stop being so bloody negative. You’ll never get anywhere that way.’
    â€˜I want to go to sleep.’
    â€˜Isn’t it time you got off your behind and did something with your life?’
    Sheila appeared in her dressing gown.
    â€˜Mum, tell him to stop!’
    â€˜David—’
    His voice rose. ‘Look at Rowena – don’t you want to see the world, go places?’ A terrible pity seized him; the way her thighs rubbed together now when she walked. When she
waddled.
‘You can’t just sit here, rotting away—’
    â€˜David!’ said his wife.
    â€˜Do you really want to end up like me and your mother—’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ demanded Sheila.
    â€˜Stuck in a pub seven days a week? You really want that?’
    â€˜Dad, stop it!’
    His wife put her hand on his arm. ‘That’s enough,’ she said.
    Later, Sheila came into their bedroom.
    â€˜You shouldn’t have talked to her like that,’ she whispered.
    â€˜I was only trying to help. She takes everything the wrong way.’
    â€˜It’s how you put it.’
    David lit a cigarette. He knew that Sheila disliked him smoking, up here in the bedroom, but he just did. He was standing at the window, gazing down into the back yard.
    â€˜Don’t you see?’ whispered Sheila. ‘She’s happy, in her own way. You just upset her, talking like that.’
    â€˜It’s for her own good.’ Down in the yard, the barrels glinted in the lights from the office block. The windows were lit all night; it was a crying waste of electricity.
    â€˜She’s not ambitious, not in the way you want her to be. You can’t mould her into the sort of person she’s not.’ Sheila sat on the bed. ‘You’re such a tyrant, Dave. Don’t you see you’re taking away her confidence, what little she has of it? Maybe she feels she’s too overweight to be an air hostess.’
    â€˜Why doesn’t she go on a diet then?’
    â€˜Ssh!’ Sheila lowered her voice.
    â€˜Make herself a bit more attractive. She might even get a boyfriend—’
    â€˜She’s perfectly pretty – just a bit plump—’
    â€˜Plump? If she got on a plane it wouldn’t be able to take off.’
    â€˜David!’ She stared at him. ‘That’s a horrible thing to say.’
    David turned and looked at his wife. He thought: If you hadn’t got pregnant I could have been a professional, I could have gone on that tour.
    â€˜She’ll do what she wants,’ said Sheila ‘in her own good time.’
    â€˜You want to keep her here.’ He thought: You want to stop her growing up, you want to tie her to your apron strings. ‘You want to keep her here just so you’ve got some company.’
    Sheila glared at him. ‘Well, can you blame me?’
    David thought: And this was the night I was going to kiss her.
    In her bedroom, Chloe pulled the duvet over her head and slid under it like a tortoise into its shell.

Chapter Two
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