AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Lost his footing. Fell a good ten feet. Knocked himself out.’
We face each other a metre apart. Him clutching the tent and frowning at the ground. Me fixed on the distant line of sea behind him. Straining against the tears. A breeze whips up, blows my hair in my face. I brush it out of my eyes, giving them a wipe while I’m at it. He catches my movement, looks up at me. Gethin again in those questioning eyes.
‘Dinnae go greeting on me, big biker lassie like you,’ he says at last. Trace of a smile?
I take a breath. Pull a smile back.
‘Let’s have a walk,’ he says.
We take a path to the beach, skirting the golf course. Sandy bay in the curve of dense green bushes and grass. Silvery pools from the outgoing tide. Fishy smell of rotting seaweed and the cry of a gull. No bugger in sight though it’s only about five. We walk towards the rocks on the far side of the beach. Stretch my arms – take a lung-full of air.
‘Do you know what?’ I break the silence. ‘I still can’t get over the massive amounts of space and air up here. So few people.’
‘Aye, that’s the best bit.’ Don picks up a flat white stone. Turns it over in his hand as he tells me how he spent his time here as a little boy, with his hide-out in a cave on the cliff-side. I try to picture him as like a mini Gethin, trapping small animals, doing a spot of fishing, building a fire…
‘I’d feel like I was the only person on earth,’ he says, looking up at me. The pain of the memory like etched in his face.
‘So, how is it any surprise that Gethin wants to feel his connection to this place?’
‘His connection?’ Don picks up his pace towards the sea. ‘I was transported to Glasgow aged seven, had to fight my way in the alien city. Me da busy ruining us all with his moneymaking dream, me ma chronically depressed in the tower-block. It was the thought of this place got me through.’ He stops and turns to me. Spitting out the words. ‘Gethin has some misty notion of a link to the clan and a load of old stories he knows nothing about.’ He walks on fast again.
I scurry to keep up. ‘Look, OK, Gethin has no real claim to this place. But how is that a reason to cut him off? God’s sake, the lad’s in frigging hospital.’
‘He’ll still get nae invites to Broomdale via me.’ He keeps turning his stone over.
‘Broomdale? What the heck’s that?’
He scowls, picks up another stone as he walks. Says nowt until he reaches the water’s edge.
‘I know what you’re thinking.’ He stops before the frilly curve of the incoming sea.
‘Oh yeah?’ I watch as he skims his stone to bounce five times.
‘You found your da while he was dying. Don’t get me wrong, I admire your spirit. But you think it should be the same with Gethin, and I’m telling you, it’s not.’ He takes the other stone and gets seven bounces. ‘See, I didn’t get his ma up the duff and then bugger off like your father, did I?’
‘You know nowt about it. Fuck you!’ I walk away from him. Kick at the wet sand as I go. What about the lass he supposedly got pregnant? How fucking dare he?
I get about twenty metres away before I think to calm down. Come on, girl. Not helping to make it all about me. Stand still and stare at the sea. He catches up with me. Skims another stone.
‘You have no right to criticise Ken,’ I say quietly.
‘All I’m saying is he has some responsibility for the wean that is you. Me? Just helping some lesbo bird I never met.’ He shakes his head.
‘And that makes a difference to Gethin how? Half his frigging genes are yours, right?’
He shoves his hands in his pockets. A wave comes in closer and covers his boots. He splashes on through to the rocks.
‘Genetics dinnae mean jack-shit.’ He stops to shout in my face. Isn’t that what Gethin said? ‘How bothered was his ma about my genes? She wanted a bairn without a man, and that is what she got.’
‘So how come you wrote that stuff about yourself?’
He flinches at this. Purses his lips and walks on.
‘You thought the kid might want to know about you, right?’
He carries on walking.
‘You could have left it like totally anonymous, right? But you gave him hints at who you are. How are you surprised when he wants more?’
