Half the World Away - страница 9

‘Anyone special on the scene?’ I say, before we get to goodbyes.

Lori grins. ‘Maybe.’

‘Dawn?’ I say.

‘Maybe. It’s-’ Then she’s tongue-tied.

‘Jo,’ Nick chides me, ‘leave her be.’

‘Only asking.’

‘Digging.’

‘I’m going now,’ Lori says. ‘Happy Christmas.’ She waves both arms and Finn copies her. Isaac digs deeper into my neck.

‘Bye-bye, Isaac,’ she calls. He glances back to the laptop, shakes his hand.

‘Happy new year,’ Nick says.

‘Love you,’ I say. ‘Have fun.’

‘Will do. Love you too.’

She waves again, blows kisses and cuts the connection.

‘You going to have a nap?’ I murmur in Isaac’s ear. He shakes his head.

‘OK.’ I swap a glance with Nick. ‘Milkshakes and Kung Fu Panda, then.’

‘Whooo!’ Finn dances, his approximation of martial-art shapes.

‘I want to play Angry Birds,’ Isaac says.

‘You can do that after the movie or you can do it on my phone now.’

‘I don’t want to do it on your phone,’ he whimpers.

‘That’s fine. After the movie.’ I brace myself for more crying or a full-on tantrum but he gives a sigh of resignation.

The day stretches ahead. I work out we have another seven hours until they’ll be in bed. Another three till the turkey will be done.

‘Lori had cocktails,’ I say to Nick, as I line up the DVD player.

‘Cocktails.’ He catches on immediately. ‘Now there’s an idea. Not sure what we’ve got, spirit wise.’

‘Surprise me,’ I say.

Lori in the Ori-ent

China

Posted on 20 January 2014 by Lori

First impressions. It is big. It is incredibly busy. Everyone is Chinese – does that sound daft? It’s just there are very, very few non-Chinese faces in the crowds. I can’t understand anything. At all. It is really, really noisy. Like everything is turned up to eleven.

Everyone stares at me. It’s like living in one of those embarrassing dreams where you’re onstage and have no clothes on, except you’re awake and it’s happening even though you’re dressed. People laugh at me too.

Thailand and Vietnam felt new and totally different from home but China – it’s like another planet, not just another country.

And I am the alien.

The most important thing I have learned is how to say ‘No – don’t want it’. Loud and proud. ‘Bú yào.’ Because everyone is hustling and you can’t walk along the pavement without getting hassled to buy stuff.

In these first photos you can see the view from my room. There are three ring roads in Chengdu and this is the middle one. The tower blocks around are enormous, over thirty storeys high, and at street level there are shops and bars and street stalls. I love the old architecture, the teahouses along the river, the beautiful pagodas and bridges. There are lots of parks but there’s also loads of building work everywhere (more tower blocks). The pictures of the park make it look old and peaceful. Maybe I’ll add a soundtrack sometime so you can hear how loud it all is. It’s a bit overwhelming but my travel mate Dawn says to go with the flow. So that’s what I’m doing. Lxxx

The new year doesn’t bring all those things we hope for – health, wealth and happiness. Things start to unravel at the end of January. Nick is standing in the kitchen, his face several shades paler than usual, his eyes darker, inky, angry.

‘They say there’s no need to panic,’ he says, ‘but everyone’s tarting up their CVs and rediscovering LinkedIn. Fuck, Jo.’ He refills his whisky glass.

‘They’ll keep some people on,’ I say, ‘surely, even if the merger goes ahead. The project will still need finishing.’

‘I don’t know. Andy’s not giving anyone straight answers.’ Andy is his boss, the project manager. ‘He probably doesn’t know himself,’ he adds, still anxious to be fair, even though he might be getting shafted. ‘It’s an awful time to be looking for jobs.’

‘It might not come to that. We’ll manage,’ I say.

‘How? On what you earn? On bloody benefits?’

‘We’ll have to,’ I say. ‘People do.’ I’m being optimistic. I’ve seen families at school go through the mill, plunged into free school dinners, shocked at the reality of life on the welfare system. And others who, despite all their efforts, have never been able to escape from it, now shamed and hounded by the rhetoric of blaming the poor for poverty. But I’m determined to remain positive, ignore the way my stomach dropped when he announced the risk of redundancy.