What They Do in the Dark - By Amanda Coe Page 0,77

clothes, for a start.

Vera established herself with her ciggie and cup of tea in a good spot, out of the way of the crew but with a view of the action. The school playing fields were part of a larger public space, the haunt of dog walkers and idlers, and, now that it was the school holidays, children. Some of their classmates were being employed to play rounders with Lallie, and word was bound to get out. But while the shadows were long, the fields remained almost empty.

It was a shame there was no one to natter to; the girl playing the teacher had been talkative in make-up but she was needed now, and Dirk of course couldn’t be relied upon for conversation. Anyway, Mike had buttonholed him and was talking over something to do with the scene, Dirk nodding judiciously. Everyone felt a tiny bit off the leash, Mike included, she thought. His stammer had relaxed, for one thing. The absence of producers may have accounted for the change in atmosphere, or it might just have been the demob-happy rush of the last day.

Lallie’s mother – what was her bloody name? – dragged a chair next to Vera and plonked herself down in it, juggling her own tea and fag with all the ostentation of a music-hall turn.

‘That’s better. You don’t mind, do you?’

Vera smiled warmly and told the woman to be her guest.

‘Can’t believe it, me. Last day.’

Vera agreed that it was impossible to believe. The mother huddled up to her tea, as though it was cold. Perhaps there was the faintest undertow of autumn in the air compared to the previous weeks.

‘Lallie said when I got her up, Mummy, what are we going to do tomorrow? I said, have a lie-in for a start, hen!’

Vera laughed with her, easily. ‘What are you going to be doing next?’

The woman’s face jumped. ‘Now you’re asking.’

‘She’ll be rolling in offers after this. Everyone’s full of how marvellous she is. Anyway, I thought they wanted her in America.’

‘Aye. Well.’ The mother took a furtive drag of her cigarette and leaned into Vera, lowering her voice. ‘That’s what the producer was talking to us about, Quentin …’

It wasn’t that much of a shocker, given the vagaries of the business. Apparently, after Quentin had given the child and her mother some flim-flam about flying them over for screen tests, the mother had forked out for flights herself. Then Quentin had turned a bit elusive, and taken off for Italy before Katrina managed to pin her down about it. Katrina had heard people thought she’d started drinking.

‘You don’t know what’s going on,’ Vera reassured her. ‘Anything could happen. She could lose her job if she’s got a drink problem.’ Unable to resist, she added, ‘I heard it was drugs.’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised.’ Katrina sizzled her fag end into her last inch of tea. ‘I can’t be bothered with it, to be honest. Our kid’s got a contract with LWT, they want her to start shooting a Christmas special in October. I just thought we could fit it in, since she’s been so mad about the States. I mean, you do it for them, don’t you?’

Vera agreed that you did.

‘We can’t get the money back, for the plane. I asked. Looks like we’ll just go on holiday, like.’

Vera accompanied Katrina’s bleak gaze to where Lallie was running about with her stand-in, both of them dressed in aertex shirts and gym skirts.

‘Won’t get her dad’s ticket back, though. Have to ask me mam to come with us instead.’

Vera saw, as the twin figures swooped and chased, that Lallie was now very slightly taller than the adult pretending to be her.

‘Doesn’t your husband like flying?’

‘Oh, no, he’s fine with flying.’ Katrina toed the polystyrene cup further under her chair. ‘It’s me he’s not keen on.’

74. EXT. SCHOOL PLAYING FIELDS. DAY.

JUNE is playing rounders with her school class. COLIN watches.

The rounders match was incidental to Dirk watching in tortured fashion, so they went close in on the girls, pick-up shots really of them running, hitting the ball, calling to each other; Lallie found and then lost among the melee. Mike left it to Tony. And then it was the reverse close on Dirk. During all this, Katrina confided that her husband, Lallie’s dad, liked to put it about a bit. Katrina admitted that she’d gone right off sex after having Lallie, and gave graphic details of her episiotomy scarring. She didn’t feel right, down there. And she knew