Deep Wate - Sarah Epstein Page 0,20

had a passing thought about the two nephews living in the house he grew up in. Yet another person who’d voluntarily removed themselves from Ivy’s orbit.

Mason hoped his mother was out somewhere so he could kick his shoes off and crash in front of the TV. But as soon as he eased the front door open, the stench hit him in the face. She’d thrown up somewhere, the third time in as many weeks. Jesus Christ.

Henry’s bedroom door was closed. His mother’s was wide open and he could see her from down the hall. She was fully clothed and lying facedown across the mattress, a reeking patch of vomit covering a sizeable area of the carpet just inside her bedroom door. Some of it had splashed up the hallway skirting board and onto the wall.

Mason swore under his breath. He didn’t have the energy. He just wanted a shower. He wanted to watch mindless crap on TV before stumbling off to bed. Even as he collected a bucket of soapy water and rubber gloves, still on hand from the last clean-up, he considered setting the carpet alight instead.

Where the hell was Henry? Surely he’d heard their mother throwing her guts up. Would it kill him to attempt the clean-up himself for once? It’s not like he hadn’t watched Mason do it a hundred times. The little turd would be lying in that room pretending to be asleep, and tomorrow he’d claim he slept through it all. Mason knew Ivy’s behaviour scared his younger brother, but newsflash: it scared Mason as well.

After fifteen minutes of scrubbing, a fresh bucket of water, and another ten minutes of wiping everything down and towelling it off, Mason knew he was going to have to tackle his mother next if they didn’t want to inhale her foulness all night long. He emptied his bucket into the bath, then rinsed out both the bucket and the tub until they smelled clean. Placing a bathmat on the floor, he then located several fresh towels and left the tub filling as he returned to his mother’s bedroom. She tried to swat him away as he removed her shoes and socks, somehow coaxing her to roll over so he could take off her jeans. That was it though. She could go into the bath in her underwear and T-shirt. It was bad enough doing all this without copping an eyeful of his mother as well.

By the time Mason managed to pull her off the bed, her useless arm slung over his shoulder, her feet staggering and tripping all the way down the hall, he was already dog-tired. Trying to lift her dead weight into the bath almost broke him.

She roused a bit when her legs hit the water, complaining it was cold. Then she slid down the side of the bath like a ragdoll, her numb limbs at awkward angles, unable to do anything to get herself out. Mason squeezed a large blob of shampoo under the running tap and took a moment to appreciate the apple scent masking the sourness of his mother. She had smears of dried vomit on her chin and in her hair. Mason wondered how he’d ever have the patience to sponge them out.

As the water level crept higher, he returned to Ivy’s bedroom and stripped the sheets off the bed. He bundled them into a ball along with his mother’s jeans, and shoved it all into the washing machine on a warm cycle. Ivy made a groaning sound in the bathroom, and Mason hoped to god she wasn’t going to throw up again. He hurried back down the hall to find she’d slipped lower in the bath. Water was inching towards her chin.

Her eyelids fluttered open. ‘Gonna let me drown?’ she slurred. ‘Turn it off.’ She attempted to lift a foot and kick at the tap. Her leg smacked down hard against the surface of the water, sending it sloshing up the sides of the tub.

Mason squirted another blob of shampoo into the tap’s stream, making no move to stop the flow.

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ Her eyelids were heavy. ‘Get rid of us all that way if you could.’

Mason watched the water rise over her chin. It was at her bottom lip.

‘No helpless baby this time,’ she murmured, almost nodding off. ‘You wouldn’t have the balls.’

Water trickled into her mouth. She coughed and spluttered, too wasted to lift her head properly. She let it flop to the other side and her mouth