Ghosts in the Morning - By Will Thurmann Page 0,19

and protect her from all the bad things...

‘Yeah, whatever,’ she sniffed. ‘Anyway, I don’t need a taxi, I can walk, so I’ll see myself out, yeah.’

The door slammed and she was gone, and I realised that I was crying and I had no idea when exactly the tears had started.

***

I pushed the button to turn on the cooker. Nothing. I gritted my teeth. I wanted to kick the blasted thing, to smash its ugly hob eyes that were glaring at me. Daniel had gone out in a strop, giving the door an extra hard slam to illustrate his annoyance. As if it was my fault that he was acting like a paedophile.

I grabbed the phone book and scanned the yellow pages for home appliance repairs. I dialled the first name. ‘Sorry, there’s no-one here to take your call at the moment, so please leave a message after the tone.’ I rang off and dialled the next.

‘Alan Bonstead speaking.’

‘Hi, I have a problem with my cooker, I’m wondering if-’

‘Er, sorry, yeah, I’m stacked out at the moment, can you give us a call next week?’ I rang off without replying and slammed the phone on the worktop. I sighed and once again, I scrolled down the list of names in the phone book. I took a deep breath, then dialled again.

‘Colin’s Domestic Repairs.’ The voice had a harsh Scottish accent, and was curt to the point of rudeness.

‘Hello, I need someone to take a look at my cooker, it’s-’

‘I don’t fix cookers,’ the voice said.

I dug my nails into my palms. ‘So what the fuck do you fix, then, I would have thought that cookers fall into the category of domestic repairs, no? Or do you not have a cooker in your house, does a cooker not count as a domestic appliance in Scotland, maybe you just cook your fucking haggis on a barbecue, then, you fucking arsehole!’

I paused and heard a brief silence on the phone. Then the accent again, but softer and slower this time. ‘Eh, well, you are some fucking crazy bampot, right you are. A right fucking weirdo, you are missus, you need your head looking at, so you do.’ The phone clicked off.

Fifteen minutes later, I tried again, my rage dulled by a large glass of wine, and this time I reached a repairman who promised he would be with me in twenty minutes.

‘Is simple,’ said the repairman , true to his word on his time of arrival. ‘Is just a fuse. But, lady, I think you need to change the element, soon, yes. It has not long, I think. You want me to change now also, I have parts in van.’

‘Er, yep, okay, fine.’ I shrugged at the repairman. He had told me he was from Poland. ‘I am Pieter, I am from Krakow, is beautiful city, have you ever been, lady. No? You should go, you would like, I think.’

Graham wouldn’t have liked the fact that I was using a Polish repairman. He didn’t like immigrants, and his more vociferous outbursts appeared to be reserved for those that originated from Eastern Europe. He said they came to Jersey, took all of the jobs, and then still had the audacity to moan about the island. ‘You know what they say, if you don’t like it, there’s always a boat in the morning.’ I never really understood how Graham could moan about immigrants, I mean, his parents were from England originally. Personally, it didn’t bother me where someone was from, it always seemed to me that people worried about that sort of thing far too much.

Pieter worked fast. A mere half hour later and he was done. ‘That is, please, eighty five pounds. You want that I send you a bill?’

‘No, no, I’ll get you a cheque now, that’ll be just as easy.’ I rummaged in the kitchen drawer and grabbed the chequebook for the joint account. I cursed quietly. There were no cheques left, just paying-in slips. ‘Hold on a moment.’

Upstairs, I rooted around in Graham’s bedside drawer, and found the chequebook for his account. I stretched my fingers out and picked up a pen. I would write and sign the cheque in Graham’s handwriting. His handwriting was distinctive, with funny loops on the ‘l’s and the ‘t’s, but for me it was easy to copy. I had been doing it for years. Graham knew usually, it didn’t bother him too much. He was happy for me to take care of the domestic administration, it