Free The Furies: A Novel by Natalie Haynes

dad at weekends, then?’ I asked her.
    ‘We could see him as often if we were in Sweden. He’d have to take one extra flight each way. He’s just being selfish.’
    ‘Well, I hope you can visit Stockholm soon, at least,’ I said.
    She shrugged, immune to ingratiation.
    ‘Ricky isn’t lucky either,’ said Carly. ‘He didn’t choose to be living with his grandparents, did he? No-one would. You’d rather live with your parents, even if they’re intensely annoying, like mine. But that’s still where he is.’
    ‘Do you think that’s why he hasn’t come in today?’ I asked.
    It was Jono who replied, without looking up from his desk. He was fiddling with something shiny and black. I couldn’t tell if it was a phone or a console. ‘He comes in when he feels like it. They’re old. They don’t really notice what he does.’
    ‘And some people don’t even get that,’ Mel added. ‘My brother was three when he died. He wasn’t being punished for being bad, he just got ill and then he died.’
    The room fell silent. Even Jono stopped fidgeting. All I could hear were the distant sirens from the main road.
    ‘Are you OK talking about this?’ I asked her.
    She gave a small smile. ‘I wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise. Anyway, it was ten years ago. Nearly eleven, actually. I got measles at school. Or maybe Jamie caught them at nursery. I can’t remember who got sick first. We were both ill at the same time, anyway, and I was only five. But we both got really bad, and had to go to hospital. Jamie died, and I went deaf. But I didn’t mind that so much, once my ears stopped hurting. That bit was terrible.’
    ‘I didn’t think you could die of the measles,’ Annika said. Her usual fuck-you tone was missing.
    ‘You can’t if you’ve been vaccinated,’ Mel explained. ‘You have the MMR jab when you’re little, and then if you do catch measles or whatever, you don’t get it so badly. But me and Jamie hadn’t been vaccinated. My mum blamed my dad for that. He thought the injection was dangerous. She said he talked her out of us having it. She’s never forgiven him. That’s why they got divorced.’
    Carly was watching her friend intently. Her left arm was hovering, ready to hug.
    ‘God, Mel, that is awful,’ said Jono, turning back to look at her. ‘I didn’t know you went deaf, I thought you were born that way.’
    ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I could hear fine till the measles. That’s why I can talk properly now.’
    And it was true: she didn’t sound deaf. At least, not to me. Her consonants had a slight thickening to them, which people might easily attribute to a cold, if they didn’t notice her hearing aids. And since she had shoulder-length blonde hair which fell into layered waves over her ears, her tiny hearing aids were easily missed. I didn’t even realise they were hearing aids when I first saw them: they were so small and silver, I thought they were ear buds.
    ‘So, what do you think about your destiny, Mel? Do you think you were fated to be deaf?’
    ‘Maybe.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I’m not, like, politically deaf. Deaf with a capital D, I mean. Some deaf people are really hard core. But I don’t want to be part of Deaf culture, do I?’
    ‘Don’t you?’ I asked. ‘Why not?’
    ‘They only hang out with other deaf people and only talk with sign language and stuff. I want to live like the rest of you, but I have to do it with hearing aids. It’s not terrible. It’s not like missing a leg or something. I don’t really think about what it would be like to hear properly. I can’t remember what that felt like, to be honest. So I don’t know. Maybe I was destined for deafness, and that’s why I’m not upset by it.’
    ‘And do you think your brother was destined to die?’ Annika leaned forward past Carly so she could see Mel more clearly.
    I flinched, but Mel’s expression didn’t change at all.
    ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It seems kind of