Free The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell

a question then that she’d like to ask, but she felt too shy so she stayed silent.
    ‘So your mum and Ken – are they, you know … ?’
    Melody didn’t know, didn’t know at all. Matty’s question meant nothing to her, so she just nodded.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Matty. ‘I guessed as much. Fuck, this place just gets weirder and weirder.’ He tutted and shook his head. ‘Still,’ he eyed her up broodily, ‘you seem like a nice girl. If you were a bit older, we could even be friends. But I’ll look out for you. I’ll make sure you’re OK. Because if I don’t, then believe me, nobody bloody will.’
    He turned then, took his hands from his pocket and walked back into the kitchen.
    Melody stood and stared at the balloon-shaped blob and wondered whether anything in her life would ever feel normal again.

Chapter 12
Now
     
    That night, the night she got back from Broadstairs, the night that Melody could have been having dinner with Ben, she decided to take her son to the pub instead. They went to the Cross Keys, their local, a tiny, fussy pub, spilling over with heavy-handed Victoriana and hanging baskets of petunias. Ed had a pint of Stella and Melody had a pint of shandy. They sat together on a small ledge around a tree on the pavement outside, squeezed between fifty overloud office workers unwinding at the end of the day.
    ‘So,’ said Ed, resting his pint on the wall next to him, ‘what’s going on with you?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘You? What’s up?’
    ‘Nothing’s up.’
    ‘Oh, come on, Mum. I’m not stupid. Ever since you met that bloke, you’ve been different. Is everything OK?’
    ‘Yes, of course it is.’
    ‘So, what’s happening with him? Is he treating you OK?’
    Melody laughed. ‘Ben?’ she said, trying to envisage big, soft, soppy Ben doing anything more offensive than failing to hold a door open for her. ‘Oh God, Ed, if you met him, he’s just a … he’s a sweetheart, he’s a gent.’
    ‘Then why are you acting so weird?’
    ‘What sort of weird?’
    ‘I dunno. Cagey. And why’ve you stopped smoking?’
    She shrugged. ‘Just seemed a good time to.’
    Ed furrowed his brow at her and it was all Melody could do not to fling her arms around his neck and hug him to her, her baby, her only baby, so concerned and so oblivious to everything that was going on in her life.
    ‘You mustn’t worry about me,’ she said. ‘Maybe I am going through some changes. Maybe it’s the idea of you growing up and leaving me that’s making me feel a bit … out of shape. You know, it’s just been you and me for so long, I haven’t had to think about anything else, and now I’m having to start thinking about the bigger picture, about what happens next …’
    ‘I’m not going anywhere just yet.’ He smiled and picked up his pint.
    ‘No, I know you’re not, not physically, but emotionally, you’ll need me less and less every day. And even my job – I only took it so I could be near you, so that I could be around at the holidays, but I don’t need to be a dinner lady any more. I could be anything now. I’m free, you see, I’m free. And I’m really, really scared.’
    ‘Oh, Mum, God, you don’t need to be scared! What are you scared of? I’ll still be around. And you’re brilliant – there’s loads of things you could do.’
    ‘Oh, yes, like what?’
    ‘I dunno, like teaching? You’d be a great teacher. I would never have got my GCSEs without you, and I wouldn’t have bothered with A levels. Or you could even get married to someone, have some more kids …’
    ‘What!’
    ‘Yeah, seriously. Why not? You’re only young. You should have some more kids. You’re the best mum out there – wouldn’t you want to? You know, like Stacey?’
    Melody smiled wryly. ‘No,’ she said, placing her hand on Ed’s knee. ‘No. One’s enough for me.’
    ‘But what about this Ben bloke? He hasn’t got any kids, has he? Doesn’t he want some?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ She laughed again.