Free The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson Page B

laiche-moi!”
    Leo had unzipped his trousers. He needed both hands to get them off. MiMi moved to get out of bed. He pulled her down.
    “How long have you been having an affair with Xeno?”
    He saw her face. Disbelief. They never thought he’d find out.
    “You cheap slut.”
    Leo had MiMi on her side, one hand over her mouth. She was biting him like a dog. She was a dog. He tried to get his penis inside her from behind but she was struggling. He didn’t want to hit her.
    Leo got up, forced her legs open with his knee.
“I know all about you,”
he said.
    MiMi suddenly stopped struggling. She turned on her back, panting, one hand on her belly.
    You know nothing about me.
    Leo was low over her body, his weight on his arms either side of her. His face close to hers. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to cry.
    “You’re mine. Say you’re mine.”
    MiMi said nothing.
    “How does he touch you? Does he lie next to you? On top of you? Does he do oriental massage? Does he rub your temples? Does he go down on you like I do? Do you like that? Do you like it?”
    Leo shook her. She was floppy like a just-dead person. She didn’t move under him the way he liked, she didn’t whisper to him in French; he loved that. She lay still like an animal being beaten. He couldn’t come. He kept pumping but he couldn’t come.
    He leaned to kiss her. She bit his top lip. He felt the blood running into his mouth. BITCH. He hit her across the face.
    That’s when he saw the car headlights sweep over the wall above the bed.
    He jumped up, looked out of the window. Pauline’s Audi meant Pauline. Yes. The front doorbell started going like a fire alarm.
    Leo grabbed his trousers and left the bedroom, ran downstairs zipping his fly. A door opened on the landing. It was Milo in his Superman pyjamas. “Daddy? Where’s Mummy?”
    “She’s in the bedroom. Go back to bed. It’s only Pauline.”
    Milo moved to the top of the stairs as Leo opened the door. Leo tried to look calm—
    “Pauline! Are you all right?”
    Pauline pushed past him into the hall. He noticed her cardigan was buttoned up wrong.
    “Where’s MiMi?”
    “She’s asleep. We were all asleep.”
    Pauline glanced up the stairs and saw Milo. She smiled and waved at him. He waved back. Pauline hesitated. “Is everything all right?”
    “Sure, sure,” said Leo. “Let’s all get some sleep, shall we?”
    Pauline looked at Leo. She knew he was lying.
    There was a crash upstairs. Milo ran along the landing. “MUMMY!”
    Leo bounded up the stairs, Pauline coming after him. MiMi was on the floor, panting, a red weal across her face. Milo was kneeling next to her.
    “Bébé,” said MiMi, trying to reassure her son.
    “Her waters have broken,” said Pauline. “Leo! Help me to get her on the bed and phone an ambulance. It’s all right, Milo—Mummy’s having a baby, that’s all.”
    Leo scooped up MiMi and carried her easily into the bedroom. He put her on the bed. She was breathing heavily through her mouth. Pauline took her pulse.
    “Get hot water and towels.”
    Leo went into the bathroom. Milo was standing like a statue in the doorway. Pauline went to hug him. He was small for his age.
    “Milo! Don’t be frightened. This is how you were born—it’s how everyone is born. Go back to bed and have a little slufki. Daddy will come soon.”
    MiMi held out her hand to Milo. The boy ran forward and put his hand in hers, pressing his body against the bed, as Leo came out of the bathroom with a stainless-steel bucket of water and all the towels.
    “Take Milo,” said Pauline. “And call the doctor.”
    Leo nodded. MiMi didn’t look at him. When he had gone she held out her arms to Pauline.
    “It’s now,” she said, getting off the bed and kneeling on all fours, rocking slightly.
    “Just wait for the doctor,” said Pauline.
    —
    The baby came so fast that Pauline didn’t have time to panic. She was kneeling by MiMi as she saw the baby’s head appear, then the little