Free Like One of the Family by Nesta Tuomey

between her young master’s knees. Her tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth and she panted noisily, tired from her recent exertions. Hugh stroked her head, feeling choked and sad and desperately guilty. Halligan indicated that he should lift her up and hold her in his arms.
    Hugh settled Hero as firmly as he could across his knees, petting her and whispering to her all the time. The dog whined a bit as though sensing what was to come.
    â€˜Now, the thing to do is to hold her leg steady for me, there’s a good lad,’ the vet advised, as he approached with the syringe. With his free hand he fondled the dog’s floppy ears before moving lower and gently parting the animal’s fur in his search for the vein in his leg. ‘Don’t let her move on me now,’ he murmured. He withdrew the needle and straightened up with a relieved grunt. ‘That’s it. Good dog now.’
    Hugh felt Hero jerk in his arms and saw her eyes rolling sightlessly in her head and her paws wildly paddling the air, before her head fell heavily against him. He cradled the shuddering animal fiercely against his chest, and his heart was unbearably stricken as he watched her in her death throes. After a few minutes Hero gave a last convulsive heave and lay still. Halligan went out closing the door after him.
    Hugh buried his face in the dog’s warm coat that he had always taken such a pride in and, as the familiar smell and feel of her filled his senses, the dam of feeling broke inside him and he sobbed into her fur.
    In the period leading up to Christmas Claire did not see Eddie at all. She stopped back after school most days to rehearse a review her class were putting on in the New Year. Unexpectedly she found herself drawn into a group consisting of June, Imelda and Sheena, all of whom had aspirations to be actresses. They chose to do a skit on
Fawlty Towers.
Sheena, as Sybil Fawlty, wore an auburn wig and padded herself out in one of Jane’s bras. Imelda, who was the tallest of them, was just right for Basil and blonde-haired June for Polly. Claire was blonde too but was unsurprised to find herself cast as Manuel. She discovered she had a natural ability to play comedy, which was strange because she was the shyest of the four.
    Rehearsing for the review helped take her mind off the worsening situation at home. For a time after the McArdle’s party her parents had seemed more in accord but during the Christmas holiday period, without the saving trips to work or school to distract them, there had been one acrimonious dispute after another.
    One afternoon in January her mother called over to the McArdle’s house for coffee and a chat. Claire was playing cards with Ruthie and heard Jane saying, ‘You could just leave, you know. Take the children and start again. You’ve got a job and he’d have to pay something towards their welfare.’
    â€˜I can’t see myself doing it,’ Annette said.
    â€˜Why not? You’d be better off.’ Jane sounded angry. ‘No one should have to put up with that kind of situation.’
    â€˜I never thought it would turn out like this,’ Claire heard her mother say tiredly, ‘I expected better somehow. But there it is, the luck of the draw.’
    And now her parents were in the middle of another dispute. They had moved into the dining-room for privacy, but the door was not quite shut and Claire could overhear what they were saying. She sat with her head deep in her book, wishing she wasn’t there but unable to get up and leave.
    â€˜So I’m getting strident, am I?’ Annette demanded. ‘Well if I am it’s because I can’t seem to get through to you any other way.’
    Claire felt a sense of inevitability sliding over her. The knot in her stomach tightened. Lately her father and mother acted as though they hated each other.
    â€˜I have tried,’ Annette went on, ‘It’s not easy going back to work