Free Bleak City by Marisa Taylor Page A

before, she was probably wondering if they would be doing it again.
    ‘Must be confusing,’ was all Alice said.
    ‘Maybe,’ Sean said. ‘But that doesn’t give her the right to make everyone miserable.’
    ‘Looks more to me like she just wants to be left alone.’
    ‘Yeah, well, Mum’s determined to do the happy families thing, so that’s not going to happen.’
    Sean had brought along a card game called Monopoly Deal. Alice hadn’t played it before, but it was easy enough to pick up and a good way to pass the time. At the end of each day, when the evening meal was over, Alice, Sean and Charlotte would sit and play hands. Nathan would always deal in, but had a tendency to be easily distracted, and most often ended up abandoning his hand, which went back into the bottom of the deck. It was still fun just the three of them, and by the end of their week together, Alice had exchanged cell numbers with them and connected on Instagram.
    Andrew’s wife Michelle was nice, if a bit overburdened with children. There were four of them, her half-brothers and half-sister. Alice had trouble thinking of them that way. Six months ago, she had only Olivia and Jack, now she had three times as many siblings and her life was starting to feel very crowded. The girl, Matilda, was the baby, she was only four, little enough for Alice to pick her up and carry her, for a short distance at least. At first, Matilda was shy with Alice, would barely say a word, but by the end of Alice’s week there, Mattie was climbing onto her lap after dinner, telling her about her day. She noticed, also, that Mattie’s acceptance of her was softening Michelle’s attitude towards her.
    Michelle and Andrew had met in Auckland, when he moved up there for work. Alice had met her a couple of times when she and Andrew first married, but Alice had been so young then that her memories were vague. When Alice had met Michelle and her half-brothers and sister after the September quake, Michelle had introduced Alice to them as their sister, which was nice, but she had been cool with Alice, as though she was unsure what space Alice could occupy in her family. She hadn’t been nasty, but she would leave Andrew and Alice to talk rather than trying to join in the conversation. She wasn’t sure how to read that, whether Michelle was just trying to give them space or deal with some lingering resentment of being reminded that she wasn’t Andrew’s first wife.
    The three boys never seemed to stop long enough to have a conversation. They were like puppies, pushing each other around and wrestling. One day, Alice went with Andrew, Michelle and the children on a walk up a hill. The three boys, between eight and eleven years old, raced up the hill while Andrew, Michelle and Alice slogged their way up, Andrew carrying Mattie on his shoulders. Andrew was ahead of Michelle and Alice.
    ‘How are you finding the family?’ Michelle said.
    ‘Different from my own,’ Alice said. It seemed the most diplomatic answer, and she didn’t want to get into discussing her own family’s flaws as she had with Nathan a couple of nights earlier.
    ‘Gerald and Sylvia are great,’ Michelle said. ‘They’ll always do the right thing by you. But watch out for the others, they can be sharks.’
    Alice didn’t know what to say and her shock must have shown on her face.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Michelle said. ‘Just sometimes it bugs me that all they talk about is money, and the next deal, and how to make more money from all the money they already have.’
    ‘They certainly talk about money a lot,’ Alice agreed. ‘My grandad says the more money people have, the more they have to worry about.’
    ‘Well if worrying is indicated by talking, then they’re all very worried,’ Michelle said. She laughed. ‘I’m sorry, they’re not that bad, really, it’s just that there’s so many of them.’
    ‘Your family is small?’
    ‘Yes, it’s just me and my brother.’
    ‘Mum’s family is