Free My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal Page B

the bottom of a steep hill. Maureen looks up to the very top, shakes her head, and takes a deep breath.
    â€œHere goes,” she says.
    She starts slowly, stopping every few steps and holding on to gates and grasping at hedges because she can’t breathe. She tells Leon to carry her shopping bag and she shuffles along the pavement with one hand on her chest and the other swinging in the air. She has the same face as when she cries and Leon hopes she won’t start until she gets where they’re going. They take ages to get to the top and walk down the path to the bungalow.
    Sylvia gasps when she opens the door.
    â€œWhat on earth? Maureen! Get in here.”
    She helps Maureen inside.
    Maureen can’t speak and tell anyone what’s wrong, so Sylvia gets her a glass of water.
    â€œWhat happened?” she says again, lodging a cigarette in the corner of her mouth and feeling Maureen’s forehead. Leon has seen Sylvia once before, when she came for Christmas dinner. She smoked all the time and didn’t say one word to Leon. She didn’t even bring him or Jake a present. She doesn’t look like Maureen. She’s very skinny and she has dark purple hair that looks like it’s leaked onto her skin. She has long nails that match her lipstickand black tights with little holes all over them. She’s wearing the same shoes that Carol wore once when she went out at Christmas with Tina. But if you added Tina’s age and Carol’s age together they still wouldn’t be as old as Sylvia. She turns suddenly to Leon and points the cigarette at him.
    â€œDid you see what happened?”
    Leon shakes his head and sits next to Maureen, who pats him on his back.
    â€œIt’s all right, Leon, love,” she whispers. “She’s not blaming you.”
    â€œHave you had a turn, Mo?” Sylvia asks.
    â€œGot a tight chest, that’s all. Got a sort of wheezing rattle or something every time I try and do anything.”
    Maureen sips the water and makes an ugly face.
    â€œCoffee, Sylvia, if you don’t mind. Three sugars.”
    â€œIt’ll be that sugar that’s got you wheezing, if you ask me.”
    Sylvia goes to the kitchen and Maureen winks at Leon.
    â€œShe’s all right, is Sylvie. Once you’ve known her fifty years.”
    Leon plays on the floor with his Action Man while the horse racing is on the TV. Maureen and Sylvia spend the day laughing and sometimes Maureen can’t breathe because she thinks the joke is so funny.
    â€œRemember Janet? Janet Blythe? Curvature of the spine with that funny nose?” says Sylvia.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œShe’s got married to Gordon.”
    â€œGordon Gordon? We talking about the same Gordon?”
    â€œYeah, Gordon. Goldfish Gordon with the lips.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œNo. I can’t believe it.”
    â€œImagine their kids.”
    â€œThey’re too old for kids, Sylvia.”
    â€œI know but imagine.”
    Then Sylvia makes an ugly face, pulling her lips down and shoving her bottom teeth out, and Maureen has to lie on the sofa and keeps saying “Don’t. Don’t.”
    Even though Leon takes his Action Man, it’s very boring at Sylvia’s house. All they do is talk about the olden days when they were young and about all Sylvia’s boyfriends and different people they know and who is married and who is separated and who is playing around.
    Sylvia takes a photo album out and tells Leon to sit between her and Maureen.
    â€œWait till you see our Mo in some of these,” she says.
    The album is heavy on his legs and he has to put his feet up on tiptoe to stop it falling to the floor.
    Sylvia turns the pages while Maureen wheezes next to him.
    â€œThere she is.”
    Sylvia points to a black-and-white picture of two girls in tight polka-dot dresses and funny hair. He can’t see their faces because it’s all