Free Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine Page B

you been ?” he said to Stroma in this funny way, like he’d been in agony without her. “I’ve been waiting and waiting .”
    Stroma got the giggles. It took her ages to manage the word swimming . He asked her if she was good at swimming and then he started tickling her so she couldn’t tell him because she was laughing too hard.
    â€œShe’s a fish,” I told him, tickling her too.
    â€œWhat do you want to do?” he said. “Do you want to do something?”
    I said, “Stroma will get tired out and hungry any minute. She always does when she’s been swimming.” I sounded like a neurotic mother when all I wanted to say was “Yes, anything. I want to do anything. Let’s go.”
    He said, “So shall we go get her some lunch?”
    I wondered if Mum had eaten. Stroma was moving in circles chanting, “Lunch yes, lunch yes,” and I wanted her to stop so I could think.
    Harper said, “Come on, Rowan.” He pulled this sulky puppy-dog face, all bottom lip. It made me laugh. I said I’d go and check. He got back in the van while I took Stroma across the road and let us in.
    Mum was in the kitchen. She was standing there, in the middle of the room, like she’d forgotten what shewas doing. She sat down when we walked in. Stroma kissed her on the cheek and she frowned. I said we were going to the market and did she want anything. I took her cash card from the top shelf. I made her a cheese sandwich and put it on the table.
    â€œWill you be all right, Mum?” I said, and she waved me away with her hands.
    We came out of the house and kept walking, and I signaled Harper to meet us at the end of the road because of Mrs. Hardwick.
    â€œWhat was that about?” he said as I helped Stroma up into the van. She clambered over the front seats into the space at the back.
    â€œNeighbors. What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” I asked him what he’d been up to.
    Stroma’s voice piped up in the back, “She missed you!” and I turned and glowered at her. Harper laughed.
    â€œNo I didn’t,” I said. “It’s just you’re not around, and then suddenly there you are, on the doorstep.”
    â€œDon’t you like me showing up?” he said.
    I tried to explain it wasn’t a question of me liking it or not, it was just a question, that’s all. I wondered how he spent his time. I said, “I thought you might have been somewhere good.”
    â€œI have.”
    â€œWhere did you go?” Stroma asked, sounding a bit cheated.
    â€œI went to Camber Sands,” he said. “You been there?”
    â€œNo.” We spoke at the same time.
    â€œWell, this guy I met told me about it. It’s only a couple of hours from here. There were people riding their horses on the beach, along the edge of the water, with the sun going down behind them. God, it was good. The place was empty apart from them and me. I slept on the beach for a night and I drove around, went to this place called the Fire Hills.”
    â€œWe did miss you,” Stroma said.
    â€œMaybe we’ll go there together sometime.” He winked at her in his mirror.
    I said I wasn’t grilling him about where he’d been. It was none of my business.
    â€œBut you missed me, though. Admit it.”
    We went to the noodle alley at the Stables in Camden Market. We brought a blanket from the van and wrapped it around the three of us. It was full of sand. Stroma sat in the middle, shoving vegetable ramen into her mouth with a plastic spork. I kept watching Harper over the top of her head and she must have noticed because she said, “If you want to lose me, take me to Bee’s dad. I want to do cooking with Carl.”
    I felt like I’d been caught out.
    â€œDon’t be crazy,” I said. “We can’t do that. I can’t just call Carl up and dump you there.”
    â€œCall him, go on,”