Chapter 3
3 weeks after the trial weekend, Buffy and her mother were sorting out stuff Buffy wanted to take with her.
There were two piles of clothes on the bed, and a black plastic bin-bag on the floor, along with a half-full box.
It basically boiled down to: what Buffy wanted to take to Vancouver, what she wanted to keep but leave at home, and what could go to the charity shop………
“You’re NOT taking Mr Gordo, are you?” Joyce asked incredulously at her daughter. Buffy snatched up the tatty little pig, swaying form side to side, cuddling Mr Gordo to her cheek.
“Why not – he’s like a lucky mascot! Besides, YOU bought him for me when I had my tonsils out when I was 6 – he’s like, been with me forever”
Joyce smiled indulgently at her daughter, and pulled some red trousers out of the back of the closet.
“What about these?”
“Oh GODS NO! – Definitely not taking those! What WAS I thinking!”
“You were never out of them at one stage, I had to wash them when you were at school, so you could put them on again clean when you got home, else you’d throw a tantrum! Joyce folded them and dropped them into the bin-bag for the charity shop.
“Well to the charity shop they go! – Here, these can go in the box too, I think all the jigsaws have all the pieces” Joyce took the three boxes off her daughter and put them in the big box on the floor.
“What about this cheerleaders kit?”
Buffy looked at the maroon and lemon outfit, and was just about to say,
‘I’ll have to keep it,’ when the doorbell rang.
Joyce ‘s arms dropped from holding up the short pleated skirt and said,
“I thought you told Willow you couldn’t got out tonight?”
“I did! Besides which, she told me her aunt Bernice and uncle Reuben were visiting, so she couldn’t come out anyway…”
“Well I wonder who this could be?” Joyce trotted downstairs, opened the front door to be confronted by Hank.
“I thought we said tomorrow!” Joyce said pointedly, but opening the door wider so he could come in.
“Believe me Joyce, this way is better!”
Joyce sighed, rolled her eyes and muttered something about she bet it was better for him not anybody else, to Hanks retreating back.
“Well?”
“Look, Maureen thinks I’m working – if I’d have come tomorrow, she wanted to come with and – BUFFY! Baby come and give your dad a kiss!”
“I’ll put the kettle on” Joyce retreated to the kitchen, thinking how much of a novelty things were, his girlfriend thought he was at work, and instead, he’d ‘bunked off’ to see his wife! How times had changed!”
“Daddy! I thought you were coming tomorrow!”
“Plans changed honey – so, you nearly ready to go, huh – when is the flight?”
“Tuesday tea-time”
“Wow…my little princess – on the Olympic team!”
“I haven’t been chosen yet dad!”
“Well, just a matter of time!”
Joyce entered the lounge with a tray of tea, and set it down on the coffee table.
“So Buffy…your um, your mother and I have something to tell you”
Joyce sat, began to spoon sugar into cups before pouring the tea.
“Oh?”
“Well…Princess…your mother and have been apart now for nearly six years…”
“You’re getting divorced” Buffy said, quite matter-of-factly.
Hank let out a breath and said,
“Yes”
“Well…it isn’t a surprise really, I mean I always hoped you two would, (she shrugged) get back together…”
“That’s not going to happen princess”
“No, I realise that” Buffy said. Both Hank and Joyce were relieved that she took it so calmly.
“In fact um…” Hank went to tell her about Maureen, but his courage fled and he said,
“In fact what?” Buffy asked
Joyce looked at Hank, knew he was stalling – but she was damned if she was going to tell her daughter the news, so she said,
“In fact, we applied nearly two months ago, and the decree absolute will be through any day now, isn’t that right Hank?”
Her soon-to-be ex husband took a gulp of scalding tea and nodded.
As Hank didn’t say anything, Joyce volunteered,
“There was something else you wanted to tell Buffy, Hank?”
“Um, oh yes – you er, you know I’ll always love you princess, that’ll never change”
“I know dad”
“AND?” Joyce said pointedly – there was no getting away from it – he had to tell her now, coz both Buffy and Joyce were waiting expectantly.
“And um…well I er, I’ve got…I’ve got myself a girlfriend” he said, taking another gulp of tea.
Buffy rolled her eyes and asked
“Is she like all the other ones I’ve met?”
“No. Maureen is – well she’s special”
“Special, what do you mean, special – is she older than the others?”
“Not exactly, no”
“Younger then?”
“Well I suppose you could say that, yes”
“Dad, if she’s not older, she’s got to be younger, just how old is she?”
“She um, she’s 26 next birthday”
“DAD!” Buffy groaned and closed her eyes. Joyce’s eyes blazed at him to tell her the other news…
“And um, well, Maureen and I are um, well she’s, we are –“
“DON’T tell me you’re getting married!”
“Well, um I don’t know, we’ve talked about it, and she’s keen I know, but-“
“Course she’s keen! She can see dollar bills before her eyes!” Buffy said, and Joyce let out a little ‘huh’ noise, to which Hank frowned.
“Come on dad! See her for what she is, at that age, with you, she’s a gold digger!”
“Buffy! How dare you, you don’t even know her!”
“And I don’t want to either!”
“Well, that might be difficult, because she’s going nowhere, and-“
“And dad, get real, as soon as she learns you’re not a company director, she’ll be off – although with all the hours you used to put in, I’m surprised you’re not the big cahuna by now!”
Joyce was surprised her daughter could still be so naïve as to all the ‘hours working’ Hank always claimed as a cover for his affairs…
“Look daddy, mom and I were sorting out my clothes to take to Vancouver, and if you’d like to help, I need a new winter coat, and-“
“Buffy, sit down”
“I NEED to get on, I’ve only got the rest of the weekend to-“
“I said, SIT!” surprised at her dad’s sharp tone, Buffy sat.
“Good. Now…Maureen and I, well.. we’re are going to have a baby”
Buffy blinked at her dad
Hank swallowed, and continued
“We didn’t tell you before, because, well because your mom-“
“Because I didn’t want you upset before the trials, I wanted you to give it your best shot, without distractions” Joyce said, by way of explanation.
“How many months?” Buffy asked
“Sorry?”
“I said, how many months?”
“She’s five and a half months”
“WHAT?!!”
“We’re having a girl – the scan showed-“
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! I don’t want to know, it’s DISGUSTING that’s what it is – are you sure it’s even yours? God, you’ve only been going out with her five minutes! Fuck dad! She MUST have seen you coming and saw ‘sucker’ written across your forehead!”
“How DARE YOU use that tone and that bad language to me young lady – after all I’ve done for you?!”
Joyce’s eyebrows shot up, and although she didn’t like Buffy’s bad language, when Buffy screamed at him,
“All you’ve done for me – I get the odd twenty dollar bill – you don’t even pay mom the maintenance you should – you’ve done nothing, do you hear me NOTHING except make me embarrassed! I HATE YOU!” Buffy covered her mouth and ran off upstairs.
Joyce put her cup down quietly on the tray
Hank sat back on the sofa, fuming.
“How dare she speak to me like that, how DARE she! This is YOUR doing Joyce!”
“ME – what have I done?”
“Poisoning her mind against me – how come she knows that I can’t pay – oh, hold on………(Hank took out his ringing cell-phone out of his pocket)
“It’s Maureen, keep quiet, she thinks I’m at work”
Joyce sat there quietly fuming at being told to keep quiet in her own home…upstairs Buffy was banging around enough to wake the dead………
“Hi honey…no I told you, Jeff and I were going to play golf, then have a late afternoon meeting………do you kitten, well don’t bother to cook if you feel ill, I can stop on the way home and get, what? Okay, I’ll bring something in if you feel too sick to make anything………I don’t know, a pizza or a burger or something…Chinese, well alright………you want what…but I thought you said you felt sick? Okay, okay, don’t go mad, I’ll bring you special fried rice, king prawn curry and some egg rolls……about an hour…okay honey, bye” he flipped his phone shut.
Joyce was about to say something flippant, but she couldn’t be bothered. She stood and picked up the tray.
“I was thinking, this is ironic”
“What is?” Hank frowned up at her
“This – this bunking off work to come and see your wife!”
“Very droll!”
“Buffy needs a new winter coat”
“And I have a nursery to create out of the spare bedroom”
Joyce rolled her eyes, the phone rang and she said,
“Well, you can see yourself out, bye”
She picked up the phone and a familiar female voice said,
“Is that Joyce?”
“Yes” Joyce knew immediately it was Maureen
“Is hank there?” Joyce thought about telling her how he’d just left, but if this Maureen chucked him out for lying to her, the last thing Joyce wanted was for him to turn up on her doorstep…
“Hank, no why – he supposed to be coming here tomorrow”
“Only he…it doesn’t matter” (Click)
“And goodbye to you too, you ignorant bitch” Joyce said to the dialling tone…
******************
Buffy’s room looked like a bomb had hit it, gone were the two neat piles of clothes on the bed, she’d come upstairs and cleared them with one fell swoop of the arm, and she now lay diagonally across the bed sobbing.
Joyce went to come up the stairs, when the phone rang again
“Hello, Joyce it’s me, I just thought Maureen might ring you and-“
“She already has”
“What?”
“I said, she already has”
“Oh Christ, you didn’t-“
“No, I didn’t drop you in it, she asked if you were here, and I said no, you were due tomorrow, that was it, she went to say something else, then put the phone down”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, when I said no, you were due tomorrow, she said, ‘only – doesn’t matter, and put the phone down. No goodbye or anything”
“Thanks Joyce – you’re the best!”
“Well, surprise, surprise, I actually agreed with you for once – you did the right thing by coming here alone, I dread to think what would have happened if Maureen had come with you, you know, Buffy’s reaction”
“Look, I gotta – sonofabitch – how much fuckin’ road do you want! I gotta go Joyce, bye!” Joyce heard a car-horn blaring as she said goodbye.
***********************
“Buffy…baby?”
“What?”
“Can I come in?”
“Please yourself” Buffy’s tone was cool – and Joyce knew why.
She came in, sat on the end of the bed
“You DO understand why I didn’t tell you sooner, about the divorce don’t you?” Buffy’s bad mood sulk with her mother broke and she nodded, she concentrated of gently pulling on one of Mr Gordo’s tatty ears.
“Did you know about is girlfriend being pregnant too?”
It was Joyce’s turn to nod
“You know, it hurt me too – and I don’t mean I still love your father or anything like that, it’s just… the three years we had before you were born, we were reasonably happy, we didn’t have many aspirations…then he got promoted, we moved here, got a nice car – then I found out I was expecting you…we were overjoyed and I was happy – we both were for about four years, and then…”
“Then what?” Buffy asked sitting up.
“Then your dad got restless, people, men at work, younger, been there a shorter time than he had, got promoted above him…he told me, only a couple of years ago mind, that’s when he had his first affair…he got more and more depressed – he was always working – or so he told me – I got lonely, I wanted another child – but he said we couldn’t afford one – we could never afford things…I mean I scrimped and saved to give you the best – I took the job at the gallery, even went full time so we could have treats, holidays, days out, to be able to change the car even…but it wasn’t enough. So when he calmly announced that after just four months she was pregnant…” Joyce felt the tears well up
Buffy sat up and put her arms around her mom
“I hate him!”
“Don’t say that, he IS your father, despite his faults!”
“Well I don’t want to meet her – and I don’t want to see the baby…it’s disgusting at his age!”
Joyce looked at her daughter
“He’s only 38 Buffy, that’s not ancient you know”
“I know but” (eugh!) she shuddered
“Come on…fancy pizza for supper?” Joyce asked, drying her eyes
“Yeah!”
“You order it then – and get ice-cream, then we’ll blitz this mess!”
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