“Ma won’t be home yet,” Josh told Matthew as they left the school building in the fading light after the soccer practice. Neither had bothered to change and had simply pulled a coat over their kit. “Said she was going to see her sister.”
Matthew failed to respond in the way that Josh had hoped. He just grunted and slung his bag on to his back.
“Er.. any chance of me coming round to your place for a bit?” Josh prompted. “Y’know, kill a bit of time, like.”
Matthew hesitated. “M..my m..mam ain’t in, neither. She’s at work.”
“So? Even better if we’ve got the place to ourselves.”
“She don’t like m..me b..bringing anyb..body b..back.”
“Why not?”
“She just don’t, that’s all,” Matthew said with a shrug.
“C’mon, Matt,” Josh urged. “I won’t stay long. She won’t even know.”
Matthew heaved a sigh. “Well, OK, then.”
Josh grinned, pleased with his little victory, and led the way out of the school gate. “Where do you live, anyway? Is it far?”
“Not exactly,” Matthew muttered, turning right. “Just a long way up.”
“Up?”
“Yeah, up. Tenth floor.”
“Wow! Must be a big place.”
“Sure is,” Matthew replied, nodding towards a block of flats ahead of them. “We’re halfway up that thing there.”
The lift was out of order, as usual, and the boys trudged up the flights of stairs.
“Sure glad you don’t live right at the top,” breathed Josh as Matthew fitted his key into the door of the flat.
“Helps to keep m..me fit,” Matthew grinned.
Josh chuckled. “Now I know your secret,” he said, following Matthew inside. “Any chance of a drink – or oxygen?”
They went into the small kitchen where Matthew poured a couple of glasses of water. The bowl was full of unwashed dishes from breakfast.
“Great view!” Josh exclaimed, gazing out of the window at the twinkling street lights below. “You can see right across the city.”
“Yeah, I know,” Matthew muttered. “It’s a dump.”
Josh gave a shrug. “It’s just so different to where I used to live, y’know, out in the country. Takes some getting used to.”
“M..must do. Do you m..miss it?”
“Well, guess so, a bit..”
“Have you got a b..big house?”
“Nah, just a rented semi,” said Josh. “Y’know, till we find a proper place of our own, like.”
“You won’t b..be leaving Westgate, will you?” Matthew asked. “I m..mean, you’ve only just got here.”
“Nah, you won’t get rid of me that easy,” Josh said and then grinned. “And nor will Raj. I want to annoy him loads more yet!”
They wandered into the lounge and slumped on to the sofa to watch some cartoons on the television. It was only the sound of the door being slammed that made them realise how dark it had grown.
“Matthew!” came the cry. “Are you in?”
“Yes, M..mam,” he stammered, jumping to his feet as his mother came into the lounge and threw on the light.
“Have you been to the shops and...” she began and then stopped when she saw Josh. “Who’s this?”
“It’s Josh, M..mam – the b..boy I told you ab..bout.”
She continued to stare at Josh. “You never told me he was...” Her voice tailed away, but she quickly recovered herself and switched her attention to Matthew. “Just look at the state you’re in, boy,” she said crossly. “You’ve got mud all down your legs – and on the sofa. What a mess!”
Josh tried to speak up for Matthew. “Sorry, Mrs...” he began, before realising that he didn’t even know Matthew’s surname. “It was my idea to...”
She cut him short. “I don’t want to hear no excuses from you, neither. My boy knows what’s what,” she told him. “And for your information, my name’s Ms Jones – none of this Mrs business, thank you very much.”
She was not best pleased either when she found out that Matthew had not yet done the shopping.
“I left the list and the money in the kitchen as usual. You must have seen it,” she raged. “Now get out to them shops before they shut – and take him with you.”
Josh was very glad to leave and scampered down the flights of stairs.
“Sorry, Matt – didn’t mean to get you into any trouble,” he said when they reached the bottom and left the building.
“Not your fault,” Matthew told him with a shrug. “I should’ve known b..better.”
“Didn’t know you had a Welsh surname like mine.”
“I don’t. Jones is only m..my m..mam’s name,” he explained. “M..mine’s Clarke, like Dad’s, b..but he left when I was still a b..baby.”
“Do you ever see him?”
“No idea where he is. Could be dead for all I know.”
Josh nodded. At least he sometimes saw his own father, who was living near Uncle Ossie, Da’s younger brother.
“Anyway,” he said, “best get home, I guess. Ma should be back by now. See you tomorrow.”
“Sure thing,” replied Matthew, setting off towards the local shops.
Josh received a rather warmer welcome when he let himself in through the back door into his own kitchen, even though Ma frowned at the mud all over his kit.
“Looks like I’ve got some more washin’ to do,” she sighed. “And you have, too, young man. Get them dirty things off and then get in that bath. Where’s your school things?”
He nodded at the bag that he’d tossed on to the floor. “Oh, my!” she exclaimed, tutting. “They’ll be all creased up, somethin’ terrible, now.”
As he undressed, Josh told her about what had happened at Matthew’s.
“Well, you can’t blame her,” Ma said, as she made him a hot drink to take upstairs. “Just got home from work to find all that mess, poor woman. Bound to be a bit cross. You don’t know you’re born, young man.”
Josh grinned. That was Ma’s favourite expression. He disappeared up to the bathroom before Ma could start telling him any tales about what life was like when she was a little girl living in a ‘shack’, as she always called her family’s home on the West Indian island of Barbados.
Even so, he reflected, as he started to run his bath water, Ma was probably right, if Matthew’s experience was anything to go by. And then he thought of the massive villa that rich Uncle Ossie now lived in. He didn’t even know how many bathrooms that place might have in it.
“One for every day of the week, maybe,” he mused, as he lay back to soak in the warm water and sipped his drink. “But, then again, who wants to have a bath every day?”