October 2009 – The Argument

Chloe was pleased with the cute outfit she’d bought for the baby girl’s Halloween costume. It was a shiny, little, red cape and some small, curved black horns. She’d gone a bit mad and put a trace of makeup around her daughter’s eyes. Even her dad had smiled when he’d seen it. Eve was walking now. Well, still sort of staggering really. Chloe was looking forward to taking her round her mates’ houses, with her decorated orange Halloween bucket. She was having a tiny bit of trouble getting her daughter dressed though.

Eve didn’t seem to want to cooperate. Chloe had the tip of her tongue out in concentration, trying to fit one little bent arm through the sleeve of the cape, when she was startled by a sudden loud rap. The top half of the front door was frosted glass and through it, Chloe could see the visitor’s outline. Fuck it, she thought to herself, not her again.

She left the baby girl half in and out of the cape, and walked over to unlock the door.

“Hiya.”

Eve’s Nanna wasn’t looking at her best. During the past year Chloe had wondered if she was maybe missing her son a little bit. Whatever the reason she didn’t seem happy with her lot. The weight had fallen off her, and thirty odd years of smoking had left the skin of her face deeply creased and her teeth turning dark grey. Maybe it was the menopause, but her hair was thinning, exposing some scalp that was shining in the bright artificial light. She looked like an old crone. And she was getting on Chloe’s nerves.

The woman wasn’t Eve’s mother however much she looked after the little girl. To try and keep her sanity, Chloe kept telling herself Tom’s mam had been helpful when Eve had first been born. And Chloe had welcomed the assistance, especially with Tom not around. And with her father not being of much practical use with babies. The older woman had looked after the baby three days a week, and it had allowed Chloe to go on to college. But lately the older woman, ‘Nanna’, had become ever more controlling. Nasty, barbed comments whenever Chloe wanted do something different with the little girl. She opened up tonight with a prime example.

“What have you got her dressed up as there?”

Chloe took a deep breath before her reply.

“It’s a little devil’s costume. Do you like it? I thought it was a good idea. Coz you can be a little devil sometimes can’t you?”

She gave Eve a gentle tickle, and was rewarded with an infectious chuckle and a wide smile. A grunting sound, which put her in mind of a rearing horse, gave Chloe the feeling that the older woman wasn’t in complete agreement.

“No! It’s bloody awful! It’s not at all appropriate for our little baby. And what’s that crap you’ve got smeared all over her face? Look, this is the sort of thing she should be wearing.”

A round orange ball with some matching dangling extensions was proffered. A closer glance revealed it to be a pumpkin outfit. Perfectly OK, but just not what Chloe wanted. Anyway Eve was already half dressed in her devil’s outfit, and that was the gear she was going to be wearing tonight.

“Look, it’s very good of you, but…”

Chloe didn’t get any further. It was as if she had opened the very gates of Hell itself. Nanna’s voice had gone up a few decibels in volume.

“Never mind but! I’ve told you before you’ve no idea how to bring a baby up. You’re nothing but a girl yourself. You couldn’t even give birth to her properly!”

Tom’s mam had lost her temper completely and was going to take it too far.

“I may as well be her mother. She spends more time with me than she does with you anyway!”

That did it for Chloe. What bothered her was the tiny grain of truth in the comment. In that the older woman had spent a lot of time with the baby. But Eve only had one mother. For once Chloe snapped back.

“Will you just shut up! I’m her mother. I like the outfit and she’s keeping it on.”

“No she isn’t!”

The older woman strode purposely forward and reached her arm out to grab the cloak off Eve. She was stopped by a firm slap across her wrist. She stared at the young girl in astonishment. The next words were dripping with venom. Every one of them enunciated with menacing precision.

“Don’t you fucking dare touch me again.”

But Chloe was blazing mad by now. She walked up to Tom’s mother and squared up toe to toe. Then she spat some venom of her own.

“Fuck off out of the house, out of MY life and out of Eve’s life!”

For the best part of a minute the two women stood in silence. Facing each other, eye to eye. Their noses mere inches apart. Neither would drop eye contact. But then the older woman wilted. She picked up the pumpkin outfit that she had dropped on the floor, and stormed to the door. A parting shot drifted malevolently back across her shoulder.

“I’ll have the police on you for this. You can’t be in charge of a baby and go round slapping and swearing at people.”

As she made for the door it opened in front of her. It revealed the labourer, returning from his toils. Chloe’s dad watched in surprise as the older woman rushed past him, knocking him into the doorframe. He looked quizzically at his daughter. Chloe rushed over to him and collapsed into his arms. He held her tightly, giving the back of her hair a reassuring rub.

“Tell me now. What the hell has that mad woman been up to this time?”

Later that evening, there was a polite knock on the door. Two yellow fluorescent jackets were clearly visible through the glass. Chloe got up and opened the door. She didn’t like the look of this.

When the police entered, they explained that they had been given information regarding an assault on a woman. They went on to describe how a concern had also been raised, about the standard of care being offered to a young infant. Chloe was desperately worried in case she looked nervous. She was just about to launch into a babbling explanation, when she heard her dad’s voice floating from the doorway.

“Well this is just the last straw.”

“Pardon, Sir. Were you involved in the incident today?”

“I certainly was. I was standing just outside the door and I saw the whole thing. It wasn’t my daughter that did the slapping. It was that mad woman, the baby’s Nanna. We’re sick and tired of her coming round here causing trouble. Now she’s resorting to vicious lies. Doesn’t surprise me. She’s obsessed with that little girl. Inside her crazy mind she probably thinks Eve is her own. She hasn’t been right in the head since her son walked out on her. He’s in the army you know. Training for Afghanistan.”

The policeman exchanged a weary glance with his partner. Another domestic they’d never get to the bottom of.

“Would you be prepared to come down to the station Sir? To make a statement to that effect.”

“Anything to get rid of that woman.”

“Right then. We’ll get back to you if we need you.”

But they never did get back to him.

After they’d left, Chloe looked at her father in astonishment. Lying! To the police as well! She had never seen him do anything to approach it. She started to blurt out her thanks. One gentle crease of his eyes was enough to silence her. Her dad reached down and picked up Eve, who was attempting to escape the room in a brisk crawl. He looked at his daughter over the little girl’s shoulder. He smiled benignly.

“That’s what dads are for.”