Lifesaving for Beginners

underwater for at least one length.
    Then she says, ‘Milo, things aren’t as simple as that, I’m afraid.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because they . . . they just aren’t.’
    ‘Is it because of the money?’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘The flight? I know it’s dead expensive but I still have pretty much all my First Holy Communion money left cos I didn’t get to spend much of it in Dublin.’
    The lady doesn’t say anything after that. I wait for a while and then I say, ‘So I have some money left over and you could borrow it and you could fly over and you wouldn’t even have to stay in a hotel because you could stay here. You could stay in my mam’s room. It’s empty now. Faith cleared it out after she found the papers in the attic.’
    ‘What papers?’
    ‘The ones about being adopted.’ Sometimes adults can be pretty slow on the uptake.
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘She was pretty upset about it because she didn’t know she was adopted. Not like Jessica.’
    ‘Who’s Jessica?’
    ‘She’s just this girl in my school. She’s in year seven. Her parents told her she was adopted when she was a baby and everybody knew she was adopted. But Mam never told Faith. And then Faith found out by accident when she was looking for Mam’s rosary beads and that’s why she went to Ireland. So she could talk to you about it. But you were at the meeting.’
    ‘What meeting?’
    ‘I don’t know which one. Your dad said you were at a meeting and it was a really important one and that’s why you couldn’t ring back. I think that’s what he said anyway. That’s why we didn’t get to meet you.’ I don’t know why I’m telling her all this stuff. I look at my notes and see what I need to say next.
    ‘So, anyway. You could stay with us. When you come over, I mean. And I could cook. I’m not bad for my age. Do you like pancakes?’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Pancakes. Do you like them? I put chocolate and banana in them.’
    ‘Ah . . .’
    ‘You can use Nutella as well. If you don’t happen to have any chocolate to melt.’
    ‘Milo?’
    ‘You can slice the banana chunky or thin, depending on how much you like bananas. I love them so I slice ’em dead chunky.’
    ‘Milo?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘I can’t come over.’
    ‘You don’t have to come right away.’
    ‘I just . . . I can’t.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘It’s just . . . Ed hasn’t been well and—’
    ‘Ed? What’s wrong with him? There’s a flu going round here. Sully got it when he was home from the war so he couldn’t go back when he was meant to and his mam was so happy she said I could have a sleepover next weekend, and she never lets me have a sleepover anymore on account of us setting off the smoke alarm that one time.’
    ‘No, it’s not the flu. It’s . . . he had a . . . it’s his heart. He needs to have an operation.’
    ‘Did he have a heart attack?’ I really hope Ed didn’t have a heart attack because George Pullman’s granddad had one of those and he dropped dead on the spot.
    ‘No, they didn’t say . . . they’re calling it an episode. Something like that. He’s always had a weak heart, from when he was a baby. That’s what they said, after he was born.’
    ‘He looked dead healthy when I met him.’
    ‘He said it was lovely meeting you.’
    ‘He’s legend at Mario Kart, he really is.’
    ‘He’s—’ She stops right there and I wait to see if she’s going to say something else but there’s nothing but silence down the phone.
    I say, ‘Maybe Ed could come with you? When he’s better, I mean? You could both come. I could take Ed to my lifesaving class. I told him all about it. He said it sounded great. He said he swims too but he doesn’t do lifesaving. I could show him some of the techniques I’m learning.’
    ‘Milo, I’m sorry.’
    ‘What for?’
    ‘I can’t come. Not now.’
    ‘But sometime, right? You can come over sometime? Later, I mean. Not right now. I don’t mean right now.’
    ‘I don’t know. Everything is . . . up in the air at the moment. With Ed and . . .’
    ‘But he’s going to get better, right? You could come then. When he’s better.’
    ‘He’s having an operation. Tomorrow. Today, I suppose. I just came home to . . . I don’t know really.’
    ‘Tell Ed I said good luck.’
    ‘I’m sorry about . . . the way I answered the phone. It’s just . . . I thought you were someone else.’
    I’m glad I’m not the person she thought it was. It sounds like that person is going to be in for it