Lifesaving for Beginners

into the city centre, she decides we’re going to Auntie May’s house. She just decides. All of a sudden. She doesn’t even phone to let anyone know we’re coming. She just decides, and the next thing is, we’re on a train.
    I stand beside the tank and watch the fish. They’re all goldfish. May says she loves the colour of them. Goldfish have really bad memories. That’s why they swim round and round all the time. Because they forget they’ve done it before. Like about a million times already.
    Auntie May stops hugging Faith and says, ‘You look frozen, the pair of you. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I would have met you at the airport, you know that.’
    Faith nods. ‘I’m sorry, I just . . . I’ve a hotel booked. For me and Milo. We’re just staying the one night.’
    ‘Nonsense. You’ll stay here. With us.’
    ‘No, really, it’s—’
    ‘Where’s this hotel?’
    ‘I don’t know. Marlborough Street, I think.’
    ‘Jesus, Mary and Holy St Joseph, is it raped and murdered and dumped in the Liffey in a suitcase you’re after?’
    I look at Faith. I really want to stay here. In May’s house. And it’s not just because I don’t want to be dumped in the Liffey in a suitcase. It’s because . . . well, it’s nice in May’s house. Like, it’s dead clean and the kitchen smells like lunch or dinner or something. Shepherd’s pie, maybe. I love Mam’s shepherd’s pie because she doesn’t put peas in it. I wonder if Auntie May puts peas in her one?
    I didn’t tell Faith about being starving because I promised.
    May looks at me. ‘You’d like to stay, wouldn’t you, Milo?’ She puts her hands round my face and shakes her head. ‘Cut out of your mother, so you are.’ Then she kisses my cheek and it feels dead gooey, but I have to wait till she turns back to Faith before I can wipe it off. Lipstick, I reckon. Ladies are mad about lipstick.
    ‘You can’t be dragging the boy to a place like Marlborough Street. Your mother’d lambast you, God rest her.’
    Faith doesn’t say anything for a while and then she says, ‘I know, May. I know about Mam. About me and Mam.’
    May lowers the kettle back onto the counter. She looks at Faith. She says, ‘What do you mean?’
    Faith looks at me and then May looks at me too. I can see them both, in the reflection of the fish tank. Behind me, May picks up my bag. ‘Milo, love, you can sleep in Finn’s room. He won’t be back from college till Friday. Come on. I’ll show you where it is. You can see the sea from there.’
    Faith says, ‘May, there’s no—’
    May says, ‘I won’t hear another word about it, Faith.’ She sounds exactly like Mam when she says that. Her voice is quiet and soft but you know for a fact that there’s no point arguing.
    I’ve stayed in Auntie May and Uncle Niall’s house before. But not in Finn’s room. I slept in the attic on a sofa bed and you can’t see the sea from there. You can only see the sky.
    May says, ‘I’ll put fresh sheets on that bed later, Milo. The Lord knows when that dirty pup changed them.’ She puts my bag on the bed and looks inside a cupboard. ‘There are a few books in there. Treasure Island . Have you read that one yet? Your mam always said you’re a great one for the reading.’
    I shake my head. I say, ‘No, not yet.’
    ‘And there’s a chess board, I think. You can play chess with your Uncle Niall later.’
    I know how to play chess. Dad taught me the last time he came down. He says it’s the thinking man’s game.
    ‘Good boy, Milo.’ May stops at the door. ‘I’ll . . . I’ll call you down in a bit, all right? I’ll make lunch. Something nice. Pasta, maybe. Carbonara. You like that one, don’t you?’
    My mouth waters. Auntie May is nearly as good at cooking as Mam. And I ate everything I had in Damo’s tree house. The Easi-Singles and the packet of ham and the three strawberry yoghurts and the two slices of bread and the packet of crackers and the Kit Kat. I tried to keep the Kit Kat for last, like you’re supposed to, but it was too hard in the end. I stayed there until the first bus, which came at 06.35, which is twenty-five to seven. I was so stiff and cold, I nearly fell off the rope ladder. Once, I threw a pebble up at Damo’s window but nothing happened. Damo’s mam says that Damo is as lazy as sin and not even a nuclear bomb landing on his head would get him out of his pit. I didn’t think he’d wake up. Not really. I just did it to pass