Sure Fire

Rich stared at the empty space on the table where the cigarettes and phone had been. There was a new packet of cigarettes on a table in the hall, and he fetched it and put it on top of the telly. After a moment’s thought, Rich tore the cellophane wrapper off the packet. Maybe Chance would assume he’d opened a new pack and not get too cross when he couldn’t find his phone or his lighter.

Rich didn’t ask where Jade was actually hiding Chance’s stuff. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. And when Jade returned and moved on to the kitchen, he decided he really didn’t want to know and went to the bedroom. He pushed the door shut and tried to read. He couldn’t concentrate, and when he heard the study door open, he cringed.

A few moments later, he heard the explosion he had anticipated.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Chance asked.

Rich took a deep breath, then went to see what was happening.

Jade had been pouring beer down the kitchen sink. Empty bottles were neatly arranged on the worktop, and now she’d started on the champagne. The room reeked of alcohol.

Jade and Chance were staring at each other, and Rich would not have put money on who would blink or look away first.

“Let’s just all calm down,” Rich said. His voice seemed quiet and strained and rather weedy, even to himself.

“I am calm,” Jade said. She didn’t sound it.

“Maybe we should…” Rich swallowed, “…talk about this.”

“I’ve nothing to say,” Jade replied. She was still locked in a staring match with her father.

“Fine,” Chance said. “Then you can listen. Both of you.” He broke from the confrontation with Jade as he turned to glare at Rich. “In the living room. Now.”

“I don’t—” Jade started to say.

“Now!”

She didn’t finish the thought. She pushed past Chance and Rich and went and sat on the sofa. Rich hesitated a moment, then went and sat beside her.

Chance stood in front of the fireplace, facing them. He looked down at the coffee table between them.

“Where are my cigarettes?”

“I don’t know,” Rich said. “Haven’t seen them. On top of the telly, maybe?”

“So you’re going to smoke at us again, are you?” Jade asked.

“I’m going to tell you some things that you may not want to hear,” Chance said. “And some things that you may not believe, but need to know.”

“So no slouching at the back,” Jade muttered.

Despite himself, Rich giggled.

“Absolutely,” Chance told them, deadly serious. “It’s bad for your posture.” His mouth twitched, just slightly. But it was enough to defuse the tension a little. He took a deep breath, as if gathering himself for what he was going to say.

Rich waited to be shouted at. He and Jade were used to being told off, and despite her bravado, Rich knew that Jade didn’t like it. He could feel how tense she was. He just hoped she’d take it and not yell back like she sometimes did at Mum. Or used to.

But Chance didn’t shout. When he spoke, his voice was calm and quiet. “You’ve been through a lot,” he said. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you, even without the upheaval of coming here and coping with me. It’s difficult, losing someone you love. Especially the first time.”

“Like you’d know,” Jade said.

“I said you might not believe what I say,” Chance told her. “But I do know. I lost both my parents before I was twenty. But this isn’t about me, it’s about you. Right now it’s you two who are important. We don’t know each other yet, let’s not even pretend that we do, but I hope we will. I guess there’s never a good time for what’s happened, but right now may be even more awkward than it should be.”

“Why?” Rich asked.

Chance sighed. “One of the most awkward things is that I can’t tell you. Not at the moment. There are things about…” He hesitated, deciding how to phrase what he wanted to say, “…things about my job that I can’t tell you right now.”

“Like why you have a security thing on the phone?” Jade said.

He nodded. “It’s a scrambler. For secure conversations. My work is important and it’s taking up a lot of my time just now. I have some things I need to finish up – urgent things. I can’t have distractions.”

“Is that what we are?” Rich said.

Chance smiled. “With the best will in the world, what do you think? I’d love for it to be possible for you to just move in here and settle down and all of us to carry on as if nothing’s changed. But that isn’t possible. Things have changed – changed radically, for you and for me. We need time to come to terms with that, and to make it work.” He leaned forward and looked at them both intently. “And I do want it to work. I really do. I want to get this right, for all our sakes.”

“Cruel to be kind?” Jade wondered.

“Nothing so calculated,” Chance told her. “I just need time to sort things out.”

“So you dump us at boarding school so you can get your work done.”

Chance sighed. “I suppose that’s what it comes down to. I know you don’t like the idea – I don’t like the idea either – but I’m afraid that’s how it has to be.”

“But why?” Rich demanded.

“I’ll tell you why as soon as I can,” he promised. “Really I will. You don’t know me, but I’m asking you to trust me. This is the best way. Till the end of term – a few weeks. Then we’ll discuss it properly.” He nodded to Rich. “And I mean discuss it. And we’ll decide together what to do next, what’s best. As a family. Deal?”

Neither Jade nor Rich said anything.

“Like I said,” Chance went on. “I don’t expect you to like it. But I hope you’ll trust me enough to take my word.”

“That’s not fair,” Jade said.

“I’ll tell you what’s not fair,” Chance said quietly. “I could have ignored the call from Mrs Gilpin. I could have told her that I never even saw my children, or that I don’t think they’re mine at all, or that I’m just not interested in my own kids. They don’t want to know me, so why should I want to know them – look after them? Put myself out for them? Change my entire life for them? Just because they lost their mum and there’s no one else. But I didn’t. Because that wouldn’t be fair. It really wouldn’t.”

Both Rich and Jade were looking down at the floor. By the time they looked up again, Chance had gone.

“Maybe we should give him a break,” Rich said to Jade. “Give him back his phone and cigarettes.” Rich could sense Jade tense. “You can’t keep blaming him for what happened to Mum.”

“Just because he suddenly goes all slushy and says he cares doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“He said we’d talk,” Rich pointed out.

“Yeah, after he’s packed us off to school. Then what? A live-in nanny for the holidays so he can get on with this important job of his? So he can build his career without being distracted. Well, Mary Poppins we don’t need.”

“I’m going to tell him you took his mobile and his ciggies,” Rich decided. “And the lighter.”

“Creep!” Jade made to grab Rich, but he was already on his way to the study.