The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes Read Online Free PDF Page B

thirteen, they’ll be one of the few things you think about.’
    ‘Not if I’m gay.’
    ‘Well, son, if you’re gay, trust me when I say the body is everything.’
    ‘You’re so mean!’ he shouted.
    ‘Get up those stairs and get your tracksuit on.’ She went into the sitting room and sank down beside Juliet on the sofa. The TV was on in the background but Juliet wasn’t watching it. Instead she was buried in a book, which she closed.
    Twelve-year-old Juliet looked a lot like her mother had at that age. She had long mousy hair, although hers was layered and had a bounce to it. She was stick-thin and had a pretty little face – no spectacles, but she scrunched up her nose as her mother did when she was thinking. ‘Did you see her?’ she asked.
    ‘Yeah, she’s all settled.’
    ‘When can I see her?’
    ‘Tomorrow.’
    ‘Why not tonight?’
    ‘She’s tired.’
    ‘She’s always tired.’
    ‘I know, but tomorrow, OK?’
    ‘When is she coming home?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Grace lied.
    ‘I can take care of her,’ Juliet said.
    ‘Of course you can.’
    ‘I know what to do.’
    ‘I know you do, darling.’
    ‘So she should be home with me. She doesn’t need a convalescent home.’
    That lie had tripped off Grace’s tongue the night before, when she was completely at a loss as to what to say to the child whose mother had just been told she was dying.
    ‘Let’s see what happens tomorrow,’ Grace said.
    Juliet nodded. ‘I just want to go home.’
    Grace said nothing, just flicked Juliet’s hair off her face and talked about what she was planning for dinner. Juliet listened politely, waiting to return to her book.
    Grace left the room in time to see Jeffrey come down the stairs in a tracksuit that was two sizes too small. ‘Jeffrey.’
    ‘Wha’?’
    ‘Is that a joke?’
    ‘It’s the only tracksuit I have.’
    ‘Put your jeans back on.’
    Delighted, he clapped his hands. ‘Deadly.’
    ‘You’re running in them.’
    ‘Ah, for God’s sake, Ma.’
    Grace had just changed into her tracksuit when Lenny came into the bedroom. ‘Taking Jeff for a run?’ he asked.
    ‘I did this to him so it’s up to me to fix it,’ she said.
    ‘You didn’t.’
    ‘I’m greedy, always was, always will be. Me ma saw that and she wouldn’t let me eat whatever I wanted, so I learned self-discipline. I knew Jeff was like me. I knew he found it hard to say no, but instead of saying it for him, I let our youngest eat himself to the brink of death. What the hell is wrong with me?’
    ‘You’re exaggerating.’
    ‘Pre-diabetes, Len,’ she said. ‘He’s nine and at risk of type two diabetes, just like his granda, not to mention heart disease, kidney failure and blindness, and it’s my fault.’
    He put his arms round her. ‘It’ll work out.’
    ‘Not everything does,’ she said.
    Lenny understood why his wife had taken the news of her son’s health check so badly. She had been scared of losing Rabbit for so long, and now it was happening.
    ‘How’s Rabbit?’ he asked.
    ‘She’s bad, Len.’
    He kissed his wife’s forehead. ‘All right, my love,’ he said. ‘We’ll do our best by her.’
    ‘And then what?’
    ‘And then we’ll say goodbye.’
    Grace cried quietly into her husband’s shoulder for a long five minutes.

Chapter Two
Johnny
    TWELVE-YEAR-OLD RABBIT HAYES was hidden behind the heavy old fabric and the egg boxes lining the garage wall when Johnny found her. He didn’t pull back the curtain, just sat down on the floor cross-legged, as though they were on two opposite sides of a confession box.
    ‘Hi,’ he said.
    She was quiet for a moment or two, trying to stifle her sobs. ‘Hi,’ she said, once the sobbing had ceased.
    ‘What’s up?’ he asked.
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘There’s something,’ he said. ‘You don’t cry for nothing.’
    She fixed her spectacles on her face and held them there.
    ‘I can hear you thinking,’ he said.
    ‘You can’t.’
    ‘Can, so stop thinking