The Patchwork House Read Online Free PDF Page B

going to film us eating.”
    “Screw that, I’m too hungry.”
    “Pass the sweet and sour please,” said Beth.
    Even Derek seemed to come out of his funk for a little while. At first there wasn’t much conversation; we were too hungry to talk. But after a while our stomachs realized that we weren’t going to be starving them all day and we slowed down enough to take a breath.
    I was the first to take a pause. “This is good. I’m surprised you found a Chinese takeaway in the village.”
    “So were we,” Chloe said.
    “I thought we were going to have to buy a bunch of cans and cook over a little camping stove,” Beth said. “And then we nearly drove right past this tiny little take out joint.”
    “It was pretty busy,” said Chloe. “Always a good sign.”
    “Didn’t realize how hungry I was,” Derek said.
    I stared at him for a moment as he ate. His appetite seemed to have lifted the air of grumpiness he’d carried since he arrived. Of course it wasn’t going to last.
    “Chloe, I hope you paid Beth for half this stuff,” he said between mouthfuls.
    “No, Beth insisted on paying. You should say thank you to our gracious hosts.”
    The temperature seemed to take a dip again.
    “It’s okay, hon, we can pay our way. It’s the least we can do after Jim and Beth were nice enough to invite us.”
    “This trip isn’t costing us anything,” I said, “so it’s fine, we can pay. I know things have been a bit tight for you guys—”
    “We’re not poor,” Derek snapped. I wasn’t the only one to detect the accusation behind Derek’s words. Beth looked at me awkwardly too. We all fell silent for a moment while Derek’s words hung in the chilly air.
    Beth broke the silence. “How about if we go back tomorrow then it’s on you?” she suggested.
    “Yes all right then,” Chloe agreed, but this didn’t seem to placate Derek.
    “That’s okay,” Derek said in a forced tone. “Jim has all the money, so let him pay.”
    “I have my own money, thanks very much,” Beth said. Now she sounded pissed.
    “Oh, so both of you are doing well. That must be nice.”
    “Derek,” Chloe said.
    “No, it’s okay. It stands to reason that if you don’t have to work two jobs with stupid hours just to put food on the table for your three kids, it’s much easier to swan around the world staying in nice houses and spending most of the year playing computer games.”
    The atmosphere was so frosty I could almost see my breath turning to mist in the lamp light.
    “Derek, you need to calm down,” I told him.
    “Calm down? Sure I’ll calm down. It’s your fucking fault I’m stuck with my shitty life while you never have to lift a bloody finger.”
    “Excuse me?” It was Chloe’s turn to be angry now. She rose from the table. Derek knew he’d gone too far; all his bluster faded immediately.
    Chloe advanced on him. “It may be hard and we’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices, but I love you and I love my children. I don’t regret anything and I certainly don’t consider my life to be shitty.”
    “Hon, I didn’t mean… I meant financially…”
    “I know exactly what you meant, Derek, and—” Chloe stopped suddenly. She stared upwards. “What was that?”
    We all looked at her and then followed her gaze to the ceiling. I’d felt so awkward while they argued that I was ignoring everything else around me. Now we all sat in silence, staring at the light fixtures.
    I broke the silence. “What did you hear?”
    “Shh.”
    We stayed dead still, all looking up. I couldn’t hear anything. Nobody spoke, wondering if whatever Chloe had heard might happen again. I opened my mouth to speak.
    There was a bang from above, a huge bang, so loud it was like a bomb had gone off upstairs. All of us jumped to our feet. There was absolutely no mistaking it. The house was far too solid for the bang to cause anything to move, but we’d all felt it too, like a very short, very violent earthquake.
    We froze, gaping in