They’ve already invited me. Someone from the Chamber of Commerce.
The president. Carmencita Casanova, I say. She’s the one who did my hair today. I’m actually helping her with the event. I’m working on getting the Minister for Justice to attend.
I’m aware of how impressive that sounds, which is exactly what I’m trying to do with Becky. We’ve had a bad few weeks, hopefully I can turn that around. But my words don’t have the desired effect. She looks at me oddly, her face kind of twisted in a weird thought and I realise she’s already had a lot to drink, it’s giving her an edge. So early, home alone with the boys. This is unusual.
The horrible feeling intensifies. I drink the red wine, take too much of a gulp, it catches in my throat and I splutter a cough.
She watches me with her cat eyes. Sips slyly. Smiles at my discomfort.
Before we begin, is there anything that you’d like to tell me, she asks, eyes searing into mine. Her pupils are so large her eyes seem black.
Confused, I rack my brain for something that I should tell her.
Em. No, I don’t think so, I say slowly. But I could be wrong, I’m sure she’s about to refresh my memory.
You don’t think so. Right. She straightens up as if trying to stay calm and breathes in and out before saying, without kindness, You’ve broken the terms of your lease. We had a three-strikes-and-you’re-out agreement. You’re out, Allegra.
I haven’t broken any terms of the lease, I say, confused. I search my brain. I broke a plate a few weeks ago but I told you about it. I said I’d pay for it.
Do you think I’m stupid, Allegra.
No.
Then you wouldn’t be evicted over a plate, would you. There have been many incidents over the past few weeks. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to remind you of them, that they’d be as perfectly clear and as memorable to you as they have been to us.
She’s ready to list them, I can tell. She’s been dying to do this. Probably saying them over and over in the shower, as she cleans the kitchen, empties the dishwasher, over and over in her head on a loop, all the terrible things I’ve done.
Donnacha had to scrape you up from between the wheelie bins when you set the alarm off, so drunk that he had to practically carry you to bed. Then don’t think I didn’t notice you had a friend stay over.
She’s not my friend.
Well, she laughs angrily, nostrils flared, that’s even worse. You brought someone who wasn’t your friend back to my home.
My home, I say quietly.
The lease explicitly states that you cannot do that. For the privacy of our family. My family. We can’t have strangers wandering around at four a.m.
She leaves a silence hanging, a powerful I-have-you-now silence.
But I’ve nowhere else to go.
I think four weeks’ notice is sufficient time to find somewhere else. If you find somewhere available before then, of course, please take it.
Becky, I say, in total shock. Please, I beg. I’ll be a better tenant, I promise. I have to stay here. I need to stay. I’m working on something. I’m here for a reason. A very important reason.
Yes, working with the president of the Chamber of Commerce and the Minister for Justice, she says cattily. Pull the other one. I haven’t even mentioned the police calling out to the house on not one but two occasions. The gardaí on duty believed you were acting strangely. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, break into my home when I’m out, but there won’t be a repeat, and you certainly won’t be allowed near my children again.
I look over at Cillín, hoping he hasn’t heard her speaking to me like this. His head is buried in my phone, playing with the apps I downloaded for him.
I only did it once, I say feeling hysterical. The first time was the fox. Okay the second time it was me falling into the bins, and the third time it was a girl who is not my friend any more and who never will be. I’m sorry for all of it but I wasn’t trying to break into your house. I could prove all of this to you, couldn’t I, by showing you the CCTV footage, if you hadn’t wiped it to cover your own arse. And honestly, I continue, my voice trembling, I think you just want me gone because I know what you did. You hate that I know and you’re terrified I’m going to say something.
What did you say, she whispers.
Donnacha checked the camera footage. He told me it’d been wiped. Wonder who wiped it. But it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t need to see it, he believes me.
Oh I’m sure he does, Allegra. I’m sure you have your ways of making people believe you. You had me fooled for a while too. I found it, she whispers then. It’s eerie. Her pretty face so twisted and creepy.