She Should Beg To Come Back

The kids were good, even Juliet was getting along with everyone and pulling her weight for once. Carol and Patrick didn't even ask about their mum. Maybe they were scared to ask me, but I told them she would come home any day now. I really thought she would at first, but after a week had passed, I was starting to fear that that was really it, that she wouldn't ever be coming back. Carol asked me if I couldn't go and drag mum home. I know Val called and spoke to the kids on the phone, but when I pushed to find out what she had said they all clammed up. I did think about driving to Bracknell and dragging Val back by the scruff of her neck. But really, I wanted to hear her plead for me to take her back. I reckoned she'd have to come back begging eventually, because I couldn't see how she could possibly survive on her own. She didn't have any skills. She hadn't worked since having Carol. And, even if she found a factory job, or a job in a shop, she would end up having to live in some dump on some God awful council estate and I knew she couldn't stand that life any more. She'd grown up on the Britwell estate in Slough and there was no way she'd ever live like that again. She'd gotten used to having her own house and garden, and although where we lived wasn't posh or anything, it was safe, it was comfortable, our neighbours were pretty decent on the whole.
At least a month past before Val showed her faced. She came back to get some photos and other bits and pieces that she wanted. Val stayed with a friend down the road for a few days and then she pissed off to Feltham, where she had found work and a bedsit. Juliet wanted to go with her, but Val said she would have to wait until she could afford to move to a bigger place.