Second Time Around Read Free

Halley took her foot away Buddy scrambled to sit up and farted.
    Halley screwed up her face at the odour.
    “I knew those boys gave you their brussel sprouts last night,” she said the moment she had stepped out of range of the smell.
    Buddy started scratching his ear and fell over.
    “I think we need to put you on a diet of dog food only,” Halley said as the children clattered down the stairs again.
    “Phe-ew! What is that gross smell?” Corey asked when he was nearly at the bottom.
    “The dog’s farted silly!” Casey told him, shoving him off the last step.
    “I win!” Em announced, jumping the last step as Corey turned around and elbowed his brother in retaliation. She gazed up at Halley expectantly. “Do I get ice cream?”
    “She doesn’t count,” Casey argued, looking to Halley for support.
    “I was paused!” Corey protested “So I should win!”
    “How about I give you all an ice block instead?” Halley suggested. “That way you are all winners.”
    Corey started to protest but she held up her hand to stop him.
    “Don’t you think the certainty of an ice block now is better than the chance that the winner might not be you and going without?”
    Corey thought for a moment.
    “I suppose,” he said reluctantly.
    Halley smiled.
    * * *
    Three weeks later Halley arrived home from school dripping wet, ready to provoke her neighbour into a confrontation. Since she had signed that form for Mrs Rice the woman had repeatedly taken advantage of her to bring home Em from school and to look after her until she bothered to turn up. Somehow it was always shortly before Em’s father was due home.
    Today it had been pouring with rain and once again Mrs Rice hadn’t given her advance notice. Up until now it hadn’t been a problem because she usually walked Cassie in the pushchair to collect the boys from school. If Mrs Rice didn’t show up, she’d just walk Em home with her.
    With the weather so unpleasant she’d taken the car and seeing that Mrs Rice hadn’t turned up the previous two days without warning she didn’t think the woman would have had the nerve to do so three days running. She had been wrong.
    Without Casey’s old booster seat in the car for Em to use she couldn’t legally drive all the children home. Any fleeting thought of flouting the law was quashed the instant Halley noticed the police at the end of the street doing seatbelt safety checks.
    Irritated, she had phoned Mrs Rice who had apologised and said she was in the dentist’s waiting room and the dentist was running late. The sound of someone shouting out numbers in the background belied her excuse. Halley just knew the woman was in a bingo hall somewhere and it was probably where she’d been every other time as well.
    Luckily Halley had the pushchair folded up in the back of the car or she would have had to have carried Cassie the three blocks home in the pouring rain. Although the boys had been prepared, Em hadn’t brought a raincoat or an umbrella to school so Halley had given Em the large umbrella kept in the boot of the car to carry. She hadn’t brought a leash for Buddy either so she’d had to make do with the bright orange tow rope out of the breakdown kit, looping the excess rope over the pushchair’s handle.
    Unfortunately the umbrella wasn’t big enough to shelter the pair of them and the pushchair so Halley had asked Em to walk with the umbrella covering the pushchair and had resigned herself to getting wet.
    Although the children had enjoyed splashing in puddles on the way home, each step they took just made Halley madder. She’d had errands she had needed to run in the car and now she couldn’t do them unless they all walked back to the car in the pouring rain with her carrying the booster seat for Em. She had berated herself the whole way home for being such a soft touch.
    Once home, after everyone had cleaned up and Halley had given them their afterschool snack in the kitchen her anger deflated. Looking back