Without Looking Back Read Free

dance.’
    Max made a snorting noise. Louis glared at him. ‘It’s not funny! Ballet’s really hard – you have to be so strong. It’s a sport just like football.’
    ‘Madame Dubois told Maman that Louis is better than all the girls in his class,’ Millie pitched in. ‘She says he’s a natural at ballet.’
    ‘Are you not too intimidated by the girls?’ Papa asked Louis with a smile.
    ‘No, they’re all right. Anyway, I’m not the only boy in the class – Luc does it too.’
    They walked through the quiet streets of Rueil in the late-afternoon sunshine, Papa carrying Millie’s rucksack over his shoulder. When they reached his flat on the third floor of an old stone house that stood on the corner of Rue de Rivoir, Millie went charging down the narrow hallway to the kitchen and Papa set her rucksack down by the door. The flat still looked exactly the same as when Papa had first moved in over a year ago. It still had that slightly musty, closed-away smell and, apart from a portable TV, a laptop and a hastily erected clothes rail, contained none of Papa’s belongings at all.
    In the kitchen, Millie mixed chocolate powder into cold milk, Max switched on the telly and rocked back on one of the kitchen chairs with his trainers up on the table, and Louis helped Papa unpack the three shopping bags on the sideboard. A baguette and a carton of orange juice, a lettuce, some tomatoes, and two frozen pizzas. Louis was surprised. That wasn’t nearly enough food tolast them all weekend. Max ate like a horse and Millie lived on biscuits. And Louis knew for a fact that Papa’s fridge would be completely empty and the dustbin crammed full of ready-meal packets.
    ‘Are you taking us away somewhere for the weekend, Papa?’
    Papa looked startled for a moment. Then he cleared his throat, raised his eyebrows and said, ‘Yes, yes – how did you guess?’
    Millie put down her spoon, splashing chocolate milk onto the table. ‘EuroDisney?’ she breathed, her eyes wide.
    ‘No, darling, not EuroDisney, not this time.’
    Millie’s face fell.
    ‘But somewhere else. Somewhere – different.’
    ‘Where?’ Millie demanded. Max’s gaze shifted from the television screen. Even he suddenly seemed interested.
    ‘Um – well – I’m not going to tell you,’ Papa said. ‘It’s going to be a surprise.’
    Millie clapped her hands together. ‘I love surprises! When, Papa? Today? Are we going to stay there overnight? Will there be a swimming pool?’
    ‘We’re going to leave tomorrow,’ Papa said, turning on the oven and unwrapping the pizzas. ‘Early. Veryearly. So I want us to have dinner now and then go to bed. We’re going to skip
goûter
and have pizza and salad instead. Then we’re going to hit the sack at eight.’
    ‘Are you joking?’ Max’s eyes widened in outrage. ‘I can’t go to sleep at eight!’
    ‘What sack?’ Millie wanted to know. ‘Why do we have to hit a sack?’
    ‘It’s an expression,’ Louis told her. ‘It means go to bed.’
    ‘Go to bed?’ Millie squawked. ‘Papa, you always let me stay up till Max and Louis go to bed!’
    ‘It’s still light at eight o’clock, Papa,’ Louis protested.
    Their father held up his hands. ‘Everyone calm down,’ he said, his voice uncharacteristically loud. ‘We’re all going to bed at eight. Everyone. Even me. It’s not up for discussion. We have to get up very, very early tomorrow morning for this surprise visit. And none of you will enjoy it if you haven’t had enough sleep.’ He dropped his hands and put the pizzas in the oven. He suddenly looked exhausted.
    There was silence. Max’s eyes swivelled back to the television screen. ‘It’d better be worth it,’ he muttered.
    ‘It
will
be worth it, Max, I promise.’
    ‘Why do we have to leave so early?’ Millie wanted to know.
    But Papa just went over to the sink to wash the vegetables and after a while they realized he wasn’t going to reply.
    After dinner, Max went into the living