Operation Eiffel Tower (15 page)
Read Operation Eiffel Tower Online
Authors: Elen Caldecott
Jack paused at the bottom of the stairs. Then he took a deep breath. He needed to speak to Lauren. Enough was enough.
He climbed up and knocked on her bedroom door.
She didn’t answer.
He knocked again. Then, when there was still no reply, he opened it.
‘What?’ Lauren yelled.
Jack stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
Lauren was lying face down on her bed. She twisted her head round to glare at him, her eyes bright and shining. ‘What do you want?’ she said.
‘We need to do something. Things can’t carry on like this. No one speaking to anyone, everything feeling so horrible.’
‘Well, it isn’t my fault!’ she said.
Jack paused. He didn’t want to tell her that some of it was. He didn’t want to make her angry. But she had been caught stealing, after all. That was her fault.
‘Doesn’t matter whose fault it is,’ Jack said. ‘The facts of it are, Mum and Dad can’t even be in the same room together any more. How will Dad ever come home if things stay like this?’
‘He isn’t going to come home,’ Lauren said simply.
‘Don’t!’ Jack said. ‘Don’t say that.’
Lauren looked as though she was making up her mind. Would she argue or would she listen? Perhaps there had been enough fighting today because she raised herself up slowly and nodded. ‘Fine. What were you thinking?’
Jack took a deep breath. ‘We need to get them together, somewhere outside the house. Neutral ground. For negotiations to take place.’
‘Have you been talking to Paul?’
‘Maybe. He says they need to stop being angry before they can listen to each other. They need to be able to use their hearts and minds together. That’s the way they do it in the army.’
‘This isn’t a war!’ Lauren said hotly.
‘Isn’t it?’ Jack said. ‘It feels like it might be sometimes. And we’re the collateral damage. Well, I say it stops. You and me, we’re like the United Nations in this house. We’re going to set up a peace treaty.’
‘How are we going to do that?’
Jack shook his head. ‘I thought you might know. You’re the eldest.’
Lauren flung herself back down on the bed and sighed.
‘Come on, Lauren, you must have some ideas.’
‘I came up with the Paris idea, didn’t I? It was from my magazine. But we didn’t get enough money and now it’s too late.’
‘Well, maybe we could find a cheaper Paris.’
Lauren snorted.
But Jack didn’t reply.
He was thinking.
He knew where they could find Paris and it wouldn’t cost them hundreds of pounds.
‘There is a Paris,’ Jack whispered. ‘Right close by.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s an Eiffel Tower here. They don’t have to go all the way to France.’
Lauren stared at him, trying to work out what he meant. Then her eyes grew wider as she realised. ‘Oh no, Jack, no. You can’t be serious!’
‘Why not?’
‘You just can’t!’
‘I can. And I am. We’ll send them to Paris, we’ll get them to talk and, if we’re lucky, we might get Dad to come home.’
‘I’m grounded,’ Lauren said suddenly.
Jack grinned. If Lauren was worrying about how she could leave the house to help, then she couldn’t really hate the idea. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. How long are you grounded for?’
Lauren shrugged. ‘Until my hair goes grey, I think.’
‘Well,’ Jack grinned, ‘I hope you nicked some hair dye as well as a lipstick!’
Lauren howled in anger and threw pillows at his head until Jack decided it was safer to leave.
Jack grinned to himself outside Lauren’s room. He leaped down the stairs two at a time.
In the kitchen, Mum was peeling a banana for Billy. ‘Well,’ she said, looking at Jack, ‘at least one of us is happy. It’s visiting hours in ten minutes. We’re going to the hospital, though we’ll be late. Go and tell Lauren that she’s coming too and that she’s not to go out of my sight.’
Jack noticed that the pink teddy was still on the kitchen table where he’d dropped it. He picked it up and stuffed it into his pocket.
They took the bus as far as the hospital. Billy sat on Mum’s lap because the bus was quite full. It was always like that around visiting time, Jack thought. No one really spoke on the journey; Mum was too cross, Lauren was ignoring everyone and Jack just had too much to think about.
If Mum and Dad couldn’t get to Paris, then Paris would just have to come to them.
When they arrived at the hospital, they found Ruby sitting on her bed, dressed in pyjamas. She waved excitedly as soon as she saw them walking towards her room.
‘Mummy!’ she yelled. ‘Mummy, I didn’t know if you were coming. You’re late. Guess what? I went on the ward today and played with Gracie. She’s had all her hair shaved off. Well, some of it anyway. And one of the boys lifted his bandage to show us his stitches. It was gross.’
Mum gave Ruby a hug, holding her close for a long time. ‘I’m glad to hear you’ve been up and about.’
Jack pulled the teddy from his pocket. ‘I got you this,’ he said.
Ruby stared at it. ‘Is it from the machine?’ she whispered.
Jack nodded.
Ruby took the teddy as though he were precious and laid him on her lap. ‘Thank you,’ she said. Then she looked up at him. ‘But you shouldn’t be spending money!’
Mum laughed. ‘Are you giving financial advice, Ruby? Listen, you lot stay quietly in here while I go and talk to the nurses. I’m really glad to see you so much brighter.’
The children were left alone.
‘Jack,’ Ruby said, ‘why are you spending money that should go in the Paris fund? And why are you late? Everyone else’s visitors came ages ago.’
Jack looked at Lauren. Would she tell Ruby about the chemist and the lipstick?
Lauren bit her lip. ‘I got into a bit of trouble,’ she said reluctantly. ‘But it’s OK now.’
‘And the money?’ Ruby asked.
Jack grinned. ‘We’ve got enough money. For what I have planned, at least. It came to me in a rush. We don’t have to send Mum and Dad all the way to Paris to make friends again. There’s an Eiffel Tower right here!’
‘Where?’ Ruby asked.
‘At William’s!’
‘You’re going to make them play adventure golf?’ Ruby asked.
Lauren nodded. ‘She’s only little, but she’s talking sense. You’ll never get Mum to play golf. Dad maybe, Mum never.’
‘Not playing it, no! We turn the Eiffel Tower hole into a fake Paris. We can have a fancy dinner, with wine and candles and a lace tablecloth. Just like in the magazine. We get them to sit opposite each other and serve them a posh meal. If we do it in the evening, they can have the whole place to themselves – all the Wonders of the World right there! If that doesn’t calm them down and make them talk to each other, then nothing will.’
Ruby sat still, her legs crossed under her. Her mouth was open but she was smiling slightly. Jack knew that she was picturing the scene in her mind.
‘It’s a lovely idea,’ Ruby whispered finally. ‘Will it make Dad come home?’
‘Yes,’ Jack said.
‘No,’ Lauren said at the same time. ‘But it might get them closure.’
‘What’s closure?’
Lauren shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. But people need it. Shh!’ she said suddenly. ‘I can hear Mum coming.’
Jack looked out on to the corridor. Mum was just outside with a doctor. They were smiling and nodding at each other. Then Mum came into the room.
‘Ruby Tuesday, you’re coming home!’ Mum said. Her smile was the nicest thing that Jack had seen in days and days.
‘When? Now?’ Ruby asked.
‘No, not now, but in the next couple of days. The doctor says you’re on the mend. Isn’t that wonderful? We’ll have a party for you when you get home.’
Ruby nodded, but she was looking at Jack. He understood. Ruby wanted a party for Mum and Dad much more than she wanted one for herself.
And it was his job to see that they got it.
From:
[email protected]
Subject: Operation Eiffel Tower
Dear Paul,
Operation Eiffel Tower is under way. Objective: get Mum and Dad back together. Actually, that’s mine and Ruby’s, and probably Billy’s objective, though Billy didn’t say a lot when we asked him for his objectives. Lauren says our objective should be more realistic. She says we should just concentrate on getting Mum and Dad to speak to each other again. I don’t agree.
Tactics: Romance.
Troops will be deployed very soon.
Must rush. Me and Lauren are holding a crisis meeting.
Love,
Jack
Lauren’s room became the Headquarters of Operation Eiffel Tower, mostly because she wasn’t allowed out of it until Mum decided that her grounding was over.
Jack had found a roll of white wallpaper in the shed and pinned a length of it to Lauren’s wall. Lauren scribbled on it in thick black pen, drawing lines and arrows from one word to another, like a spider’s web.
‘We need equipment,’ she said to Jack. ‘We need a table and chairs. We need food, a tablecloth, candles, music, wine.’ She underlined the words with the tip of her pen as she read them. ‘It would be nice to have the River Seine, but William probably wouldn’t let us flood the place.’
Jack, who was sitting on the floor, nodded. ‘It’s like a scavenger hunt. But a really romantic one.’ He paused. ‘Candles are easy. There are some under the sink in case of power cuts. We can just take them.’
Lauren nodded and wrote ‘sink’ next to ‘candles’. ‘Food?’ she asked. ‘I can only do cheese sandwiches or beans on toast.’
‘That’s not romantic,’ Jack said.
‘Who do we know who can cook? And not Mum or Dad,’ Lauren added quickly.
Jack thought for a moment. Paul was always moaning about Auntie Joyce’s cooking, so not her. William? No, he lived off candyfloss and chips from the other stands on the front. Then, he remembered, ‘Mrs Khalid! She likes to cook! She cooks for her mum and dad all the time. Perhaps she can help.’