Examentrainers

The following text is from: The Fahrenheit Twins (Short Stories) by Michel Faber


Michel Faber

There were a couple of hiccups between Gail and Ant before they even got to
the swimming pool.
   For a start, ‘My name’s not Ant,’ the child said. ‘It’s Anthony.’ Now why did
he have to say that, with the social worker right there in the car with them,
listening to everything? For a few moments (none of Gail’s emotions lasted very
long) she hated her little boy so much she couldn’t breathe, and she hated the
social worker even more, for being there to hear Ant’s complaint. She wished the
social worker could die somehow and take the knowledge of Gail’s humiliation
with him; he deserved to die anyway, the parasite. But the social worker
remained alive and at the wheel, noting Gail’s come-uppance in his little black
book of a brain, and then […..] Ant went and did it again when they were almost
there, by asking Gail, ‘What was that little drink you had back there?’
   ‘What little drink?’
   ‘The little drink you had at the chemist. In the little plastic cup.’
   ‘Medicine, cutie.’
   ‘My name’s not cutie,’ stated the child. ‘It’s Anthony.’
Then, as the car was drawing to a halt in front of the Melbourne public baths,
this kid, this Anthony who had grown out of being the Ant she’d lost to the State
five years ago, said to her,
   ‘Are you still sick?’
   ‘I used to be really sick,’ was Gail’s answer. ‘Now I’m a lot better.’
   The boy looked unimpressed.
   ‘Moira says people shouldn’t take medicine if they’re not sick.’
   Moira was Anthony’s foster-carer. He didn’t call her Mum. But then he didn’t
call Gail Mum either. He was careful not to call her anything.
   ‘Your mum is only a little bit sick now,’ the social worker chipped in, his head
twisted away as he parked the car. ‘The last bit.’
   Gail hadn’t expected this from him. She was glad the social worker was alive
now, grateful. She was willing to do anything for him, anything he wanted, like
for free. Although she’d better be careful who she slept with these days, if she
wanted to get Ant back.