I immediately smelled something cooking, something spicy, warm, inviting, and my stomach rumbled; it was late in the week, and my budget was stretched to breaking point, so I had baked beans on toast planned for dinner; this smelled a lot better. I heard voices, and realised it was Rick. Rick! After two years, what was he doing here, and what gave him the right to just waltz back in after taking all the money I had and doing a disappearing act?
I pushed the door open, and there he was, looking the same, reading something and talking over his shoulder to someone in the kitchen, someone female, by the sound of it, a voice with a distinct London accent; so, he’d waltzed back in here and brought his girlfriend too, had he? I’d soon put him straight about that! You leave, you’re gone, it’s as simple as that; sneaking-off like that had taken away any right he had to be here, as far as I was concerned.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded, watching in satisfaction as he jumped, spinning round, to smile at me, a big, wide, cheesy, ‘Hi, howya doing!’ kind of smile, but I wasn’t having any of it; he’d stolen my money, what little I had, disappeared, and never so much a note in almost two years to say where he was, to say sorry, nothing.
“Bobby, God, it’s good to see you!” he exclaimed, and I had to grin at the sheer barefaced gall he had to think I was going to welcome him back, just like that…
“Where the hell have you been, and who said you could come in here? This is my home now, you left, so get out, and take whoever the hell that is with you! Get out, both of you, before I throw you both out by the scruff of your necks!”
The girl in the kitchen had come to the doorway, and stood staring at me in what looked like fascination, no trace of fear or apprehension on her face, just interest. I glanced at her, and then took a second, longer look. Whatever my problem with him, I had to admit Rick had good taste; she was exquisite! Tall, slender, possibly late teens or early twenties, olive-skinned, with long, glossy, mahogany-red hair, startling green-hazel eyes, and full red lips that seemed naturally red, rather than through any cosmetic help. She was dressed in a tight Tee-shirt that outlined and emphasised her small, firm breasts rather well, and skinny jeans that she managed to fill most enticingly; she was completely stunning, and I found my gaze being drawn to her even as my anger at Rick bubbled up.
“What do you want here? You take all my money, you disappear for damn near two years, and then you just roll in here expecting a warm welcome? Get out, now, and take her with you!”
I turned away in disgust, weary, angry, hungry, and just too worn-out to say any more. I’d rehearsed this meeting in my mind many times, and all the biting things I’d wanted to say hovered below the surface of my mind, but I just couldn’t say them; all I wanted was him gone, and his girlfriend with him.
“Bobby, we need to talk, all of us, now…” said Rick, and I turned to him, anger threatening to spill over into something physical; couldn’t he understand plain English? Why would I want to stand here and bandy words with him; I thought I’d made myself perfectly clear.
“Get out Rick, I told you twice now, are you deaf? Go, before I hurt you!”
“And will you hurt your little sister too?” he asked me, and my head snapped around.
“What did you say?” I croaked, and he nodded slowly.
“Bobby, this is Yasmin, Yaz for short; she’s our younger sister, and that’s her big sister, our big sister, Shereen over there.”
I looked around in a kind of daze, and there was another girl, almost the double of Yasmin, but even prettier, if that were possible. This girl had paler, creamier skin, and dove-grey eyes, but the same rich mahogany hair, and she was maybe a couple of years older than Yasmin, maybe my age, but the same height as Yasmin, a similar slender, willowy build, and a figure just as tight and alluring as her sister.
“Hi Bobby, I’ve heard a lot about you…” she smiled, and I sat down before I fell down.
“How… when… did… when…? I managed, and both girls grinned at me.
“Don’t worry, Bobby, when Rick turned up at our doorstep, we had pretty much the same reaction.” smiled Yasmin.
My head was spinning; these two gorgeous girls were my sisters? How? When did this all happen?
Shereen patted my knee.
“Go and have a shower and get changed, and we’ll talk after dinner; hurry up, Bobby, dinner’s almost ready.”
I suddenly realised what I must look and smell like, and hurriedly excused myself, taking the stairs two at a time in my haste to get cleaned up and get back to that wonderful smelling food and those beautiful girls! I had a hot shower; I normally had cold showers, to minimise my use of gas; I needed that for when winter really began to bite, when I had no option but to heat the room I lived in, and having a hot shower was a luxury in my circumstances, but I thought the fact that I had company justified it, just this once.
Dinner was incredible; the girls were amazing cooks, and they’d put together a wonderful Madras chicken curry, tangy, hot, and spicy, fragrant basmati rice, sweet and fruity Peshwari naan breads stuffed with almond paste, coconut, sultanas and honey, and flavoured with cardamoms and other, more exotic spices, and a cool cucumber, sour cream and onion raita. For someone whose meals usually consisted of soup, and beans on toast, it was a banquet I never seriously thought I’d ever get to eat, and I pitched in happily. Conversation was limited as we ate, Rick and the girls watching me as I stuffed my face. I stopped when I saw them eyeing me, and Shereen reached out to put her hand on mine.
“Eat as much as you want, Bobby; we saw what’s in the pantry. Poor you, I don’t know how you survive on so little; I never knew things were so tough for you, none of us did, or we’d have been here sooner. You eat all you want, there’s plenty for you, there always will be, I promise.”
Her eyes were brimming with tears, and I bridled; who the hell was she to come in here and start pitying me? I’d managed okay so far, and I didn’t need some stranger patronising me! That was my father talking, of course, and even as the resentment flared inside me, I realised how barren it was, how that kind of thinking had left me here to slowly dwindle away. I told you, I was an uptight prick, and never more so in that instant, when I hotly, foolishly, resented the simple act of another human being reaching out to me.
I looked away in embarrassment, knowing that she’d somehow read every mean and angry nuance of my reaction to her, the embarrassment growing to encompass the knowledge that they knew I was so hard-up I was reduced to living on baked beans on toast and tomato soup. Shereen put her hand on my chin and turned me to face her.
“Bobby, you’re my brother, you’re Rick’s big brother, and I won’t ever leave you hungry or cold; when Rick brought us here it broke our hearts to see how little you have and how you have to live, alone and with no-one to care about you. We won’t let that happen again; that’s a promise, okay? You’ll never be alone again, cross my heart.”
I was trying to take this all in; this girl, my… sister, was promising to take care of me, and all I could do was wonder why; I didn’t know her, I had no connection to her, and I couldn’t understand the deep connection she seemed to feel with me; was I so disconnected from people, so wrapped-up in my own struggle that I’d forgotten how to relate to others, how to be grateful? Had I ever really learned how to do that? With a rush of shame, I suddenly realised I’d never felt gratitude to another living soul, only an almost overpowering sense of entitlement. I’d never related to other people in any meaningful way because I knew I was better than them. Was that really the legacy my father had left me? To be a complete and total ass?
Rick leaned over and slapped me on the shoulder.
“Take it easy Bobby; it’ll take a while to sink in, but it will, believe me, you just have to let it happen. It took me a while, but you’re smarter than me, you should be able to figure it out in jig-time. Just take my word for it, it’s worth it, honest. Now eat up, we have a lot to tell you, and you’re not going to like any of it, but you have to hear it; then perhaps you’ll understand better what and who we are, and why everything happened the way it did.”
When we’d finished, Rick and Yasmin cleared the table while Shereen led me into the sitting room, and I have to be honest, I was captivated by the sight of her bouncy little bottom twinkling in her skinny jeans as she walked ahead of me. I only had the ratty old couch and a battered prolapsed armchair I’d salvaged from a house being demolished, so I motioned her to the couch and pulled the chair a little closer so we could have that talk Rick had mentioned.
Rick and Yasmin came in just then, and plumped down on the couch, Rick in the middle of those two beautiful, exotic-looking girls. Rick was definitely uncomfortable, but he obviously wanted to tell me whatever it was that was so important, so I waited patiently.
“Bobby, you’re not going to like this; I didn’t, it still tears me up inside, and there’s so much of it, so here goes; first off, Bobby, about Nicky…”
I rolled my eyes; the last thing I wanted to know about was that spoiled little mummy’s boy. Rick looked annoyed at my impatience.
“No, Bobby, you’ve got it wrong about Nicky; we were both wrong, no Bobby!” as I tried to interject, “Just be quiet and listen, for once, just listen, please!”
I was the verge of walking out, but something stopped me; perhaps it was the look on his face, or the note in his voice…
“Bobby,” he began, “We were wrong about Nicky, so wrong, just listen to me; he didn’t desert us, or leave us in the lurch; dad beat him half to death, and Barbara got him out of here to save his life!”