Welcome to Newport: Dave’s Rabbit, Chapter FOUR

Welsh lettering taken from Google images….I don’t speak Welsh 🙂

CHAPTER FOUR

Kallis was dreaming she was a child again. Her father was throwing her a Frisbee and she was chasing it along a beach, trying to catch it before it hit the soft, white sand. The sun was a brilliant ball in an incandescent sky. It suddenly came to her that she was in a dream and she surfaced slowly awake. Kallis yawned and stretched, becoming aware that she felt rather uncomfortable. ‘I am still wearing my clothes’, she thought, and then ‘where am I?’
Kallis opened her eyes quickly. The sun was streaming in through the small window, the blue curtains pulled back with knotted silk ropes either side. There was a heap of boxes in the corner, a small pine table and a chair with a portable TV gathering dust on top. Kallis rolled over and sat up. She was at her mother’s house in her old bedroom, where she still stayed when visiting her mother. The bed had not been made up and Kallis was under an Egyptian throw that was covering the bed. Various cushions scattered around her, including the one she had been using as a pillow.
Kallis pushed her fingers through her hair and thought hard.
‘How on earth did I get here? ’Kallis asked herself, feeling a little anxious.
Everything seemed blurred, although her head felt quite clear.
‘I don’t have a hangover.` She smiled wryly to herself, remembering a similar morning after the night before, when she had awoken in a strange bed with a thumping head and not much memory of how she had got there.
Kallis hopped out of bed and opened the bedroom door a crack. All seemed quiet. She sprinted across the landing and into the bathroom. Kallis used the loo and then rinsed her face in the sink. She regarded herself in the mirror. A rather paler than normal face looked back at her, black kohl liner smudged under her eyes. She washed her face and used the hand towel to dry herself.
There was a knock on the door.
‘Who’s there? Kallis, is that you, sweetheart?’
Kallis’s mother had heard the water running and puzzled, and slightly alarmed, she had crept up the stairs.
‘Mum! Hi. Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.’
Kallis opened the door. Her mother was standing on the landing wearing a white towelling dressing gown. ‘I didn’t hear you come in, darling. When did you get here?’
Kallis’s mother Charlotte was taller than Kallis; in fact, Kallis looked nothing like her, having taken mostly after her small, dark, Egyptian father. Her mother was blonde, in her early fifties and still looking good, although the blonde hair owed much of its gloss to Naturtint these days. She pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her ear and smiled. ‘Come on down and I’ll make you some breakfast. I’ve got the coffee on. You can tell me what you have been up to.´
‘Alright, Mum, thanks. I’ll be down in a minute. Can I have a shower? Is there enough hot water?’
‘Sure, darling, the tank should have refilled by now. I had mine ages ago.’
Charlotte took off down the stairs and much banging of pots and pans could be heard coming from the kitchen.
Kallis wondered, whilst in the shower, just what she was going to say to her mother when she wasn’t sure what had happened herself. ‘Anyway’, thought Kallis, ‘let’s get dressed and have some breakfast, I’m STARVING!’
‘Mum?’ Kallis shouted down the stairs, ‘Can I raid your wardrobe? I don’t have any clean clothes with me.’
‘Help yourself. NOT my best stuff, mind, and DEFINITELY nothing with a ‘Whistles’ label.’
Kallis laughed as she went into her Mother’s bedroom and opened the wardrobe. Kallis put her own black jeans back on – they were reasonably clean still – and found a pink silk camisole and a white shirt, which she belted over her jeans. Rubbing her hair dry with a towel, she padded bare foot downstairs. Charlotte was sitting at the kitchen table, a pot of coffee in front of her and a pile of toast, some scrambled eggs in a dish, baked beans and fried tomatoes and mushrooms. Kallis tucked in to all this while her Mother poured the coffee.

‘So?’ Charlotte looked at Kallis. ‘You went to the Glastonbury festival, didn’t you? Was it good?’
Kallis nodded, with her mouth full. She took a slurp of coffee. ‘It was just brilliant, Mum. You’ll never guess what, I saw David Bowie just wondering around the site, he was SO chilled and laid back. And the music was amazing; they had some fantastic acts this year. I think it was one of the best ever, and the weather held for us too.’
‘That’s great, sweetheart. I’m glad you had a good time. So, what made you turn up here unannounced? Boyfriend trouble?’
‘Oh, no….nothing like that, Mum.’ Kallis thought fast.
‘Um, well, a friend was driving this way after the festival and I got a lift. I was feeling at a bit of a loose end and thought I’d drop by. It was really late when we got here and I must have left my bag in his car. The credit’s all gone on my phone, so I couldn’t really ring you, it was all a bit, you know, um, well, spontaneous. You don’t mind, do you? Can I stay a few days?’
‘Course you can, darling. Stay as long as you want. I’ve got to get off to work in a bit but you help yourself to whatever you want. I’ll be back about six. I’ve got after school activities to teach today so it’s a late one. I’d better go and get dressed in a minute.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘And make up your bed properly, won’t you? You know where the sheets are kept.’
Kallis nodded with her mouth full of toast.