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.‘I want to taste it,’ she said.She almost, almost looked sweet as she asked him.‘She didn’t say please,’ Jack appealed to Chelsea.‘I don’t want to let her have a taste of it.’‘That’s all right, Jack.’ Chelsea put her hand on his shoulder.‘You don’t have to.I’m sure her daddy’s buying her an ice cream of her own.’‘Please,’ Lily said sharply.‘No,’ Jack snapped right back.Lily stared at the ice cream.Chelsea didn’t know what to do.She looked to Adam desperately, but he was still studying the ice-creams that were available.Chelsea would not have been in the least bit surprised if Lily suddenly shot two laser beams from her eyes and melted the Cornetto into a puddle.Lily stood her ground.Jack stood his.Why should he let Lily try his ice cream? Perhaps subconsciously, Jack’s free hand went to the hardening scab on his knee, the scab caused when he tripped over while pushing the roundabout.Having recited the entire list of available ice creams for Lily’s convenience, Adam finally noticed his daughter was no longer standing next to him.He reacted at once, turning to look for her, seeing her standing in front of Jack and moving in her direction as quickly as he could.Unfortunately, though, not quickly enough to stop Lily bringing her hand up beneath the hand in which Jack held his ice cream so that the Cornetto briefly collided with his face before sliding all the way down the front of his clean T-shirt.‘Oh my God,’ said Adam.‘Lily, you …’Jack, Lily and Chelsea all stared at the spot where Jack’s ice cream lay.Now nobody was going to get to taste it.Jack sat very still, but even Chelsea, with her limited experience of children, knew something was going on inside him.Something was building, something that would make the eruption of Timanfaya seem like a wisp of steam from the spout of a kettle.She had to react quickly.What would Ronnie do? Jack was clenching his fists.His face was twisting.‘Come on, Jack.Quick march.’Chelsea put her arm round Jack’s shoulders and whisked him in the direction of the loos.‘I’m sorry,’ Adam called after them.‘I’m so sorry.She’s just hot and tired and …’Chelsea didn’t turn round.She exhaled hard.She didn’t know what to say to him.‘Jack, count to ten, Jack.Count to ten.’ Chelsea needed to count to ten too.‘Mummy will be angry.’ Jack was starting to cry.‘I’ve got ice cream on my clean T-shirt.’‘I’ll tell her what happened.You won’t get into trouble.’‘Why did she do it?’‘Lily? I don’t know.I guess she must have been angry about yesterday, about the roundabout.’‘But I was angry about the slide.’‘I know.This is what happens, Jack.Anger spreads from one person to another.It’s how wars begin.’‘Are we in a war?’ Jack asked.‘No, no, of course we’re not,’ said Chelsea.‘We’re going to take the moral high ground.’‘Where’s that?’‘You mean, what’s that.It’s a turn of phrase.It means we keep calm and carry on.Or something like that.’‘Carry on fighting?’‘Carry on being calm.Definitely not fighting.’Chelsea glanced back towards Adam, who was crouching down with his hands on Lily’s shoulders.She could only imagine the conversation they were having now.Chelsea had to clean Jack up before they got back on the bus.His T-shirt was covered in ice cream.Absolutely covered.Chelsea rinsed the worst of it out in a basin, but there was no way he could put it back on.Though it would dry soon enough outside, on an air-conditioned coach it would remain uncomfortably wet and cold.So Chelsea, who fortunately was wearing a pair of T-shirts layered, stripped off the outermost one and offered it to her nephew.‘It’s orange! That’s a girl’s colour,’ Jack protested.‘Nonsense,’ said Chelsea as she wrestled him into it.The T-shirt almost reached Jack’s knees.She tried to tuck the excess into his shorts.‘Orange was all over the catwalks at the men’s Paris shows.Give us a twirl.’Jack was unconvinced.He followed Chelsea to the coach with his head down.‘He could borrow one of Lily’s T-shirts,’ Adam suggested when they were back in the car park.‘I’ve got two spares in my bag.’‘That’s OK,’ said Chelsea [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]