The Blue Igloo

The Blue Igloo

Lila woke with a start. The drum inside her head picked up it rhythm and she remembered about last night party.  A lump in the bed next to her moved. “Oh my God,” she gasped.” Who did I bring home with me last night?” Then she remembered that the party had been here; the last before they broke up for Christmas.  She fantasized for a moment. She hoped it was him with the full lips and the long hair curling around the collar of his white open necked shirt.  “I think I kissed him in the glow from the candles Eva, had lit to create something called ambiance,” she murmured.

She’d taken Eva in …well mainly because her Daddy was rich. Eva always had money.” On the other hand she’d nearly always drunk and has a lot of ‘friends,” mostly male  who seem to come and  stay,” she muttered.

We’re like chalk and cheese, she thought. She had scraped her way to university through sheer hard work and her mother roaring at her to do her homework or revision or whatever she was supposed to be doing instead of lying with her feet above her head listening to Lady Gaga.

Eva, on the other hand was smart. She’d sailed through her “As” admittedly with the help of a tutor and the promise from Daddy that he would buy her a little sporty number with shiny wheels and a cloth top if she shone above the others in her class.

Eva had shone. Mostly from the secluded school boiler house and sometimes the lab technician’s shed. Naturally, she was not alone.  Grateful class mates assailed her with facts and figures in return for her favours.

“Everybody’s a winner,” she’d sing out, cheerfully rolling down her school skirt and tucking the required project notes into her bag.

Rising slowly on one elbow she peeled back the duvet from the lump.  Her memory of last night was vague.  What if it was some creep? Somebody had put the party on Facebook and the house had been heaving at the seams.  “You’re letting the cold air in,” a familiar voice grunted.

“Ma!” Lila squealed jumping upright. The pain in her head rendered her speechless. She chanced standing upright. Quickly she changed to a half standing half crouching position. Staggering her way over the wardrobe of clothes on the floor she moved stuff with her foot until she found a pair of stretch bottoms and a sweater she’d bought in the Save the Children

The carpet on the landing was lost in a sea of sleeping bodies. ”My mother will kill me. Worse still, she’ll give me no money for the new term.”  She could just hear her now. “Your father and I are working our asses off to give you a good education…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Lila muttered as if her mother had said it already.

The kitchen looked like a bomb site and smelt like a brewery. Somebody was snoring as  peaceful as a baby under a coat on top of the table.

She stuck her head under the tap and drank deeply. Her throat felt like she’d been chewing raiser blades.  Hands on the sink she gazed out at the back garden. “It looks very Christmassy,” she murmured, “With the snow covering all the rubbish and the broken down washing machine and the tent looks like a blue igloo in the midst of all the snow. She turned away. She’d need to get the house cleared of all the sleeping drunks before her mother got up.  She’d start with the tabletop sleeper.

She stopped. A tent? Some bugger had the cheek to bring a tent. “Well, we’ll soon see about that,” she said.” It was a friggin’ party not  a bloody rock concert.” Back in the bedroom she retrieved her boots. On her way downstairs, she roughly prodded the bleary eyes campers. “Piss off,” she hissed. Course swearing and profanities about the status of her birth followed her into the front room.  The faces staring up at her from the chairs and sofa resembled nobody she knew.

Eva was nowhere to be seen.  A light went on in Lila brain. The tent! Eva was in the tent with a man. “It’ll be the shortest affair she’s ever had,” she grunted.  Floundering out the back door her feet sunk into the soft snow.

The tent sat perilously on top of a mound of rubbish. “Obviously put up in a state of suspended reality,” Lila muttered.  She pressed on, lifting her feet high to avoid the drag.  She felt her boots catch on something. She tugged. She was well and truly anchored. A rasping sound carried on the still snow filled air. Lila watched in disbelief as the teeth of the tent grated open. She open her mouth to shout out, what the bloody hell you think you’re doing putting a tent up in my garden. The words died in her throat. A man in a business suit, complete with cycle helmet and bicycle clips stepped out of the tent and stood momentarily breathing in the fresh morning air.

Eva, crawling on all four poked her blond head through the opening and pouted her lips for a kiss.  The man cupped her face in his hand and kissed the tip of her nose.   Then, clamping the bicycle helmet under his arm he disappeared, whistling tunelessly.

There was a sucking sound as Lila’s foot parted company with her boot. Limping as fast as her soggy sock and one booted foot would allow she scrambled back into the kitchen determined to catch him and give him a piece of her mind.

She hadn’t bargained for the zombies and walking dead who were gathered in silent protest in the centre of the front hall getting up the strength to complain about their hostile eviction.

“Out of my way,” she screeched wrenching the front door open. He was long gone.  “Out,” she mouthed pointing in the direction of the front gate. Slowly, the silent protesters passed her one by one shielding their shivering bodies with their arms and giving her a dead eye look. She watched as the last one struggled to walk upright in the footfall of the one in front. “Gives a whole new meaning to, you don’t know me until you’ve walked in my footsteps,” “she growled.  Back in the kitchen her mother and Eva were up. “Hello, darling,” her mother said sweetly. Lila eyed her warily waiting for the onslaught.

“Isn’t Eva such a sweet girl and so helpful and kind. She’s taking me out for breakfast…and to meet Daddy. See you when we get back,” her mother called gaily. “What about the tent in the garden?” Lila shouted. It was useless. Eva would have her poor mother drinking out of the small flash she carried in her handbag before they were round the bend in the road.

“That tent thing is freaking me out,” she muttered.

She decided she’d retrieve her boot and investigate the blue igloo tent. But first she’d have a cup of coffee.  Switching on the kettle she looked out of the window again. “The friggin’ tent is gone,” she breathed. She rubbed the fog off the window. There was no tent in the garden only a fresh layer of snow on top of the pile of rubbish. She rubbed her throbbing head. That was it. She was seriously not drinking any more. “It’s playing mind games with me now,” she moaned.  “What I need is a good sleep,” she decided.

It was dark when she woke up.   She listened. The house was silent.  Padding into the kitchen she looked out at the snow. It was piled in small drifts now and the tent was almost invisible. Only the blue sheen of its nylon fabric showed through.  She cursed. The tent was back!. Rushing upstairs she fell to her knees and searched frantically for her mobile phone with its built in camera. “This time I’ll have evidence,” she muttered.   A stream of light shone out into the garden as she opened the back door. She hesitated. Her boot was still buried somewhere under the fresh layer of snow and all she had on were her precious doggie slippers; a present from Eva.  They’d be ruined in the heavy snow. “You have to do it, Lila,” she counselled herself. “It the slippers or accepting that drink gives you hallucinations. “ Bravely she stepped out into the snow. Carefully, she picked her way towards the tent clutching her phone. One shot was all she needed. The tent seemed to be giving off a soft glow Fingers stiff with cold she fumbled with the phone. She stiffened. A small giggle came from inside the tent. Lila’s lips tightened. Eva was in there with another man!  The zip opened surprising easily; furiously she tugged at the open flap and poked her head inside..

“Hello darling,” her mother said from her spot inside the sleeping bag. Lila’s eyes widened.  The man in the suit was snuggled down into a sleeping bag beside her mother. “Ma,” she squealed. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?   I suppose this is all Miss Eva’s…”

“This is Tom,” her mother said coyly. I met him at Euston station. He lost his job and I said he could come and stay here; Eva agrees. And since I pay your rent…” Lila remembered she was still clutching her camera. Her mother noticed too. “No Lila, that’s not a good idea,” she said quickly. “Don’t phone your father…No, don’t do that either,” she said as the flash of the phone lit up the interior of the tent.

Lila laughed as she backed out of the tent and trundled on sodden feet into the house. “I may have ruined my doggie slippers but I just earned my next year’s rent,” she chortled.