Chapter Nine
Arnold was sitting on his bed, thinking, thinking about Yvonne, thinking about Lilimay and Arnold Junior too but mostly thinking about Yvonne.
"Arnold" Yvonne called "are you okay?"
"Can we go out tonight?" he asked her "like, on a date?"
"I don't know" Yvonne responded
"Why not?" Arnold asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's silly" Yvonne smiled "I need to ask you a personal question"
"Go on" Arnold wondered what Yvonne was going to say
"Are you better in bed now?" she smiled "will you last longer than two minutes?"
"Yeah" Arnold answered, "I can go for two or three hours now, you can ask Kriss"
"Okay" Yvonne decided "let's go out tonight"
"What about Jemimah, Lilimay and Junior?"
"They're old enough to be left alone now"
"Oh" Arnold wasn't very pleased "can we ask Kriss if they can got to her if they need too?"
"Okay" Yvonne agreed, "you go and find Kriss and I'll go and tell the kids"
"Okay" Arnold agreed "I'll see you soon"
Arnold skipped down to Kriss and Dave's room, as he did he looked around him, he had never realised the different shades of grey on the shining metal walls.
"Ah, Kristine" Arnold smiled "can I ask you a favour?"
"What's happening?" Kriss asked "I haven't seen you this happy since Theo was born"
"I'm taking Yvonne out for dinner tonight" Arnold announced
"oh, lovely" Kriss smiled "I'm really happy for you"
"Thank you" Arnold was surprised "can you look after Jemimah, Lilimay and Junior for us?"
"Sure" Kriss smiled "they can help me put Llewey, Jim-Bexley, Alicia-May and Theo to bed, then Chloë can stay up for a little while to play. Then later they can help me put Chloë to bed"
"Marvellous, thank you"
Lilimay was crying, sobbing in fact, Jemimah was trying to comfort her, but she couldn't. Yvonne walked straight over to Lilimay and put her arms round her. Yvonne hugged her daughter:
"What's wrong Lilimay?" Yvonne asked
"Does Dad love me?" Lilimay sobbed
"Of course he does" Yvonne answered "who told you he didn't?"
"Junior" Lilimay sobbed, "he said he was only trying to be our Dad to get you back"
"Lilimay, look at me" Yvonne turned Lilimay's head to look at her "I know that your father loves you, he loves you and Junior and Jemimah"
"Okay Mum," Lilimay agreed
"Right, Junior" Yvonne's tone of voice changed from sympathetic to angry "first I want you to apologise to Lilimay"
"No" Junior said quietly "then I… what?" Yvonne got even angrier "why not?"
"Because it's true," Junior shouted
"Right" Yvonne yelled "that's it, you can't got round to Kriss and Dave's tonight, you can stay here on your own before you're willing to apologise"
"Fine" Junior shouted, "I don't want to go anyway"
The evening came and Junior still hadn't apologised. Jemimah and Lilimay had already gone down to Kriss' to spend some time with Theo before he went to bed. Later Yvonne came down to see them and say goodnight.
"Is Junior going to be joining us?" Kriss asked as she looked behind Yvonne for him
"No" Yvonne answered, "he's got to stay on his own tonight, it's his punishment for upsetting Lilimay"
"Right" Kriss thought "what do I do if he wants to join us later?"
"He can do, if he apologises to Lilimay, if he wont then just send him back"
Arnold came to meet Yvonne at Kriss and Dave's. Arnold thanked them before giving Jemimah, Lilimay, Chloë and Theo a hug.