PRECEDENT TO A GREAT NIGHT OUT
There was a knock on the bedroom door. Joanna cursed and swivelled around on her chair, her heeled boots clattering on the floor.
"Yes?" she snapped, unlocking the door and opening it a few inches, glaring at the seven year old boy before her.
"When are you going to make my Incredible Hulk costume?" He was so whiny. All the time, just whine whine whine. Joanna couldn't understand how any child of hers could be so wet.
"I'm sorry, Marty, I'm going out in ten minutes, I'm not going to have time. I've got an old pair of tights somewhere, you'll just have to wear that with a t shirt."
"But you promised to sew in the puffy bits so it looks like muscles! You promised!"
"Yeah, well, I unpromise. Now push off, I've got to finish waxing my legs."
Martin, looking miserably downwards, slowly retreated. Joanna stuck her fingers up at the door and went back to slapping the wax on. She'd been letting the hairs grow. This was going to hurt.
She wasn't a bad mother, Joanna thought to herself as she rummaged through the freezer for something Martin could microwave on his own. There were some mothers she'd read about in the paper who left toddlers on their own for weeks while they jetted off on holidays with the child benefit money. Not her, she assured herself, brushing the ice off a frozen lasagne. Anyway, it was doing Martin good, learning to look after himself at such an early age.
"You remember how to do these, don't you?" she said, pressing it into his hands while giving her hair one last glance in the hall mirror. Martin nodded. "Be in bed at nine. I'll know if you don't." She pushed the door shut without looking back. Martin heard her locking the door.