The Aftermath Of You

Chapter Three

Toni was instantly airborne; her mouth hung open, drool coursed down her chin. "Argh!"

"Toni?" a little boy asked. "I'm sorry, Toni, are you ok?" He stared up at her in concern.

"Oh, Jayden." Taking a few deep breaths she looked around and found that the object of all the commotion was a stray soccer ball which had, after bouncing off her head sending her flying, smashed a nearby sculpture. Toni suppressed a smile. "Oh dear!" she sighed. "What a pity, that fertility statue was a one-off."

The hideous statue was an unwanted birthday present from her mother.

'It's going to enhance your feng shui,' Lulu told her dumbfounded daughter as Toni unwrapped the lower half of the statue, revealing it's explicitly carved genitals. 'You could pop it in the garden, maybe surround it with perennials ...'

Toni would have walked over hot coals before giving her neighbors yet another reason to think she should be sent off to an asylum. 'I know a better place for it.' She had smiled tightly, thinking on the inside of a waste bin, but in a sad attempt to please her mother she propped it next to the door, with a fake fur coat draped over it for modesty.

Now Toni sighed in contentment, ruffling Jayden's hair. Just another reason why she felt she could love Danny's son more than anything else in the world - he always knew what things to break. She automatically picked up a brush and shovel and swept up the mess while asking him how his day was.

Like all five-year-old boys, he answered in a riddle. "I made a friend, and he has a cat. His name's Freddy."

"Great!" she cried, as she dumped the statue in the bin. "Is Freddy in your class?"

"Freddy's the cat," said Jayden. "I don't know my friend's name."

"Fair enough," said Toni. Oh, to be five years old ...

Toni's only job for the last three years had been looking after the little boy. When Jayden was a few weeks old his mother had disappeared leaving two bags of nappies, a book on parenting and a screaming baby, and had never returned. Not wanting to send the boy to daycare, Danny had enlisted Toni's help, slightly unwilling at first as he said he wasn't sure that someone who so obviously couldn't look after herself could look after a newborn baby. But the little blond boy had been her pride and joy, and the book on parenting had become dog-eared and extremely well read. Jayden seemed to be the only thing in the world which could drag her away from her internal hell, and one smile from him turned her to mush.

As Toni prepared the evening meal, Jayden perched himself in his usual spot on the counter and began to tell her about his adventures that day... the dinosaurs that chased him around the yard at playtime, and the troll hiding under the water fountain, all of which he slaughtered heroically.

Dinner was prepared by the time Jayden's father arrived.

Danny and Toni had known each other since they were nine years old, racing around the playground together. Danny had bombarded her with nicknames, had even led chants in the playground: 'TOE, KNEE, HAND, COCK. TOE KNEE, HAND, COCK.' That had left her in a puddle of tears more times than she cared to count. He'd teased her ruthlessly, pulled her braids and put chewing gum on her chair. When they'd finally reached high school he'd learnt how to flick her bra strap and write smutty things on all of her books, namely "TOE, KNEE, HAND [and a neatly drawn love heart] COCK". He'd ruined all of her attempts to find a high school sweetheart by telling the boys in question that she was a horrific kisser and had breath like a camel.

But some deranged part of her still liked to be around him; he always made her laugh, even though in the last few years he must have felt it was like drawing blood from a stone. And he liked to scrub the toilet and do all of the messy jobs around her house, probably hoping that his son wouldn't catch anything nasty from all of the dust and grime. Tongues had begun to wag after Toni was constantly seen with baby Jayden in her arms and Danny mooching along behind. Toni saw every hopeful face and prodded finger, but she'd been far too exhausted to put them right.