Half the World Away - [9]

I could’ve lived without knowing that. Lxxx

PS Mum, send cheese. And baguettes. Now. *joke*

CHAPTER EIGHT

Saturday, and Nick has taken Finn to his swimming practice. Benji and Isaac are lying sprawled on the floor. Isaac has been drawing – his pictures are astonishing for his age: intense, accurate, forensic in their detail. This morning it’s been pirates, pirates and their ships, cutlasses and earrings, rigging and sharks in the water. Now he has one hand on Benji’s chest and is murmuring.

I am ironing.

‘What are you saying, Isaac?’

‘A story.’

‘He likes it,’ I say.

My phone sounds an email. Lori.

‘Mummy,’ Isaac says, ‘I feel sick.’

‘Oh, no – come on.’

There are no false alarms with Isaac. We reach the downstairs toilet just in time.

When he’s done I clean his face, give him water to drink. His forehead is dry and very hot.

‘Bed,’ I say.

He doesn’t argue or even ask for any toys.

‘Isaac’s poorly,’ I tell Finn when they get in, ‘so play down here.’

‘Why?’

‘So he can sleep.’

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Finn says.

‘I don’t know. He’s been sick.’

Finn grimaces. ‘Yuck.’

‘How was swimming?’

‘Good,’ he says.

‘He was great,’ Nick says. ‘The teacher says he’s good enough to try out for the shrimps but he has to be eight.’

I pick up Lori’s message.

From:

[email protected]

Date:

21 February 2014 01:08

To:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Subject:

News

Hi guys, amazing news. I’ve got a job! I’m working for an agency – Five Star English – as a private English tutor. They sorted out my visa, I had to fly to Hong Kong and back, but it’s all done and I can stay for a year. And so many people want lessons that I’ll soon have enough money to get a decent place to live. The only thing is I can’t get a refund on my return ticket for next week. Sorry Dad, but I should be able to pay my own way home when the time comes. It’s all happening so fast!

Lxxx

‘God!’

Nick looks up from the paper.

‘Lori,’ I say.

I hand him my phone.

‘Another year,’ he says. ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity if she can make a go of it.’

‘I know.’ I’m still disconcerted, adjusting to the fact that I won’t see her for twelve more months.

‘And one less mouth,’ Nick says.

We share a look. He’s received his redundancy notice and has started applying for jobs.

Changing her plans again. Then why shouldn’t she? She’s not beholden to anyone. It’s not as if I was relying on her to come home for any particular practical reason. So why do I feel so let down?

Lori in the Ori-ent

What’s in a Name 2?

Posted on 9 March 2014 by Lori

Call me Bird’s Net Jasmine. Those of you who landed here before will know I’ve already posted about my name, Lorelei, and its meaning here. It’s a common custom in China for people to work out a Chinese version of their name and likewise for Chinese people who work with Westerners as guides and translators or teachers to take on an English name. Among the Chinese friends I’ve made are Rosemary (Mo Li) and Oliver (Zhong Pengfei). Looking online, thanks to www.wearyourchinesename.com, I came up with these suggestions for Chinese versions of Lori. Lori is made up of two characters. The first means ‘net’ or ‘bird’s net’ or ‘sieve’ or ‘twelve dozen’, among other things. The second comes from the word ‘jasmine’. I could go for Li instead, meaning ‘plums’ or Lei (pronounced Lee), a ‘flower bud’. This might be a slight improvement on ‘alluring rock’ (see earlier post). My surname is Maddox. This is not a reference to a deranged bull but apparently comes from the Welsh name Madog, meaning ‘goodly’. Maybe I should just call myself Manchester or I could double up on the Lei and call myself Lei Lei, or Lilo? Lo means ‘dredge’. ‘Plum dredge’?

The jury’s still out. All suggestions gratefully received in the comments below.

Lxxx

CHAPTER NINE

From:

[email protected]

Date:

11 March 2014 22:19

To:

[email protected]

Subject:

Hello

Hi Mum,

Tell Nick I hope he gets something soon and that it’s way better than his old job. Yep, I’m busy. I have some school-age students, little ones that I teach in the evenings, three different families on different days. Then a graduate who wants to improve his spoken English, and I’ve just taken on a friend of his too. There’s a couple who are learning together (Saturday) and some high-school students – their parents clubbed together. It’s quite a big deal here if they can speak English: more opportunity for jobs in tourism and business. I get stopped all the time by people asking me if I can teach them.

I found some lesson plans online. It’s hard for us to learn Chinese, the way one word can have so many different meanings, depending on the tones, on how it’s pronounced. I’ll never get used to that. But English is hard for them too – all the tenses we have and they just don’t. Dawn is fine. She is working full time at an English school out near the 3rd Ring Road (more lesson plans for me!) and is looking for an apartment there. It’s still cloudy here and it would be nice to get to a beach sometime and catch some rays but she’s not sure what holiday she can take. It’s pretty restricted.