Just Gone Off – Daniel 17

[For back story go here: Story so far at 27 July 2020.]

Nadia had some reservations about the approach Daniel was taking, but by now Daniel really wasn’t thinking straight and she wasn’t certain she could blame him. The weekend had been fraught as she had tried to find ways to distract him, to cheer him, to tell him everything would be alright, but faced with redundancy, no daughter to and nothing – so far as he could see – positive on the horizon it was difficult to shift him from the mood he was in and fast digging deeper.

Daisy did not materialise on Monday. When Daniel tried to contact Chrissy to find out where she was there was no answer. By Monday night Daniel was in an even worse place than before and that was something Nadia didn’t really think was possible.

On Tuesday morning she’d managed to at least get some breakfast into him before he’d pulled them both into the car and undertaken the drive out to where Chrissy lived. 

They stopped at a petrol station, refuelling the car and themselves. There wasn’t anything terribly appetising and Nadia’s standards for things they could be certain hadn’t been sneezed on or handled by people with grubby hands/tongs/paper bags made matters worse. Daniel admitted he’d usually be like that, but by now his personal life was such that he really didn’t care. Indeed, he really didn’t want to eat because it was slowing them down.

“Try the pasty – take the pasty, surely the pasty can’t do you any harm?”

“Don’t know,” she said skeptically, “When do you think it was packaged? And processed food factories have been tricky – did you hear about that meat place that…”

“So get a sandwich… a vegetarian sandwich.”

“That’s probably worse…”

“Biscuit - chocolate, why not some chocolate?”

“Not very good for you though is it?”

Daniel let out an almighty sigh which even raised the eyebrows of the cashier behind the fiercely defended cash register. 

“Maybe I should ask the assistant what they think is best…”

“You honestly think they’re going to give you a straight answer? They’ll tell you whatever they want to sell.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Daniel tried putting on the radio and then a CD a couple of times but neither option fitted the mood. But then the mood was stoney silence with an undertow of desperation and depression and very little music has ever been written to aid that particular frame of mind (readers may argue if they wish).

They pulled up outside Chrissy’s house. 

“One last chance,” muttered Daniel, and he dialled Chrissy’s number again. Nadia wasn’t sure which outcome she would have preferred, but then she didn’t have any say in it, and it was negative again. 

Daniel threw the phone down in exasperation and it immediately started to ring. There followed a desperate scramble to pick the phone back up as he’d now thrown it into the footwell where Nadia sat. As Nadia bent down to collect it, Daniel also dived down to get it with the result that their heads crashed together. Nadia let out a pained ouch and came back up with the palm of her hand on her head. Daniel retrieved the phone, answering immediately without checking the number or that Nadia was still conscious.

“Yes? Yes?”

There was a pause. Nadia swore under her breath but was pleased to find she wasn’t bleeding.

"You'll need to speak with Wendy direct," said Daniel, his voice giving off another level of fed-up-ness since whoever this was, it wasn’t Chrissy. "Not my department any more."

The caller asked a further muffled question.

“A department far far away from the business,” replied Daniel. “I’ve been comprehensively outsourced.”

The caller sounded surprised.

“Yeah, me too,” he said. “Though probably more surprised than you to be honest.”

Then after a pause Daniel said: “Right now, I’m going to stake out my ex-wife’s house, wait for her to get back and take my daughter home with me.”

“Certainly will,” he added finally. “Might have a meaty legal family type story for you soon.”

He rang off and got out the car. Nadia scrambled at her door and came out with him, although by this point she really wasn’t sure what she could possibly do which might be in any way helpful or productive. If Chrissy was still in there maybe she could stand in the way between the two of them and prevent any serious bodily harm from taking place. 

But of course there was no one in the house. It started to rain and a next door neighbour came out of their house to stand in the garden and check that these two people weren’t thinking of doing anything more than ring on the door. Daniel was clearly considering it so it was just as well Nadia and the neighbour were there.

Defeated and wet, Daniel and Nadia went back to the car.

“I’m not giving up,” said Daniel, although what not giving up would look like hadn’t occurred to him yet.

“Look,” said Nadia, as the wipers flicked across the screen. “I’ve been thinking…”

And Daniel knew where this was going.

“That’s fine. I’m sorry. Do you want me to drop you home, or can you make your own way?”