A Shouty Conversation – Jenny 17

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

There had been only one day at work before the nods, winks, whispers and more that Jenny felt sure were happening behind her back solidified into a meeting with her line manager. Such meetings were not out of the ordinary, of course, there was any number of reasons why she would haver to come into his office, but it was clear there was a pretty specific reason this time.

“Had a good weekend?” started Linus.

“Yes, great thanks. Restful,” said Jenny.

“Everything…OK at home?” he asked. Linus regarded this as ‘floating a boat’ or ‘fishing for clues’, Jenny regarded it as deploying a drag net.

“Yes, yes,” said Jenny, bright and breezy. “No problem at all,” determined to ride this one out.

“I hear the police were called,” said Linus, raising an eyebrow in a way he believed would take the edge of this statement and turn it, as if by magic, into a non confrontational question.

There was a pause. Jenny could not ride this one out.

“They were, yes,” she said. “Not sure by whom, but… they were there.”

“Do you want to… talk about it?” asked Linus. 

Of course you want me to talk about it so you can tell everyone else you little…. thought Jenny.

“Not particularly,” she said. “No.”

“Only, if there’s anything I can do to help. We’re an empathetic firm, we want to help and we don’t want to ignore things that might affect your productivity.”

Jenny sighed.

She didn’t know who had called the police but she suspected it was the next-door neighbours who had never liked them and who had been waging a low level campaign against the family which previously had consisted of letters and postcards (sometimes with pictures of their home town on(?!!)) asking for music to be turned down, video games to be curtailed and headphones to be used. 

Perhaps the shouted conversation between Peter in the loft and everyone else not in the loft was a little louder than usual, but the idea that it merited reporting was way over the top.

Before the cops arrived, Jude’s dad had been standing by the front door. He shouted his thoughts into the house where they were relayed up the stairs to Jenny by Izzy stationed at the foot of the stairs. Jenny then relayed them to Peter in the loft, although naturally both she and Izzy had their own thoughts and notes to add to the conversation as it passed by them. In additional to that, Jude, who was on the first landing, also chipped into the conversation that was really hers to have with Peter alone. Instead of a considered, gentle discussion of what their future might be, Peter and Jude were having their actions and future comprehensively aired for the next-door neighbours and beyond.

“If you ask me, you haven’t been taking enough care of your kid!” shouted Jude’s dad. “If you had some control over him none of this would have happened.”

“It takes two to tango,” pointed out Izzy before relaying Jude’s dad’s comment to Jenny, but Jude meanwhile replied: “I did have some say in this dad!” Which Izzy tried to relay back to Jude’s dad while Jenny shouted up the comment to Peter and shouted down an obscenity for Izzy to relay back to Jude’s dad which of course she laughed at and did not relay.

“What did she say?” asked Jude’s dad.

“I’m waiting to hear,” said Izzy, democratically.

“…and it might take two but I know my Jude,” said Jude’s dad. “And she’d never do anything like this.”

“But she has, hasn’t she?” pointed out Izzy.

“Good job we’re socially distancing,” said Jude’s dad, in a not very friendly way.

“We took precautions,” said Peter, meanwhile, in the loft and between coughs. “I’m not joking, I wouldn’t have… And… and I love her anyway mum, I love her.”

Jenny took this on board. She turned to Jude. “Do you love him?”

Jude nodded. “My dad’ll kill me though,” she said. “You can hear him, can’t you?”

“We can try talking to him – together. See what we can do.”

“He hates me though,” said Jude. “Has for a long time. And especially now I look like…” her voice trailed off. 

“I was a goth when I was your age,” said Jenny with half a smile. “You do it better than I ever did. I could never get my hair to stay up like that.”

“We have better hair products these days,” said Jude mischievously.

“Stand back,” said Jenny, “I’m coming through.”

And so she tried to reason with Jude’s dad as he stood two metres away from her on their doorstep. She tried to tell him everything would sort out, they needed time, let everything be and let’s see what happened. And Jude’s dad’s voice became louder, ruder and eventually, for no other reason than there was a shouting man on the lawn, the police turned up.

And they never even set foot in Jenny’s front garden. But it was enough for the nods, winks and whispers to start.

“Do you think it’s affecting my productivity?” Jenny asked Linus, “Or do you think it’s affecting yours?”