Silver Bay(40)
Author: Jojo Moyes

Mike handed me his handkerchief and pretended to be interested in something outside while I pulled myself together. He sat quietly until I had stopped sniffing and then he leant forward, looked me straight in the eye, and said, ‘Okay, Hannah McCullen. I’m going to make you a business proposition.’

Mike Dormer asked me to take photographs around the bay. He went to the shop and bought three disposable cameras and said he would pay me a dollar for every good shot I could take. He said that when he went home his friends would want to know what he’d been up to and he wasn’t much of a photographer so I should take pictures of all round the bay so that he could show them where he’d been and all the nicest spots. Then he asked me to write him a list of all the things that were good about my school, and about Silver Bay, and all the things that would improve it. ‘Like the fact that our bus broke down and we haven’t got a new one? Or that our library is still in mobile buildings?’

‘Exactly like that,’ he said, handing me a pad of paper. ‘Not who you like at school, or that stupid girl who teased you, but a project. A bit of proper research.’

He said he would pay me a good salary, depending on how well I did. ‘But I want a really professional job,’ he said. ‘Not some fobbed-off piece of nonsense. Do you think you’re up to it?’

I nodded, because I was excited at the idea of earning some money. Mike said if I worked hard enough there was no reason whatsoever why I shouldn’t be able to afford to go to New Zealand with my friends.

‘But how long are you staying?’ I asked him. I was trying to work out how much time I had to earn the money and whether, if I showed Mum I had enough, she’d feel she couldn’t say no. And he said his departure date was one of life’s imponderables, and I almost asked him what that meant but I didn’t want him to think I was stupid, so I just nodded again, like I do when Yoshi starts talking about stuff I don’t understand.

Then I showed Auntie K the pictures we had doctored of her and the shark and she raised her eyes and said God in Heaven was never going to let her forget it.

The weird thing about that night was that I felt happy. If I’d gone straight to my room, like I’d planned, I know I would have been sad all night, but we had a good time, almost like it was a party.

The guests had gone out for the night, so I didn’t have to look at those freckly boys with their stupid stares every time I walked past the lounge. Lance had had a win on the horses – he called them gee-gees – and bought everyone pizza in a great big stack of boxes. He told Auntie Kathleen that for once she should put her feet up, and Mike might be her guest but he was part of the ruddy furniture now so she didn’t have to worry about him. And Mike had this little smile like he didn’t want anyone to see but he was pleased to be part of the furniture, and then he let me eat all the salami off the top of his pizza because it’s my favourite.

Richard and Tom from the other Moby came to join us and said they’d seen a pod of five whales out by Break Nose Island that afternoon, and they’d had an American tourist who had been so happy to see them that he’d given them a fifty-dollar tip each. And then Mr Gaines stopped by with some wine that Auntie Kathleen said was far too good for the likes of us, but she opened both bottles anyway, and they started on about the Old Days, which is what they talk about a lot when they’re together.

Greg wasn’t there. The others said he hadn’t been out on his boat for four days. Auntie K said breaking up with someone could do that to you, and that some people found it harder than others. I asked her where he was, and she said probably at the bottom of a bottle somewhere. The first time she ever said that to me I thought it was really funny because there was no bottle big enough in the whole of Australia to fit a grown man in, especially Greg, who is quite tall.

It was a cold evening, but all the burners were lit and we were squashed up on the bench, apart from Lance and Yoshi who were together on the big chair, and Auntie Kathleen and Mr Gaines who were on two wicker chairs with cushions, because Auntie Kathleen said at their age they deserved a little comfort. Mum was sitting on the other side of me and when I finished my drink I told her about Mike’s business proposition and her face did that thing it does when she’s about to stop me doing something and my pizza went all dry in my mouth.

‘Paying her money? You’re paying her to take photographs?’

Mike took a sip of his wine. ‘You think I should give her money for nothing?’

‘You’re as bad as Greg,’ she said, not in a good way.

‘I’m nothing like Greg. And you know it.’

‘Don’t use her, Mike,’ she whispered, as if I couldn’t hear. ‘Don’t use her to try to get close to me, because it won’t work.’

But Mike didn’t look bothered. ‘I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it because Hannah is an exceptionally nice kid and I need some jobs done. If I hadn’t asked her, I’d only have had to ask someone else and, frankly, I’d rather work with Hannah.’

He bit off a great big piece of his pizza and when he spoke again his mouth was full. I tried not to think about being an exceptionally nice kid. I thought I might be getting a bit of a crush on Mike.

‘Anyway,’ he said, as he chewed, ‘you’re very presumptuous. Who says I want to get close to you?’

There was a short silence as Mum looked at him quite sharply. Then I saw her mouth quiver, like she didn’t really want to smile but couldn’t help it, and I relaxed because if she was going to stop me earning the money she would have said so there and then.

She kept staring at her fingers, like she was thinking about something. ‘What are these photographs for?’ she said.

Mike licked his fingers. ‘I can’t tell you that. Commercial privilege. Hannah, not a word,’ he said. But he was smiling too.

‘She’s a good photographer,’ she said.

‘She should be. She’s charging me way above the market rate.’

‘How much are you paying her?’

‘That’s privileged information too.’ He winked at me. ‘If you’re saying you’d like to undercut your own daughter, I’d be happy to hear what you can offer.’

I didn’t understand what they were talking about, but they seemed happy so I stopped worrying. I was trying to work out if I could steal some of Mike’s beer without Mum noticing.

‘So how long are you staying?’ she asked.