A Change for the Better? by Stephanie Drury

knew this was true, ever since he had been a small child he had been conscious of his mother’s nerves which always made an appearance when she either didn’t want to do something or wanted an excuse to leave all her responsibilities behind for a while on some jaunt or other. When Ben was small he had spent many weeks at his grandparents, his father having left when he was still a baby. His mother had never really got over this slight and despite many other lovers, including Lucy’s father and ‘Clever Trevor’ an estate agent from York; she had remained a martyr to her nerves. A role she played to perfection. Ben realised Lucy was looking at him expectantly waiting for him to provide an answer to her situation. Her big blue expressive eyes looked defiantly at him, but not quite masking the vulnerability behind them. Ben had, in fact, been the most stable factor in her life, and despite her propensity to get into many and varied scrapes he loved her to bits, even though she drove him mad,  frequently!
     
    “OK titch,” he said, using his nickname for her, designed to annoy her, but it was also affectionate “looks like you’re here for a week or so, so let’s go through the ground rules.”
     
    “Oh God, not again” groaned Lucy, sliding back onto the sofa.
     
    “Yes again,” Ben replied sternly “so this time there can be no confusion.”
     
    Ben passed a relatively quiet weekend considering the addition of his unexpected guest, and apart from a small pan fire in the kitchen and a humungous row about going to a club on Saturday night, which he won by simply standing in front of the door for an hour until Lucy gave up and retreated to her room to play a variety of extremely loud dance music until she got bored of it and put on a ‘Friends’ DVD instead. This was all par for the course with Lucy, and Ben had many years’ experience to call on. Lucy was, in fact, a good kid at heart but she had always had to compete for attention from her mother who was usually working or developing a new relationship, and from a father who had shown absolutely no interest in her from the moment she was conceived. Ben was probably the most stable and normal thing in her life, it was no wonder she kicked against the traces now and again, but deep down he thought she appreciated the rules and discipline he insisted on, it showed he was genuinely concerned for her welfare.
     
    On Monday Ben spent the day catching up on the work he hadn’t been able to do over the weekend. He worked on the figures for the investment in the company and the potential outlay for the types of projects he was interested in. It was a very tight equation but Ben felt the time had come to spread BW’s wings. Just as he was completing his report for Cheadle House the phone rang, not recognising the tone at first he realised Lucy must have changed his ringtone to the ‘Crazy Frog’ when he wasn’t looking, cursing her quietly again he picked it up.
     
    “Hello, Ben Wilson” he answered in a businesslike manner.
     
    “Hi Ben" Jean’s motherly tones answered “how’s the parenting going?”
     
    “Don’t ask Jean, she’s the sister from hell. I can’t see the 666 but I know it’s there somewhere.”
     
    “Ah, don’t say that, she’s a good kid really - just high spirited.” Jean remonstrated with him.
     
    “Oh really” Ben grimaced “well shall I bring her round to stay with you for a few days” he challenged.
     
    “Hmmm, I’m sure she wants to be with you” Jean side-stepped neatly, “Now look, about work,” she continued matter of factly “I’ve arranged for Billy Naylor to pop round to that house and look at the plumbing at 4.30 this afternoon, I know its short notice but he said can you meet him there?”  Ben struggled to recall which house until he remembered his promise to Katie about Tolpuddle House and the artic front room.
     
    “Oh yes that’s fine - have you let Katie know we’re coming?”
     
    “Yes,