Without Looking Back by Tabitha Suzuma

in his pants and T-shirt, looking at Max carefully. ‘I thought you really wanted to stay.’
    ‘I did.’ Max still didn’t look up. ‘I wanted Dad to try and persuade Mum to let us stay, just on the off chance that he might be successful. But I never thought it would work.’
    ‘You mean you wanted to stay in theory, but when it became a reality, you realized you’d rather go home?’
    ‘Are you kidding me? Go back to school and tests and screaming teachers and all that crap?’ Max did look up now, switching off his GameBoy and tossing it across the bed. ‘Of course not. I’d much rather stay here.’
    ‘So what are you saying?’
    ‘What I’m saying is . . .’ There was a pause. Max seemed to be choosing his words very carefully. ‘I don’t think Mum agreed to this.’
    ‘
What?
’
    ‘I think Dad just decided himself to stay here another week. I don’t think he called her at all. And if he did call her, then my guess is she said “No way” and Dad said “Tough luck, see you in a week.”’
    Louis could feel his mouth opening in amazement. ‘But you know what Mum’s like. She’d be furious! She’d come straight over and drag us back!’
    ‘Would she?’ Max looked doubtful. ‘I mean, yes, sure, she’d be furious. But if she flew over to England, she’d have to take several days off work, and right now she’s inthe middle of that big Steinberg deal and working practically round the clock—’
    ‘But Dad must know that once we do go home she’ll be so angry with him she’ll never let us stay with him again!’
    Max gave Louis a meaningful look. ‘But if Dad knows this is the last time he’s allowed to have us to stay anyway . . .’
    A slow grin of amusement crossed Louis’ face. It did sound like something Dad might do. He would figure –
I’ve got nothing to lose and my ex-wife hates me anyway, why not keep my kids on holiday with me for an extra week?
Louis inhaled slowly. ‘Mum’s going to be soooo mad.’ Another thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘D’you think she’s going to be angry with
us
?’
    ‘She can’t,’ Max said pragmatically. ‘We’ll say we thought she’d OK’d the extra week. She never has to know we guessed what was going on.’
    ‘But she might anyway,’ Louis countered. ‘And then she’ll stop all our pocket money and ban us from watching TV for a month and get us to do all the housework like the time when we—’
    ‘Who cares?’ Max gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Even if she does, it’ll still be worth an extra week’s holiday with Dad, I reckon.’
    Louis smiled. ‘Yeah, that’s true,’ he agreed.
    The following week was much better than the first. There were still some bits and bobs in the house to tidy up – Dad repaired the broken cupboard doors in the kitchen and bought them each a desk and chest of drawers for their rooms. Dad helped Millie paint her room pale pink, and for three days she slept in his bed. They went outside into the garden at the back of the house and Dad cut the grass with a rusty pair of garden shears while Max hacked away at the overgrown bracken and Louis and Millie piled all the garden waste into heavyduty refuse sacks. They collected the rotting apples for compost and Dad made Millie a vegetable patch, where she planted seeds bought at the local garden centre. They went regularly into Kendal as Dad was reluctant to let them use the shops in the village, saying, ‘They’re all so nosy in a place like this. They’ll start asking lots of questions and wonder why you aren’t in school.’ He pretty much forbade them to speak to strangers, and Louis wondered what on earth he could be afraid of in a quiet place like this. Now and again, Dad would have to go into town for ‘business’. Louis didn’t know what business he could possibly have to do here but he didn’t ask, for he sensed that, with the new house and everything, Dad was tryingto get himself back on his feet again. Maybe he wanted to have a job