{"id":1236,"date":"2022-06-21T13:11:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T13:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2022-06-21T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T13:11:56","slug":"nine-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/nine-times\/1236\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mam was in a jumpy phase. Carl had been hoping her new boyfriend would bring her some calmness. After all, Astro had been patient with him. He\u2019d taught him songs, and school stuff like showing him how to remember his tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018If you feel that way about me, you can go!\u2019 Mam was saying. Her face was red, her eyes wild like that panicking horse he\u2019d see on tv, and which he kept thinking about in bed when the light was off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There were days when Mam seemed to be in a hurry like a racing car round a circuit. Other days she was quiet, didn\u2019t want to go out, was touchy. She took medication to help her condition, but she was still a different person from one week to the next. Was her medicine worsening things? He worried about that sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I made a mistake moving in with you, babes,\u2019 Astro was saying. \u2018It\u2019s just so full on.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Crap!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018When I had the flat, stayed here nights, and went back, we had some space.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You can\u2019t commit. That\u2019s your problem!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018We\u2019re still getting to know each other. What\u2019s the rush?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Stop blaming me!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018We\u2019re arguing all the time now\u2026 you get angry and\u2026 wouldn\u2019t a bit of space now and then\u2026?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Help? I don\u2019t need help. I don\u2019t need you. If you\u2019re going, then \u2013 go!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Carl didn\u2019t see his dad much. Just some weekends, if he was lucky. Having Astro here was good. It sort of made up for Dad. And now Astro was going upstairs for his things. He\u2019d go out the front door. Would he return? Before him, there had been Bry from Port Talbot who\u2019d also packed his bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl started tapping his fingers and turning his head. He did that in class when he was anxious, especially when Mr Reed went round giving each of them \u2018mental arithmetic\u2019. He reckoned it was called that because it made you mental with fear about not being able to answer.  But Astro had given him confidence. \u2018Multiplications?\u2019 he\u2019d said. \u2018Your nine times table is easy all the way to nine times ten. `Cause your answer always adds up to nine; just remember that. You\u2019ve got nine. Then you\u2019ve one and eight \u2013 that adds up to nine too, right? Two and seven \u2013 nine, again. Three and six \u2013 nine. You seeing the pattern? All the way to ninety \u2013 nine and zero.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astro came down the stairs, a holdall in his hand. He went straight to the front door without a word. Carl, still finger-drumming, really wanted to ask him if he\u2019d be back. But he couldn\u2019t bring the words out of himself. Would he ever see him again? Astro turned back towards the pair of them, studied his mam thoughtfully, then said to Carl: \u2018Six times nine?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five and four makes nine. \u2018Fifty-four?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Spot on. Stick at it, Carl.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The door closed – quietly. A hopeful sign? Yes, he\u2019d keep on with the tables for Astro. Seven times nine makes\u2026?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mam was in a jumpy phase. Carl had been hoping her new boyfriend would bring her some calmness. After all, Astro had been patient with him. He\u2019d taught him songs, and school stuff like showing him how to remember his tables.             \u2018If you feel that way about me, you can go!\u2019 Mam was saying. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,633],"tags":[8,7,11],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-june-2022-time","tag-he","tag-her","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-jW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}