Ruby by Heather Burnside (carter reed txt) 📗

she had brought with her. ‘Oh, you didn’t need to,’ said Trina’s grandmother. ‘I told you we’d take care of everything.’

‘It’s the least I could do, when you’ve done all this for my Trina,’ said Daisy.

She looked across at her daughter, and Trina knew what was expected of her. ‘Thanks, Grandma, thanks, Grandad,’ she said, walking over to them and hugging each of them in turn.

‘It’s no problem, child,’ said her grandmother. ‘Come on through and you can open your presents before the others get here.’

Trina and the rest of her family followed her grandparents through to the lounge where her grandmother passed her two presents, adding, ‘Happy tenth birthday, Trina.’

‘Aw thanks, Grandma,’ said Trina, smiling.

She rushed to open the two presents, starting with the smaller one first. It was a bag of toffees. She thanked her grandparents and put the sweets to one side then opened the larger present. She grew excited as she felt material beneath her hands, hoping it was a new outfit she could show off to her friends. But then she saw the lurid pink material beneath the wrapping paper.

She slowly pulled it out and held up the garment to examine. It was a dress, an old-fashioned dress in bright pink, made of a horrible material and full of frills in a lighter shade of pink. It was revolting but she had to pretend she liked it.

After a few minutes there was a knock at the front door and her brothers rushed to answer it, growing excited when their Aunty Tamara and Uncle Josh arrived. Trina was pleased to see them until she saw her mean older cousins, Josh and Calvin, hovering in the background. Aged thirteen and fourteen, Trina would have thought the boys too old to go to her party and had secretly hoped they wouldn’t be there.

Although Aunty Tamara was loud and lively, she was a good soul and she walked straight over to Trina, holding her tight and planting kisses on top of her head.

‘My you’ve grown, child,’ she announced. ‘Just look at you.’ She released Trina from her tight grip then held her at arms’ length while she looked her up and down. ‘You’re so tall, child, and a good looker too. You’ll break a few hearts, my girl.’

‘Not if I’ve got anything to do with it,’ muttered Daisy. ‘She’ll stay well away from men if she knows what’s good for her.’

‘Oh, leave her be. A girl’s got to use what nature gave her,’ said Aunty Tamara who then laughed raucously.

While this discourse was taking place, Aunty Tamara still held Trina at arm’s length. Trina could feel herself blush and she saw her two older cousins snigger at her discomfort. Meanwhile, her younger brothers were tearing around her grandparents’ living room, playing a game of tag.

‘Anyway, we’ve brought you a present,’ said Aunty Tamara. ‘I hope it fits.’

Trina hastily tore off the wrapping paper. Knowing that Aunty Tamara was fashionable and had good taste in clothes, Trina was eager to have a look. She pulled out the garment and held it up to examine. It was a nice top but then she realised it was too small.

‘There, I told you it would be too small,’ said Aunty Tamara, addressing her husband. ‘But you wouldn’t have it, would you?’

‘Never mind, we can always return it for a bigger size,’ said Daisy.

‘No, we can’t,’ said Aunty Tamara, ‘because Joshua here tore the label off and put the receipt in the bin.’

‘Get off my case, woman!’ cursed Uncle Josh.

Trina found it hard to hide her disappointment. She thanked them anyway, knowing that it was what her mother would have expected.

The first half hour of the party carried on in a similar vein with various relatives and adult friends arriving. There were no more presents but each of them brought Trina a birthday card and a dish of food to be added to the others.

By the time they had all arrived there was an assortment of West Indian food laid out on the table: jerk chicken and lots of other traditional Jamaican dishes including beef patty, a fish dish that Trina wasn’t familiar with, a spicy chicken stew, rice and peas, banana bread and various other sweets. To her consternation Trina noticed that there wasn’t any jelly or trifle or little sticks with sausages and cheese on like she had eaten at her friends’ birthday parties.

The adults chatted in loud, excited voices, keen to catch up with each other, and laughing boisterously as they shared jokes. Trina walked through to the living room where the other children had gathered; her brothers and her two cousins, Josh and Calvin, were the only youngsters there. She noticed Josh nudging Calvin as she walked into the room, a sly grin on his face.

‘This party’s shit,’ he said, eyeballing Trina as she made her way towards them. Then he turned from his brother and addressed Trina. ‘How come you’re not having it at your house anyway?’ he asked.

Trina knew that her cousins would only ridicule her if she told them the real reason; that her mother couldn’t afford it, so she just shrugged and said, ‘Dunno.’

‘What you got for your birthday?’ asked Calvin.

‘Clothes,’ said Trina.

‘That some of ’em?’ he asked, referring to what Trina was wearing and squealing in amusement. ‘Fuckin’ hell, man, that’s a state,’ he continued. ‘You wanna get some cool gear like mine, all top notch fuckin’ designer labels these.’

Trina wasn’t bothered about designer labels but she was bothered that he was deriding the new clothes her mother had struggled to buy for her. A few mean words from her cousins made her feel suddenly self-conscious and inadequate.

She looked up to her older cousins as they always seemed so cool and switched on. But the flip side of that was that they also made her feel inferior because she would never be as smart or as cool as them. And Trina couldn’t understand how Aunty Tamara and Uncle Josh managed to afford all the designer