Chapter 13

"Five grand," Sarah whispered and looked up as Adam opened the door.

"Pardon?" Adam asked and Sarah scowled towards him.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Sorry," Adam muttered, dismissing the teacher with an abrupt tone and leaving the room.

Sarah watched him leave and then returned back to Natalie. "£250 to African Aid and another grand to build a mosque in Manchester. A further £250 to Let's Fight Racism and £1000 towards a Lesbian Student Advisory Service. Joined Greenpeace and a dozen other charities, £500 to Multicultural projects in Glasgow and tickets to see a gay, erotic show. Loads of places. It's five grand in total but this has been declined now. I really wanted to order a blow-up black pregnant sex doll for him."

"Sarah," Natalie said looking up from the floor towards the gleeful primary school teacher holding a credit card in her hand. "What are you like?"

"It's fine. Just don't tell Tab, you know what she is like."

"Oh come on, Sarah. They'll trace you."

"Ahh no. I was reading about it all last week. I have a system called Tor when I boot off this CD, it hides me on the Internet. We've got a Computer Science student in and he was telling me about it. It's utterly foolproof."

Natalie rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You'll go to hell or prison. Or both."

"Good," Sarah replied with a grin. "I hate cold weather." She closed the laptop lid and slid it under the table before putting the credit card back into the wallet. "That should teach 'im, the nasty little bastard," Sarah told her friend. Natalie grinned, and shook her head as Sarah left the room. "I gotta shoot. Mum and Dad want to have a word with me. I hope it's about inheritance," she said almost gleefully and closed the door.

Sarah swore at the cold, wintry air the moment she left the house and pulled her coat tightly. It was freezing and she shuffled along the pavement until she reached her car, climbing in and turning the key in the ignition.

There was the smallest amount of life from the engine and she groaned as she looked at her dashboard; she had left the lights on. "Fuck," she cried and slammed her hands against the steering wheel. "Useless bastard," she shouted and got out, slamming the car door; she would get Natalie to give her a bump start in the morning but instead she needed to be at her parent's house eight minutes ago. With the cold wind swirling around her, Sarah started walking a brisk pace the half-an-hour journey to the familial home.

George looked up from his newspaper as Sarah entered the lounge. "You're late," he grumbled and Sarah rubbed her nose.

"Yeah sorry. The car wouldn't start. I left the lights on overnight. And it's snowy and icy." He drank the last few dregs of his tea and then looked at her with a steely expression. "You wanted to see me?"

Her father nodded and then gave a snort. "Mrs Bridges on the end of the street. She said she saw you in the park last week."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. And she said she saw you holding hands with that black girl you live with."

"Tabitha?" Sarah asked and then nodded. "Yeah ... and?"

"Sarah, love. Is there anything you wish to tell us?" Anne Dayton simpered. "Because she told us that the girl was umm ... well she was umm..."

"Kissing you," her father told her firmly.

Sarah bit her lips, her hands shaking. The subject of her sexuality had never been discussed at home and her parents still thought she was single. "So you know then?"

"Well, yes." George folded his paper and threw it onto the floor in disgust. "And to be honest if that girl is getting all emotional 'cause of the pregnancy then she needs to leave. There is no need for her to be dragging you into that."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "What are you on about?"

"What that girl is doing." Her father added and Sarah looked at her parents staring intently at her. "Mrs Bridges said that she was forcing herself onto you and that you were resisting."

"She is not making me do anything," Sarah told them and sighed. "And this is not something I want to discuss."

"Well I do," her father snapped. "I will not have my daughter being abused..."

"I am not being abused," Sarah spat back and her mother looked up from her seat on the sofa.

"It's OK dear. You can tell us. We only want to help you."

"I am not being abused," Sarah said firmly. "I am fine. Is this all you wanted to speak to me about?" She rubbed her hands nervously and gave a weak smile.

She waited at her two parents looking at each other and turned to leave. "I've not finished with you yet," she was told firmly and Sarah spun around.

"Oh what now?"

"Well what is bloody hell is going on then?"

Sarah took a deep breath and looked at her mother. "Tabitha is my partner, OK? We are going out."

"You're a lesbian?" George cried and ran his hands over his hand, sighing dramatically. "You can't be a dyke. You've had boyfriends. Is it that Tabitha forcing herself on you, making you be a dyke."

Sarah shook her head in disgust. "No, she isn't forcing me at all." Sarah looked at the frowning face of her father. "And yes I know I've had boyfriends. But now I've got a girlfriend."

"But..." Her father stammered, staring open mouthed at his flamboyant daughter.

"Are you sure, darling?" Her mother asked and Sarah sighed.

"I mean you read about it all the time but it's normally just a phase. You'll grow out of it," her father told her and Sarah crossed her arms.

"I am 23. I've been having girlfriends since I was seventeen. It's rather a long phase, don't you think?"

George stared at the arm of the chair and sniffed. "No, that isn't true. I met your boyfriend when you were at Uni. That tall lad with blonde hair."

Sarah groaned loudly. "Oliver? For God's sake Dad, Oli wasn't my boyfriend."

"You said..."

"I know what I said. But he just helped me with my Maths," she told him forcefully. "Do you really think I would have gone out with him? Bloody hell, he was a nice enough guy but utterly hopeless with girls. I'm sure he was a virgin anyway, some of the things he used to come out with."

George took a deep breath. "Just 'cause one of your boyfriends wasn't brilliant doesn't mean you have to turn gay. Perhaps if you found a nice guy he would change your mind."

Sarah glared at him. "I have not turned gay," she told him with righteous indignation. "And I do not have a problem," she thundered angrily. "Being lesbian is not something I choose to do. It's a not a fuckin' lifestyle choice. I can't decide who I will fall in love with."

"So why are you gay then?"

"I was born that way," Sarah spat back. "And yes, those boyfriends when I was sixteen didn't do it for me, and I thought it was just because they were nerdy but it made sense when I met Rita when I was seventeen. And then Tab at Uni. So I've always wanted to settle down with a girl, it's in my DNA."

"So it's my fault now. My genes that's made you ... one of those."

Sarah looked at her mother, dabbing her eyes, and then back to her father. "One of those?" She thundered. "One of those? I s'pose then it's also your fault that I am a nudist as well."

"A nudist?" Anne squeaked. "You mean... ?"

"Yes, I do. Or more to point I don't. It's one of the reasons why we vetoed people coming into the house. Tabitha, Natalie, Mary, me, it's who we are."

Her mother looked at George. "And you put that guy in there."

"Adam?" He asked. "Oh my God. I told you to make him feel welcome. What's he gonna think?"

Sarah gave a wry smile though her stressed face. "Yeah, well, he's used to us wandering about nekkid. He even joins in but that's 'cause Nat makes him." She smiled at the serious faces of her parents and wiped her eyes.

"So you run around naked all day?" Her mother asked breathlessly. "It's not right doing that in front of other people."

"Not all day, the parents get well annoyed about teaching kids in the nude, although I'd quite like a naturist school." She looked at the wide-eyed look of her mother. "Anyway, didn't Adam and Eve wander around naked?"

"Eve didn't lie with her sister," her father thundered before Sarah could continue. "It's about time you came back to Church and stopped living in sin. Find a nice lad and just be normal."

Sarah screwed up her face. "I ain't going back to Church and being normal," she told them, gesturing forcefully with her hands. "And who cares about living in sin. If it's true, it's me that's facing the devil for living a life of happiness."

"Happiness. It won't last. Gay people never stay together. It won't last, you watch."

Sarah screwed up her face. "What a stupid thing to say. Is it 'cause Tabitha is black that you have a problem with? If it was Natalie would you care as much?"

George spluttered. "Well it's just ... her culture is very different from ours. Mixed race never works, their culture is just too different."

"Her culture?" Sarah spluttered. "She is from Wolverhampton."

"And she is pregnant," her mother told her.

"Obviously she doesn't dislike men that much," her father added.

Sarah folded her arms and looked at her fidgeting father. "She does. Well, she likes sex - who doesn't?" She smiled at the face her father pulled and Sarah cocked her head to one side. "I was there at the conception. Nice lad, but Tabitha strung him on something awful 'til she got knocked up." Anne looked at Sarah who gave a snort. "And when the baby is born, I am going to adopt with her. Have parental rights."

"You what?" George spat. "Why?"

"'Cause I want to be it's mother too."

"But you won't, will you? I thought you knew about these things," he muttered patronisingly and Sarah sneered in annoyance.