'Four Leafed Clover' by Jan Lloyd

Clover sits alone in the badly lit function room at The Rainbow pub waiting for the rest of the band to turn up.

I got the courage to tell Mum that I couldn't go to Glastonbury with her. I tried to make it sound positive, saying we'd got this gig at The Rainbow and before long we'd be famous. She laughed and took it well. I suggested Theo could go with her or even Carl. "Carl won't want to go", she said. "He'll be stuck down the garage under the bonnet of some wreck". I wonder sometimes why she ever married Carl, they never do anything together. He's got to be the most boring man in the universe. They don't even like the same music so he's hardly likely to want to take her to Glastonbury. Anyway it turned out Theo and some of his mates had planned on going so they hired a van and he was happy to take Mum with her trusty new wheelchair. I just hope they keep an eye on her. She's probably lying in a heap somewhere stoned out of her skull. She says she needs certain substances to help with the pain in her legs and it works much better than the tablets the doctors' keep trying to give her. I had to cook the Christmas dinner last year because she was on another planet lying on the settee. Whose the child and whose the parent I thought as I put the sprouts on.

Dad is no help, he's disappeared off to some mountain retreat in Spain and on his millionth relationship! I remember when he left us. It was my third birthday and I had a party with friends from the nursery. I can see him running down the garden path with Mum screeching at him. Apparently, Mum told me years later, she found him snogging Julia Fulton in the garage when he was meant to be getting my new bike out. He'd been seeing her secretly for months, they'd met at the nursery and would go back to her place after dropping me and her son Jack off. Mum always told me she'd been warned about the McGowan brothers, "They could charm the birds off the trees with their blarney and yer dad, Danny, only had to flash his blue eyes at any woman and he'd melt their hearts in seconds"! People who knew him always say I take after the McGowan family with my dark hair and blue eyes. Maybe in looks but I'd like to think I'm a bit more responsible!

Pause....

Then Mum got ill when I was seven. She woke up one morning and couldn't see straight. She thought she'd put her contact lenses in the wrong way. We were driving to school and she was all over the place and I screamed at her to wake up as she nearly killed us all. After loads of tests they told her it was Multiple Sclerosis and that it may gradually get worse or remain stable. That was fifteen years ago and she's done well coping with the intense pain she gets in her legs. She's fifty this year and that was one of the reasons she wanted to go to Glastonbury, she said it might be her last chance. I hope not.

As for Carl, my stepdad, not! He's pretty useless. Mum met him here in The Rainbow. He told her he could sort her car out as it needed loads of work doing. Anyway he did fix it and passed it for an MOT. Next thing, he's round the house having dinner with us. She saw him as her knight in shining armour just 'cos he'd put an MOT on her car. I was ten when they met and Theo was eight. I never really liked him, he never gets our jokes, he's never really fitted in. They got married when I was twelve and I had to be a bridesmaid. Mum made me wear this awful pink dress with flowers in my hair, it was all very hippy, dippy and I had to pretend to be happy when I really felt like crying. Mum thought it was romantic, I still wonder why because Carl is about as romantic as a wet weekend in Barmouth. Mum always sticks up for him and says he's steady and reliable and that's what she needed after Dad who messed about with other women and broke her heart. At least Dad made us laugh and would cheer us up with his funny stories. I remember Dad turning up one day when I was eight and he took us all out to the seaside in a posh old Merc. Me and Theo sat in the back and thought we were really posh sitting on the leather seats. Mum sat in the front wearing a spotty sun dress and her hair piled up with a sparkly slide. She looked happy and carefree as they chatted and laughed about the old days and how they met and were choosing baby names by the third date. They decided to call me Clover because they'd been out for a picnic and found a four leafed clover just after Dad had proposed. Dad bought us all candy floss later and we sat on the beach and got covered in sand and sticky sugar. He didn't mind us getting sand all over his posh car. Carl wouldn't let us get in his car if we had a speck of dust on us let alone sand. Mum says he's anally retentive. I don't know what he is but it's definitely got something to do with his anus! I cry at night sometimes thinking about my Dad. I wish he was here now and he wasn't living thousands of miles away with his new Spanish girlfriend, she's called Mercedes, which is funny as he always liked Mercs.

Pause...

I'm still waiting for the band to turn up. I suppose I'm a bit early but I'd hoped they'd get here a bit sooner so we can have a quick practice before the party. Donna's Mum and Dad have just been in to decorate the room, thank god, as it looked a bit dismal to say the least. Melvin was still being funny about playing as he thinks he's Damon Albarn and The Rainbow is hardly cutting edge but we're going to get two hundred and fifty quid for this so I told him not to be so snooty. He said he didn't want people to get the wrong idea as we weren't a "pub band" and needed to get gigs in alternative venues. I told him not to be so precious as I didn't care where we played as long as we got some money so I can start paying off some of my debts.

Monday night and Clover is in the function room at The Rainbow collecting the band's equipment.

Mum got back from Glastonbury earlier, all safe and sound but I had to run her a hot bath as she said she felt like an old stray dog! I said to her, "you look like one so get washed before I take you to the kennels". She'd had a brilliant time and had managed to get to the front of the stage to see Bruce Springsteen. Theo said, "She even managed to do without her wheelchair as it was more trouble than it was worth so we left it in the van. Mind you, with the amount of strange cosmic substances available on the menu she didn't need her wheelchair she just floated over the top of the crowds". Mum laughed and climbed into the deep bubbles to have a long soak. I wish she could've been at the gig to see my debut performance. It went really well and Donna danced all night with her mates. Melvin saw sense in the end especially when Keith, the landlord, handed over the cash. Carl turned up and watched from the wings holding his pint. I was surprised to see him especially when he came up after and hugged me and said how much he enjoyed it and how proud he was, I nearly choked on my beer.

Pause....

I feel much better about my future now. The band has got two more dates to play from people at Donna's eighteenth. I've only got six months left to complete my degree. Then we'll be discovered and earn loads of money so I can pay of my student loan. Carl said he'd fix up a van that'd been dumped at the garage and offered to be our "roadie"! He even suggested a name for the band, "The Converts". Now even Melvin liked that!