by Maeve Binchy
‘Yes, whatever. You did say that if we were ever stuck we could have a few nights there.’
‘And you are stuck?’ Dee enquired.
‘Not really, it’s just that I want Maud and Marco to have more space, and, you see, Maud’s brother Simon came home …’
‘You mentioned that all right,’ Dee said.
‘And I wouldn’t want him to think that I was … you know, settling in on them or anything.’
‘No, indeed.’ Dee nodded gravely. ‘Settling in on people would look bad all right.’
Something about the way she said it made Helen look at her mother’s face. She could find nothing to help her there, it made her slightly uneasy.
‘I mean, I wouldn’t exactly be settling in, when I sleep in the scullery,’ Helen said defensively.
‘Back room,’ Dee corrected automatically.
‘Er … yes of course, the back room,’ Helen said.
‘So how long will you need it for?’ Dee was perfectly polite, hospitable even, but there was certainly a time limit hovering in the air.
‘About a week if that’s all right.’
‘That should be fine. I’ll check with your dad.’
‘I’ll check,’ Helen offered.
Dad was out in his shed working on an old radio that was of huge sentimental value to someone in Miss Mason’s apartment block. He looked up, pleased, when he saw Helen.
‘Great to see you, love, and how are the little monsters?’
‘They’re not monsters, Dad, they’re great. Full of imagination and hopes and dreams. I love them.’
‘You’re great when you talk about teaching.’ Liam Nolan sounded genuinely admiring. ‘You’re a different person.’
‘Different from what?’ Helen wondered.
‘Well, you know, fussing and complaining about money and everything.’
‘It’s just I don’t have any money to speak of,’ Helen said.
‘None of us have any money to speak of, love, but we manage, and we don’t go on about it, you know.’
Helen was stunned.
Did she go on about it? No, of course she didn’t. It was just all that business about the travel agency.
Then she remembered something Marco had said about money recently and how Maud had changed the subject.
Rosie and Anthony had often accused her of being Miss Moneybox, but that was just the way families go on.
At school they used to make fun of her bringing in sandwiches instead of going out to the little pasta restaurant with the rest of them.
But Helen actually winced when she thought of Simon saying that he was sure Maud and Marco would be sorry to lose their lodger. He probably thought she paid rent.
She felt her face and neck reddening at the thought he might ever find out.
‘Yes, I see what you mean,’ she said sadly to her father.
‘It’s not important, Helen …’ He always hated any kind of tension. ‘I mean, that was all a misunderstanding in the past. You all know now what it costs to run a house and how your poor mother has been working way too hard to make life easy for everyone.’
‘Yes, Dad. And Dad, I was wondering if I could stay in the scullery – the back room – for a week from now, like …’
‘Your mother will deal that,’ he said.
‘She said she wanted to check with you first.’ Helen looked at him hopefully.
‘Well, I’m not sure exactly. I’m not great with figures and money, but there’s no way you should pay as much for the back room as for a proper bedroom. Will we say half of what Lily and Angela pay? Would that be all right? Is that fair?’
Helen swallowed. She was going to have to pay to stay in the scullery? Had the world gone mad? But she had to stay somewhere. And soon.
‘Of course, Dad, that sounds totally fair,’ she managed to say and let him get back to the elderly radio.
Ronan had flowers on the dining table, he had the casserole ready to put into the oven, and the salad already prepared in the fridge. He had ironed all Rosie’s dresses and hung them carefully in the bedroom so that she would notice how smooth and uncrushed they were. Then he went to the airport.
He had a speech ready but when she threw herself into his arms, he forgot the speech entirely.
‘Welcome home,’ was all he said.
In Anthony’s house, the musicians were staring in amazement at the kitchen. They wondered were they in the right house.
The kitchen was gleaming, and a big bin stood clean and lined, awaiting rubbish. Crockery and glasses were washed and put away. Surfaces were gleaming and bare. The sink was empty and shining.
Most menacing of all was a clipboard. There were four people in the house, so there were duties that had to be done every day. They needed discussing.
In order to lessen the shock, Anthony revealed that he had ordered fish and chips to be delivered later in the evening and worked out what each person should pay.
They were defiant at first. Anthony was turning out to be worse than their mothers, they said.
Then they saw the sense in it. They could even bring women home to a place as classy as this, they agreed.
The deal was done.
‘We will miss you,’ Marco said to Helen.
‘I want to settle up with you for my time here,’ Helen said. She tried to take the note of horror out of her voice. She hoped she did not look too pleading, too begging for them to say that she owed them nothing.
‘Let’s see, it was four weeks, wasn’t it?’ Marco said.
‘But mates’ rates,’ Maud insisted. ‘Not real money, just enough to cover a few things.’
They settled on a sum.
It was very reasonable for four weeks’ board and lodging, but if you had expected to pay nothing, like Helen had, it was fairly substantial. She smiled and chattered her way through it. Then Simon came in and said he would love to help her carry her things back to her house in St Jarlath’s Crescent.
‘It’s only temporary there,’ Helen said.
‘I know. Maybe you could get a flat in Chestnut Court. They’re very nice,’ Simon said.
‘They’re very expensive,’ Helen blurted out before she could help herself.
‘Well, between two they mightn’t be too bad,’ Simon said.
‘Two?’
‘Well, I can’t settle on Marco and Maud forever. I’ll need a place of my own too. We might share the experience. What do you think?’
‘What a great idea,’ Helen said with a big wide smile.
Dee made Simon very welcome. They talked about his grandmother Lizzie who lived down the road, and about his wonderful grandfather, Muttie, who had died and left a great ache in the street. They remembered Hooves the faithful dog who had died just hours before his master.
They got on very well, Helen noticed, easy and relaxed. Not tense like she had been with her mother. But she didn’t really concentrate on what they were saying.
Simon had asked her to share a flat with him.
Imagine.
By the time the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary came, everything had settled down.
Rosie was the happiest wife in Dublin. She and Ronan came every Sunday to lunch in St Jarlath’s Crescent, where nowadays they were joined by Simon who was very much together with Helen, and Babette, who was a saxophonist much fancied by Anthony.
Nobody used the back room now, so Lily and Angela had installed yet another nurse in there. The rent coming in was substantial. It had all been saved carefully in the post office, and would be spent on a holiday in Sicily.
But first there was a party.
It was in Ennio’s, the restaurant belonging to Marco’s father. All kinds of people were there: Miss Mason, of course, and Josie and Harry, and half of St Jarlath’s Crescent. Anthony’s girlfriend Babette was dressed as a Goth.
Liam and Dee had to make speeches, of course. Everyone else had toasted them and said what a wonderful couple they were and how they had done everything right all th
eir life.
This was so far from being true, but at a party, in the middle of a celebration, people did not want to hear of the hard times, the mistakes made and the wrong turnings taken.
They spoke simply of the life they had lived and the joy of their three children. It had been a happy home, but then, like in every home, just as the leaves fall from the trees, the children had left to set up lives for themselves and this was a source of great happiness to them.
They could only wish their two daughters and son as happy lives as they had lived themselves.
In the crowd, Rosie, Helen and Anthony stood there astounded. What was this Mam and Dad were saying – that their children had left like the leaves fall gently from the tree? That wasn’t how they remembered it.
It had been sudden and shocking and upsetting. Mam and Dad had painted up the scullery and put all their children’s clothes there. Their visits had been more or less reduced to Sunday lunch. Rent had been mentioned in what was supposed, after all, to be their home …
But in the end what did it matter?
Their parents were happy and smiling. They actually believed all this ‘leaves-falling-off-the-trees’ thing. Tomorrow they were going to Sicily for two weeks.
Raise the glass, drink their health.
Maybe it had all been for the best.
Say nothing, now or any time, about the sudden dismantling of the full house. Maybe the wind had needed a little help to blow the leaves off the trees.
That’s all there was to it.
Quick Reads
Books in the Quick Reads series
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
Quick Reads are brilliantly written short new books by bestselling authors and celebrities. Whether you’re an avid reader who wants a quick fix or haven’t picked up a book since school, sit back, relax and let Quick Reads inspire you.
We would like to thank all our funders:
We would also like to thank all our partners in the Quick Reads project for their help and support:
NIACE • unionlearn • National Book Tokens
The Reading Agency • National Literacy Trust
Welsh Books Council • Welsh Government
The Big Plus Scotland • DELNI • NALA
We want to get the country reading
Quick Reads, World Book Day and World Book Night are initiatives designed to encourage everyone in the UK and Ireland – whatever your age – to read more and discover the joy of books.
Quick Reads launches on 14 February 2012
Find out how you can get involved at www.quickreads.org.uk
World Book Day is on 1 March 2012
Find out how you can get involved at www.worldbookday.com
World Book Night is on 23 April 2012
Find out how you can get involved at www.worldbooknight.org
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
Amy’s Diary
Maureen Lee
Orion
A young woman finds her way in a world at war.
On 3rd September 1939 Amy Browning started to write a diary. It was a momentous day: Amy’s 18th birthday and the day her sister gave birth to a baby boy. It was also the day Great Britain went to war with Germany.
To begin with life for Amy and her family in Opal Street, Liverpool, went on much the same. Then the bombs began to fall, and Amy’s fears grew. Her brother was fighting in France, her boyfriend had joined the RAF and they all now lived in a very dangerous world …
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
The Little One
Lynda La Plante
Simon & Schuster
Are you scared of the dark?
Barbara needs a story. A struggling journalist, she tricks her way into the home of former soap star Margaret Reynolds. Desperate for a scoop, she finds instead a terrified woman living alone in a creepy manor house. A piano plays in the night, footsteps run overhead, doors slam. The nights are full of strange noises. Barbara thinks there may be a child living upstairs, unseen. Little by little, actress Margaret’s haunting story is revealed, and Barbara is left with a chilling discovery.
This spooky tale from bestselling author Lynda La Plante will make you want to sleep with the light on.
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
Doctor Who
Magic of the Angels
Jacqueline Rayner
BBC Books
‘No one from this time
will ever see that girl again …’
On a sight-seeing tour of London the Doctor wonders why so many young girls are going missing. When he sees Sammy Star’s amazing magic act, he thinks he knows the answer. The Doctor and his friends team up with residents of an old people’s home to discover the truth. And together they find themselves face to face with a deadly Weeping Angel.
Whatever you do – don’t blink!
A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the hit series from BBC Television.
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
Beyond the Bounty
Tony Parsons
Harper
Mutiny and murder in paradise …
The Mutiny on the Bounty is the most famous uprising in naval history. Led by Fletcher Christian, a desperate crew cast sadistic Captain Bligh adrift. They swap cruelty and the lash for easy living in the island heaven of Tahiti. However, paradise turns out to have a darker side …
Mr Christian dies in terrible agony. The Bounty burns. Cursed by murder and treachery, the rebels’ dreams turn to nightmares, and all hope of seeing England again is lost forever …
Quick Reads
Fall in love with reading
The Cleverness of Ladies
Alexander McCall Smith
Abacus
There are times when ladies must use all their wisdom to tackle life’s mysteries.
Mma Ramotswe, owner of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, keeps her wits about her as she looks into why the country’s star goalkeeper isn’t saving goals. Georgina turns her rudeness into a virtue when she opens a successful hotel. Fabrizia shows her bravery when her husband betrays her. And gentle La proves that music really can make a difference.
With his trademark gift for storytelling, international bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith brings us five tales of love, heartbreak, hope and the cleverness of ladies.
Other resources
Enjoy this book? Find out about all the others from www.quickreads.org.uk
Free courses are available for anyone who wants to develop their skills. You can attend the courses in your local area. If you’d like to find out more, phone 0800 66 0800.
For more information on developing your skills in Scotland visit www.thebigplus.com
Join the Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge at www.sixbookchallenge.org.uk
Publishers Barrington Stoke and New Island also provide books for new readers.
www.barringtonstoke.co.uk • www.newisland.ie
The BBC runs an adult basic skills campaign.
See www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise
Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and was educated at the Holy Child Convent in Killiney and at University College Dublin. After a spell as a teacher in various girls’ schools, she joined the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982, and since then she has written more than a dozen novels and short-story collections, each one of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, most notably Circle of Friends and Tara Road. Maeve Binchy was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the British Book Awards in 1999 and the Irish PEN/A.T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association and in November 2010 she was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gáis Irish Book A
wards by the President of Ireland, Mrs Mary McAleese. Maeve is married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell. Visit her website at www.maevebinchy.com
By Maeve Binchy
Fiction
Light a Penny Candle
Echoes
The Lilac Bus
Firefly Summer
Silver Wedding
Circle of Friends
The Copper Beech
The Glass Lake
Evening Class
Tara Road
Scarlet Feather
Quentins
Nights of Rain and Stars
Star Sullivan (Quick Read)
Whitethorn Woods
Heart and Soul
Minding Frankie
Non-fiction
Aches & Pains
The Maeve Binchy Writers’ Club
Short stories
Victoria Line, Central Line
Dublin 4
This Year it Will be Different
The Return Journey
Copyright
An Orion Books ebook
First published in Great Britain in 2012
by Orion Books
