Within a minute, the gate was in place, and Jeb proudly latched it then gave it a firm tug.
“It looks secure,” Wren said.
“It’s as solid as a rock, Lydia, you don’t have to worry about that,” Jeb replied.
“Erm, I’m Wren.”
Jeb looked at her for a moment. “I know…that’s what I said.”
“You called me Lydia.”
Jeb narrowed his eyes a little. “I said Wren. I know what I said.”
Sweat was pouring from Jeb’s forehead, and the sun was still beating down. “Okay...I must have misheard. You fancy a nice cool drink after all that hard work?”
Jeb looked at Wren a little longer before turning back to the gate. “No...no, I think I’d better be heading off.”
“Thank you for this, Jeb,” Robyn said. “It would have taken us forever, but I suppose you’ve been doing this kind of thing all your life, haven’t you.”
“I’ve still got a few years left in me,” he said without the hint of a smile.
“I didn’t mean that,” Robyn said, smiling, “I meant—”
“I know what you meant, missy,” he said, glaring once again. “City folk coming here and giving their opinions of how I’ve lived my life.”
“Hey, Jeb, I wasn’t saying that. I was—”
“Never mind. I’m going.” He opened the gate wide before picking up his tools and marching across to his van.
Robyn and Wren looked towards each other, their faces wore expressions of confusion. They watched as Jeb loaded his tools and belongings into the van before climbing in himself. He reached for a packet of cigarettes from the dashboard, placed one in his mouth and lit it up. He took a long suck on it and filled the cab with blue smoke before starting the engine and lowering the window. The wheels moved slowly forward, but he brought the van to a stop in front of the two girls. He leaned out with a large grin on his face. “That’s been a good day’s work. I’ll head up here tomorrow and check that it’s all still standing, then maybe we could go fishing in the afternoon if it’s nice. Take care, girls,” he said, pulling out of the yard and onto the road.
The van trundled down the lane and the two girls just stood in the yard, still shocked by Jeb’s earlier comments. When they could no longer hear the sound of the engine, Wren closed the gate. “What was that all about?”
The girls walked into the kitchen and closed the door behind them. Wren sat down at the table and Robyn poured them both a glass of water before sitting down next to her. “It’s like Grandad,” Robyn said, biting on her nail.
“Grandad George?”
“Nooo, Grandad Clive. Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t remember much about him at all, but how is it like him?”
Robyn gazed at the glass in front of her and a look of melancholy painted her face. “After Grandma died, and he had that heart attack he started to go downhill...mentally I mean. It was little things at first.”
“Like what?”
“Like being forgetful. Like missing appointments, missing people’s birthdays, but it got worse.”
“Worse how?”
“He’d start forgetting people’s names, then he’d get confused, and sometimes…”
“Sometimes what?”
“Sometimes, he’d start to get frustrated and lash out. He’d get stuff wrong, like people’s names and things and then he’d get angry. Really he was angry with himself, but his brain just got all muddled and it would be other people he’d take it out on.”
“Was it Alzheimer’s?”
“Yeah. I was only young at the time. I remember seeing bits, then Mum told me about it a few years later. A big event, or stress can actually make it worse. For Grandad, it was probably the heart attack.”
Wren angled her head, like a curious dog. “So wait a minute, you’re saying you think Jeb has Alzheimer’s?”
“Well think about it. He was a wreck back at the surgery, he was like a frightened kid. Then all of a sudden, he’s fine again, putting up fences and stuff like it’s any other day. Then he’s getting our names wrong and looking at us like we’re strangers. Then he barks at us…suddenly he’s talking to us as if nothing had happened. Yeah, I think it’s possible.”
“So, what do we do?” Wren asked.
“What can we do?”
“Are there any pills or anything we can give him?”
“There weren’t for Grandad. He used to have good days and bad days until one day he just went completely and never came back.”
Wren let out a long breath. “You’re saying, as well as everything else that’s going on, we’re going to have to look after an old man who’s losing his mind?”
“We don’t really have a lot of options.” They stared at each other long and hard, knowing they did have a choice, but neither of them wanted to admit it. “All we can do is take one day at a time.”
“You’re not filling me with confidence, sis.”
“Look, let’s not think about this. Let’s get some food and get some rest. It’s been a very long day.”
“It’s only early,” Wren said.
“I know, but I just want to put this one behind us and start again tomorrow.”
Wren stood up and walked to the fridge. “We’ve got pasta bake from last night. I can heat that up.”
“Whatever,” Robyn said, I’m going to get changed.
✽ ✽ ✽
The two sisters ate, but barely spoke for the rest of the evening. They said their goodnights and turned in. Within a matter of minutes, Robyn was fast asleep, but Wren lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. It wasn’t yet completely dark outside and the day played over and over in her head. She knew that when sleep did finally find her, it would be plagued with nightmares. For all the horror she had seen that day, the thing that preyed on her thoughts the most was Jeb.
It was nothing short of miraculous that she and Robyn had got this far, but now to take responsibility for an old man who had Alzheimer’s…it could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
She hated herself for thinking in such a way, but she couldn’t help it. The most important thing in the world to her now was her sister. Jeb’s condition would only get worse, and it was a responsibility two girls should not have to think about, but the alternative was even more unthinkable. Eventually the muddle of thoughts began to untangle in her head, as weariness enveloped her. Fifty thoughts became twenty. Twenty became ten, and ten became one. The one thought cradled her as she finally went to sleep. Family. Nothing else meant a thing but family.
✽ ✽ ✽
When Wren woke the following morning, to her surprise, she felt rested. Her sleep had not been plagued by nightmares, as she had expected. Instead, her dreams had focussed on the next Commonwealth Games. It would never take place; she would never get the chance to show the world what she could do, but in her dreams, those happy thoughts had accompanied her in sleep. She looked at her watch; it was six-thirty and the sun was already fighting through the curtains to wish her a good morning. She lay there for a few more minutes, wrapped in the cosiness of the quilt, when she realised that there was a repetitive sound that was accompanying her transition to a wakeful state. What was that? It continued and she leaned up onto one elbow. It was coming from outside. Wren climbed out of bed and walked to the window, peeling back the corner of one curtain just enough to see.
She immediately released it and her head dropped. “Oh God,” she sighed before running out of the room to rouse her sister. She arrived at the side of Robyn’s bed, but her sister was still fast asleep. Wren crouched down and spoke in not much more than a whisper. “Bobbi...Bobbi!” She accompanied the words with a reassuring hand on her sister’s arm.
Robyn jolted awake, “What? What is it?”
“We’ve got a problem.”
“What problem?”
“It’s easier if you just come and see.”
Robyn climbed out of bed and followed her sister to the spot where Wren had bee
n standing just a minute before. Robyn peeled back the curtain a little and looked through the gap. “Oh crap!” she said, letting the fabric fall back into place.
“What do we do?”
“We have to go out there. Let me get dressed,” Robyn said, heading back to her own room.
Wren quickly slipped on her clothes from the previous day, which had been neatly folded on a chair. The two sisters met in the kitchen and headed to the door. Wren placed her fingers on the handle. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
“Let’s get this over with.”
Wren opened the door and they walked out into the morning sun. It was only early, but midges were already beginning to emerge in the absence of a breeze. They paused, just watching, hoping the madness they were seeing had some logical explanation, but they both feared it did not. Jeb had shifted a channel of stone chips by their newly erected fence. He had peeled the thick, black weed cover back and was now digging sizeable holes in the soil.
“Jeb?” Robyn said, softly. “Jeb?” she said louder this time.
Jeb turned, and for a moment looked at the girls with a blank expression, but then his face broke into a smile.
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“What are you doing, Jeb?” Robyn asked, sensing her little sister’s nervousness.
Jeb looked down at the holes he had dug and then back up at Robyn. “I was hoping to get it all done before you got up. Thought it would be a nice little surprise for you.”
“Get...get what done?” Robyn asked, beginning to share her sister’s nerves.
He leaned the shovel up against one of the fence posts and walked through the gate, then disappeared from sight. The two sisters looked at one another. “Holy cow, he’s gone completely mad. I thought it would happen in stages,” Wren said.
“Me too, maybe—” A car engine coughed into life and Robyn tensed, looking towards the road. The Morris Minor pick-up chugged into sight and drove through the gate, coming to a stop in the yard.
Jeb climbed out and walked around to join the girls. There were shapes concealed under a cover on the bed of the truck, and butterflies started to flap in the sisters’ stomachs, as Jeb took hold of a corner of the light tarpaulin and began to pull it away. He revealed at least fifteen small bushes, each one had a plastic bag carefully banded around its roots. “It dawned on me when I finished here yesterday that I had only just planted these a couple of months ago, along the border to one of my fields. So, before we lost light yesterday, I went and dug them all up.”
“Why?” Wren asked.
“Why?” he repeated. “Don’t you see? If we plant these along the fence, in a few years’ time, the house will be invisible from the road. Obviously, there’s still the gate, but I was thinking, maybe I could build you a wood panelled one. Maybe we could get some of that fencing they have in back gardens and I could build you a nice big gate, so any of those things come along this road, they’ll walk straight by. You could be out in the yard and you’d never have to worry about being seen.”
Wren and Robyn looked at one another and the relief they both felt was palpable. “Jeb, that is so kind. It really is. Thank you,” Robyn said.
“What can we do to help?” Wren asked.
Jeb looked up into the sky as the sun gradually rose higher and higher. “I could murder a cuppa if there’s one going,” he said.
“I’ll get right onto that,” Wren said, heading back into the house.
“This is amazing, Jeb. You are like the coolest old dude I’ve met in a long time.” They both laughed.
“You two remind me a lot of Lydia.”
“You mentioned that yesterday.”
“Did I? Ah well. Getting old y’see, the memory’s not what it used to be. But when I got home last night, I felt her with me.”
“How do you mean?”
“I know it sounds barmy, but I…talk to her quite often. I know she’s never going to answer, but it was just her and me in that house for years, We were all we had, so even after she was gone, I carried on talking to her. It gave me a lot of comfort to imagine she was still listening.”
Robyn thought back to playing Queen songs on her phone, and that strange sensation that somehow it made her feel closer to her dad. “That doesn’t sound mad; it sounds very sweet. It sounds like you were in love and it wasn’t time for you to let go.”
A smile warmed Jeb’s face. “That’s a nice way of looking at it. I suppose that’s exactly what it was. Well anyway, I got home last night and I sat down in my kitchen, and right then, right there, I felt closer to my Lydia than I had in years. Anyway, I sat there at my kitchen table and I could almost hear her voice. She was saying over and over, you’ve got to look after them, Jeb, you’ve got to look after them. And that’s when this idea came to me, like a bolt out of the blue,” he said, gesturing towards the shrubs.
“Whatever the reason, I can’t thank you enough. I’m going to make us some breakfast and then Wren and I will help you finish this off.”
“A bite would be good,” Jeb said.
“I’ll shout you when it’s ready,” Robyn replied, heading into the house.
“Well?” Wren said as her sister walked through the door.
“He seems fine this morning. A little weird, but no more than most old people.”
“So you think it was a one off, yesterday?”
“I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. I doubt it, but the important things is he’s okay today, and we’re okay today. We’re here, standing talking in the kitchen. We’re healthy, we have food, and we’re safer than we were yesterday. We have a lot to be thankful for, and all we can do is take everything one day at a time, ‘cos nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.”
epilogue
TJ walked into the large conference room. Fry was sat at the end of the table with his new girlfriend perched on his knee. Juliet was a beautiful, voluptuous, black woman who he had met one night in the Fun House. Most women were horrified and demeaned by what went on in that place, but Juliet saw it as a useful way of finding the big fish, and once she got her hook in one, she threw all the little sprats back into the water with contempt. Juliet unnerved TJ, even more than Fry. She felt no empathy for the other women, she was more than happy to consider them a currency, just as Fry and the Don did.
TJ walked up to them, and Fry rolled out a large map on the table. “You wanted to see me, boss?”
“Sit down, TJ, my princess is just leaving.” Juliet gave Fry a long lingering kiss on the lips before standing up. She wore a short, clinging, white dress that barely reached her thighs, and when she stood, TJ could not help but look at her shining skin for a split second before pulling out a chair and sitting down.
She brushed her hand teasingly over TJ’s shoulders as she walked towards the door. “See you at home, Daddy,” she said, looking back and flashing her seductive smile. Fry watched as she left the room. A sinister smirk decorated his face for a moment before he looked towards TJ.
“It’s time for us to step up our game,” Fry said taking out a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“How do you mean?”
“When you and I got here, there were eight hundred men. We brought more than that number with us and we’ve had arrivals since. The Don sent a messenger to tell me he was going to be gracing us with a visit, and I don’t want it to look like we are barely holding things together. I want it to look like we’re thriving.”
“Got you.”
“I want you to take two hundred men and a fleet of trucks out with you. You’re going to be bringing back everything: caravans, tractors, fertiliser, polytunnels, the lot. We need people to plant and tend the crops, we need women to keep the men entertained, we need labourers, house slaves too. Any of the men put up resistance, you kill them. We act swiftly, we act decisively. I want you back here by the end of the week.”
TJ looked at the notebook. “You don’t think it would be wort
h holding off on these places until they’ve had a harvest?”
Things were on a more even keel between TJ and Fry after the events in the hotel bar. Fry still regarded him as his closest ally, and he knew that when TJ interrogated him, it was not to question his authority, but merely to suggest another option.
“Can’t risk it, TJ. There were over four hundred thousand people in Edinburgh when it all went down. There were over ninety thousand in Stirling. When the food supply runs out, those things are going to be heading out of the city. The whole area in between could be lost if we don’t move now. They used to say time is money; well, money looks a little different these days but the same principles apply.” Fry paused and pointed to several highlighted areas in between Edinburgh and Stirling. “We move on these places now and we’ll reap the benefits. We wait and it will all go up in smoke.”
“I won’t let you down,” TJ said.
Fry gave him a long look. “No...you won’t.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Three hours later TJ was in the passenger seat of a black Range Rover, heading out of Loch Uig. A large convoy of lorries, trucks and buses were following them. The buses had been armoured, and wire grilles covered the windows. They each held forty, heavily armed men, all with a vested interest in the trip. The lorries and trucks were empty, but they would be returning full; there was nothing surer.
“So, where are we heading to first?” asked Ian, the right-hand man to the right-hand man.
TJ flattened the map out on his knee. “We start the furthest south and work our way back up.” He looked at the map again and then crossed-checked it with the notebook. “Looks like we’re hitting two farms first, not far away from a place called Tolsta.”
“I drove through Tolsta once when the Forth Road Bridge was out; ended up getting lost. It’s a slice of nothing, and it’s a long way from here,” Ian replied.
“Hey look, I don’t make the plans, I just do as I’m asked,” TJ said, as he hit a button which made his seat recline. “We do whatever the boss man says, and he says we hit these two farms first, so that’s what we do. Now just drive. I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me when we get close.” TJ folded his arms and closed his eyes.
The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3] Page 37
