From Notting Hill to New York . . . Actually

by Ali McNamara

  ‘This will be so much better, Oscar. Well, it will give you more enjoyment, anyway.’

  ‘More enjoyment than shopping and cocktails, darling? There’s only one thing that gives me more enjoyment than that, and I really don’t think that’s likely to be on the menu in the back of a cab with you and Seany, now is it?’

  I look over towards Sean, who is sitting on the other side of Oscar staring out of the window at the passing buildings.

  When I’d got back last night, he’d still been sleeping. Sean was a pretty heavy sleeper, so I’d been able to sneak in again without waking him. But my absence last night had not gone unnoticed, as I’d found out this morning.

  ‘Where did you go last night?’ he’d asked over breakfast before Oscar had joined us. ‘When I woke up you weren’t there.’

  ‘I went for a walk,’ I’d replied truthfully.

  ‘With whom?’ Sean had calmly poured coffee from a pot into his cup.

  ‘On my own.’

  ‘You were on your own, walking the streets of Manhattan, at night?’

  ‘Yes, to begin with I was.’

  ‘So who joined you then?’

  I hated it when Sean was like this. He wasn’t even looking me in the eye. He was just concentrating very hard on arranging his breakfast. ‘I met a friend when I went into St Patrick’s Cathedral.’

  ‘Do I need to ask which friend? Did he have his cameraman sidekick with him this time, or does he just come along to visit hotel bedrooms?’ Sean looks up at me now, a cold expression in his eyes.

  I return his gaze with an equally cool look.

  ‘Actually, it wasn’t either of them. This is another friend I’ve met here. Peter.’

  Sean nearly chokes on his cereal. ‘Another man? Isn’t three enough, Scarlett?’

  ‘Three?’

  ‘Jamie, Max and Bradley Cooper.’

  And I nearly spit my toast all over the white tablecloth.

  ‘Bradley Cooper, are you kidding? I just helped out at the charity auction with him, that’s all. Oh, Sean, that’s hilarious! You thought I was up to something with a Hollywood film star? I’m actually quite flattered.’

  I pick up my toast and begin munching again.

  But Sean is still watching me intently across the table. ‘And that would be why you have a card with his telephone number propped up on the dressing table of your hotel room?’

  And it’s my turn to choke, as the toast goes down the wrong way. I take a sip of juice. ‘That doesn’t mean anything. He was just being kind. He gave it to me after the auction in case I needed anything while I was in New York.’

  ‘Like?’ Sean’s eyes widen.

  ‘I don’t know, do I? He said he owed me after the auction, and that if ever I needed a favour to call him up. He seems like a really nice guy.’

  Sean still looks doubtful.

  ‘Look, Sean, I can one hundred per cent assure you there is nothing going on between me and Bradley Cooper.’

  I can’t actually believe I’ve just said that last sentence.

  ‘What about you and Jamie?’ Sean demands.

  ‘No. Jamie and I are just friends. The same as Max and I are.’

  ‘The same, Scarlett?’

  ‘OK, so I may have seen Jamie a bit more while I’ve been here. But that’s to do with the brooch, and we’ve got stuff in common.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘Such as, he grew up without a parent, the same way I did.’ I begin buttering more toast.

  ‘And you’ve talked a lot about this?’ Sean is not eating now; he’s just sitting back in his chair interrogating me. That’s what it feels like, anyway.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘In the many hours you’ve spent together while you’ve been here.’

  I slam my knife down hard on my plate. ‘Sean, please stop this now. There is nothing going on between me and Jamie, I promise you.’

  ‘But you like him.’

  ‘Yes, I like him. Is liking someone a crime or illegal in this state? If it is, you’d better arrest me because I’ve liked plenty of people since I’ve been here.’

  ‘Mainly men, it seems to me.’

  I sigh. This really isn’t going anywhere. And it is so unlike Sean. He never behaves like this. It’s almost like he’s jealous.

  ‘So tell me about this Peter you met up with last night,’ Sean asks now. ‘Who is he, and how do you know him?

  And that’s how we’d ended up in the taxi this afternoon, heading downtown to Brooklyn. Sean wanted to meet Peter, and I wanted to show Sean and Oscar Sunnyside so I’d be in a better position to pitch my new idea to them.

  As we reach the house, I see Peter already waiting outside to greet us.

  ‘Scarlett,’ he says, stepping forward to open the cab door. ‘So glad you could come over again. And bring your friends along this time, too.’

  ‘Peter, this is Sean, and you’ve already met Oscar, of course,’ I say, introducing them.

  ‘Of course, Oscar, how could I forget?’ Peter says, shaking his hand. ‘And Sean, it’s good to meet you at last. Scarlett has told me a lot about you.’

  Sean returns Peter’s handshake. ‘And you, Peter. And you,’ he replies guardedly.

  ‘Come on, let me show you around Sunnyside,’ Peter says, leading the way inside. ‘It’s a bit noisier than when you were here last night I’m afraid, Scarlett. Saturday mornings are always particularly hectic around here, but today you’ll get more of a feel for the place in all its glory.’

  A bit noisier isn’t the way I’d describe the house, as we enter the hallway and find children swarming everywhere, running up and down the stairs, shouting to each other and chasing one another across the hall and through the rest of the house. Chaotic, frenzied, manic, would be more my choice of words.

  Kim quickly appears from one of the rooms with an armful of washing in a laundry basket. ‘Guys, you’re here already! Great to see you again so soon, Scarlett.’ She smiles warmly at me. ‘Now, Peter, should I show these good folk around, or will you?’

  ‘I’ll do it, Kim. You look like you’ve got your hands full just now.’

  ‘When haven’t I, running this place?’

  ‘Do you want to go with Kim?’ Peter asks me. ‘And I’ll take Oscar and Sean for the full tour?’

  ‘Sure,’ I nod. ‘OK with you two?’ I ask them.

  ‘Yes, darling, whatever you want,’ Oscar says, already sounding bored.

  Sean simply nods.

  While he and Oscar follow Peter down the hall, I accompany Kim through to a large laundry room fitted with two huge washing machines, two driers and an indoor line strung across the centre with a few odd unclaimed garments hanging on it: socks, pants and a pair of red shorts. She begins to fill one of the machines from the basket.

  ‘Is there anything I can do?’ I ask, feeling a bit helpless just standing there.

  ‘No, I’m fine, honey, I’ll be done in a minute. So, how’d it go with your guy?’

  ‘You mean Sean? I haven’t asked him yet.’

  ‘You mean told him,’ Kim says, filling the drawer of the machine from the biggest packet of laundry detergent I’ve ever seen. ‘From the way you were talking yesterday, Scarlett, I can’t see anyone stopping you doing what you want to, not now you’ve got this idea in your head.’

  ‘Maybe …’

  ‘No maybe about it.’ Kim starts the wash and turns around to face me. ‘Darlin’, if this is what you want to do, no man is gonna stop you, I could see it in your face last night.’

  Just then a little girl pops her head around the corner of the laundry room. ‘Kim, me and Maisie want to go down to the store to buy candy, but Zack says we can’t until after we do our chores. But I need to get things at the store to finish my chores, so can’t we just combine the two?’ She smiles up at Kim with a set of gappy but bright white teeth. Then she notices me standing there. ‘Scarlett, you came back!’ The rest of her skinny little body appears from around the door and she skips over t
owards me, and I realise it’s the little girl from last night. Her red hair is all pulled back under a baseball hat this morning, and instead of pink pyjamas she’s wearing a navy-blue sweatshirt and jeans. ‘Will you do my hair now?’ she pleads. ‘Will you, will you?’

  ‘Er …’ I look to Kim for guidance.

  ‘What chores are you meant to be doing this morning, Nicole?’ Kim asks.

  ‘Emptying all the trashcans. But we don’t have any bags. That’s why we need to go down to the hardware store.’

  ‘I could go with you if you like,’ I suggest. I look at Kim. ‘Would that be OK, Kim? Then when Nicole has emptied the trash, I can do her hair.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ Kim says in a weary voice. ‘Anything for an easy life.’

  Nicole and I set off for the local hardware store together, Nicole skipping happily down the path in her battered sneakers.

  ‘So,’ I ask, ‘how do you find it living at Sunnyside?’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Nicole says, reaching in her pocket. ‘Gum?’ she offers, holding out a stick.

  ‘No thanks, but don’t let me stop you.’

  ‘Your name is very pretty,’ Nicole says after she’s unwrapped her gum and is happily chewing on it. ‘Scarlett. I like it.’

  ‘Thanks. I’m named after a famous film character. You probably won’t have heard of the film though, it was out a long time ago. Gone With The Wind?’

  Nicole wrinkles up her nose. ‘Nah. But your name is still cool. I’m named after a film star too.’

  ‘Really, which one? Actually, no, let me guess …’ I think for a moment. ‘It must be Nicole Kidman.’

  ‘Yip,’ Nicole nods. ‘My mom was a big fan of her and Tom Cruise. Actually I think she was more a Tom Cruise fan, and then when I came along she wanted to name me for something to do with him, so she picked Nicole.’

  ‘That’s nice.’

  ‘Yeah. Kinda appropriate, though, ’cos they got split up too. Just like me and my brother Tom did. Oh, here’s the store.’

  I stare after Nicole for a moment, then follow her into the store. We quickly buy some bin bags with the money Kim’s given us and I also buy Nicole some candy, even though I’m sure I’m not supposed to, and we begin to share it on our walk back.

  ‘Nicole, what you were saying before about your brother, doesn’t he live with you at Sunnyside?’

  ‘Nope,’ Nicole says, her mouth full of candy. ‘They said he was difficult; too difficult for Mom to cope with. Tom was quite naughty, so they took him away from her, before they took me. He went to a different home, I think. We couldn’t stay with Mom, she was ill, too ill to look after us. Well, that’s what they told me. She wasn’t ill, Scarlett, she just drank. She drank a dot.’ She looks up at me with a knowing expression. Far too knowing for one so young.

  ‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’ I say, meaning it. Then I think for a moment. ‘Have you seen Tom since?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘How long ago did all this take place, Nicole?’ I ask gently. I know I’m probably asking too many questions about things I shouldn’t, but this is suddenly all very relevant.

  ‘I was seven when I came to Sunnyside, I’m ten now. Tom left about a year before me. So I guess that’s four years ago.’

  I nod and quickly reach for another sweet from Nicole’s bag, hurriedly stuffing it into my mouth. I hope this might stem some of the emotion that I can feel wanting to burst out from inside me in response to what this little girl has been through.

  This is all so unfair – and I’m going to do something about it.

  *

  When we get back to Sunnyside, I help Nicole empty the trashcans, and in our search for rubbish I’m surprised by some of the sights I see throughout the house.

  In the girls’ room I’d visited late last night with Peter, I find a new beauty salon has sprung up, with Oscar in charge handing out tips and advice to his new protégées. Not only that, he appears to be the main guinea pig for their experiments, too. Right now he’s covered in a green face mask and is having the fingernails of one hand painted bright pink by one little girl, and the other electric blue by another.

  ‘Having fun, Oscar?’ I ask, trying not to laugh.

  ‘The best, darling,’ he says, meaning it. ‘My girls are such angels, aren’t you?’

  The girls nod happily. ‘Can we play hairdressers next, please, Uncle Oscar?’ one of them asks, brandishing a pair of scissors in her hand.

  ‘Er, I don’t know about that, sweetie,’ Oscar replies, looking nervous. ‘Maybe we should just stick to beauticians for now.’

  We leave them to it and head down the hall to collect the trash from one of the boys’ rooms, where it’s virtually impossible to see any beds this morning, as every bed-sheet has been stripped off and used to form some sort of makeshift tent, making the whole room look like an Indian village of teepees.

  ‘Halt!’ we hear as we enter the room. ‘Who goes there?’

  ‘We’re collecting the trash,’ Nicole replies, sounding bored. ‘Can you just hand us the trashcan, please?’

  Sean emerges from behind the door holding a broom over his shoulder like a rifle.

  I may have been able to control my laughter in the girls’ room, but this is too much. ‘What are you doing?’ I ask after I’ve stopped laughing.

  ‘Protecting the fort,’ he answers in all seriousness.

  ‘Oh, it’s a fort, is it? I thought they were Indian teepees.’

  ‘How can they be Indian teepees when they’re that shape?’ he says, aggrieved. ‘It’s quite clear it’s an army camp.’

  ‘Right …’ I tilt my head to one side as if I’m appreciating the angle of the sheets now. ‘Of course they are: how could I not have seen it before?’

  One or two heads are starting to appear from the tents now.

  ‘Hmm, I could have you court-martialled for insubordination,’ Sean says, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘Could you now, Sergeant?’ I wink.

  ‘It’s Captain, actually. I’ve been promoted.’

  ‘Are these women giving you trouble, Captain?’ another deep voice asks from one of the tents. I turn to see Peter’s head appear from under a sheet.

  ‘I should have known you’d be involved in all this, Peter.’

  ‘Nothing I can’t handle, Colonel,’ Sean says, saluting. ‘I’ve been dealing with this one for over a year now.’

  ‘I’ve only known her for a few days, Captain, and she’s not easy, that’s for sure. But I’m sure you have it all in hand.’ Peter salutes and returns to his tent.

  ‘Boys!’ I roll my eyes. ‘Come on, Nicole, you and I have a date at the hairdresser’s. Have fun, Captain.’ I salute Sean.

  ‘Shame you don’t take orders that easily all the time,’ Sean says, grinning.

  ‘In your dreams, buddy, in your dreams.’ I grin at him. ‘Have fun in your fort.’

  I spend the next hour or so showing Nicole how to fix her long red hair into different styles, and slowly the beauticians and the soldiers begin to filter down from the salon and the fort back into the rest of the house. Then Kim announces it’s time for lunch and invites us to stay, which we gladly accept. We’re all starving. Looking after children is not only exhausting, but gives you a massive appetite.

  After lunch, sadly, it’s time for us to leave, but we all agree we’d like to come back again if there’s time during our stay. So with a few teary goodbyes, mainly from Oscar, we depart.

  Peter accompanies us outside to our cab.

  ‘Thank you all for today,’ he says, shaking Oscar and Sean’s hands. ‘The children really appreciate the time, and time is just what the three of you have given them this morning.’ He reaches forward to hug me. ‘I hope it goes well, Scarlett,’ he whispers in my ear. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I whisper back. Then I say in a louder voice, ‘Thank you, Peter, we’ve all had a lovely time today.’

  ‘Be seeing you soon, Peter,’ Sean says, nodding once more to Peter,
as he climbs into the cab first.

  ‘Look after them all, won’t you,’ Oscar sniffs, following him. He reaches once more for his red polka-dot hankie, which was being put to good use a few minutes ago.

  ‘I will, Oscar, don’t you worry.’

  I climb in next to Oscar, and Peter closes the door on us all. As the cab pulls away down the street, we bid farewell to all the faces that now line the windows and doorway of Sunnyside as they wave madly back at us. But what Sean and Oscar don’t know yet is that, if I get my way, this is definitely not the last we’ll be seeing of them.

  Twenty-six

  ‘That was just lovely,’ Oscar sniffs, blowing his nose noisily into his handkerchief. ‘Thank you for taking us there this morning, Scarlett; those children have made me so grateful for my own upbringing. They’re just so happy and positive about life.’

  ‘Yes, they are, Oscar,’ I agree. ‘That’s one of the reasons I wanted you to see Sunnyside. It’s such a shame for some of them that they even need to be there at all …’ I venture, hoping to begin steering the conversation the way I want it to go.

  ‘Oh, definitely,’ Oscar agrees. ‘I heard some terrible stories from some of the children about why they’re in the home. But it doesn’t seem to faze them in the slightest.’

  I glance at Sean. He’s very quiet, sitting back in the cab listening to the pair of us.

  ‘Did you enjoy yourself, Sean?’ I ask him.

  ‘Yes, I did. I had great fun playing soldiers with the boys upstairs.’

  ‘Good.’ I smile.

  ‘So what’s next?’ he asks.

  ‘What do you mean, what’s next?’

  ‘Come on, Scarlett, I know you. You haven’t dragged Oscar and I all the way down here today just to play soldiers and hairdressers for the fun of it.’

  ‘We were beauticians, actually,’ Oscar protests.

  ‘You didn’t look very beautiful to me when you came out of that room all plastered in make-up,’ Sean says, grimacing at the memory. ‘Scarlett, you may as well get it over with now, I know you’re up to something.’

  I keep forgetting how well Sean knows me.