by Libby Page
As he says it the seed of hope shoots roots inside Kate’s chest.
“Go on,” she says.
“Well, perhaps we could find a company who might be interested in advertising at the lido. With the press that it’s been getting—and hopefully will get now that you’ve locked yourself in here”—he pauses and they all smile—“well, maybe that might be of interest to an advertiser. I’ve done some research into some companies and have drawn up a list. And maybe if any of them are interested, it could keep the lido open.”
He finishes and puts his hands in his pockets, looking at Kate and Jay, waiting. Kate wishes she could leap through the glass and take this wonderful young man into a big hug.
“It’s brilliant, Ahmed,” she says. “Really brilliant. And surely it’s got to be worth a shot?”
At that moment Kate’s phone rings. She looks down and, to her surprise, sees Rosemary’s name. She turns it around so that Jay and Ahmed can see who’s calling. She takes a breath and then answers.
“Rosemary,” she says.
“Kate, I’m so sorry. I made a huge mistake.”
Her voice is shaking.
“Rosemary, are you okay?”
Rosemary sniffs and her voice brightens slightly.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. I’m good actually. But I’ve just realized what a fool I’ve been. I should have been braver—it was simple cowardice that stopped me from coming to the lido, and from seeing you, from talking to my friends.”
“It’s okay,” says Kate. “I understand how hard it must have been for you. Must be for you. It’s so nice to hear your voice again.”
“And yours, too, Kate. Listen, I’ve been thinking”—her voice is even faster now and sounds stronger—“this can’t be over yet. There must still be something we can do.”
So Kate tells her where she is, and about her plan for the sit-in.
Rosemary laughs, and the sound of her laughter gives Kate all the strength she could ever need.
“I admit I’ve heard the sound of protesters, but I had no idea you were locked inside! My goodness. George would have loved that: a proper sit-in. You, Kate Matthews, are much braver than you think.”
Now it’s Kate’s turn to blush as Jay and Ahmed watch her, listening to her half of the conversation. She looks up from the phone at them and suddenly remembers Ahmed’s idea.
“Rosemary, Ahmed has had this wonderful idea about another way we might be able to save the lido. I think he could do with someone to help him, but obviously I’m locked in here . . .”
She explains the idea to Rosemary, though she is fully on board anyway.
“Is Ahmed there?” Rosemary says. “Tell him he’s a very clever man.”
Kate repeats the message to Ahmed, who blushes again, and then she turns back to the phone.
“So do you think you could help Ahmed, Rosemary? You two could go to the meetings together and you could make your case for the lido, just like you did at the town hall.”
“Yes,” Rosemary replies, “whatever it takes.”
Once Kate has hung up the phone, she turns to Ahmed.
“It seems you have a business partner for your plan.”
CHAPTER 58
Eventually Kate and Jay are alone. The empty lido is silent. It feels bigger now, a hollow shell or a castle that they are guarding alone for the night. Kate shivers slightly, wondering if she has made a mistake. But she wants to be here to the end. The lido has welcomed her like a new home and she wants to stay inside the safety of its walls until the very last moment—until she is forced to leave. And hearing Rosemary’s voice again, and knowing she hasn’t completely given up, has given her a renewed sense of purpose.
“I’m starving,” Kate says after a moment’s quiet.
“Me too,” says Jay. “Shall we see what we’ve got?”
They walk back to the Lido Café and unpack their bags onto one of the empty tables. Kate brings out a packet of Hobnob biscuits and a quiche in a tin. Jay has sandwiches, KitKats, and two cans of gin and tonic. At the bottom of their bags are more supplies to last for a week—just in case.
“What a feast!” says Kate.
“Did you make this?” asks Jay, pointing at the quiche. Its crust is wonky and slightly burnt at one edge, but it looks good, and Jay suddenly notices how hungry he is.
Kate smiles widely.
“I did!”
She sounds incredibly proud of herself, and it makes Jay want to reach across and pull her into his arms.
It suddenly turns dark.
“Shit.”
There is a pale light from the moon outside, but the half of the room away from the windows is plunged in darkness. Jay fumbles his way to the light switches and tries them all.
“They’ve probably shut off the electricity,” he says.
Kate disappears behind the coffee bar and kneels down, searching for something.
“I wonder if they’re still here,” she says as she searches. Eventually she stands up.
“Here we go,” she says. “I thought they had some left over from Frank and Jermaine’s wedding. I’m surprised they’re still here.”
She comes back to the table carrying several large candle lanterns and a box of matches. She lights the candles and the room glows in a warm orange light. The candlelight and their faces reflect on the glass windows. Outside the lido is dark and still.
“Perfect,” says Jay, pulling out Kate’s chair for her to sit down and then sitting down too.
“Thank you. Shall we eat?”
She pulls a knife out of the tea towel she had wrapped it in and cuts them both a piece of quiche. The cans make a satisfying hiss as they open their gin and tonics.
“Cheers.”
“This is delicious,” says Jay, taking another bite of the quiche.
“Thank you. I’m not much of a cook but I’m learning. George has been teaching me.”
Jay looks confused but Kate explains: she has been working her way through George’s notebook of recipes.
She stops.
“I’m so happy Rosemary has agreed to help Ahmed. But do you think she will be okay if the plan doesn’t work? I don’t know how she’ll recover from the loss of the lido. Her whole life revolves around it.’
They both quietly consider Rosemary and her lido.
“It must be so hard for her,” he offers eventually. “Yes, this has been her whole life.”
They look out at the lido in the darkness, imagining all the things that Rosemary has seen here and all the people she has met. How many times must she have swum here? Too many to count. They eat the rest of their strange dinner quietly in the candlelight. The summer night presses its face against the window, stars shining in the sky and reflecting on the surface of the pool.
“What do you think will happen tomorrow?” Kate asks eventually, sipping her gin and tonic and feeling a warmth rush to her cheeks.
“I don’t know,” he says. “We’ll probably get kicked out in the morning. Get arrested for trespassing perhaps.”
Kate sighs.
“Hmm, yes.”
She looks out across the dark water and thinks about all the times she has swum here over the past few months. She lives only fifteen or so minutes away but before being assigned to the story she had never been. She wishes she had known about it sooner.
“I suppose I should feel afraid,” she says, “but right now I don’t.”
She sees herself in the window and for once she doesn’t shrink away from her reflection. She holds her gaze firmly. Here I am, she thinks. I am here.
She turns back to Jay.
She thinks about how much of the past few years she has spent feeling afraid. The Panic has ruled her life for so long. Before she found the lido she felt as though she was balanced on the tip of a diving board, terrified by the height below her. But she is finally not afraid anymore. She is ready to jump.
So she stands up, reaches across the table, takes Jay’s face firmly between her hands, and
kisses him. He blinks in surprise and then kisses her back. They push their chairs back and stand up awkwardly, their lips still pressed together. Then he pulls her closer to him, their hips touching and his arms wrapping around her waist. His mouth is warm, his beard rough beneath her fingers. She pulls him tighter into her until their chests are pressed together, their hearts beating quickly together like clapping hands. This kiss is different from their first, and she realizes why. It’s because this time she is ready—she’s ready to be loved.
They kiss in the candlelight, learning each other’s faces. After a while they pull apart and cover each other’s cheeks, ears, chins, necks with small soft kisses. He kisses her eyelids; she kisses his cheeks. But it is not long before their mouths are together again.
After a while she pulls herself away from him slightly and looks at his face. He looks back, putting a hand on her cheek.
“God, I’ve wanted this for a really long time,” he says.
“Me too.”
She only realizes it as she says it. She might have been too afraid before, but this is what she wants. He is what she wants. She kisses him again then untangles herself, catching her breath.
“If this is the lido’s last night, I think we should swim,” she says, pulling her dress over her head as she says it.
“It would be wrong not to,” he replies, unbuttoning his shirt. Their clothes make a trail behind them as they head out to the pool. It has taken her a long time to get there, but she is finally not ashamed by her nakedness. Jay yelps as he climbs in and it makes her laugh. The moon watches over them as they swim in the cold water.
“I’m not used to it!” he says. She laughs again and ducks underwater, her hair spreading out around her like seaweed. She stretches her hands in front of her and opens her eyes, looking at her pale skin and the shape of Jay’s body swimming in the distance. She’s not sure if it’s him or the cold water making her heart beat so fast. She bobs back up for air and swims toward him.
At first they laugh and splash water at each other like children. Then they stop playing and start swimming quiet lengths side by side. He floats on his back and she does the same. She tries to count the stars but there are too many to even start.
They swim until their bodies are tired and shivering. Then they heave themselves out of the water, their skin cold but tingling.
“Towels?” says Jay.
They each take a lantern and their pile of clothes and Kate leads him down the corridor to the reception area, both of them dripping onto the floor as they walk. She searches behind the reception desk and pulls out a box filled with white towels, relieved that the staff left everything intact when they shut up the lido for the last time. They wrap them around each other, hugging each other for warmth before letting go.
“It must be late,” she says, suddenly aware of the passing of time as though she has come up for air after being underground. The clock above the desk tells them it is half past midnight.
She becomes aware of the energy she has given to the day: to writing the articles, to sending out the petition, and to caring so much. She is exhausted. Even the relief of hearing Rosemary again and knowing her friend was back on their side had taken its emotional toll on her. She carries the box of towels, her pile of clothes, and her large rucksack, and Jay follows her to the yoga studio. Holding the lantern, Kate looks around until she spots the yoga mats in the corner. She puts down the box and starts dragging mats into the middle of the room, unrolling them and stretching them out in a large square. He helps her until a mattress-sized portion of floor is covered in yoga mats and towels that they drape over like fluffy sheets.
“Perfect,” he says.
Kate bends down and pulls a sleeping bag out of her rucksack and opens it over the mats and towels. She only has one, but she thinks it won’t matter.
The room glows in the candlelight and the two of them are reflected in the mirror that stretches the length of the wall. On the other side is a long window. Outside it is completely dark. Kate’s hair drips onto her shoulders and she hugs her towel tighter to her body and shivers.
“Come here,” Jay says, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. They kiss standing up, then kneeling down together, then they both lie down among the pile of mats and towels. She leans across and blows out the candles. In the darkness he lies behind her and pulls her tightly toward him until they are lying as one S-shape made up of two bodies. She can feel his heart beating against her back as they hold each other tightly.
“We might get arrested tomorrow,” she says quietly as she drifts toward sleep, “but I’m glad I’m here.”
“Me too.”
They fall asleep in pale moonlight that peeks in through the window and shines on the mirror as though on a lake.
CHAPTER 59
The next morning at ten o’clock Rosemary is due to meet Ahmed in a café in Brixton Village. She arrives early and finds them a table in the corner facing the market. She watches people passing by the window or pausing to look inside. It feels good to be out of her flat. After a week of inactivity she can feel a new energy flowing through her, making her jittery and almost but not quite distracting her from the pain in her knees. She taps her hand restlessly on her lap as she waits for Ahmed. Her heart matches the beat of her tapping as she thinks about the lido and how badly she wants this plan to work. When she spots Ahmed at the door, an iPad tucked under his arm, she waves. He asks the waiter for the Wi-Fi code and heads over to the table.
“Don’t you look like a new man,” says Rosemary, pulling him into a hug. At first he seems awkward but then he lets himself sink into the old woman’s strong embrace.
“I hear you have finished your exams,” she says, stepping back and holding his arms, looking at him and smiling. “Well done, you.”
She remembers all the times she has seen him studying at the lido reception, Post-it notes dotted around the desk. The memory of the lido and the thought that it soon might just be a memory sends a pain through her chest, but she tries not to let her smile drop.
“I don’t know if I’ve passed them yet,” Ahmed says shyly.
“Oh, I just know you have. Don’t you worry.”
They sit down together and Ahmed talks Rosemary through the different companies he wants to try and what they should say to them. She is impressed with the spreadsheet he has drawn up on his iPad—it is very neat and she tells him so, causing him to blush again.
Rosemary has never imagined herself uttering the words Hello, may I please speak to your advertising department?, but over the course of the morning she uses them nearly twenty times. They take turns calling on Ahmed’s phone. Rosemary phones a company, then Ahmed types the information on the iPad. Then Ahmed takes his turn to call and Rosemary writes down the notes.
After several hours they have worked their way nearly to the bottom of the list but have no confirmed meetings. Ahmed sinks heavily in his chair, disappointment spread across his face. Rosemary feels on the verge of tears. But she thinks of Ahmed, and she thinks of George. She tries to think what George would do. George would be kind to this young man.
“I think it’s time for some more tea,” says Rosemary, patting Ahmed gently on the shoulder before shuffling to the counter. As she goes Ahmed picks up his phone again.
There is a small queue, and as Rosemary waits she spots a stack of Brixton Chronicles by the till. She picks one up and immediately recognizes the face on the front.
“Local Journalist Stages Sit-In to Save Brockwell Lido,” reads the headline. The photo is of Kate sitting in the empty café, the doors open as she looks out toward the pool. Next to her is a rucksack with a sleeping bag poking out of the top. Jay must have taken the photo and sent it in to the paper, she thinks, and the thought of the two of them there barricaded in the lido behind a wall of chairs and exercise equipment makes Rosemary smile and grow a little taller.
As she makes her way back to the table a few minutes later carrying a tray with the tea and trying v
ery hard not to spill it, she spots Ahmed talking animatedly on the phone. He looks up at her and does a thumbs-up. Her hands shake even harder now, sloshing the milk in the small jug onto the tray. A waiter comes out from behind the counter and helps her with the tray, placing it gently on the table and giving her a little nod. She nods back and thanks him.
By the time she has sat down and wiped up the spilled milk, Ahmed is off the phone and beaming.
“We’ve got a meeting for tomorrow!” says Ahmed. And this time it’s him who leans forward to hug Rosemary.
CHAPTER 60
Waking up, it takes Kate a moment to remember where she is. She looks at the ceiling of the yoga room and listens to Jay breathing heavily by her side. She doesn’t want to move so lies as still as she can for a moment, listening to the soft noises in the empty lido. Pipes creak and she can hear the birds outside but otherwise it is quiet. Jay is warm next to her and she edges closer to him, enjoying the sensation of his body. It feels strong and soft and makes her feel as though if she fell over she would be okay. She wraps an arm around him, her heart racing at the feel of his skin on hers. It reminds her of her first swim at the lido: how her heart leaped at the shock of the cold and her whole body seemed to wake up and come to life.
She stares at the ceiling and wonders how long it will be until the police arrive. Will they come today? Or tomorrow? Could they arrest her? And what would that be like? She has never had so much as a parking ticket before. And what about Rosemary? What if Ahmed’s plan doesn’t work? What will she do when the lido is closed for good, turned by Paradise Living into a tennis court for the rich? The day stretches ahead of her like the depths of the sea that plunge down into darkness. She can’t see what is down there. She doesn’t want to look. So instead she turns and rests her head on Jay’s chest and he sleepily tucks her under his arm.
