Cupid's Way

by Joanne Phillips

  Maybe one day Evie would finally visit and see those dogs for herself.

  Trying to rescue everyone else because the one person you couldn’t rescue was your own mother. Evie gazed up at the washed-out sky and opened her eyes wide to blink back the tears. Even the psychology student hadn’t figured all that out. But he was a bit of an idiot, truth be told.

  ‘Hello?’

  Evie smiled down the line. Her mother’s voice was as clear as the shiny outline of McAllisters against the backdrop of blue above.

  ‘Hi, Mum,’ she said. ‘I’m just calling to tell you that I love you.’

  Chapter 24

  Evie was in her room, sitting by the window browsing job sites on her tablet, when she heard the ringing of the doorbell. She ignored it and carried on searching. On the dressing table lay the letter from English Heritage, face down. Evie tapped her teeth with her pen as she read the description on the screen in front of her. The advert demanded a “competent all-rounder with wide-ranging experience and a first-class degree from a red-brick university”. In return they were offering a salary Evie thought more appropriate for a sixth-form leaver on work experience. She sighed and clicked on the next ad. What was the point? she wondered for the hundredth time. Why give up one job you hate only to find another that was equally dissatisfying? She tried to recall the passion that had fired her up to make that bold move. Hadn’t it had something to do with wanting to make a difference?

  She looked at the letter on the dressing table again and let out another heavy sigh.

  ‘Visitor. Mind you lock up your valuables.’ Frank’s voice carried up the stairs, laden with sarcasm. Evie pushed back her chair and stuck her head out of the door just as Zac mounted the top step. He wore a hangdog expression and a pair of faded blue jeans. His T-shirt was so white it almost hurt her eyes. Suddenly Evie was ridiculously pleased to see him. She grabbed him by the arm and all but yanked him into her room.

  ‘He’s got ten minutes and then his backside is out the door,’ Frank shouted. Evie rolled her eyes and pointed Zac to the chair she’d just vacated. She sat on the bed.

  ‘How’s it going?’ she asked him. ‘You’re still here, then?’

  Zac was regarding her with astonished eyes. ‘You’re talking to me? Like, actually talking to me without shouting or wanting to hit me?’

  She smiled just a little. ‘Zac, believe it or not, you are not the centre of the universe. There are other things going on right now, and who you’re related to, or whether or not your little charade contributed to this sorry mess, is neither here nor there.’

  ‘I wish you’d tell that lot,’ he said, waving his arm towards the window. ‘I’m still expecting a lynching mob any minute. They’re all crazy, you know.’

  ‘I think the local hardware store have sold out of pitch forks,’ she told him. ‘Actually, the local hardware store closed down years ago. I guess they could go to Homebase instead. They could grab a couple of sledgehammers while they’re there,’ she added. ‘Get to work on the demolition. Save your uncle a job.’

  Zac sighed and dropped his head into his hands. ‘You’re still pissed off with me. I thought it was too good to be true.’

  ‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘Not really. I do believe you did it with the best of intentions.’

  Just like I lied for the best intentions, she thought. She didn’t feel in any position to sit in judgment. She looked out of the window and watched a bird swoop down to the top of one of the apple trees. How long until those trees fell under the vicious teeth of the bulldozers? How long before the exact spot where she was sitting became either Roy McAllister’s new office or a parking space for the medical centre. It was such a waste. That was the thing that really got to her the most – the waste of it all. The years of history, the layers and layers of people’s lives, just gone in an instant. Turned to dust. And for what? To line the developers’ pockets. To feed a group of people who were hungry for progress at any cost.

  ‘So,’ Zac was saying, ‘I’ll be off this afternoon for good. I’m going up to Scotland. But before I went I wanted to–’

  ‘The letter came,’ Evie said. ‘The decision from English Heritage.’ She gestured towards the sheet of paper on the dressing table.

  ‘Can I see?’ Zac said, tentatively reaching out his hand. Evie nodded. He picked up the letter and read it. She watched his eyes move across the page, and watched his face drain of colour.

  He said, ‘Oh,’ and Evie nodded again. Suddenly her eyes blurred and she turned away. The tears were a surprise. So far she’d felt nothing other than a flat numbness. She’d read the letter, laid it down, then carried on with her list of tasks as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

  ‘It’s a pretty categorical refusal,’ Zac said, his voice soft.

  ‘It certainly is.’ Evie took it out of his hands and folded it back into the brown envelope. She opened a drawer in the dresser and threw the envelope inside.

  ‘Do Frank and Mavis know?’

  She shook her head. ‘I’ll tell them later. They’ve got enough on their plates right now.’

  Zac pulled a tissue out of the box on the windowsill and handed it to her. She was grateful that he didn’t touch her, didn’t try to comfort her with a well-meaning hug. He sat with his hands together between his knees, his head hanging low, as if praying. Evie dried her eyes and dropped the tissue into the bin. She looked up and gave him a wan smile.

  ‘So, you were saying something about Scotland?’

  Zac smiled back and rubbed his hands together. ‘My mum lives there. I’m going to stay with her for a while.’

  ‘Did she know about the little charade you were running here? About her part in it?’

  ‘Hell, no. She’d kill me if she found out.’

  ‘And Roy McAllister is?’

  ‘Her brother,’ Zac said with a rueful smile. ‘She’d kill him too.’

  ‘Maybe your mother could come visit for a while,’ Evie said, and Zac laughed. Like an echo, laughter rang out across the gardens outside her window. ‘What is going on out there, anyway?’ she said, getting up and peering out. ‘I’ve been hearing odd things all morning.’

  ‘They’re up to something, but I don’t even want to think about what it might be. Like I said, they’re a pretty crazy lot.’ He regarded her carefully, as though weighing up his words. ‘Evie, tell me to mind my own beeswax if you want to–’

  ‘Mind your own,’ she said instantly. He pulled a face, but carried on regardless.

  ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think you should give up the fight.’

  ‘You’re the one who’s crazy, Zac. There is no fight. It’s already over. Cupid’s Way has lost – is lost – and now it’s just a matter of waiting for the big boys to slug it out and declare which one is the winner.’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’ He tipped his head to the window as the sound of laughter drifted up again. ‘That lot don’t seem to be feeling as negative as you.’

  ‘They haven’t heard the latest, though, have they?’ Evie said. ‘And in a minute I’m going to have to go out and break the news. Our last best hope is finished.’ Her heart sank at the thought of it.

  She saw Zac to the front door, with Frank glowering behind them. Zac touched her hand as he stepped into the gardens. ‘I wish things could have been different, Evie,’ he said, twisting his hands. ‘Between us, I mean. I really had started to care about you lot. But especially you. I’m sorry I let you down.’

  She let him hold her hand briefly, unable to think of a single thing to say.

  ‘The worst of it is seeing you so downhearted. I really wish there was something I could do.’

  ‘You could get the hell off my doorstep,’ Frank shouted from inside. Evie grimaced and shook her head.

  ‘It’s okay, Zac. You can go to Scotland with a clear conscience. Whatever happens here, it’s not your fault.’

  He nodded and let go of her hand. ‘Bob Peacock’s threatened to tie me t
o his horse and drag me all around Bristol if I’m not gone by lunchtime.’

  ‘I’ll be there with the rope,’ Frank said. Evie rolled her eyes and called over her shoulder for her granddad to shut up.

  ‘You’d better go,’ she said, and she watched Zac skulk away along the garden’s perimeter, waving one last time when he reached the gate. As she turned to go back inside, she caught a glimpse of Sarah and Tim, standing over by the cherry blossom tree. Sarah was climbing up a set of stepladders, hanging what looked like bunting from the tree’s lower branches. Evie shook her head in confusion, and started to walk towards them. She took two steps, then stopped. What did she care what Sarah and Tim were up to? It was none of her business anymore. She was done with rescuing people, with sticking her nose in and trying to make everything better. From now on the only person’s life she would be rescuing was her own. It really was about time.

  Chapter 25

  For the next two days, Evie watched with increasing confusion while the residents of Cupid’s Way indulged in the oddest behaviour she could imagine. She’d been right about the bunting, which was now strewn from the cherry blossom tree all the way down to Stig’s house and back up again to the allotment. Any time she ventured outside the house, in search of someone to talk to or a bit of a distraction, everyone seemed to melt away. She cornered Cissy on Wednesday morning, over by the tiny greenhouse they’d erected for the tomatoes. Evie found it both incredible and depressing that they were still working on a crop that might well be buried under mounds of rubble before the summer was out.

  For once, Cissy didn’t have Pip in tow. ‘He’s gone into town,’ she said when Evie enquired after him, ‘to get some more sig– erm, to get some supplies.’

  Evie narrowed her eyes. Cissy and Pip always shopped locally – it was almost a religion with them. If they couldn’t grow it themselves they would trade, swap or borrow from the odd little pockets of friends they’d made in the surrounding estates, and for everything else they walked to the last remaining independent supermarket at the top of Bow Hill. She shrugged and followed Cissy along the cobbled path towards the Peacock enclave.

  ‘What’s all the bunting for?’ she said. ‘Have I forgotten someone’s birthday?’

  Cissy smiled, but didn’t answer. She pointed to the roof above Tim’s house. ‘Look, I’m sure that’s a kestrel. You don’t often see birds of prey in this area anymore.’

  Evie shielded her eyes from the sun. It didn’t look much like a kestrel to her.

  ‘Cissy, is something going on? I keep seeing Bob creeping around in the gardens, and I’ve heard whispering under my window more than once these last few days. Is there something you’re not telling me?’

  The mood in Cupid’s Way, even since she’d broken the news of English Heritage’s refusal to give them a lifeline, had seemed bizarrely buoyant. They’d taken the news so well, Evie had wondered whether anyone except her had ever expected a different result. Even Frank and Mavis seemed more upbeat, having resolved their latest argument in some unfathomable way out of Evie’s hearing. She’d found them hugging on the sofa this morning, and for once Mavis’s eyes were quite dry.

  It was too weird.

  Cissy pulled a face and shook her head. ‘Not sure what you mean, Evie. Hey – isn’t that Eloise and the boys?’

  Certain she was being thrown off the scent yet again, Evie turned and waved. She did a mock double-take as her friend got closer.

  ‘Wow. Where are you lot off to? The Ritz?’

  Eloise smiled and pulled her sons forward. Usually clad in dirty shorts and scruffy, ill-fitting T-shirts, the boys were hardly recognisable in their matching navy suits over pale blue shirts. The oldest one scratched his head self-consciously, while his brother paraded up and down, enjoying the attention.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Evie asked again.

  ‘Nowhere,’ Eloise said. ‘Just to their granddad’s for lunch. See you later, alligator.’

  They left Evie and Cissy on the path and headed across the grass towards the Peacock house. Evie watched as Freda opened the door to let them in. She was also dressed to the nines. Freda gave the gardens a quick scan. When she saw Evie she jumped a little and closed the door with a hearty slam.

  ‘I’d better be going too,’ Cissy said. ‘I’ve got to take something to, erm, someone.’

  Evie was about to offer to tag along, but then she realised that Cissy looked uncomfortable. She was eager to get away, to be out of Evie’s company. Just like Eloise. Just like everyone these past few days. She bit her lip and nodded to Cissy, saying a quick goodbye before she headed back towards the safety of home.

  She’d given up everything to come here and help these people, her grandparents’ friends and now her friends too. Or so she’d thought. Friendships around here took years to build, unlike the paper-walled houses developers like Dynamite threw up.

  They clearly didn’t see her as a friend. She’d failed them, and if they didn’t want to have anything to do with her it was nobody’s fault but her own.

  Evie stopped on her grandparents’ doorstep and looked around. The gardens were deserted. She listened to the silence, broken only by birdsong and the muffled sound of traffic beyond the terraces. They gardens were beautiful today, more beautiful than ever, with the blossom and the spring flowers pushing up through hopeful soil. Evie took it all in, letting the sights and sounds and smells fill her heart. Then she stepped inside the house and closed the door.

  It was time to move on again. There was nothing else she could do for Cupid’s Way, and nobody here needed her to stick around and remind them of how much they were about to lose. It wasn’t her home anyway, and now it never would be.

  *

  ‘What are you doing?’

  Evie looked up from her packing to find Mavis standing in the doorway. Her gran was wearing a leisure suit that was Evie’s favourite – cherry red velour with sunshine yellow trim. She’d had her hair blow-dried at the salon she’d been going to for over sixty years, and it sat on her head like a blonde helmet. Her lips were glossy with red lipstick and her eyes, crinkling at the edges, showed no signs of the stress Evie had come to expect.

  ‘You look nice,’ Evie said, stuffing a pile of underwear haphazardly into her suitcase.

  ‘And you look like you’re going somewhere,’ Mavis countered.

  Evie shrugged. ‘Not much point me staying where I’m not wanted.’ Even to her own ears she sounded like a spoilt and sulky teenager. She tried again. ‘It’s time I found somewhere of my own to stay, Gran. I can’t keep imposing on you and Gramps. It’s better to start being realistic. Start preparing for what’s to come.’

  She said this with a wince in her voice, a warm hug at the ready, waiting for Mavis to crumble at the thought of it, at the prospect of leaving her home. But Mavis only grinned mischievously.

  ‘We’ll see,’ she said, her eyes twinkling. ‘It’s not over till it’s over.’

  ‘When the fat lady sings,’ Evie said, pulling herself to her feet.

  ‘I don’t think Freda Peacock has much of a singing voice.’ Mavis bent from the waist and rightened Evie’s bright green wheelie case. Then she tipped it to the side, spilling the contents all over the carpet. ‘Better put that lot away. You’ve made a right old mess in here. Just like when you were a little girl.’

  Evie put her hands on her hips and gave her gran a hard stare. ‘It’s taken me half an hour to pack that. Now I’ve got to start all over again.’

  ‘Come on, lovely. Sit down next to your old gran and tell me all about it.’ Mavis flopped onto Evie’s bed and patted the quilt by her side. Evie stood resolute, eyeing the mess on the floor.

  ‘Something’s brought all this on,’ Mavis said, holding out her hands, palms up. ‘Last night you seemed fine.’

  ‘I’m still fine,’ Evie said, dropping to her knees. She grabbed a handful of clothes and shoved them back into the case. ‘I just think it’s time to move on, that’s all.’

  ‘I
need you, Evie. Please don’t go.’

  Evie looked up. Her gran’s mouth, with its brave covering of lipstick, had started to sag at the corners. Her eyes were blurry with tears. ‘Oh, Gran. Come here.’ Evie pulled her into a hug. The old woman’s hair felt spiky against her chin and the sweet aroma of hairspray tickled her nose.

  ‘Is it something I’ve done?’ Mavis said, her voice muffled against Evie’s chest. ‘Have I become a burden?’

  ‘Gran, no! Of course not. It’s just … Oh, I don’t know. Everyone’s being weird with me. Here, in the street. Everywhere I go people are avoiding me or whispering or clubbing together in their houses and slamming the door in my face. It feels horrible. Like I’m on the outside now. And I know I shouldn’t think this way, but I’m angry with them. They could be a little more grateful, you know? I did my best. I did what I could. Okay, I failed. I didn’t manage to save Cupid’s Way, but you have to admit the odds were stacked against me. I couldn’t have known about McAllisters’ bid, or that Zac was buying up houses right under our noses. You liked Zac,’ she said, pulling back to look Mavis in the eye. ‘You were trying to get me to go out with him.’

  Her gran sniffed. ‘We were all taken in, Evie. Not just me.’

  ‘Well, whatever. But it’s like everyone’s carrying on as though none of this is even happening. We’ve got two enormous developers vying to be the ones to flatten this street and what are that lot doing? Putting up bunting. It’s like they’re in some kind of extreme denial.’ She peered down at her gran’s face, which seemed surprisingly unblotchy for someone who’d just been in floods of tears. Had they been put on for Evie’s benefit?

  ‘You’re wrong about one thing, Evie,’ Mavis said, sitting up and fluffing her hair with her fingers. ‘We don’t have to worry about McAllisters anymore. They’ve been bought out by Dynamite Construction. Hadn’t you heard? It’s been all over Twitter, according to Tim.’