Tomorrow was all beautifully organised, and should be one of the happiest days of Mitzi’s life, and of course it would be. Almost.
The dental surgery glittered with decorations, and Joel and Mr Johnson both wore Santa hats which probably scared the life out of the patients. Tammy and Viv had hopeful sprigs of mistletoe attached to their chests, and Doll wore flashing snowmen earrings.
The wind, still screaming from the north, made everything rattle. The village shivered under the heavy grey clouds, and Doll kept looking hopefully for the first snowflake.
‘It ain’t going to snow,’ Tammy said, hitching her uniform dress up another couple of inches and admiring her slim legs in opaque tights. ‘The forecast says it’s just going to be bloody cold. We never get white Christmases any more, do we? My mum and dad say they can remember them when they were kids. They used to go sledging and have snowball fights and get weeks off school. That’s so not fair.’
‘Doll doesn’t really want snow,’ Viv said. ‘She’ll freeze in her frock. We’ll all have to wear thermals as it is.’
Tammy stopped admiring her legs and looked at Doll. ‘Are you nervous now?’
‘Nope. Not at all. Just really looking forward to it. I think it’s because it’s low key. Brett’s parents got a bit sniffy over it being dumbed down, but they’re okay now.’
Tammy grinned. ‘And you really don’t want any wedding presents?’
‘Why would we? We’ve been together for ever. We’ve got everything we could possibly want. All we want is to have all our family and friends round us to help celebrate.’
‘Ah, bless.’
Viv inspected her fingernails. ‘What time are we meeting at the pub tonight?’
‘Straight from work,’ Doll still peered at the sky from the empty waiting-room window. ‘And it’s only a quick drink, nothing exciting. I want to spend this evening at home with Mum. She’s cooking us a special meal.’
Tammy raised her much-plucked eyebrows. ‘What? Like that stuff she made for Hair? That was cool. I had one of those meringues. It was better than Red Bull. You’ll be as high as a kite when you walk down the aisle tomorrow.’
‘It’s not going to be anything like that. No herbal overdoses. This is just an old-fashioned pie. Me and Lu thought it would do her good to have something else to concentrate on.’
‘Is she still … upset about Joel – you know?’ Viv gave the last two words heavy emphasis.
‘Very much so. Such a shame. They were great together.’
‘They were.’ Viv patted her hair. ‘And what about him? How’s he? Any change?’
‘No, he’s much the same. I know he misses her. They’re mad. He’s going off to Manchester tonight. And he doesn’t really want to because he might run into his brother and his ex at Christmas, and his parents won’t take sides – he’s just so bloody miserable.’
‘No, I’m sodding not,’ Joel, still wearing the Santa hat, yanked open the surgery door. ‘I’m filled to sodding overflowing with the sodding festive sprit. Surely you three have got better things to gossip about? And what’s happened to my sodding two o’clock double filling?’
The surgery door slammed shut again.
‘See?’ Doll said. ‘Broken hearted. Poor thing.’
‘We’re so looking forward to tomorrow,’ Biff Pippin said, as they prepared to close up the charity shop for Christmas. ‘Hedley and me love a wedding. We don’t get asked to many. Mind, our social life is getting quite thrilling now thanks to your family, Lu. We had such a good time at Hair. Will it be like that, do you think?’
‘Well, hopefully everyone will manage to keep their clothes on tomorrow,’ Lulu giggled, folding up dozens of ‘Suitable for the festive season’ Tricel blouses. ‘But the party afterwards should be fun.’
‘Is young Mitzi doing the wedding food? Only we had some of those brownies she made, and they tasted wonderful. Not only that, but they made us feel – well – rather tipsy. Hedley had three and he was still laughing two days after.’
Lu grinned. ‘Er – yes, she’s making some of Granny Westward’s specialities. Boris and Otto are doing the more normal stuff, though. She’s cooking something special for us tonight too. I – well – I hoped that it might make things better for her. With Joel, you know?’
Biff clearly didn’t understand the implication. ‘You’re a kind-hearted girl. Nice of you to think that a good meal might take your mum’s mind off that unpleasantness. What actually happened between her and the young dentist, then?’
‘We still don’t know,’ Lulu finished her folding and putting away. ‘That’s why I want her to make the Wishes Come True Pie tonight. I reckon it’ll make things happen.’
‘Do you? Well I never … D’you know, we’re really going to miss you when you go off to join the RSPCA.’ Biff polished her bifocals. She made it sound as though Lulu was joining the Foreign Legion. ‘We’ll get none of this gossip. But we’re very proud of you. Very proud.’
Lu, suddenly feeling extremely emotional, scrambled over a pile of purple and pink geometric curtains and hugged Biff. ‘And I’ll miss you, too. Goodness – look at me. I’m not supposed to cry until tomorrow …’
‘Oh, it’s lovely and warm in here. It’s soooo cold out there. Still no snow, though. Can we do anything to help?’ Doll asked as she and Lu piled into Mitzi’s kitchen after their visit to The Faery Glen. ‘Your hair looks great. Pauline’s a star. Are we late?’
‘Thanks – and not at all.’ Mitzi looked up from wrapping things in cling film at the kitchen table. ‘Everything’s just on ready. Did you have a good time?’
‘Lovely,’ Doll smiled. ‘Very civilised. Much better than having a full-blown hen night at a club and being made to wear L plates and having to dance with a male stripper.’
‘Each to their own,’ Lu muttered. ‘Personally …’
Doll pulled a handful of beads and braids.
‘Did everyone go?’ Mitzi said, not looking at Doll. ‘All your friends – and everyone from the surgery – and, well, everyone?’
‘Everyone,’ Doll nodded, removing Hawkwind and slotting ‘The Greatest Hits of Christmas’ into the CD player. ‘And yes, because I know you want to know, Joel’s gone to Manchester. He left at four. He’ll be there by now. I’m sorry, Mum.’
‘Oh, there’s no need to be sorry.’ Mitzi tried to speak cheerfully. It was very difficult. She’d clung on to the hope that Joel might just change his mind. She’d even written him a Christmas card and bought him a small present, which was wrapped and hidden in her knicker drawer. She took a deep breath and tried to rearrange her face into calm acceptance. ‘It’s no surprise, after all. Right, are you both ready to eat?’
‘We’re absolutely starving,’ Lulu said, hugging Mitzi. ‘And you don’t have to pretend with us, Mum. We know how you feel about Joel.’
‘I know you do, love. But it’s all history. I don’t want to talk about it. Good God, Doll, put them down – you’ll ruin your appetite. You’re no better than when you were kids. They’re for tomorrow.’
Mitzi reached for the last batch of cooling Dreaming Creams just as Doll crammed one into her mouth. They both laughed.
Bing Crosby crooned his way into ‘White Christmas’ from the CD player.
‘Oooh, I’m dreaming of a white Christmas …’ Doll warbled, happily spraying Dreaming Creams crumbs down the front of her black sweater.
Lulu raised her eyebrows. ‘You’d better be careful. You might just get one. Doesn’t Granny Westward’s book say those things make dreams come true?’
‘She does,’ Mitzi fastened the top more firmly on the box.
‘Oh – you two and your witchcraft,’ Doll grinned, popping the last morsels of the Dreaming Cream into her mouth. ‘If the Met Office with their satellites and computers and twenty-first-century technology say there’s going to be no snow, then there’s going to be no damn snow.’
‘You never know,’ Lu insisted. ‘Magic is far older and far stronger than techn
ology.’
‘Oh, pul-ease,’ Doll pulled a face. ‘Are we going to have this mumbo-jumbo all night?’
‘Stop it, both of you,’ Mitzi laughed, opening the oven and sliding out the Wishes Come True Pie. ‘There! Just right – go on through to the living room. Everything’s ready for you. Yes, take the CD player. And please try not to fight.’
‘This is really lovely,’ Doll said, looking round the darkened living room, illuminated by the fire glow, candles, and the Christmas-tree lights. ‘Like it used to be when we were kids.’
Lu nodded. ‘Same Christmas decorations, all the old things we’ve unwrapped year after year, and the tree lights are still the same, and the boss-eyed fairy …’
‘And the Christmas music playing. I love “Winter Wonderland” more than any other song, I think. It conjured up so many lovely images when I was a kid. Do you remember Dad singing it to us?’
‘Yeah, and making up his own words. And we laughed every time.’
‘Bet him and Jennifer don’t laugh much.’
Lu shrugged. ‘His choice. His loss.’
Mitzi, poised to dish up the Wishes Come True Pie, smiled at them both. In the few months since they’d done this initially – sat down together in the cosy living room to sample Granny Westward’s first recipe – so much had happened. For all of them. Most of it good.
It was kind of them to think they could recreate previous Christmases. They were lovely girls – but even she didn’t think Granny Westward would give her a second shot at happiness. Not after she’d had it and chucked it away so spectacularly.
‘Everyone got enough? There’s more in the kitchen … Right, so who’s going first with the wishing?’
‘Doll,’ Lulu said. ‘After all, this is her last night of freedom. Anyone stupid enough to be tying herself for ever to Boring Brett deserves a last chance to escape. I reckon everyone in the pub tonight was laying bets on whether she’ll even turn up tomorrow.’
‘Jealousy, jealousy … sibling rivalry. How very sad.’ Doll poked out her tongue. ‘Well, last time I wished for Brett to show some spontaneity and get us out of our rut, and—’ she laughed and patted her belly ‘—he certainly managed that. Oh, not that I believe the pie made a scrap of difference, but even so …’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ Lu jigged up and down in her chair. ‘Just wish for a long and happy marriage and a healthy baby and let’s get on with it.’
Doll scooped up her first forkful. ‘Okay – of course I want both of those. And Lu’s right, there’s nothing else I could wish for … so here goes.’ She popped the Wishes Come True Pie into her mouth. ‘Oooh, it’s lovely, Mum. Um … yes, then I wish that Brett and I will be together for ever and always happy and that the baby is perfect and has a – um – perfect life.’ She swallowed. ‘Not that I believe a word of this, of course. Go on then, Lu – you next.’
Lulu had no hesitation.
‘I wish,’ she mumbled round her first mouthful, ‘that me and Shay and Pip, Squeak and Wilfred could have a home of our own.’
Mitzi looked sympathetically across the table at Lu. Granny Westward would have to pull out all the stops on that one. There was no way Shay would leave Lavender and Lobelia in the lurch. And no way that Lu could move in with them.
‘Nice try, Lu. Let’s hope it comes true.’
‘It will,’ Lulu said confidently. ‘I mean, look what happened with Shay the first time. That was real magic. So go on then Mum – your turn.’
Mitzi sat silently for a moment. They were both watching her. She knew what they wanted her to wish for. She knew what she wanted to wish for herself. Did she believe in Granny Westward’s magic enough? She sighed. It wouldn’t just take a touch of herbal magic to make her dearest wish come true, it would take a bloody miracle.
‘Go on …’ Doll urged her. ‘At least you believe in all this hocus-pocus. That must help.’
‘Ssssh,’ Lu admonished. ‘You’ll spoil it. Go on, Mum. Go for it.’
Mitzi lifted her fork to her lips. What did it matter? Lu and Doll wouldn’t laugh at her. They wouldn’t tell anyone how silly she was being.
She hesitated. There was no point at all in wishing for the impossible. She’d given up on impossible dreams a long, long time ago.
‘I wish,’ she said softly as Dean Martin wanted it to ‘Snow, Snow, Snow’ and Richard and Judy curled up to sleep among the presents under the Christmas tree, ‘that tomorrow will be the happiest day of our lives.’
Chapter Twenty-five
Mitzi had always imagined, when the girls were tiny, that their wedding days would be oases of calm and dignity. That everyone would be drifting around in diaphanous wraps, looking very glam, casually sipping Bucks Fizz, saying, ‘After you with the bathroom,’ and giggling girlishly.
Nothing had prepared her for this mayhem.
Not even Dave Edmunds cheerfully intoning ‘Crawling From the Wreckage’ could calm her.
They’d never be ready in time. The morning and early part of the afternoon had already passed by in a roar of confusion. Flowers had arrived. The phone had never stopped ringing. Pauline had been in to give Mitzi a comb-through, Doll a re-style, and to thread the festive red and green ribbons, holly and ivy and other bits and pieces into Lulu’s braids.
Surprisingly, Jennifer, in her beauty therapist’s nylon overall and clearly an all-over Victoria Beckham brown since the health farm, had arrived to do everyone’s make-up.
‘My gift to you all,’ she’d smiled vacuously. ‘I know you were going to do your own but you really need a professional on a special occasion like this, don’t you?’
She’d taken over the living room with her cases and mirrors and umpteen brushes and pots and potions, worked her magic, and eventually disappeared to pour herself into her wedding outfit.
Mitzi had been sure she’d have painted-in lines, bags, sags and wrinkles on her face and was surprised to find that instead she’d done an excellent job. For the first time in ages, Mitzi’s face had a smooth, even pearly, appearance, practically line-free, her lips looked plump and smooth, and her eyes, darkened with earthy shadows and black mascara, looked huge and luminous.
Jennifer had, of course, turned Doll and Lu into Miss World contestants.
Then the neighbours had been in and out all day, offering advice and sandwiches, and getting in the way. Clyde had made a special white wedding brew – white roses, white turnips, white beans and cauliflower. Mitzi had taken a sip and emptied the bottle down the sink as soon as he’d gone. It had blocked the u-bend.
The afternoon was growing ever more gloomily dark. The wind continued to keen bitterly from the north, but there was still no snow and none expected, although Doll had glued herself to every weather forecast.
‘Blimey, it’s cold out there. Too cold for snow. How’s everyone doing?’ Lance appeared in the kitchen, a bottle of Bollinger in his hand. ‘All under control?’
‘Absolutely not,’ Mitzi said. ‘Mayhem, madness and bedlam reigns. Your buttonhole’s here somewhere. The deep-red rosebuds there, look – under the cat food. You look great. Did you buy that suit in London? What a lovely colour. Old gold – and with that dark-red shirt and tie you look extremely festive.’
‘Jennifer chose it,’ Lance said, shoving the Bollinger in the fridge, then fixing the rose into his lapel, and trying not to preen. ‘We’ve got co-ordinated outfits.’
Mitzi laughed. ‘I might have guessed. Mind you, it was very kind of Jennifer to do our faces. A nice thought.’
‘She does have them from time to time.’ Lance pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. ‘And you look gorgeous. Even in your dressing gown.’
‘Thanks – but wait until you see the girls. They were pretty before but she’s transformed them. Much as I hate to say it, Jennifer’s very good at her job.’
‘I know. Mitzi – your friend. The dentist …’
‘Won’t be here today. We’re no longer together. So there’ll be no awkwardness.’
&nb
sp; ‘There wouldn’t have been. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.’
‘So am I.’
Mitzi, who’d tried really hard not to think about Joel all day, felt her throat start to tighten. She looked away quickly.
‘Are you nervous?’ Lance said softly.
‘Very. You?’
‘Terrified. And a bit sad. I mean, I always thought, when the kids were young, that we’d be sharing their wedding day like proper parents. I know we are, but well, you know …’
Mitzi nodded. She knew.
‘I’d better go and get dressed.’ She looked round the kitchen. ‘Will you be okay for a minute? The girls shouldn’t be long. Lu’s supposed to be helping Doll get ready – but no doubt it’ll be the other way round.’
‘No doubt.’
They exchanged smiles of friendship, fleetingly sharing a history and a lifetime of parental memories.
Half an hour later, Mitzi, feeling a million dollars in the mediaeval green velvet dress, slowly came downstairs again. Lance was lounging on the sofa in the living room, his face dark in the flickering firelight.
‘Wow,’ Lance gave an approving nod. ‘Spectacular. Absolutely gorgeous. Very Queen Guinevere. And – oh, double wow!’
Mitzi turned and looked as Doll and Lulu came into the room. She sniffed back tears of love and pride.
Lu, in her dark-red slinky dress and with her festive hair and her beautifully made-up face, had been transformed from eco-warrior to heart-stoppingly beautiful woman in a stroke.
Doll, blonde and elegant, looked as stunning as only a bride can. The dress skimmed and shimmered over her slender body, the tiara sparkled in her glossy hair, and with the swansdown boa and the long satin gloves, she looked like a fashion plate.
‘Aren’t we clever?’ Lance looked at Mitzi as he stood up and kissed both the girls. ‘To have produced such beautiful daughters? All your doing, of course.’ He kissed Mitzi too. ‘They inherited your genes. Let’s drink a toast – to the three most beautiful women in Hazy Hassocks …’
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