An Ocean Apart

by Robin Pilcher

  “Not at all, Mr. Hunter,” Alicia said, smiling at the dishevelled young man. “It’s actually I who should be apologizing to you for being extremely disruptive and insisting that I should visit the children during the week. It’s just that my husband was coming down to Glasgow for a meeting, and I thought that I would take the opportunity of a free ride!”

  The young headmaster held up his hand. “Of course you should visit. Please, never think that you might not be welcome. It really is no imposition.” He swung himself round to stand at the side of his study door, his gown billowing out as he did so. “Now let’s go and have a seat in my office. Can I get you a cup of tea or coffee?”

  “No, thank you very much,” Alicia replied as she passed him. “I had an interesting cup of tea on the train over from Glasgow which tasted as if it might be a combination of coffee, tea and hot chocolate, so I think I’ve probably had my fair share.”

  Mr. Hunter let out a short, almost manic chuckle, then, having seen Alicia settled on the sofa, he slumped down with a boing of a loose spring into an armchair and almost disappeared from view. Alicia stifled a smile, realizing that he was built like a young giraffe—all legs and no upper body. He placed his elbows on the arms of his chair at about the same level as his chin. “I hear that Mr. Corstorphine is flying out to the States today.”

  “Ah, you’re being kept abreast of the news, then.”

  Mr. Hunter smiled. “Yes, Sophie told us on Saturday night. She said that he wasn’t too sure if he would be back by next weekend, but that he certainly would be for the leave-out. She was actually quite excited to talk about it.”

  Alicia paused for a moment, a worried expression coming over her face. “Mr. Hunter, how do you think they are? I mean, do they seem to be, well, bearing up all right?”

  The headmaster pushed himself forward on the chair and, stretching out a long tentacle of an arm, momentarily touched Alicia’s elbow.

  “Firstly, Lady Inchelvie, I must tell you that they are never alone for a minute. Every member of my staff is looking out for them at all times and are under strict instructions to bring them straight to myself or my wife if there are problems. Then, as far as they are individually, all three are coping admirably. Of course, they all handle it differently. I think Charlie blots the whole thing from his mind, which might mean that there could possibly be a relapse at a later stage, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. He is as lively as ever, and a great asset to the Under-Thirteen cricket team. As for the girls, I really have to say that I am filled with admiration for Sophie in the way that she handles Harriet. For a girl of such tender years, her whole manner and decorum have been exemplary, and I have to say that she’s one of the most resourceful, responsible and, without doubt, bravest girls I have ever had the honour of knowing … but…” He continued slowly, carefully picking his words. “I do know that the emotional upheaval within herself must be extreme, not only because of her mother, but also because she is at that chrysalis stage, Lady Inchelvie, and I have experience enough of being a headmaster of a mixed school to know that it is an extremely vulnerable time.” He paused for a moment to change direction, noticing a slight quiver in Alicia’s bottom lip, despite her upright and steadfast comportment. “Harriet is also fine. I know this because she is relying totally on her sister as a mother figure. Of course, one realizes that Sophie can never be a replacement, but there is still an order and sense in Harriet’s life. However, I’m afraid that Sophie does realize this and that only increases the burden that she is carrying on her shoulders. Now, by telling you this, I don’t want to appear alarmist, but only explain to you that I do understand everything that is going on, and that I do, I assure you, have it all under control.”

  Alicia smiled at the headmaster, feeling an urge to get up and hug the man for his kindness and the intuitive understanding he had of both the situation and her feelings. He rose from his chair, unravelling his legs like a couple of elasticised magic wands.

  “Now let me see if I can locate them all for you. If you would just like to wait here, I’ll quickly pop down to the classrooms. Will you be taking them out for lunch?”

  “I don’t think I’ll get away without doing something fairly special with them.”

  “Well, you do whatever you want.” He walked towards the door, then suddenly stopped and turned, hitting his head lightly with his hand. “Ah, dash, I almost forgot. I actually do need Charlie back here at two-thirty this afternoon. We have an inter-house cricket match on, and I’m afraid that his team would be quite bereft without him. Is that all right?”

  “Of course. Sounds much more fun than lunch with stuffy old grandmother.”

  The headmaster raised his eyebrows. “As the boys would say, Lady Inchelvie, don’t you believe it!” He turned and swept out of the room.

  Alicia sat for a moment absently playing with a button on her cardigan, then, pushing herself to her feet, she walked over to the window to look out. Mr. Hunter was kind and understanding and in the nicest way persuasive. But she still worried. About the children, about David, and increasingly more about her husband. George was working too hard, taking too much on, yet she knew that he felt that there was no alternative at the minute. If she were to tell him that he had to stop going into the office every day or cut out the business meetings, he would just turn round and say that he was fine. But she had noticed him becoming more pale and tired as the weeks of his working progressed, and that really worried her more than anything. She shook her head slowly and looked out onto the cricket pitch that stretched across the vast lawn in front of the house. Near its centre, two boys were standing twenty yards apart, playing Gaining Ground with a cricket ball, straining every muscle in their skinny arms to see who could outthrow the other. A male voice sounded down below the window. “Come on, you ruffians, get to your class.”

  “Sorry, sir,” they said in unison and ran off in the direction of the scolding voice, laughing and shouting as they went.

  The door of the study opened behind her, and before she could turn around, a girl’s voice shouted out. “Granny!”

  Sophie rushed forward to greet her, circling the headmaster’s desk and throwing her arms around Alicia’s neck. She hugged her tightly, almost making her grandmother lose her balance.

  “Hullo, darling, how are you?”

  “I’m fine,” Sophie said in a muffled voice, her face still buried in her grandmother’s neck. She relinquished her hold and stood back looking at her grandmother. “I didn’t know you were visiting today! Dad only said that you might come down at the weekend! How did you get here?”

  Alicia studied her granddaughter’s face, noticing that her smile did little to cover the look of sad exhaustion in her eyes.

  “I’ve just taken the train over from Glasgow. Grandpa and I dropped off your father at the airport early this morning, and then he left me at the station. Grandpa has some meeting today and tomorrow in Glasgow. I thought that I might have stayed with him tonight, but seeing I’m quite literally on the road home, I thought it would be as well to catch the train from Perth to Carrbridge this evening.” She paused. “So, tell me, how’s everything been?”

  Sophie levered herself up onto Mr. Hunter’s desk and swung her bare legs over the edge. “Oh, all right, I suppose. Harry seems to be okay. I see as much of her as I can. Charlie’s a pain most of the time, though. I go up to him every now and then at lunch-time to say hullo, and he gets all stupid and embarrassed in front of his friends.” She let out a long sigh and turned to look out of the window. “Granny, do you think Dad’s all right?”

  Alicia walked over and took hold of her granddaughter’s hand. “I think so, darling. Didn’t he seem so to you on Saturday?”

  “Yes. Well, in a way. It’s just that he seems so … different—sort of distant. But I suppose it’s understandable. I think he misses Mummy so much, Granny.”

  Alicia put her hands on Sophie’s shoulders. “Of course he does, as you do, and all of us too. Grieving i
s the most terrible, painful thing for everyone, so one can only imagine what it must be like for people as close as your parents. But you mustn’t start burdening yourself with his sorrow as well. You must think about you, Sophie. You’ve got your own life to lead, and, well, you’ve got exams and things very soon, so please don’t worry. Your father will heal, I promise you—it might take a little time, but he will heal.” She took Sophie’s face in her hands and tilted it up to her. “Look, let’s strike a bargain. Mr. Hunter has told me how wonderful you are being with Harriet, so you continue to look after her, and I’ll make sure that Dad is all right. Okay?”

  Alicia held out her hand, palm upwards. Sophie looked at it and, smiling, gave it a slap with her own. “Okay.”

  At that point, the door flew open and Harriet and Charlie burst in. Alicia turned, only having enough time to open her arms before the little girl jumped up from a distance of about three feet and circled her arms and feet around her grandmother.

  “Watch out for Granny’s back, Harry!” Sophie scolded.

  “No, it’s all right,” Alicia said, kissing the top of her younger granddaughter’s head. She looked across to Charlie, who had come to stand beside Sophie and was running a toy vehicle up and down the surface of Mr. Hunter’s desk while at the same time surreptitiously trying to read one of the many letters that were strewn across the top.

  “Charlie? How are you, my darling?”

  “Fine,” he replied, at first not breaking his concentration away from the letters. Then he swung round to face his grandmother. “Granny?” He had a look of such questioning seriousness on his face that Alicia thought that she was about to be asked her own personal views on “the meaning of life.”

  “Yes?”

  “Have you got any sweets with you?”

  “Charlie!” Sophie exclaimed, astounded at her brother’s mercenary tactics. “You really are insufferable!”

  Charlie’s face creased into a wide grin, and they all broke into laughter. Putting Harriet down, Alicia walked over to the sofa where she had left her handbag, Charlie and Harriet following close on her heels. Alicia took three bars of Cadbury’s chocolate from the depths of the bag and gave one to each of them, and they immediately started ripping away at the silver paper. Alicia held the third forward towards Sophie. “Darling, do you want one?”

  “No, thanks, Granny. I don’t feel like it.”

  Alicia moved forward and slipped it into the pocket of Sophie’s dress. “Well, keep it for later. Share it with your friends or whatever. Now,” she said, turning to them all, and at the same time looking at her watch, “Mr. Hunter says that I can take you out for lunch.”

  Charlie’s eyes went wide with delight. “Can we go to McDonald’s? We went with Dad on Saturday. It’s really terrific, Granny!”

  “Yes!” Harriet shouted in approval. “Pleeeease, Granny.”

  “Oh dear, I don’t think that we can do that. For one thing, I don’t have a car, and anyway, Charlie, Mr. Hunter has asked me expressly to get you back here by two-thirty this afternoon for your cricket match.”

  There was a groan of disappointment from the two younger children.

  “We could go to the village pub,” Sophie suggested. “I went there once with a friend of mine and her parents. It’s only three hundred yards from the school and they do pretty good chips.”

  Alicia smiled across at Sophie and mouthed a relieved “thank you” in her direction. “Right,” she said, “the pub it is!”

  Charlie punched the air with his fist. “Yesss!” he said, darting towards the door. “Come on, let’s go!”

  “Just a minute,” Alicia called after him, picking up her handbag from the sofa. “Let’s get organized and all go out together, so that we don’t disturb any of the classes.” Taking hold of Harriet’s hand, she moved towards the door. As Charlie opened it, Harriet looked up at her grandmother.

  “Granny?” she said in a quiet voice.

  “Yes, darling?”

  “I think Daddy’s gone away like Mummy.”

  The procession to the door stopped abruptly, and Alicia felt her face tingle with shock at the unexpectedness of the statement. She bent down and put her arm around Harriet’s shoulders. “No, he hasn’t, darling. He’s just off to America for a short time to do some work. He’ll be back soon. Didn’t he say that he’d be back in time to take you home for leave-out?”

  “Not that, Granny,” Harriet continued, in a matter-of-fact way. “Daddy doesn’t really seem to be in his body any more. He’s somewhere else.”

  Alicia glanced up at the other two. Sophie stood looking at her sister, biting hard on her lip, while Charlie pushed the door shut with a sigh, his eyes focused on the door handle as he pulled it back and forth on its loose-fittings.

  “Let’s just go and sit down for a minute, shall we?” Alicia said, guiding Harriet back to the sofa. Sophie came over and sat on the arm, while Charlie stayed where he was, continuing to play noisily with the door handle.

  “Now,” Alicia said slowly, as she settled herself beside her granddaughter, “you tell me exactly what you mean.”

  “Well, it’s sort of opposite to Mummy.”

  “I’m sorry, darling?”

  “Mummy’s spirit is all around us, but her body’s not. That’s what Sophie says. And Daddy’s body is around us, but his spirit’s not. So really it’s opposite.”

  Alicia sat for a moment in silence, stroking the top of Harriet’s head, trying to work out what to say. “Listen, darling,” she said eventually, “I know that Daddy has been a little distracted over the past few months, and it must be really hard for you to understand why he is like that. But he is most definitely still with us, and I know that he thinks so much about you and loves you all very much. Now, I’m pretty sure that his trip to America will do him the world of good, and when he returns he’ll be the way we have always known him.” She peered round at Harriet’s face. “All right?”

  Harriet nodded, quite content with the explanation.

  “Can we go now?” Charlie asked, opening the door.

  “Good idea!” Alicia said as brightly as she could. “To the pub, then!” She gave Harriet a final squeeze and rose to her feet. “I didn’t get any breakfast, so I’m looking forward to a great big plate of chips!”

  Harriet ran to the door and followed Charlie out into the hall. Sophie, however, held back and stopped her grandmother by placing her hand on her elbow. “Granny?” Alicia turned to her. “I have a feeling he won’t come back.”

  “Of course he will. He’ll be his old self very soon.”

  “No, I mean, I think you’re right about him needing to get away from Inchelvie and needing time to heal. I don’t think he actually should come back for a bit.”

  Alicia patted the small slender hand that held her elbow. “We’ll see, darling. But remember our deal. You look after Harriet, and I’ll make sure Daddy comes back as the man we all know. All right?”

  Sophie nodded, forcing a smile onto her face. Alicia took hold of her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

  “I’ll let you into a secret, Sophie. Mr. Hunter said that you were one of the most special girls he has ever met. Of course he didn’t need to tell me that, but it’s good for me and for you to know that you have a real ally here. And I’ll tell you something else, my darling, and that is that I think you’re turning into a very beautiful young lady, and I am so very proud of you.” She pulled Sophie towards her and gave her a final hug before turning towards the door. “Now come on, let’s catch up with those other two before they start disrupting the whole school.”

  Chapter ELEVEN

  As the plane pulled up to the terminal building at Kennedy Airport, David watched with interest as his neighbour leaped to her feet even before the “Seat-Belt” sign had been switched off. She busily began to organize her children and to pull bags and jerseys from the overhead locker, eager to get off the plane and get on with her holiday. Others immediately followed her lead, but after ten min
utes of muttered complaints about slowness in opening the doors and craning of necks to try to see why those in Business Class weren’t attempting to make any obvious moves, most of them had sat down again, bags on knees, shaking their heads and raising their eyebrows at those who had shown similar impatience.

  Two minutes later there were signs of movement farther up the aisle, and immediately the little Glaswegian family was on the move, Darren in the lead, pushing his way resolutely forward while his mother followed hard on his heels, with baggage and baby in arms.

  David waited until the line from the rear of the plane was moving steadily towards the doorway before retrieving his brief-case and pushing himself out of his seat. He made his way down the aisle, stretching out his back and legs as he walked, stiff from having been crammed into such a small space for so long. He stepped out of the plane and relished for a fleeting moment the rush of warm air that squeezed its way through the gap between the fuselage and the air bridge before being met full-on by the chilling blast of air-conditioning that swept its way down the tunnel from the terminal building.

  At the top of the air bridge he joined the herd of passengers emerging from other arrival gates and strolled leisurely down the long glassed-in corridor towards Immigration. As he went, he began to feel a quietening sense of relief come over him, realizing that amidst the massing throng of people on the move he was simply a statistical entity, anonymous, totally without history. He was of no interest to anyone, each person cocooned in his or her own thoughts and worries, as opposed to the one common, suffocating cloud of sadness that had come to hang over everything and everyone at Inchelvie.

  He chose not to use the moving walkway and kept himself to the uncrowded side. Half-way along, his eye was caught by a flash of Celtic green on the walkway next to him and to his horror he saw Darren’s head come bobbing along, a wide grin on his face as he delighted in his new-found game of running up the moving belt in the wrong direction, causing havoc with the flow of oncoming pedestrians. With that, the undecipherable pronunciation of his name rose high above the general noise of footsteps and chatter, and David caught sight of the boy’s mother at the far end of the walkway, Tracy on her hip and her bags cast forlornly around her feet.