Family Connections
Page 14
‘Your father didn’t get the SENCO job.’
‘Oh, no. Sorry about that, Dad. They must have rocks in their heads after what you’ve done for that school.’ His father nodded but didn’t say anything, so Casey turned to his mother. ‘Can I have something to eat, then I’ll go up to my room and – um – leave you two in peace?’
Jane thrust the biscuit tin at him and grabbed two cans of lemonade out of the fridge. ‘Take one to your sister. And don’t either of you come down till I call you for tea.’
Casey nodded and ran upstairs.
Jane turned back to her husband and went to stand behind his chair with her arms round him. ‘I don’t know what to say. I was so sure you’d get that job.’
‘I’ve crossed swords with Binnings too often. I suppose he wanted a meeker person running the new centre.’ He lifted the glass to his lips again. ‘You’re not drinking. Aren’t you going to help me drown my sorrows?’
She hesitated then went to pick up her glass and raise it in a silent toast as she sat down across the table from him. ‘Here’s to all this leading to something better.’
He looked at her as if she had suddenly turned into an enemy. ‘I don’t want something better. I want what I created. One of the best damned learning resource centres in the north. I did it against all sorts of stupid odds and regulations. I helped raise money for extras, put in all those hours at home, making aids and designing computer programs. If there was any justice in the world, that job ought to be mine!’
He slammed the glass down and buried his head in his hands, trying to muffle his weeping.
Jane hesitated, wondering if he wanted her to cuddle him. She’d never seen him so upset about anything.
He stood up abruptly, looking through her, not at her. ‘I’m not fit company for anyone tonight. I’ll go into the den. I don’t want any tea.’
She didn’t protest, just watched as he picked up the glass and bottle of wine, and walked blindly across the hall to the tiny den, two and a half metres by three in size, which had been labelled the ‘office’ on the house plans. He had spent many an evening working there on projects for his beloved centre, had given it so much.
How could they hand the job to someone else? She could weep – only that would do no good. Her role now was to support him and keep any other troubles away from him. And that included Rosie’s latest obsession with her biological father.
Damn Brad Rosenberry! Damn all biology teachers too! If they hadn’t taught Rosie about genetics, she’d not have realised that Stu couldn’t be her father.
* * *
Peggy sat in Gillah’s cosy office, wondering why the other woman wasn’t saying anything. ‘Aren’t you supposed to tell me what to do?’ she asked at last.
‘No. I’m supposed to help you decide what to do, not do it for you. You’re the only one who knows how you feel, after all.’ She smiled. ‘For the moment, I don’t think you’re ready to make any major decisions. I think we should talk about your legal situation and you should try to understand it before you do anything.’
‘But I can’t impose on Jake for too long. I need to get things settled.’
‘Has your brother said that, or is it something you’ve dreamed up yourself?’
Peggy wriggled uncomfortably. ‘He said I could stay for as long as I like. Only how can I? I’ve no money, no clothes.’
‘You can go home and get them.’
Peggy shivered. ‘I’d not dare.’
‘We could get a policeman to accompany you.’
She was horrified. ‘What would the neighbours think of that?’
‘Who cares what the neighbours think? It’s you we have to help.’
‘Would you really come with me?’
‘Yes. As long as your brother comes too.’ Gillah looked at her watch. ‘He’s retired, isn’t he? Give him a call. I’ve got a free hour and we could go there right now. You still have a key?’
‘Yes.’
When they got there, Peggy sat in the car and stared at her home. Only it didn’t feel like hers any more. She couldn’t understand why that was because she’d only been away from it for a day.
‘You all right, love?’ Jake asked.
She nodded, took a deep breath to brace herself and got out of the car. They followed her and waited as she fumbled for her front door key and tried to insert it. But it wouldn’t fit. She looked at Jake in bewilderment.
‘Here, let me do that for you.’ He too failed to fit the key in the lock and frowned at it. ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right key, Peggy?’
‘Of course I am.’
‘This one doesn’t fit the lock.’
‘It must do!’ She stared at the key and then at the lock, suddenly realizing why it had seemed different. ‘The centre part’s all shiny and new looking.’
‘The bugger’s changed the lock on you!’ Jake exclaimed.
Peggy looked from one of her companions to the other. ‘What am I going to do?’
‘You have a perfect right to break one of your own windows if you want,’ Gillah said with a smile. ‘Not that I’m urging you to do that, of course.’
Peggy gaped at her. ‘I can’t break a window!’
‘Why not?’
‘It… I… ‘
‘Break one round the back,’ Jake said cheerfully. ‘In fact, I’ll break it for you.’
‘No,’ Gillah said. ‘If anyone does it, it should be her because it’s her home.’
Peggy felt shivery inside as she led them round the back, then relief flooded through her as she remembered something. ‘How silly of me! We don’t need to break anything. I know where the spare key to the back door is hidden.’
She went across to the flower bed and scraped the earth aside. But there was no key in the usual place. ‘He’s taken that too.’
Anger was rising in her now, driving her on. She seized a garden ornament and went towards the window of the utility room. ‘Stand back.’ Not even waiting to check that they’d done so, she smashed the window and used the concrete frog to clear the shards of glass from the frame.
The neighbour peered over the fence as she was doing this. ‘Oh, it’s you, Peggy! I thought you had burglars.’
‘No, just forgot my key, that’s all.’
‘Seems rather drastic to break the window.’
‘I need to get inside urgently.’
‘Well, you know best. My Fred would go mad if I did that.’ She went back into her house.
‘Interfering busybody,’ Peggy muttered, reaching carefully inside the window to open the door.
It was anger that carried her along as she piled her clothes into bin liners, hesitating as to what to take then deciding to take nearly everything. She didn’t want to have to break in again.
She was glad Jake and Gillah didn’t try to make her chat, though.
‘That’s it,’ she said when she’d finished.
‘Do you want to leave him a note?’ Gillah asked.
Peggy considered this but she couldn’t imagine what she’d say. ‘No. He’ll see that my clothes are missing and Mrs Nosey-Parker next door will tell him I broke the window.’
As they went downstairs she hesitated, then drew herself up. ‘We’re going out through the front door, not creeping round the side like thieves.’
‘Well done, Peggy,’ Gillah said as they went towards their cars.
She nodded. To her surprise she was feeling quite proud of herself. And it had felt good to smash that window. For two pins she’d pick up a stone and smash a few more. She realized the counsellor had said something and was waiting for an answer. ‘Sorry? What was that again?’
‘I said there’s a meditation class starting at the Centre tomorrow night. I wondered if you’d like to go. It’s very calming.’
‘I don’t think—’
Jake interrupted before she could finish refusing. ‘I’ll take her there and pick her up afterwards. Sounds a good idea. She can’t sit in the house all the time.’
Gillah gave her another of those approving nods.
‘You’re the best brother ever,’ Peggy said to Jake as he drove her home. ‘Are you sure you won’t mind me staying with you?’
‘Of course not, love. But I do want you to go to this meditation class.’
She was already having second thoughts. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘You need to make new friends, start building a new life. And it would be very calming without you needing to use tranquilisers. You do need to calm down, you know. You’re so anxious about everything.’
Peggy stared at him in amazement. ‘I never thought to hear you telling someone to try meditation.’
‘You don’t know much about what I’ve been doing lately. I’ve started looking into Buddhism, for one thing, and conservation for another. If you live on your own you have to get out and do things or you rot.’
‘I think I’d enjoy some quiet rotting time,’ she said bitterly.
‘No, Peggy. You’ve cowered inside that house of yours, waiting on that bugger hand and foot for years. Do this one thing for me: go out to that class and meet a few other folk. They’ll all be women. Nothing for you to fear there.’
She hesitated. ‘You’ll take me and pick me up?’
‘I promise.’
‘All right.’ But she knew she was going to hate it.
CHAPTER 19
Gina went to fetch Mel home from hospital, together with a sheaf of instructions about diet, permitted medications and danger signs.
Her daughter walked out to the car quietly and sank into the seat with a sigh, saying in a thread of a voice, ‘I feel so tired, Mum. All the time. As well as sick.’
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t have invited Lou and Rick to stay.’ Gina studied her anxiously. ‘It’ll be too much for you.’
‘I doubt it’ll make much difference to me. It’s you who’ll have all the trouble of looking after them. I keep falling asleep. It’s this travel sickness stuff they’ve given me. It helps stop me throwing up but it makes me sleepy.’
‘I doubt Lou and Rick will be any trouble. They both love cooking and they’re so cheerful, it’s a pleasure to have them around. Emma fell asleep on Lou’s knee last night watching TV.’
‘She did? That’s not like her.’ Mel fell silent, leaning back with her eyes closed as they headed south.
When they got home, she smiled faintly at the sight of her house. ‘I’m sure I’ll feel better now I’m home. Thank goodness for Granddad’s money.’
‘You’re still going to try to keep the house, then?’
‘Of course I am.’
Gina didn’t comment on the foolishness of that. Now wasn’t the time to try to talk sense into her daughter. She got the suitcase out of the car boot and went inside. They were greeted by the smell of cooking and she looked anxiously at Mel to see whether this would make her nauseous. But Mel didn’t seem to notice, just walked into the kitchen and collapsed into a chair in the casual eating area.
‘Let me introduce you to Rick and Lou. Lou’s a first cousin once removed of yours.’ They’d worked out the exact relationship last night.
Lou came across to give Mel a quick hug. ‘What a time to have visitors!’
Rick beamed from across the room and waved a spoon in greeting. ‘I though some soup might go down more easily than solid food. It’s a pleasure to cook in this kitchen. I hope you don’t mind us making ourselves at home.’
But Mel sat up suddenly, clapped one hand to her mouth and rushed along to the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later, looking boneless and exhausted.
Gina studied her anxiously. ‘You ought to be in bed.’
Mel dropped into the nearest chair. ‘I’ve had enough of bed in the past few days. I’ll go mad all alone up there.’
Lou looked at her thoughtfully. ‘That big couch of yours in the living room is as good as a bed. How about we get some sheets and blankets and make it up for the daytime? Auntie Gina said you had to rest, but you can do that just as easily down here as upstairs. And you’ll have company.’
Mel smiled gratefully. ‘I can see we’re going to get on well, Lou. The couch it is.’
She allowed them to help her settle, accepted a tiny bowl of Rick’s soup and took some more tablets. When Gina looked in on her she was asleep, but even in sleep she was frowning. She was so unlike her usual assertive self, it was terrifying.
Gina sighed, her last faint hopes fading. There was no way she could leave Simon to look after Mel on his own.
* * *
For the next two days, Lou and Rick went out during the day but came back mid-afternoon, leaving Gina to look after her daughter and keep up with the family’s washing. Mel continued to spend a lot of time sleeping so wasn’t much company and the daytime hours seemed to move very slowly.
Their young relatives were the easiest guests Gina had ever had. They had volunteered to cook the evening meals, producing gourmet food with ease. Lou in particular was also adept at thinking of small treats that would tempt Mel.
‘I make sure they’re fairly healthy,’ she assured Gina. ‘I did this short course about tempting titbits for invalids when my friend’s sister was pregnant. I could get her to eat when no one else could.’
In the evenings, Simon put Emma to bed, then sat with his wife till she grew drowsy. The others used the family room, which looked out on to the pool. After helping Mel up to bed, Simon would join them downstairs for an hour or so but was too worried to be good company.
‘I’m going for an audition tomorrow,’ Rick announced over breakfast one day.
‘Audition?’ Gina asked, keeping an eye on Emma, who was a fussy eater, to make sure she ate enough protein. She’d read an article saying children should go to school on protein.
‘Yeah. To become an artistic equivalent of a busker – sketching portraits in a big shopping mall.’ He grinned and pretended to pound his chest. ‘Big artist, me.’
‘Are you good enough for that?’
‘Oh, yeah. I’ve been doing it at home for ages. Sketching isn’t what I want to do but it’s a necessary step in my life’s work.’ He looked at her, serious now. ‘I want to paint portraits eventually, real ones where silk gleams and hair looks soft and fluffy. But I dropped out of art college because they had their main focus on modern stuff. I don’t want to waste my time painting meaningful blobs. I should have chosen a college with more care, but my art teacher said this one would be best for me to broaden my experience. I didn’t know what to look for, and my parents knew even less so I took his advice. And anyway, I wouldn’t have met Lou if I’d gone somewhere else.’
He gave her a loving look across the table. ‘She was working nearby and once we met, that was it. We’re going to get married one day, you know. We haven’t told her parents yet and they’ll all say we’re too young, but we know we’re right for one another.’
Lou pretended to thump him. ‘You might have let me tell Auntie Gina about us.’
He shrugged. ‘Does it matter who tells her?’
Her mock anger softened into a warm smile. ‘No, not really.’
He turned back to Gina. ‘I can earn good money sketching – I’ve done it before – and we need to finance the rest of our trip.’
‘Are you allowed to work while you’re in Australia?’
‘Of course. They let backpackers do all the jobs other people don’t want, like picking fruit and stuff. We couldn’t have afforded to come otherwise. We do have our tickets home, though.’
‘I’m going to look for jobs in cafés while we’re here,’ Lou said. ‘It’ll all be useful experience because they’re bound to do things differently here. I want to have a café of my own one day, but I’ve a lot to learn yet. And I’ll need to save the start-up money.’
Gina looked from one to the other. They seemed too young to be thinking of marri
age and yet there they were making plans for the future with all the confidence of untried youth. ‘I wish you both well, in marriage and in work. Now, I want to ask a favour of you. Would you mind staying here with Mel today so that I can go home and check everything’s all right? I need to take in the mail and that sort of thing?’
Rick smiled. ‘Sure. Glad to.’
Lou glanced at the clock. ‘Mel should be waking up soon. I’m going to take her up a glass of ginger beer and a glucose tablet. No harm in trying it, is there? It helped my cousin.’
Gina drove home with a sense of relief. They were such a sensible pair, Mel would be all right today.
Her house seemed cramped after the spaciousness of her daughter’s home. Strange, that. She’d found it cosy before.
She looked wistfully at the pile of brochures on the dining table. She’d been collecting information about flights, going on line to look at accommodation in England, had even picked out a hotel in Blackpool that had a special offer valid for the whole summer if you booked for a full week. With a sigh she shoved the brightly coloured papers into the top drawer and tried to put her dreams away with them. Just for the time being, of course.
When she’d finished, she packed some more clothes and drove back to Perth.
She found Lou sitting cross-legged on the floor by the sofa, where Mel was sitting up. The two of them were laughing about something. It was little short of a miracle to see Mel more cheerful.
‘You look a bit better,’ she said lightly, kissing her daughter. She kissed Lou’s cheek too while she was at it.
Mel nodded. ‘I do feel better if I rest and those tablets the doctors gave me are stopping me being sick as often. Even the ginger beer seemed to help today. Ginger beer! Stupid, isn’t it?’
‘And you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve been feeding her up today, Auntie Gina,’ Lou said with a grin. ‘Titbits for invalids.’ She grinned at her cousin.
‘She keeps nagging me to eat.’
‘But only tiny helpings, you must admit. And most of them stayed down.’