‘Anyway,’ said Ellis, ‘I don’t know what it is, but she said you should join.’
‘Oh, you should,’ gushed Edie. ‘It’s great, Martha; it really makes you feel part of the community.’ Her voice cracked slightly. ‘I guess I’ll be removing myself from it too . . .’
Ellis shifted towards the house. ‘I’ll go and get the rest of the boxes.’
When he’d disappeared into the house and up the stairs, Edie whispered: ‘Are him and Robin back together?’
‘Well, I don’t think his hair got that damp just running across Pine Road, do you?’
Edie beamed, then she changed the subject, reaching up for her scarf again. ‘I wanted to say thank you.’ Edie’s saucer eyes darted around Martha’s face. ‘We both did. I really thought you were going to hand in Daniel last week, and you absolutely could have – should have, maybe; I don’t know – but you didn’t. So, thank you. I love him, you know? And we’re going to be a family.’
Martha smiled. ‘I know.’
‘I’m going to miss you,’ Edie said then, abruptly, cringing. ‘Is that weird? Or inappropriate? I know you’ll be glad not to see me again. And Daniel, obviously.’ She took a big breath. Martha could tell she was fighting not to cry. ‘I really am so sorry about it all.’ Edie looked around for something with which to distract herself. ‘I don’t even know if I’m doing the right thing . . .’
Martha reached out and placed a hand gently on her neighbour’s arm. ‘We do what we think is best, for ourselves and for our family.’ Then she stood straighter and clapped her hands. ‘Now, take the boxes and keep them as long as you like. And if you want some help carrying them up, Casanova in there will give you a hand.’
Edie wobbled up Pine Road, a stack of four crates in her arms. Ellen was watching from her bedroom window, a spray bottle in hand. Edie glanced in Rita Ann’s front window and for the first time noticed the towering shadows inside. She felt a tinge of jealousy towards the future woman who might come to live in her house and find herself part of this street and playing poker once a month.
She would miss Pine Road, but she would take what she’d learned here and apply it to her new home. She and Daniel would be among the first batch of neighbours in their new estate. She planned to wear her Martha trousers on moving day and to call to every other occupied home and introduce herself before the sun had set.
She was going to start her own neighbourhood messaging group. She might form another one for new mums and maybe a third for whatever couple friends they made. She also had her eye on an expensive brown coat that she planned to buy before moving and then sort of just become the kind of sophisticated woman who wore expensive brown coats rather than furry pink ones.
When she reached her doorstep, Edie lowered the crates to the ground and turned to admire the cul-de-sac. Of course she would miss it. But the more she accepted she was moving, the more she saw it for what it was.
A curved row of twenty-one houses.
Stacks of red bricks divided by iron gates.
A collection of lives where the only automatic connection was a postcode.
A place where families expanded, imploded and renewed.
A place where people lived in company, alone and often, if they lasted long enough, both.
Pine Road was a neighbourhood. It was a street. It was just like anywhere else.
Three Little Truths Page 34