by Maeve Binchy
Wish I had better news to pass on.
Love, Anthony
Text from Helen to Rosie and Anthony:
I never thought I’d say this but I miss the pair of you. There’s a whole lot of things I’m not sure about any more. Maud and her brother Simon always paid at home when they lived with their grandparents, and Marco pays his father every week for the flat. Maybe everyone does and we should have done it too? And another thing, Maud goes up every Tuesday to her grandmother and does her washing and all the ironing and they have a great old chat. We never did that for our grannies. I know we didn’t live with them. But we never did it for Mam and Dad. The people in the staffroom all live in their parents’ houses and they all pay something. I’m just saying that in case you think we should offer something. What do you think?
Love, Helen
Miss Mason told Dee that Lily was more than satisfied with her new lodgings.
‘Yes, it’s perfect in almost every way,’ Dee said. ‘There’s just one thing that worries me. You see, we never told our children that once they started working they should contribute at home, so they didn’t. And I started to get all bitter about having to work so hard while they just sat there and ate us out of house and home. They expected me to have got milk for their breakfast and me to iron their clothes, and me to fill the fridge with all kinds of food for them to eat at any time of the day or the night. And now there’s a bit of bad feeling.’
‘You mean about Lily’s room?’ Miss Mason asked.
‘That’s only part of it. It was time to make a move, it was a hopeless state of affairs. Rosie had to go to England to do a course – and anyway she should go back to that fellow she married. And Helen’s always going on about her friends Maud and Marco who apparently live the perfect life. And someone needed to wake Anthony up to the real world. But I do have regrets. If, years ago, I had asked them all for a contribution every Friday, the house could have run properly and we could have gone on forever.’
‘Would you like me to find a new place for Lily so you can give back their room to the girls?’ asked Miss Mason.
‘No, that’s not what it’s about. I love Lily being there, and now that Anthony is going, Lily’s friend Angela is coming to take the other room. But I’m uneasy about it. I threw out my own children and took in two strangers who pay good money. It looks as if I’m mean and grasping.’
‘You’re far from that.’
‘But I am at fault, Miss Mason. I never asked them, you see. I know they should have known to give something – but they didn’t, and their father kept saying it was their home.’
‘Don’t get upset, Dee. Just make us more tea and we’ll sit down and see if we can work this out.’ Miss Mason loved solving problems. This was a difficult one, for sure. ‘The thing is, you’ll have to do more than just make your children leave. That way, they’ll learn nothing. You’ll have to show them how things should have been, by how they are now …’
Chapter Seven
When Dee got back home to St Jarlath’s Crescent, her son-in-law Ronan was sitting having coffee with Lily.
Lily immediately leaped up to take Dee’s parcels and welcome her back to her own home. Rosie wouldn’t have raised her face from a magnifying mirror; Helen’s eyes would have remained glued to whatever project she was involved in. Anthony would have smiled at her from under his earphones. Before Lily, nobody was interested in Dee’s day. And because Lily was so interested, Ronan was interested too.
‘How would you cook those leeks, Mrs Nolan?’ he asked.
Dee looked at him. Why had Rosie taken such a dislike to the boy? He seemed perfectly reasonable to Dee. Ordinary, perhaps, interested in football and pints, but then Rosie had known all this about him, so it didn’t come out of a clear blue sky.
‘I’d put them in a dish, cover them with crème fraîche and heat them for half an hour. Then I’d add some grated cheese and breadcrumbs and cook them for another quarter of an hour.’
‘Sounds very nice,’ Ronan said.
‘Yes, well, I only got enough for Liam and myself, but if you’d like to try some …’
‘Aw, no, you’re all right, Mrs Nolan, I was just wondering, that’s all.’
‘And do you cook for yourself these days?’
‘Not really. I get chips on the way home or a Chinese or something.’
He looked sad and lonely, but Dee steeled her heart. She must not interfere. That was the rule. All her friends told her, say nothing to either of them. They’ll do what they want anyway and you will be the worst in the world if you give any view at all. Keep nodding and smiling and say nothing.
Lily poured more coffee for everyone.
‘I was just asking Lily here if she had any advice about what’s wrong with Rosie and me,’ Ronan said, ‘and she doesn’t know what it’s all about either.’ He looked puzzled.
‘I was just saying it’s something he and Rosie should talk about together,’ Lily explained.
‘Except she’s in London,’ Ronan said.
‘I’d say she’s quite lonely over there,’ Lily suggested.
‘Oh no, she’s not, she’s got all these people on a course. Anyway, Rosie would never be lonely, anywhere.’
Lily shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s amazing how lonely a big city can be,’ she said.
Like a light bulb over his head, Ronan was having a thought. ‘Perhaps if I went over there …’ he began.
‘Well, of course, if you happened to be there …’ Dee said neutrally.
‘And you wouldn’t really know how she was unless you saw her …’ Lily continued.
Ronan stood up. ‘I might have to be in London next week anyway,’ he said.
The women nodded in agreement and he was gone.
‘What was their falling-out about?’ Lily asked.
‘If I knew that, I would be a wise woman. All I know is Rosie’s list of complaints. He was working too hard, he was out all hours, he wanted his shirts ironed, he didn’t think much of Rosie’s job. Oh, a list of things as long as your arm. None of them important. It just wasn’t the fairy tale she expected.’
‘So they might get back together?’ Lily was hoping for a happy ending.
‘They will, of course, when they have driven the rest of us demented over it all,’ Dee sighed.
‘But will she want her room back?’ Lily wondered.
‘She will be reminded that her room has been let, but she knows this already.’
‘I don’t like to—’
‘It’s got nothing to do with you, Lily.’ Dee was firm. ‘But I do want you to help me. I want to have a nice lunch here on Sunday and invite Helen and Anthony and Ronan, and yourself and Angela as well.’
Text to Rosie from Anthony:
Mam’s invited me to lunch on Sunday, and Helen and, I believe, Ronan too. Do you think she’s tired of the awful Lily and Angela? Yes, that’s the new one, she’s in my room. The new place I’m in is fine but the sink is full of washing-up and no one ever takes out the rubbish. Will tell you about Sunday.
Love, Anthony
Text to Rosie from Helen:
Things look a bit more cheerful on the travel agency front. I may not owe quite as much as I feared. Bit of a mood here at the moment. When I told Maud and Marco about it I thought they’d be pleased, but Marco said it would be great that I’d have enough money to pay them rent now. And Maud just looked at the carpet. I took out a handful of euros and said, ‘OK then, how much,’ but Maud said we were to leave it to later when everyone was calmer. All this time they had been thinking of me as a tenant not a friend. Mam has asked us to lunch on Sunday. I don’t know why, but I’m going anyway, just to try and give these two here a bit of space. I think she said Ronan is going too.
Love, Helen
Text from Ronan to Rosie:
I’m not stalking you. I have to be in London Monday evening, so maybe we could go out to dinner. Or something. Up to you. I’d love it, personally. I’ve been invited to your place by y
our mam and dad for lunch on Sunday. She texted me and invited me. It was a real invitation. It’s not just that I’m hanging around there. Just so as you’d know.
Love, Ronan
Text from Rosie to Ronan:
Well, that’s a lie for a start. Mam doesn’t text, she doesn’t know how. She said her fingers are too big. Why should I see you? Give me one good reason.
Rosie
Sunday was a lonely day in London. Everyone else seemed to have something to do, somewhere to go.
Everyone except Rosie.
If Ronan was coming to London why couldn’t he have made it on a Sunday? What business did the company have that meant he had to be in London? Why was Mam having this lunch party? Rosie wished she could be there. She felt a great hollow empty feeling in her stomach.
Is this what they meant by being homesick?
With Lily’s help the kitchen had been transformed. A lick of paint here, a window-box there, and smart paper napkins on the table.
There was even a bottle of sherry – something not known in the Nolan household before this. Dee had been about to buy some wine.
‘Surely the children will bring some?’ Lily said.
‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Dee said.
Lily had some emergency wine in her room, just in case.
The leg of lamb was roasting in the oven. The salads were mixed. Dee was wearing her good dark dress with a pink silk rose pinned to it. Liam had put on a jacket, which he rarely did at home. Everything was ready.
Helen arrived first.
Just as she had been setting out, Maud had given her a bottle of wine to take.
‘They won’t expect it, it’s only lunch in the kitchen as usual,’ Helen said.
‘It’s nice to give them a surprise then,’ Maud had said.
Helen handed over the bottle as she took in the whole room. It looked very different, more space somehow.
‘This is very expensive wine,’ her father said.
Helen tried not to look surprised. ‘You’re worth it,’ she said. She must remember to thank Maud when she got home. It had been a perfect thing to bring.
Ronan had brought a tin of shortbread; Angela, a tall girl with curly black hair and huge glasses that magnified her eyes, brought some cheese and grapes. Lily had brought a potted plant.
Only Anthony arrived without a gift. He realised he was the only one who had turned up empty-handed.
‘I’m sorry, Mam, I meant to get something,’ he said fumbling a bit.
‘Never mind,’ Dee said briskly. ‘Another time, maybe?’
‘Yes, Mam.’ He was confused by her, she seemed to have changed. He looked towards his father to get him out of this.
‘You know how it is, Da?’ he said.
‘Yes, your mother’s quite right, it will do another time,’ Dad said pleasantly.
Anthony looked at him in dismay. This was Da, for heaven’s sake. What had happened here?
Liam carved the lamb; everyone said it was gorgeous. Well, Angela and Lily said it over and over, and gradually Anthony and Helen got pulled into the hymn of praise.
‘It’s so lovely to get a whole joint roasted properly,’ Angela said.
‘There’s always a joint in this house on a Sunday,’ Dee said.
Helen and Anthony looked at each other bewildered. Was there a joint every Sunday?
Helen tried to think back. Yes, maybe her mother had roasted something on Sundays. Helen had never cared really, just sat down and eaten it like any other day. There had never been fuss and paper napkins and sherry and everyone bringing presents before. But that was just to impress the lodgers.
Helen longed to know how much the nurses were paying Mam a week. But she couldn’t ask. Maybe Rosie knew. She’d text her and ask her later. Meanwhile she must ask tactfully when she could go to her room and collect some more clothes. Things were so difficult these days, you had to walk on eggshells. Like you couldn’t mention unemployment because of Dad, or holidays because Mam and Dad had never had one. Actually you couldn’t talk about anything at all because Mam seemed to have invented a new family with these two nurses. They were OK of course and very polite, but they kept fawning over the house in St Jarlath’s Crescent as if it was some kind of stately home.
‘Mam, I hope it will be convenient for me to get some clothes,’ she began when the meal was finally over.
‘Any time you want, love, but have you a bag with you to carry them?’ Mam seemed perfectly happy about it.
‘But will that be OK with you, Lily? I mean, it’s sort of your room now.’
‘Oh, they’re not in Lily’s room, your clothes are out in the back kitchen.’ Mam seemed surprised at the thought that Helen should want to go to her own room.
‘Out at the back? In the damp?’ she cried out, shocked and disbelieving. ‘Dad, did you hear what Mam’s done with my clothes?’
‘It’s hardly damp, Helen, I’ve put plenty of good heating in it.’
‘It’s like a coal-hole,’ she wailed.
‘Not now it’s not,’ her father said.
Helen leaped from the table and went to the little scullery. It had been totally transformed, the walls painted white, with red and white curtains at the window. A sofa bed with a scarlet cover stood against one wall and three clothes rails by the other. Helen saw the one marked with her name, her dresses, blouses and skirts all hanging neatly on wire clothes hangers. Under the rail were boxes, all of them with her name painted on them. Shoes and underwear, she supposed.
But it was so final. All these things had been taken from her room and brought down here without her permission. And after Dad always saying, ‘This is your home’. She stared around the room in disbelief.
There was a rail and a set of boxes for Anthony and Rosie too. They were going to feel like she felt, wounded and upset. She came back to the table where they were all still sitting laughing at some story Ronan was telling them.
‘You didn’t take anything?’ Mam said, surprised.
‘When did all this happen?’ Helen asked in a frosty voice.
If Dee noticed her tone she showed no signs of it.
‘Oh, we’ve spent the last two weeks doing it. Your father has been worked off his feet.’
‘Well, as long as you all like it, it’s worth it,’ he said with what Helen thought was a foolish smile.
‘But why did you do it?’ Helen’s eyes were cold.
‘Well, we thought it was nice to have another bedroom in case any of you needed a bed from time to time.’ Dee seemed pleased to be talking about the room. ‘And we thought the red and white was good, cheerful and everything.’
‘But all the rails of clothes …?’ Helen couldn’t get any kind of a grip on what was happening.
‘I know they’re a bit in your face at the moment but when you have all taken your clothes away, then it will be a proper spare room. Your dad is going to make a dressing table with little lights around the mirror.’
‘When we have all taken all our clothes away?’ Helen repeated bleakly.
‘To your own places,’ Dee explained as if she were talking to someone of very low understanding.
‘But we haven’t got our own places!’ Helen looked wildly at Anthony for support. He just seemed to be equally confused.
‘Are my things in there too?’ he asked.
‘Yes, love, to make room for Angela,’ his mother reassured him.
‘I won’t fit all my things into the lads’ flat.’ Anthony was worried.
‘Well, maybe you should get a bigger place,’ his mother said.
‘But how would I afford that?’
‘I suppose you could go out and get some work …’ Dee was bright and helpful.
‘What about Rosie’s things?’ Ronan was anxious.
‘When she comes back from London, I’m sure she’ll have made up her mind about where she wants to go. I mean, it was always temporary for her coming back here.’
‘I wonder does she realise that,’ Ro
nan muttered.
‘Of course she does. Anyway you can always tell her when you are in London.’
‘I think I’ll keep quiet on this one, Mrs Nolan. There’s so much else to discuss.’
‘Certainly, Ronan, you’ll know what’s best.’ Dee smiled at him.
There was something about her that said lunch was not over. Helen was about to slink off to brood about it all when Lily, with her voice like a clear bell, said, ‘That was such a lovely meal, why don’t you two sit down and we’ll clear it all away?’
Dee accepted, delighted. She and Liam sat down eagerly in their two big chairs. Ronan was placed in charge of saucepans, oven dishes and general greasy things; Anthony and Helen found themselves doing the drying as the two nurses washed everything. Then the teacloths were washed and laid out on a radiator.
Anthony went glumly to examine the back room. Helen joined him as he stood there looking at it all in amazement.
‘Imagine them doing this,’ Helen said.
‘They’re throwing us out,’ Anthony said. ‘You do realise what’s happening? They are actually throwing us out of our own home!’
Chapter Eight
Next morning, Ronan flew to London. He had had terrible trouble getting the two days off work. He ended up telling his boss that this was make or break time in his marriage.
‘And how will your having two days off help?’ his boss asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Ronan admitted. ‘But I think it will.’
‘It’s an expensive thing for me, your going off to another country.’ The boss was still unconvinced, but he gave in. Ronan was to be back first thing on Wednesday morning. ‘OK?’