by Daisy Tate
‘There’s so much of it.’ Sue was staring at the Ikea desk, some sort of laminated press wood from the looks of things. It was weighted with three very large cardboard boxes that had, at one time, housed a toilet, a u-bend pipe and a ‘sturdy plastic toolbox to suit all of your needs’. In a surprisingly clear hand (Flo didn’t know why, but she wouldn’t have imagined a plumber having excellent penmanship) they each bore A4 labels. Bills, Invoices and Paid. The first was overflowing and, until about five minutes ago, sent a perpetual flow of paperwork cascading to the floor each time they so much as exhaled. The second was full-ish. And the third, the paid box, was pitiably empty. Next to the boxes was an accounts book. It was filled with endless columns and scribbles and all sorts of indecipherables. She knew because she’d peeked when Sue was out of the room. It’d take more than Google translate to get through that mess. Flo’s compassion for Sue deepened.
‘I hadn’t realised how much paperwork was involved in the plumbing business.’ Sue was staring at the boxes with disbelief, as if seeing them for the first time. ‘In all of the years I’ve known him, I never knew Gary to spend more than ten, fifteen minutes in here.’
‘So you’ve not been in here.’
‘No, not really.’ Sue flushed. ‘Gaz used to keep my presents in here. In the wardrobe. He told me I was never to come in unless I wanted to ruin the surprise.’ Her eyes flicked to the wardrobe then lingered.
Oh, you poor, silly, gullible, girl. The secrets this man has been keeping from you.
She was no detective, or psychiatrist for that matter, but she’d seen enough telly and met enough people to know the unattended paperwork was a likely explanation as to why Sue’s husband might have found it all too much. And, Flo suddenly put two and two together, why Sue needed a housemate quite so soon after her husband had taken the darkest route imaginable.
‘Do you think we should open it? The wardrobe?’ Sue asked.
Oh, god no. Flo didn’t. Not tonight anyway.
‘I think we’ve done quite enough for one night, Sue. Why don’t we head down for a bite to eat and a bit of a drink after all of this work, eh?’
Sue didn’t move. ‘It was his father’s business to start,’ She pointed at the stack of tool boxes at the end of the bed. ‘The plumbing.’
‘Oh, was it now? And your Gary worked with him, then? Father and son?’
‘Yes,’ Sue’s face softened with a memory. ‘Young & Son’s Plumbing.’ She laughed the first laugh Flo had ever heard from her. ‘Gaz used to say his father should’ve called it Barney Rubble Plumbing with the cack-handed way he went about fixing things. How little he worked. Reg only went out on two or three calls a day. My Gaz could do five or six depending upon the traffic. And supplies of course.’ Sue shook her head. Whether it was in awe or disbelief, was difficult to tell.
Sue lifted up a stray pipe wrench they hadn’t yet found a home for. ‘When his father passed, Gary said he was going to kick things up a notch. Make a proper go of it. And he did, too. Always busy, my Gary. Taking classes to learn more things that the companies put on. You know, jacuzzis and the fancy showers and things. Watching YouTube videos from America to keep up to date. Always helping someone. Good or bad. He was always helping someone.’
A little glow of something Flo had not seen in Sue before appeared. Pride. Pride for the mark her husband had made on the world before he left it. She looked at Flo through glassy eyes, then gave herself a shake as if she suddenly remembered a silent promise not to cry about anything. Not in front of a near stranger anyway.
Raven stuck her head round the doorframe, knocking on it as she did. Her eyes shot to the desk sagging with boxes, the accounts book, the wrench Sue was still wielding. ‘Wow. Ummm. Pizza’s ready?’
Sue gave the desk a hapless little shrug and said, ‘I suppose it’s not going anywhere.’
‘I can help another time if you like,’ Raven surprised everyone by saying. ‘If it’s simple bookkeeping.’
‘Did you study it in college?’ Flo asked.
She nodded. ‘A bit, but mostly I learnt by helping my parents with the shop.’
‘Shop?’
‘It’s a pharmacy. A small one, so …’ Her eyes skimmed across the labels on the boxes. ‘Small business?’
Sue nodded. ‘Plumbing.’
‘Any employees?’
‘No, just Gary.’
Raven chewed on her bottom lip for a minute then said, ‘I’ll bet you can do most of it on an app if you want.’
Sue’s eyebrows lifted. ‘He’s got this book.’ She pointed at the accounts book that looked as if it had been bought around 1952.
Raven pushed her lips out and then gave a ‘your call’ shrug. ‘Pizza?’
‘Good idea,’ Flo enthused. ‘And once we’ve all got a nice little drink in our hands, how about we put it to Sue about our little adventure, eh, Raven?’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘Round the country?’
‘Oh, god, no love. Across it.’ Flo’s cheeks were pink. Whether it was from the heat or the fizz, Sue wasn’t quite sure. Excitement maybe? Raven was staying mysteriously silent, although Flo had assured her Raven loved the idea every bit as much as she did.
A charity cycle ride across the country. She wasn’t even sure she knew where Hadrian’s Wall was, to be honest. Somewhere up North.
‘I’ve not ridden a bike in years, I don’t think. Not since …’ Her eyes went opaque for a moment then cleared. ‘It’s been quite a while.’
‘It’s for a good cause. It’s that mental health charity Kath off of Kath and Kev is the ambassador for. LifeTime?’
Sue shook her head. She didn’t know it.
‘It’s a mental health charity, love. She joined up with them when her brother died. He had the depression, didn’t he? I thought you might enjoy raising some money for them considering what happened with your Gary.’
Sue took a sip of her drink. She was using coins from her special holiday coin jar to buy food, had accepted money from a stranger who now lived in her bedroom and now Flo wanted her to ride her bicycle across the country to earn money for a charity she had never heard of. She thought of the solitary phone call Gary might have made if he’d known help was available to him.
‘How far is it?’
‘Two hundred miles.’
Sue’s eyes popped open.
‘Less. More than one fifty, less than two. And very flat apparently.’ She flattened her hand. ‘Like a pancake. And you don’t do it in one go. It’s over about five days.’ She suddenly beamed. ‘It’s camping I think!’ Raven choked on her pizza and Flo, without missing a beat, patted her on the back, went to the sink, got her some water and handed it to her all without losing eye contact with Sue.
‘Does it cost money? You know, to join?’
Flo’s light eyebrows templed. They were blonde, unlike Flo’s hair which was a rather lovely silvery grey. It was the type of grey her mother would’ve preferred to go. A bit more Helen Mirren chic rather than the practical Jamie Lee Curtis she’d ended up with. ‘I’m not sure, love. That’s a good question. I was just watching Kath talk about it on the telly, but I’ve not yet looked up the details on the internet. Raven and I were talking about it on the ride over here, weren’t we, Raven?’ They both turned to Raven who was in the middle of biting into the Big Meaty Deluxe now that she’d recovered from her coughing spell. She waved. ‘… I was saying to her, wouldn’t it be fun? And wouldn’t it be even more fun if you were to join us.’ Raven nodded in agreement.
‘Why are you going?’ Sue asked.
For the first time that night Flo looked as though she were caught off guard. She took a bite of pizza and made a thoughtful face as if she were finding just the right way to explain her reasons. A hidden tragedy? A personal loss? Mental health problems of her own?
‘Oh, I love a new adventure,’ Flo finally answered, then with a glint in her eye, added, ‘And I can’t stand that Kev. This is the first thing Kath’s done on he
r own so far as I can remember and I want to support her. And her charity of course.’ She looked down at her piece of pizza then, as if she’d made a decision on a great matter, put it back on the plate and looked Sue square in the eye. ‘If I’m being entirely honest, I want to stave off old age as long as humanly possible. I need a bit of va-va-voom in my life. Want to get a little je ne sais quoi running through my veins. Riding across the country ought to do it, don’t you think, girls?’
Sue and Raven tipped their heads side to side as if the idea were a shiny orb navigating its way through the maze of their minds. Yes. Riding a bicycle across the country would definitely add something to someone’s life. Raven looked about as unsure as Sue felt as to what that something would be, but … would doing something for someone else help her feel whole again? Useful? Valuable? Sure, she took calls from people seeking help every day at work, but most of the time it didn’t feel as though she was actually, genuinely responding. How could she when her responses were pre-scripted? Oh, god she needed something to make her feel useful again. ‘When is it?’
‘Not for a few months yet. May, I think? End of April.’ Flo was clearly fibbing. She didn’t know. But strangely, Sue didn’t mind.
The more time she spent with Flo, the more Sue got the impression this dynamic, vital woman was a big-picture person. A blue-sky thinker who trusted that the details would sort themselves out so long as the intention was pure. Kind. ‘They’ll want to wait until all of this horrid winter weather’s over, won’t they?’ Flo’s question was clearly rhetorical. ‘Anyway. What does it matter, so long as we have a good time, right, girls?’
Score one to Sue.
‘Right!’ Flo wiped her hands briskly together and began tidying things up as if she’d known her way round Sue’s kitchen for years now. ‘Why don’t I leave it with you two girls to talk about, yeah? Tomorrow morning, when you’re having your first cuppa, how about you watch Kath together? See if it appeals. Riding a bicycle with a celebrity! Apparently she’s bringing along her trainer for “group morale and physio” if anyone needs it. A big strapping lad. Reminds me of Idris Elba, he does. Oh, girls.’ Flo went the tiniest bit misty. ‘We’ll be such a merry threesome!’ She tipped the rest of her fizz down the sink (I’ve got to drive home, haven’t I?), gave them both a tight, reassuring hug, shouldered her large canvas tote (from Vietnam, apparently) then disappeared.
Raven and Sue stared at the closed front door long enough to hear Flo’s car grind into gear then tear off down the street. Raven smiled at the door, then at Sue and said, ‘She’s like Mary Poppins, isn’t she?’
‘Yes,’ Sue smiled as well, feeling a rush of affection for both Raven and Flo. Her new friends. ‘So … for the morning. Are you a tea or a coffee person?’
‘Tea. White and one please,’ Raven said, the energy between them still shy, but less anxious. ‘If it’s all right, I think I’ll head up to bed now.’
‘Of course,’ Sue said, then added, ‘You can do what you like. This is your home now.’
Raven turned to head up the stairs then suddenly turned around, pulled Sue into a tight hug, muttered something that sounded like thank you sosososooo much, then ran up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door behind her.
Well, thought Sue. Let the new chapter begin.
Chapter Thirty
‘Can I help you with anything?’
Raven bit back the impulse to correct the shop assistant’s grammar because the real answer was no. No he couldn’t help her. But throwing shade on someone’s grammar first thing in the morning just seemed rude.
She gave him her best ‘not really sure’ smile and went back to looking at the long row of bicycles, wondering what would happen if she asked him to help her with what she really wanted.
Her parents’ support. That was the main thing.
Failing that, she wanted a job that didn’t involve people calling in desperate for help she was unable to give, but that paid the same amount and didn’t require anything beyond a college education.
She wanted the price tags on these bicycles to be half of what they were.
And world peace.
She wanted that, too. Gandhiji would’ve approved.
‘Are you looking for anything in particular?’
‘Ummm …’ She ran her finger along a set of handlebars hoping the gesture made her look even the slightest bit as if she knew what she was doing. ‘I’m just browsing, really.’
‘Right.’ The clerk went from nice to impatient in a nanosecond. He rolled his eyes in a display of world weariness that the fat, goth girl was considering, but not actually buying something that might help her not be fat anymore. Not that she was paranoid about her weight or anything (She’d eaten an entire pizza last night whilst Sue had picked at a piece or two with her fingertips and Flo had eaten maybe a slice). ‘Lemme know if I can help you with anything,’ he said by rote as he headed back to the counter where an ultra-fit looking blonde girl around her age was putting mark-down labels on several dozen bottles of anti-freeze.
To be honest, Raven couldn’t believe she was in an actual bike store looking at actual bicycles considering signing up for an actual, literal, bicycle trip. Not that they’d one hundred per cent decided they were going or anything, but she wouldn’t have believed she’d be living anywhere but her parents’ a week ago, so who knew what might happen? They might actually go.
As instructed, she and Sue had watched Brand New Day earlier this morning as Sue was getting ready for her early shift. Raven wasn’t on until noon but she wasn’t really one for lying in and there were all sorts of new noises at Sue’s house she wasn’t used to, like neighbours. They each admitted they’d seen the show occasionally but clearly not with the regularity Flo had. They’d watched silently as Kath rode on a stationary bicycle that lit up a lightbulb each time she amped up her revs. One watt for each thousand pounds that had been donated. She was up to forty-seven watts so far. They learnt that the ride wasn’t for another two and a half months and that each rider would be expected to try and raise five hundred pounds each that would also cover their expenses. They’d both drawn in quick, sharp breaths at that news. Fundraising definitely wasn’t Raven’s bag and, from the looks of things, wasn’t exactly Sue’s cup of tea, either.
When the segment was over and went on to something about Kev and volleyball and learning how to spike it over the net, they muted the telly, made toast and giggled about Flo’s enthusiasm (and a little bit about her bossiness), but in a nice way and it had felt fun, giggling with someone who could totally be her mum but blonde and wasn’t even the tiniest bit judgmental. Just … nice. Sue, Raven learnt, had trained to be a beauty stylist and, despite not having pursued it, still kept up with the latest hair trends and would happily, if Raven wanted her to, help redo her streaks that had already almost completely disappeared after just a couple of showers. Raven had instantly said yes, not because Sue seemed to be some sort of crazy fashion guru (her overall look erred on the side of girlie), but because Sue was the first person in a very long time to be entirely and completely kind to her. Apart from Flo, of course. She listened. When she wasn’t spacing out, which, given her circumstances, was completely understandable. Something about her, her fragility perhaps, made Raven want to hug her as she had done last night before tearing up into her room and asking herself over and over again why did I do that because she wasn’t, by nature, a hugger. More the kind of girl who shrank away from human interaction, but who knew. Maybe Flo was right. Perhaps moving out and becoming a ‘woman of the world’ would be the making of her. When Flo had quizzed her about moving out, she had left out the part about it being a self-imposed banishment. Or that her parents had yet to ring her. No messages. No emails. Nothing. Ghosted by her own parents.
‘Hey! Raven! ‘sup!’
Raven looked up and there was Dylan, Curry’s uniform hidden beneath his thick duffel coat, heading directly towards her. ‘Yo, Bryan.’ He raised his voice and waved across at the Halfor
d’s clerk. ‘You still want to check out that bike with me later?’
‘Yeah, man. I’m off at six. You?’
‘Five-thirty, but I’ll come over here and hang.’ He grabbed one of the bicycles in front of him and popped it into a wheelie position. ‘I’ll give one of these babies a run for their money. Can I have a hells to the yeah?’
The hot blonde girl gave him a slow clap then went back to tagging her anti-freeze. She’d clearly been pranced in front of by more than one shopping centre assistant in her day.
‘Yo, Bryan. Why aren’t you over here helping out Raven?’ Dylan’s voice went all melodramatic like the man who did film previews, ‘The artist with the Magic Eyes. I bet she could do some voodoo shit on you if you don’t watch it.’
Raven looked at him. What the actual fuck was he talking about?
Bryan, to be fair, looked equally perplexed.
Dylan started laughing. ‘Ah, you guys. You’re hilarious. I’m just messing with you. I’m just messing with you.’
Crikey. Dylan needed a hobby or something else to use up his clearly very over-active imagination.
‘So what brings you to the finest shopping centre in da hood?’ he asked Raven.
She wasn’t really inclined to answer whilst he was channeling his inner Kanye. It was weird.
And then, all of a sudden, he became normal, friendly Dylan. ‘You looking for a bike? I’m friends with Bryan. I can see if he can use his staff discount for you if you find anything.’
This was so weird. Did he think they were friends?
‘Are you getting a new bike? Doing some spring training?’ He began jogging in place with his hands on an invisible set of handlebars. When he caught the not-altogether neutral look Raven had shot him, he stopped. ‘Sorry. I just ate, like, a whole packet of salted caramel Hobnobs and am riding one hella sugar high. I’ve just come over here to burn some of it off during my break.’ His eyes flicked over to where the Curry’s was. ‘That place is, like, totally dead this time of year. No one wants to buy anything new in March.’ He leaned in and said ominously, ‘Tax. Time.’