“How brave of you,” I said with admiration.
“It was one of the many times I just didn’t think. My Guardian had a purple fit. She kept dropping things in my way and shouting at me to stop. It made no difference, of course, because I had no sensitivity. Boy, did my death cause problems! I definitely shouldn't have died at that moment. I had several things to do first. Someone else got landed with them instead and my Guardian was in trouble. Bob, my friend, should have been somewhere else entirely. He ran outside through a door we usually kept locked. I reacted instinctively.”
Maude poured her another glass of wine. “Tell her more about Bob. It’s a romantic story.” She looked at me. “You like a romance, don’t you?”
“Most of the time. I prefer happy endings, though.”
“This has one, in the end. Go on, Leilani.”
Leilani sighed. “Okay. To start at the beginning, I'm half Hawaiian, half Haole which means white American. My mother’s Hawaiian; Dad was in the US Navy, stationed at Pearl. They met, married and stayed on Oahu when he retired. Life’s pretty easygoing on the islands. There’s always been a lot of inter-racial marriage and nobody thinks much about it, different to the mainland. Lots of prejudice in those days, especially in the Southern states. None of us had a problem growing up. When I first went to Hickham, though, some of the ‘good old boys’ made nasty remarks about me. I was a secretary at the base. It was interesting and I met lots of young men. All my friends envied me my job. Bob transferred to us in July 1941. He’d just finished his pilot training. As the top trainee in his group, he got to choose where he wanted to go. Hawaii was the dream posting, sunshine, palm trees and sandy beaches. Who could ask for more? Bob was a good pilot, but he never got to put his skill into practice. No one was combat ready. Hawaii seemed like a vacation, not a front line station. So long ago now, those peaceful, sunny days full of fun.” She sat in silence, staring into space, her face softened as she relived her memories.
“You loved him, didn’t you?” I asked, breaking the spell.
She smiled and nodded. “I still do. I fell for him as soon as we met. He was tall and fair and his voice sounded like soft brown velvet. He had only been on the base for two days, when he asked me out. We had six glorious months together. The day before he died, we became engaged. We expected problems, because he came from Alabama and my skin wasn’t the same colour as his, but he wanted to stay in Hawaii, like my dad. Life seemed wonderful and the future bright. My Guardian told me later that Bob and I both had the same defective gene. Strange, because we were born so far apart, but apparently this happens occasionally. We made a bad combination. He'd have died early and our children would have been disabled. Such an awful life for all of us. When I found that out, I didn’t mind dying so young. I'm lucky.”
“You are lucky,” I agreed, thinking wistfully of Michael.
“Getting killed before you’re twenty is hardly lucky. Don’t be daft, Leilani.” Maude’s sounded tart.
“I had no time to feel pain; we never even made it to the hospital. My death could have been so much worse and I didn't want to live without Bob. Now we are together, with no more problems.”
“They gave her a medal for trying to save him. Gallantry under fire. Tell her about that.”
“My father liked the medal,” Leilani smiled. “He told me it helped him a lot. I was his favourite child and he was distraught when I died. He’s happy now, of course. He and my mother live quite close by.”
“I’m envious.”
“You won’t be soon,” laughed Leilani. “Loads of handsome men in Heaven. You’ll meet your knight in shining armour one day.”
“You’ll hear him coming.” Maude staggered round the room, pretending to walk in armour, clanking, with a silly grin on her face.
I giggled. “You two are a comedy act.”
Maude grinned. “We’re a good combination. Leilani slows me down, I stir her up. Brenda sends us on assignments together, if she can. This is our third go and we’ve done much better than we would have done apart.”
“How did you meet?”
“We both surf,” Leilani told me. “I grew up surfing and Maude thought she should learn, now it’s the rage in Oz. Her great-great-grandson is a national champion.”
“Leilani taught me. I never had time for such things before. Of course, no one knew about surfing in Australia then. All work and no play in those days. Keep your nose to the grindstone and go to church on Sundays, if you can get there. Sometimes my husband and I didn’t see another face for months. No wonder we went bonkers.”
“She says the most awful things about poor Eli. She doesn’t mean half of them. Don’t believe her when she starts,” Leilani warned me. “She wouldn’t stay with him if she didn’t love him.”
“Maybe I do. I told you – I’m bonkers.”Maude grinned and tapped her head.
“Where did you meet him?” I asked.
“On the prison ship. I'm a thief who got caught and transported. People think the sentence unjust, because I only stole some old clothes. There’s no record of the other ninety-seven things I’d nicked before my luck ran out. My mother was a thief before me. Thieving was our profession; the way we survived. In our part of London, you either stole or became a whore. It was a fair cop but I didn’t expect transportation. They usually hanged thieves. I was lucky to be caught then and not a couple of years before.”
“Weren’t you very scared, leaving everything behind?”
“Poverty, squalor, never enough to eat, nowhere to live, dirt and filth aren't hard to leave. My mother and sister had died of a fever the previous winter, so I was alone. That’s how they caught me. No one to distract the witnesses.”
“Her hair didn’t help either,” Leilani interrupted, pointing at Maude’s head.
“Have you always been a redhead?” I asked. Her curls gleamed like an unlikely halo in the firelight.
“It’s my trademark. Never wanted a change. I kinda like standing out from the crowd. Better than being overlooked, as they say.” Maude chuckled as she rumpled up her hair.
“Unless you happen to be running away from the scene of the crime, of course,” Leilani pointed out.
“Quite! Being caught was the best thing that happened to me. I liked Australia, after a few years. I had a different life, a new beginning, a new country away from all the squalor. Terribly hard at first, harder than anything I’d known before. We had nothing when we arrived. The men went crazy because there were so few women, but I’d learned that lesson on the ship. I picked three of the biggest ones as my protectors, kept them happy and they took care of me. When everything settled down, I married Eli, the best of the bunch, and became ‘respectable’. A hoot if you think about it. Apparently my name is revered now as one of the ‘Founding Mothers’ of Australia. I had seventeen children who all bred like rabbits. Several thousand of my descendants are running around the outback as we speak. Can you imagine their expressions if they came face to face with us as we were? My hubby had no teeth and he smelt worse than a skunk.”
“See what I mean? She’s always being horrid about him and he’s quite handsome.”
“He is now. The first thing he did in Heaven was to go to the dentist and get some new teeth. He had a nose job too and got rid of most of his white hair. I didn’t recognise him when I arrived. He waited for me at the Pearly Gates and I started to walk past him. So he grabbed me and gave me a kiss. I recognised that all right, even though he smelled too sweet to be my Eli. I never thought he liked being clean as much as I do. I suppose we had no time to think about it. Washing was difficult back then. Part of Heaven for me is wearing silk against my skin instead of homespun!” She held out her skirt and twirled around.
“Very pretty.”
“Fortunately no one else was clean either, so you got used to the pongs. You needed water to drink and feed the crops or the animals. Cleanliness was way down the priority order.”
“Listen to her! One of the tycoons told her abou
t priority order and the Hierarchy of Need,” Leilani murmured lazily. “She’s got this thing for education.”
“I didn't go to school, so it’s interesting. You always miss what you’ve never had. I spent my first century getting an ‘ediccation’ as you might say. I took classes from the experts. Shakespeare taught me writing and Newton did Physics, among others. Fascinating after spending a lifetime knowing nothing. Leilani’s too lazy to take lessons. All she wants to do, when she’s off duty, is be with Bob, lie in the sun and go surfing.”
“Why not? What’s the point of being in Heaven if you can’t enjoy yourself? When I work, I work!”
Leilani passed round pieces of chocolate cake, pecan pie and more champagne. I could hear birds singing. Light was seeping through gaps in the curtains. I got up and looked out of the window. A golden line shone on the horizon. Dawn began to break. The flickering flames faded as Leilani’s illusion dimmed.
“Not long before they wake up now and we start looking after them again.” Leilani smiled. “Jane’s a dear and I’m glad she was assigned to me, but I envy you. Your job is the simplest of the lot.”
“Is it? What on Earth do you have to do?”
“I have to make sure Jane marries her boyfriend. Maude has to get Adele to break up with hers.”
“That’s easier than making Gigi stay with the right one out of two, surely?”
“No. All you need to do is manage her contraception properly. Maude and I have all sorts of messy complications. Jane’s parents don’t like the man she wants to marry.”
Maude nodded and took up the story. “Adele is in love with Ralph, who's married already. She knows she should break up with him, but she can’t. My job is to help her to get on with her life. She’s meant to travel to India soon. It’s important, because if things work out, she’s going to be a saint.”
“You’re joking!” I glanced at the sleeping blond in pink baby doll pyjamas.
“Unlikely, I’ll admit, when you look at her now.” Maude gazed fondly at her charge. “She’s such a sweet person, but she’s always thought of herself as one of life’s losers.”
“Nice little problems, as Paco would say,” I said as my bracelet started to flash. An alarm clock rang. Gigi stretched and Adele groaned.
“You’re on.” Leilani repacked her basket.
“Thanks for the picnic and the stories.”
“We enjoyed hearing yours too.”
“Today’s important for you, Ariane, isn’t it?” Leilani asked.
“Yes. My job starts at lunchtime, when Gigi is due to meet the first of her boyfriends. I hope I don’t mess things up.”
“You won’t.”
“I'm keeping my fingers crossed.”
“Try toes too,” Maude suggested with a grin.
“I’d fall over!”
8th September 1967, Friday, London.
Gigi’s a hairdresser. She loves her job, but, unfortunately, all the inside of her fingers are starting to turn red. She’s becoming allergic to the chemicals in hair dye and rubber gloves make her itch. She’s not sure what to do next, because she’s spent a fortune on creams and none of them works. She keeps hoping the redness will go away and her employer, Tony, won’t find out - she’s afraid he’ll give her the sack. Without money, she’d have to go home and she doesn’t want to. Fortunately, her life is about to change dramatically and this problem won't matter in the end.
Gigi’s salon is in a street off Tottenham Court Road. The place is all white, black and chrome, the latest fashion. Nothing's comfortable, but lots of smart people go there. The pay is better than in most salons, although that’s not saying much. Hairdressers are badly paid, even in posh venues in Swinging Sixties London.
When we went in, the smell of yesterday’s hair lacquer hit me so hard, I had to catch my breath. The dryers create a tropical heat. I wondered how any of the girls could work there, without keeling over, but they don’t seem to mind. Maybe they are like Maude, putting up with the things they can’t change.
At nine o’clock prompt, the doors opened and the place filled with customers. The pace was frantic. The girls had to scurry round to keep up with the demand. Some women had their hair cut into the new geometric shapes. Others were being backcombed frenziedly. Beehive hairdos aren’t dead yet and no one remembers the American girl who was bitten by a black widow spider which was nesting inside. Ugh! The fashion's always been horrible and, in this case, deadly.
Gigi's fast and efficient. She doesn’t seem to mind standing on her feet or listening to her customers' silly stories. She does her work effortlessly, knowing the time to listen sympathetically and when to tell jokes. She’s popular with everyone, from young girls to women old enough to be their grandmothers. A lot of clients ask for her by name, especially if they want their hair dyed. She’s flattered, but she sometimes wishes they wouldn’t. Her fingers are so sore at the end of each day.
Most of the salon’s clients are women, of course, although a few men come in too. James arrived at lunchtime, right on schedule. Gigi had put her coat on and was about to walk out of the door, but she wasn’t quick enough. Fate, of course, because her last client had stayed longer than expected.
With all the activity in the salon, I decided I’d better get out of the way. I perched in the window and pretended to be a model. I thought I had succeeded, until a deep voice said, “Hi!” in my ear and made me jump.
“Is there room in there for two?”
‘Oh God, he’s gorgeous.’ I took in the sight of this ‘tall, dark and handsome’ man standing right beside me. His blue eyes laughed into mine and he had a smile to die for. He wore a black velvet tunic, with loose trousers tucked into ankle boots. He seemed as if he had stepped out of an oil painting by Rembrandt. All he needed was a sword and a ruff to complete the illusion.
“Can you see me?” I asked stupidly. Of course he could, or he would not have spoken.
“I’m Ivan, James’ Guardian. Didn’t you expect me to be with him?”
I felt myself blush. I realised I’d been too busy drooling over him to notice his purple shimmer. He took my hand and raised it to his lips.
“I’m Ariane, Gigi’s Guardian,” I managed to stutter in response.
“They told me you were taking over from Paco. A distinct improvement, if I may say so. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other on this assignment. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
How lucky can you get? He climbed into the window beside me and glanced out at the passing crowd.
“Do you enjoy posing in shop windows?” he asked.
“Being a dummy suits me.”
“Never.”
‘Down, girl. This one could give advanced lessons in flirting,’ I thought.
I must have kept staring, though, because he asked, “Well, do you like it?”
“What?”
“My outfit.”
“It's smart.” My mind had definitely not been on his clothes and he knew it. His eyes began to twinkle. Then he nodded over to James and Gigi.
“We are supposed to be listening to them, you know.”
“Oh yes, of course.” I’d forgotten all about them for a moment. With an effort, I turned away from the first attractive male I’ve met in ages. I never bothered with other men when I was with Michael. Pity, I didn't know what I was missing! No reason why I shouldn’t enjoy myself now, but I wasn’t going to fall for a handsome face again, any time soon. On with the job!
“Can I help you?” Gigi asked James.
“I’ve an appointment with Myra at twelve fifteen.”
Gigi frowned. She’s been working without stopping and she needed a rest. “I’m sorry, but Myra’s not here today. She’s sick. Would you like someone else to do your hair?”
“I suppose so.” He didn’t look pleased.
“I’ll be happy to take over her appointment,” Gigi forced herself to say. “Please sit down for a moment while I hang up my coat.” Gigi sighed as she showed him to a styling chair.
/>
“What can I do for you?” she asked when she returned.
“A trim, please.”
“A trim?” His hair was already far too short for the current fashion.
“Do you have a problem hearing me or something?” He snapped.
“Not at all.” Gigi wanted to snap back, but she’d be in trouble with Tony if she did. She gritted her teeth, washed his hair and started cutting. The hot water, or the kneading of her fingers, must have been soothing, because, all at once, he seemed to relax. When he spoke again, his irritation had gone. He can obviously be charming, although he had a speculative look in his eyes which I didn’t like.
He started asking questions and making Gigi laugh. He soon had her chatting away to him about something and nothing. The conversation took a sudden turn when James asked her to go to a party with him that evening.
“He’s a quick worker, isn’t he?” I said to Ivan.
“His date’s stood him up and he doesn’t want to go alone. Not good for his image. All the people he’d like to impress will be at this party. He needs to find somebody else at short notice.”
“Yuck.”
“You don’t fancy him?”
“I don’t like men with swollen egos. It’d be good for him if she turned him down.”
“She won’t. Listen.”
I wished she would, but Ivan was right. The combination of circumstances was in the Action Pack. The odds favoured her accepting, although Gigi usually says ‘no’ to invitations from strangers. She gets enough of them in her job. This party, though, was being held at the Admiralty and you don’t often get asked to one of the most famous historical buildings in the country. Gigi hasn’t lived in London long enough yet to become blasé about the history of the place. She accepted and I pretended to be pleased. After all, I’ve never been to the Admiralty either and, as an unexpected bonus, I’d be spending the evening with Ivan.
James went off looking smug and Ivan followed him, after kissing me goodbye in continental fashion. Not the usual pecks on the cheek - real kisses - naughty man. Ivan isn’t even a sailor, for Heaven’s sake! I tried hard not to react, but he knows precisely his effect on women. I was all of a dither after he left and so was Gigi.
Ghost Diaries 1_Gigi's Guardian_Paranormal Romance Page 6