Judith Wants To Be Your Friend

by Annie Weir

  Judith bought a local paper on her way home and found an advertisement for the local operatic society; South Pacific at the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham every night that week. She phoned and reserved a ticket for Friday.

  Tuesday 4th November 2008

  Judith sat back and contemplated the day. She had found a suitable replacement for Kate but had had to work for it. The first two interviewees were impossible. The first one had various childcare responsibilities although she knew she couldn’t give that as a reason for rejecting her, and the second had a concoction of health worries. That would be like living with her mother, or like having a child to look after. The third applicant, however, had recently moved to the area, was of middle age and her eyes had lit up at the prospect of having a good sort out. Judith had shown her the filing system and Helen had tutted sympathetically and suggested alternatives. She was able to start on Monday, not having to give notice, and handed over some references from previous employers ‘down south’ which Judith thought she should really follow up some time. Not today, though. There was an hour of daylight left so she went for a drive in her new car. On her way home, in a moment of family concern, she decided to go and visit her mother.

  ‘Hello Mum,’ she said, a bit more loudly than usual as she approached her in the large sitting room full of very upright armchairs.

  ‘Why are you shouting, Fiona?’ she said.

  ‘I’m Judith, not Fiona.’

  ‘Oh yes. Fiona never comes to see me.’

  Judith knew that Fiona came out nearly every day but she didn’t correct her mother. ‘So how are you? Do you like it here?’

  ‘I don’t know. Where am I?’

  ‘At Mill View. Remember? With Tina, Mrs. Walters I mean, and your new friends who live here as well.’

  ‘Why doesn’t Judith come and see me?’

  ‘Mum, I am Judith and I am here to see you.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘How’s Henry Lloyd?’ Judith lowered her voice a little, not really wanting anyone to know that she was interested.

  ‘He’s dead.’ Her mother looked out of the tall window towards the distant hills.

  ‘He is not dead. Really, Mum, that is just ridiculous. Never mind, I’ll ask Tina on my way out.’

  ‘He’s dead and Tina’s gone to see him off.’

  Judith suddenly felt exhausted and started to get ready to leave. She wished she hadn’t come at all. There wasn’t much point. Still, needs must and all that. It was dark when she left and she drove home slowly to her empty flat.

  She called her sister. ‘I’ve just been to visit Mum. She hadn’t a clue which one of us I was and she didn’t know where she was.’

  ‘That’s quite normal. You’d think after a month she would be used to it but she doesn’t always know me or Rosie. Rosie seems to accept it but I can’t.’

  Judith heard her sister’s voice breaking up and fought back her irritation.

  ‘I went to see Mum’s solicitor last month and he gave me some stuff to read about power of attorney. I’ll dig it out; haven’t had a chance to study it with Kate leaving and everything.’

  ‘Do you want some help with it? I could do with concentrating on something.’

  Her first instinct was to refuse, but she said, ‘I’ll find it and see what it says then bring it over for you.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Then silence.

  ‘Right, well I’ll do it in a few days. Still busy at work.’ She realised that Fiona was sobbing and incapable of speech. ‘I’ll call soon.’

  I wish Fiona would get a grip, thought Judith as she prepared dinner. It really isn’t helpful her crying all the time and making herself ill. It will just put more bloody responsibility on me in the end.

  Friday 7th November 2008

  Judith was pleased that the week was over. She had realised that she needed an administrator more and more the longer she didn’t have one. The office looked like a bomb had hit it again but she didn’t make any effort to tidy up as Helen was due to start at nine o’clock on Monday morning. It seemed like the sort of job she would relish. She decided to finish early as she was going out.

  At six-fifteen, Judith bought herself a sparkling mineral water and sat down in the lounge bar of The Kings Arms just around the corner from the theatre. She had brought some information about gaining power of attorney to read should she not ‘bump into’ Chloe and her companion. She didn’t appear to need it as five minutes later they arrived. She waited until they had bought drinks then looked up and waved.

  ‘Chloe! Hello, we meet again.’ Judith wasn’t sure but she thought a flicker of irritation had passed over Chloe’s face as she heard her call. It disappeared just as quickly; she must have been mistaken. She saw Chloe turn and say something quietly to her friend then walk towards her.

  ‘Are you going to see the show?’

  ‘Yes, are you?’

  ‘Yes. We always support the local productions. Actually we used to help paint the scenery way back when we were teenagers. I didn’t this time with opening the shop, but Pauline did.’

  Judith looked up expectantly at where Pauline had been standing but she had gone to sit at the other side of the pub and was talking to a couple of older people.

  ‘Anyway, I’d better go and join my friends. Enjoy the show.’

  ‘Yes, you too,’ said Judith to Chloe’s back. She slumped back into her seat and pretended to read the papers that she had brought with her. She had half a mind to go back home. If challenged later she could say that she had felt unwell, but thought she might as well stay until the first interval and see what it was like. At a quarter to seven, she walked next door to the theatre and took her seat. She was in the stalls, about half-way up in the old fashioned, velour-covered seats, always dark red in these provincial theatres. She enjoyed the buzz of conversation around her but had no desire to join in. Several people she knew walked past and spoke briefly then moved further down and shuffled along their rows to their seats. The heavy curtain at the front of the stage was lit from below and the orchestra in the pit even lower down had warmed up and tuned up and were ready for the overture. Judith mentally ran through the medley of songs she could remember; ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, ‘Happy Talk’, ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair’. A party of four people came and sat behind her. She turned and saw Chloe who seemed more relaxed. She smiled and introduced Judith to her friend Pauline and Pauline’s parents who were in Hexham for a short holiday, and it was only natural that they invite her to join them for drinks at the interval. Judith chatted easily to Pauline’s parents, discussing Norfolk, which is where they lived now, near their other daughter who had two small children. She asked whether they had been to Phoenix Antiques yet, and told them that Chloe was looking out for a seascape for her. It was all very pleasant.

  Driving home, Pauline looked at her friend with concern.

  ‘What’s the matter, Chloe?’

  ‘Nothing. Why?’

  ‘Something is. Why didn’t you want to sit with Judith in the pub? Why were you so quiet at the interval?’

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t explain, but she makes me feel – I don’t really know what. Uneasy I think. Louise doesn’t trust her at all. It’s only since she said anything that I’ve noticed that she’s a bit strange. She’s always on her own, for a start.’

  ‘Lots of us are like that, Chloe. Being on your own doesn’t make you strange.’

  ‘I know. But she says things that other people say aren’t true. Like her and her sister for instance, she told me that they were really close but from what I’ve heard since, they can’t stand each other.’

  ‘Lots of families don’t like their dirty linen washed in public. I don’t blame her for that. Actually I quite admire it.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose so. Maybe I’m making too much of it.’r />
  ‘Sounds like it to me. You’re usually such a trusting soul, and friendly to everyone.’

  ‘I know. I don’t like myself for feeling like this. Maybe you’re right and I’ve been too easily swayed. I’ll call Judith next week and invite her over for a sandwich at lunch time. I can keep it all on a professional basis if I’m friendly in a work way.’

  ‘She seems to have money. She might buy stuff from you. That’s a brand new flashy car she’s driving.’

  ‘Yes. She offered me a ride but I said no. Maybe she’s lonely and wants to show it off to someone.’

  ‘That sounds more like it, and more like you.’

  ‘Yeah. Thanks Pauline. I feel better about it all now.’

  Sunday 9th November 2008

  Fiona arrived at Judith’s flat to pick her up to go to visit their mother at Mill View. She looked around enviously as always. She was a bit fed up with living in their mother’s old house. Judith’s flat was part of an old building conversion in Shaw’s Lane. It was very posh, standing back from the road and overlooking its own lawns and across to hills in the distance. Her sister must be doing well for herself living here and driving her new red BMW.

  ‘I’ll take my car, Fi.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. We may as well all go together. Rosie’s in the car waiting for us.’

  ‘I don’t really want to go at all. She’ll be fine with you and Rosie.’

  ‘I know you don’t want to go. That’s why we’re going in my car, so that you can’t slope off.’

  Judith sighed and put her coat on. ‘What is the point of all of us going? She doesn’t know who’s who at the best of times. She’ll just get confused.’

  Fiona dragged herself away from everything she longed for in a dining kitchen; from the Belfast style sink, integrated oven, centre island with a Neff gas hob. She was still struggling on with their mother’s oven that must be over twenty-five years old.

  ‘Maybe she’ll be less confused if she sees us together. It might help her sort it out in her head. Anyway, I want to broach the subject of power of attorney to make sure she knows what we’re planning. Actually it’s more that we are all agreed on what we want to do. You haven’t involved me in it at all yet.’

  ‘You’ve been off your head on tranquilisers for the last month!’ Judith said this as she got into the car.

  ‘Judith, don’t talk to Mum like that. She’s been really worried about Granny. That’s all. And you haven’t been much help.’

  With a huge amount of self-control, Judith turned to her niece, smiled and said, ‘Yes, Rosie, I know. Sorry. We are all dealing with this in our own ways.’ She smiled to herself knowing that that would shut them up.

  At Mill View they eventually got through the security doors and signed in at reception then made their way across the coarse, hard-wearing carpet into the day room. Judith wondered, not for the first time, how they managed to make the carpet smell of bleach. Still, better that than other things. They looked round.

  ‘Ah, Judith, Fiona, and hello Rosie. Your mother’s in her room. She didn’t want to come downstairs after lunch.’ One of the carers, about their mother’s age, had known them all their lives and took a special interest in Mrs. Dillon.

  ‘OK,’ said Rosie and ran up the stairs to find her granny.

  ‘How has she been?’ asked Fiona.

  ‘A little unsettled, actually, since Henry Lloyd died.’

  ‘So Henry Lloyd is dead?’ asked Judith, ‘Mum said he was when I popped out here last week. I thought she’d got confused.’

  ‘He died peacefully in his sleep. It’s always sad when we lose a resident but it is the best way for them to go.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ agreed Judith as she recalled her last conversation with him. She remembered that Henry had a nephew somewhere who had once been sweet on her. She might need to use that to her advantage if people start snooping around looking at his finances. It was indeed the best way for him to go. Certainly if any foul play was suspected there would be investigations into his last payments.

  ‘Mum, Ju, come up quick,’ called Rosie, looking over her shoulder down the long corridor, which was the way to her granny’s room.

  Fiona ran up the stairs to join her daughter.

  ‘It’s Granny,’ started Rosie, but before she finished the sentence, her granny appeared on the landing with her coat on and a case packed.

  ‘Ah good. You’ve come to take me home at last.’

  Judith instantly forgot Henry Lloyd and marched up the stairs to steer her mother back to her room and unpack her bag.

  Later that evening, Fiona and Rosie sat at the big kitchen table eating supper and drinking tea.

  ‘Mum, don’t cry again, please.’

  ‘It’s not only Granny,’ she sniffed, ‘it’s Judith as well. She’s such a, a, a cow sometimes.’

  ‘Oh Mum, she’s just like that sometimes. It’s just her way.’

  ‘It’s true though. All that rubbish about ‘we are all dealing with it in our own way’, that was to make you think she’s suffering as well. She isn’t. She and Granny always had this thing between them. It was never an easy relationship, well, not since…’

  ‘I know, Mum, don’t go through it again. It certainly isn’t your fault.’

  ‘No, and she knows that but she’s always been bitter. I think she’s glad Granny’s at Mill View and out of the way. She seems to want Granny’s money. That’s why she won’t let me go with her to the solicitor.’

  ‘You can go to the solicitor. Just do it if you want to.’

  ‘You can come if you want.’

  ‘Not really,’ said Rosie.

  ‘She wants us out of this house as well, you know.’

  ‘She does not. She wouldn’t do that. We’ve lived here for years looking after Granny. Maybe you’re over-reacting a bit because of the tablets you’re taking. Judith wouldn’t make us leave. She couldn’t make us leave, could she?’

  ‘Well, that’s what she wants. She wants the house sold and the money shared out so she doesn’t have to see us any more and we don’t have to see her.’

  ‘Mum, she doesn’t, she wouldn’t! I’m going to ring and ask her.’

  ‘Calm down, Rosie. Don’t ring when you’re upset by it. You’ll be off to university next year and the house will be too big for just me. It is sensible; it’s just that Judith will try to force it through more quickly than I want.’

  ‘I bet it takes ages to sort out all the legal stuff. OK, I will come with you to the solicitor but only to make sure that Judith doesn’t bully you.’

  ‘Thanks, love. I’ll make an appointment for after school next week.’

  Judith sat in her flat with her feet up and a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Her favourite place to sit was in a deep, comfortable armchair in an alcove with a window from floor to ceiling. Even in the dark she looked out with the curtains open. Really, she despaired of her sister. If she hadn’t been there today, Fiona would probably have brought their mother home again and they would have been back at virtually square one. The sooner that house was sold, the better.

  Wednesday 12th November 2008

  Helen the Whirlwind was waiting at the door before Judith arrived at the office, and so was Audrey Henson. Judith cursed silently. She had been so delighted at Helen dealing with the backlog of filing that she had forgotten completely about Henson Electrical’s accounts. She also made a mental note to get a key cut for Helen. The pressure of having to be at the office at the very beginning and very end of every working day was going to get tiresome.

  Mrs. Henson blanked Helen completely. ‘Ah, Miss Dillon. I thought you opened at nine in the morning.’

  ‘Miss Dillon was delayed this morning,’ said Helen, ‘perhaps I can get you a cup of coffee while you wait.’

  ‘Wa
it?’ Mrs. Henson sounded incredulous. ‘Wait for what? I wish to speak with Miss Dillon immediately. My time is valuable, even if hers is not.’

  Helen stood between Judith and Mrs. Henson until Judith had gone into her office. She quickly retrieved Henson’s file and had it open on her desk when Mrs. Henson eventually got past the sturdy Helen and barged in.

  ‘All done,’ she smiled. ‘I would have posted it to you. You really didn’t need to come in to pick it up.’

  ‘You said you would contact me by the end of last week.’

  Ah! Good point, thought Judith. She had forgotten that. ‘I did ring a couple of times,’ she eventually lied, ‘but there was no reply.’ And by some miracle, Mrs. Henson did not contradict her. ‘So, the accounts are here and the invoice will follow in the post.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, picked up her books and walked out.

  Helen came into Judith’s office.

  ‘Thanks Helen. Good try, but you’ll have to block the door completely to keep Mrs. Henson out.’

  ‘Call me your gatekeeper,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I’m usually better than that.’

  ‘I was thinking of getting a key cut for you,’ said Judith. ‘Kate didn’t need one because she kept school hours and I was always here before and after her.’

  ‘Good idea,’ and she held her hand out for the key. ‘If you give it to me now I’ll get one cut at lunch time when I’m out.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Judith as she handed it over. She couldn’t believe her luck.

  Friday 14th November 2008

  It was a full week before Chloe rang Judith, and she felt bad about it. Louise was due in at two o’clock to take over from her so she felt on safe ground inviting Judith at about one.

  ‘Thanks Chloe. Shall I pick up sandwiches on my way over?’

  ‘No, it’s OK, I’ve got plenty. Oh, as long as you’re not veggie.’

  ‘No, I’ll eat anything. See you about one o’clock.’