by Annie Weir
‘I know. But she is right. You’ll be away soon and this place is too big for just me.’
‘Next October isn’t soon. It’s nearly a year. She can’t force us to sell. And she can’t use the power of attorney for her own gain; I’ve read all the stuff.’ She squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘We’ll have fun with Granny. Forget Judith.’
‘Yes, but that means that Judith will be on her own at Christmas.’
‘That’s her bad luck. Anyway she’ll make friends with you before then.’
Judith was fed up with arguing with Fiona but their conversations always seemed to end badly. She decided to call Chloe about their lunch date.
‘Hi Chloe. You busy today?’
‘Yes, very.’
‘I’ll pick up a sandwich for you when I go out to get one. Anything in particular you fancy? Is Louise there? Does she want one as well?’
‘Thanks Judith, anything for me. I don’t think I’ll have long to stop, though. Louise is popping out later so she’s already had hers.’
‘She’ll be starving by four o’clock, then.’
‘Yes, but she’ll just eat again then. She never puts on a scrap of weight. It’s really not fair.’
‘OK, see you about half twelve.’
Whatever was wrong with Chloe on Tuesday, she seemed to have got over it. Who knew what was going on in her life? She seemed friendly but didn’t give much away. Judith decided to finish off the self-assessment tax return she was part-way through before going out. It was quite complex with different income streams and just the sort of job she loved doing. It worked wonders for her mood and she forgot about the argument with Fiona.
Louise looked across at Chloe. Her friend so seldom sat still.
‘What?’
‘Judith’s bringing me a sandwich later. I feel so stupid about the other night. I don’t know what to say.’
‘She wasn’t put off that you didn’t take up her offer of a lift?’
‘No, it doesn’t look like it.’
‘She’s thick-skinned. Don’t say anything then. You don’t have to explain your choices to her. Just behave normally.’
‘OK, and hopefully she will have got the message and won’t ask me again.’
‘Yes, better to keep business and pleasure separate.’
‘Good advice from the woman who married her best customer some years ago!’
Louise laughed. ‘Exactly! Take it from one who knows about these things.’
‘Fair point and well made. I will do as you say.’
‘Do you think she fancies you? Is that why you feel uncomfortable?’
‘I never know when a guy fancies me so I probably wouldn’t notice if a woman did.’
‘I notice these things, and I would say not, actually. I’ll take more notice when she’s here. I am assuming you want me to hang around until she goes?’
‘If you can, yes please. What time do you need to go out?’
‘I’ve got an appointment with the dreaded bank manager, but I can call and make it later than two if you need me here. Wait and see. She probably won’t stay that long.’
Lunch was quite jolly. Between customers Chloe and Louise were looking through some of what they called ‘new’ stock but which was clearly rather old. Chloe had bought quite a lot of antique jewellery and Judith decided to buy all the family Christmas presents there and then; a brooch for her mother and earrings for Fiona and Rosie. She told Chloe and Louise that these were extra presents for them after the difficult time they’d all had recently.
‘Something for you as well then, Judith,’ said Louise looking at the colour of Judith’s eyes. ‘Green, I think, will suit your colouring.’ She held up some jade earrings to her face as she directed her to look in a mirror with an ornate gold surround she brought over from the selling area. They dangled just below the sharp cut of her hair.
‘They look fabulous, Judith. Gosh Louise, you are clever to pick out something just like that,’ said Chloe.
‘Ah ha, I don’t have many talents, but that is one of them. They’ve got your name written all over them, haven’t they? Chloe, couldn’t we do Judith a really good deal as she’s buying the other pieces?’
‘Yes, of course. It’s nice to be able to offer a bargain to our friends. What do you think Judith? Do you like them?’
‘I love them,’ she said. ‘Yes, you are clever Louise. I would never have picked them out for myself.’
Louise started a complicated charade of pricing and discounting that left even Judith’s accountancy head reeling, but eventually she settled on £186. She noticed Judith twitch slightly at the amount and quickly said, ‘OK, make it £175, because it’s you. Not a word, Chloe, it’s only fair to look after one of our favourite customers.’
Judith realised that this might be Louise’s way of telling her that it hadn’t gone unnoticed that so far she wasn’t a customer of any sort. She had taken far more than she had ever given to Chloe’s enterprise. She didn’t feel as though she could refuse.
‘Perfect,’ she said, ‘just perfect. I’ll need to go to the bank. I don’t carry that sort of cash around with me.’
‘We take credit cards,’ said Louise as she lifted the machine from the neat desk drawer and placed it in front of Judith.
Chloe smiled and cooed over the purchases as she covered them carefully in tissue paper then gift-wrapped each one. There was no turning back. Judith handed over her credit card.
‘£175!’ said Chloe as Louise put on her coat to go to the bank later. ‘You know I wouldn’t have put any one of those pieces at over thirty pounds each?’
‘I know. See you later.’
At five-thirty Judith crossed the road to walk down the lane to the car park and saw Chloe talking to someone. She turned to move on as Judith approached and jumped as she heard her call out.
‘Chloe, we really must stop meeting like this!’
‘Yes, we must,’ she replied, meaning it. ‘I must get on or I’ll miss my train, again.’
‘I’ll give you a lift. My car’s right here.’
‘No, really Judith, I want to catch the train,’ she said and marched off down the hill. ‘See you soon.’
Oh really, thought Judith, what is wrong with that woman? What’s wrong with my sister? What’s wrong with my secretary? I am fed up with all of them. Then the posters in the travel agent caught her eye and she decided there and then that she would go away for Christmas. Bugger the lot of them.
Friday 19th December 2008
Helen had asked for the day off to go Christmas shopping in Newcastle so Judith pottered around the office. She had booked a holiday on-line the night before and spent the day finishing off bits and pieces. There wasn’t too much to do so she started to look through the filing cabinet that Helen kept so neatly. Everything was in alphabetical order as before, but she had devised some sort of colour code that Judith was determined to crack. It appeared quite simple; the coloured stickers denoted the level of turnover of each business. No, it couldn’t be that, thought Judith as she examined a couple with blue spots. No, it was more to do with the complexity of the business. James’s, for example, had a high turnover but relatively few transactions and they were all very simple to account for. That had a blue spot. A small, private training company with a mixture of income streams, some of which incurred VAT and some which didn’t, had a red sticker. They were trying to keep below the VAT threshold because they had a lot of individual clients and charity clients who wouldn’t be able to claim it back. Yes, it must be to do with complexity. She wondered why Helen needed that sort of information on a day-to-day basis. She would keep an eye on it. Not today, though. She needed to leave a note for Helen then go home and pack ready for her early flight the next day.
‘Helen. I have decided to book a last-minute holiday. Fly
tomorrow. See you on 29th.’ She added as an afterthought, ‘Have a good Christmas.’ Then she thought she ought to buy her something so dashed out and bought a bottle of wine and a card and left them with the note.
Monday 22nd December 2008
Helen read the note and put her present and card into her bag. It was a large bag, easily big enough for a bottle of wine, some grocery shopping at lunch time and a couple of files with blue dots on.
The postman arrived.
‘Morning Helen. On your own today?’ he asked, looking through the open door into Judith’s office.
‘Yes. She’s gone off on holiday. Last minute thing, but I don’t know where.’
‘Oh well, alright for some.’ He handed over a bundle of letters and turned to leave immediately. ‘It’s my busiest week.’
Helen opened each one and dealt with it as she went. She subscribed to the ‘only handle a piece of paper once’ theory, if possible anyway. Several were from HMRC, that being the nature of their business, but one in particular looked more personal. It was concerning Judith’s own account asking whether she wanted her overpayment to be refunded. Curious, she thought. The next letter was a query from the executor of Henry Lloyd’s will asking about a large cheque that was paid shortly before he died. Curiouser and curiouser, she thought. She put both of them to one side. Those two were worthy of being handled more than once.
She switched on the computer while the kettle boiled then checked and dealt with the emails in the same way that she did letters. Read, respond and file away. Job done. Time now to go back to the new filing system and identify the clients whose books were easy to deal with.
The phone rang. It was Rosie wanting to speak to Judith. She was fed up with her relations arguing all the time and she was determined to smooth everything over before Christmas.
‘Judith’s not here, Rosie, sorry.’
‘OK, what time will she be back?’
‘29th December apparently. She’s got a last minute holiday bargain and just gone.’
‘When? Where?’
‘Saturday but I don’t know where. I found a note when I came in this morning.’
‘Thanks, Helen. I’ll tell Mum. I don’t suppose she knows. See you soon.’
Helen put down the phone and reflected on Judith and her family. She didn’t understand their relationships and truly believed that they didn’t either. Oh well, none of her business anyway. She pulled out the file marked S.L. James Business Consultancy. She had already marked it with blue as a possibility, and she spent the rest of the morning fielding phone calls for Judith and studying the accounts in James’s file. By coincidence, S.L. James phoned just before Helen went out to buy a sandwich for lunch.
‘Hello,’ he said, ‘I was expecting Judith to call me back this morning. Is she there?’
‘No, I’m sorry, she isn’t available until after Christmas now.’
He sighed.
‘Anything I can help with?’
‘It’s about my accounts. Can you help? I’m not sure.’
‘I’ll do my best. I have been looking at your accounts, actually, while Judith is busy with more, um, more complex cases.’
‘I see. I’m not big and important enough, is that is?’
‘I wouldn’t say that, exactly, Mr. James, but I am able to deal with less complex ones.’
‘Are you? Well maybe I should just pay you rather than her exorbitant fees. Or do you charge exorbitant fees as well?’
‘I do a little bit of book-keeping for my own small set of clients. Mostly friends, of course, but I don’t charge much, no.’ Don’t push it, Helen thought, don’t be too obvious.
He sort of laughed as though pretending he had been joking. ‘OK, I’ll tell you what I have in mind and see what you think.’
Really, thought Helen afterwards, these people with so many skills have such limited knowledge when it comes to dealing with their own business finances. His query had been easy. She wondered how he managed to advise other people about their business affairs. He seemed happy with her advice. She would leave it now and come back to it later. S.L. James would be a good client to get for herself. She would make sure he got fed up with dealing with Judith in the New Year.
Friday 26th December 2008
Fiona and Rosie had eaten their lunch and were settling down in front the television to watch and old film together.
‘You’re a good girl, Rosie, spending yesterday with me and your granny, and staying in with me today. You deserve your night out tonight.’
‘Yesterday was OK, wasn’t it? I’m glad Auntie Ju wasn’t there. She would have been tutting and sighing. I wonder where she is?’
‘I wonder but I’m trying not to think about it. Where are you off to later?’
‘I’m going round to Laura’s first then we’re going into town to meet the others.’
‘Do you need a lift?’
‘No, it’s alright. I’ll get the bus back, or walk. I don’t mind. You get a bottle of wine open and take it easy.’
The phone rang and Fiona answered it. She listened intently then said that she would leave immediately.
‘What is it, Mum? Judith?’
‘No. It’s Granny. She’s had a bad fall and the ambulance is on its way. I need to go and meet it at the hospital.’
‘I’ll come too.’
‘Rosie, you really don’t have to. Relax now then enjoy your night out. I’ll go.’
‘No, Mum, I’m coming too.’
The hospital was only a few minutes away by car and they arrived just ahead of the ambulance. Fiona pulled into a parking space and Rosie jumped out and rushed over. Mrs. Dillon tried to sit up and look round but the pain in her shoulder was too much and she lay back down, clearly agitated.
‘Granny,’ called Rosie as she ran across the car park to her grandmother whose stretcher was already being transferred to a trolley. ‘Granny, are you OK?’
‘Fiona, what’s happening?’
‘It’s Rosie, Granny, here’s Mum now, I mean Fiona.’
‘Who’s here? What’s happening? My arm hurts.’
‘I know, Mum,’ said Fiona as she walked along beside the trolley. ‘We’re at hospital. They’ll sort you out and stop it hurting.’
The staff rushed Mrs. Dillon through and Fiona and Rosie were soon informed that she would need an operation to realign the bone in her arm. They were advised to go home. The nurse assured Fiona that she would get a call as soon as her mother was out of theatre.
‘How long is it likely to be?’ asked Fiona.
‘A few hours, probably sometime this evening.’
‘OK, thanks. Come on then Rosie, let’s go.’
By seven o’clock Fiona had persuaded Rosie to have a sandwich and to get ready to go out.
‘I don’t want to go now,’ she protested. ‘I’ll wait here and go back to the hospital with you later.’
‘No, Rosie. I want you to go out. There’ll be nothing for us to do at the hospital anyway.’
‘OK, but ring me if anything happens, or even if you just want some company.’
‘Thank you. I will. Off you go now.’
Rosie kissed her mother on the cheek and said, ‘Have you tried ringing Auntie Ju? She should be here as well.’
‘Yes, I’ve tried. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even take it with her.’
‘She wouldn’t have gone without it,’ said Rosie with the conviction of a seventeen-year-old who couldn’t imagine being parted from her mobile for longer than it took to have a shower.
‘Never mind. We’re here. It doesn’t need all of us. Go on out. I’ll call you if I need you, promise.’
By ten o’clock Fiona was back at the hospital sitting at her mother’s bedside.
She wasn’t fully conscious yet and looked very frail. Fiona held her lifeless, but surprisingly warm hand, and wondered where all the years had gone. Her own mother, looking like this, needing to be looked after and protected. She had never imagined it would have come to this. She had always been so strong. Judith was the same, whereas Fiona herself was more like her father. She knew why Judith and their mother hadn’t got along but it was all such a long time ago. She wondered whether to talk to her about it when she came round from the anaesthetic; maybe in that half-consciousness she would agree to make it up to Judith. On the other hand, maybe it would be better not to go over it again. A hand on her shoulder gave her a start.
‘Hi Mum. How’s Granny?’
‘I didn’t mean you to come here, Rosie. I only texted to let you know.’
‘It’s OK. People were starting to drift away home or on to the club. I didn’t want to go to either. I’ll go and find us a coffee, shall I?’
Sunday 28th December 2008
Judith got home as the sun was setting. She pressed the message button on her telephone to be told that she had three messages.
‘First new message. Hello Judith, Tina here. I need to speak to you urgently. Your mother has had a fall and I’ve called the ambulance. Contact me when you get this message please.’
‘Second new message. Hello Ju, it’s me. Mum’s being taken to hospital. Oh, you’re away aren’t you? I forgot. Force of habit. I’ll call your mobile.’
‘Third new message. Hello Judith, Tina again. I’ve got hold of Fiona. Would still appreciate a call but everything is in hand regarding your mother.’
Judith sighed and switched on her mobile. That will be what the four messages on there would be about as well. She really wanted a shower before doing anything else but called Fiona first.
‘Hi, it’s me. How’s Mum?’
‘Where have you been? We’ve been trying to get hold of you for days.’
‘Away. And it was only two days. How’s Mum?