‘We didn’t ascertain that,’ said Valerie. ‘All we do know is that she says that she has discovered a certain kind of peace and contentment. I am paraphrasing, of course. Her language was a little more colourful. But suffice to say we are satisfied that she will be happier in Cornwall.’
‘What about Sasha?’
‘Who?’
‘Her son, Sasha.’
‘As far as I know, he’s with his father at the moment, but apparently he’s quite keen on growing vegetables as well. He won BBC Young Gardener last year. Did you know?’
Know? I filled in the application form and videoed him in the garden.
‘If you talk to Maribelle again,’ I said, ‘will you send her my best wishes?’
‘Will do. Anyway,’ went on Valerie, ‘we’ve been clearing out the office. She’s left something for you.’
‘Me?’ What on earth could Maribelle have left me?
‘A pair of shoes,’ she said. ‘Navy Manolo Blahniks. You are lucky. Are you the same size?’
I actually laughed. Those were the shoes that she would take off and aim at my head. And now she had given them to me, maybe as a reminder of the eight years I spent learning how to duck. ‘Would you do me a favour?’ I asked. ‘Would you drop them off at a charity shop for me?’
‘Of course. Any particular charity shop? I like Cancer Research myself.’
‘Women’s Aid?’ I said. ‘Is there one near you? I would really appreciate it.’
‘Yes, I pass one every day on Upper Street. Consider it done. Anyway, back to your employment. We are pleased to offer you a new position in the company,’ went on Valerie. ‘We have a wonderful new equity strategist starting in two weeks, and we look forward to you starting with him.’
Oh God, no way. I just couldn’t. This was my moment, this was my chance to make a choice between living a life for me or living a life for other people.
‘Your salary will be in line with your previous salary…’ went on Valerie. ‘Terms and conditions, holidays, et cetera, benefits in continuation. Or…’
Or? There was an or? ‘Or what?’ I could barely breathe. There was no way I was going back. Over the last few weeks, I had rediscovered that there was life outside of that toxic bubble.
‘Or we could offer you redundancy. Now, I know this isn’t what you might want. Not in this economic climate. And having to go back out there and do the whole job search again. I know I couldn’t…’
I could have danced. I did dance. Yes, please!
‘I’ll take it,’ I said, quickly. ‘I am formally announcing my resignation and acceptance of the redundancy.’
‘But you don’t want to hear the terms? It’s not the most generous of redundancy packages… I mean, the statutory pay is something we could negotiate.’
‘I don’t care,’ I said. ‘I’ll take it.’
‘Okay, Olivia,’ she said, ‘I suppose we could add another £10,000.’
‘I don’t care,’ I said. ‘You have just given me my freedom. I feel like I just might have a life to live.’
‘You are a very tough negotiator,’ she went on. ‘We might be able to stretch to another £15,000. Would that satisfy you?’
‘I don’t mind,’ I said, elated. ‘I used to have a life, Valerie. I used to be excited and passionate about what I did all day. Working with Maribelle nearly crushed me. But now I am free!’
‘You really do drive a hard bargain,’ said Valerie. ‘If pushed, we could add another £10,000 to the package. Will you accept?’
‘Yes, please!’
‘Well, we’ll start the paperwork straight away and get back to you. And I’ll drop the shoes to Women’s Aid this evening.’
‘Thank you, Valerie,’ I said. ‘Thanks for everything.’
‘Olivia,’ she said, ‘you drive a very hard bargain.’ I wondered, was she saying this for the benefit of someone else? ‘And best of British to you. Or should I say Irish.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!’
‘And to you, Valerie! Goodbye!’ I put the phone down, thinking I could forgive her terrible stage-Irish because I was now in delighted receipt of a very nice redundancy package. This changed everything… this meant I would be able… But from outside, down the street, there was a scream. Jessica and I looked at each other.
‘It sounds like Betty,’ said Jessica, as we both ran to the door.
The woman was now screeching at the top of her lungs and we both tried to make out what she was saying.
‘Did she say a fire?’ I said.
The two of us stared at each other in horror.
‘Nouveau You’s on fire!’ Jessica yelled, and we immediately began running down the road, to the soundtrack of Betty’s increasingly blood-curdling screams.
‘FIRE! JENNIFER-LOUISE IS IN THERE! MY SHOP! FIIIIIIRE!’
The world seemed to tremble as Betty’s ululations shook the very foundations of the village. People appeared out of doorways, heads were poked out of windows, villagers began a stampede as, en masse, we moved up the main street shouting random unhelpful things. We panicked as one.
Smoke was billowing out of the flat above Nouveau You. Jennifer-Louise and Graham lived there and Betty was standing on the street below shouting up, ‘Jennifer-Louise! Jennifer-Louise! My baby! YOUR BABY! Oh my God! Oh My GOOOOOOOOOODDDDD!’
And then we saw flames licking at the window, the black smoke appeared darker and more malevolent as it plumed heavenward, the whole sky like a shadow above us.
Alison from Albatross was on her mobile. ‘Fire engine is on its way!’ she shouted, as we all looked desperately to the window upstairs.
Mrs O’Keefe tried to put her arms around Betty. ‘We’ll get her out,’ she said, ‘you don’t worry yourself about it now. It’s not like it’s The Towering Inferno. Now, that was some fire. We’ll get it before it gets to the rafters… that’s when it really burns.’
Betty shook her off, eyes pinned to the windows up above. ‘Jennifer-Louise!’ she shouted. ‘JENNIFER-LOUISE!’
I rattled the door of the flat uselessly.
‘I’ve phoned a fella who has a skeleton key,’ said Bernard Murphy, his face flame-red with excitement. ‘He could get into the Central Bank. Not,’ he added, ‘that he’s tried. Not recently anyway. Those days are past him now. He says.’
‘Couldn’t we break it down?’ I suggested, desperately wishing that there was something we could do.
‘We could,’ said Bernard Murphy, ‘but my hips are not what they were.’
Everyone began to gather – Catherine and Jake, Mum and Henry, the whole team from Janet’s cake shop, Matt from The Island. Anthony from the newsagents. Bronagh and her team. Soon, the whole village was staring up at the window, shouting for Jennifer-Louise.
Finally, in the far distance was the sound of a siren.
‘Here they are now,’ someone said.
‘Thanks be to God,’ said another.
And then a silence, where there was no crackle, no shouting, no panicking, not even any breathing, and then BOOM! The front windows of the flat exploded, glass fell like hailstones and we screamed as one.
Poor Jennifer-Louise! We all began shouting her name as the sirens got louder and for a moment none of us knew what to do. Did we just wait for them to arrive or should we try and get her?
I kept my eyes on the window, hoping she would appear. We could catch her, I was thinking. We could stand with our arms out and catch her…
But someone was pushing his way through the crowd and headed straight for the door of the flat, his foot raised, and with one heavy, hard thump, he booted in the door and disappeared inside. On the ground was a tiny Yorkshire terrier, his face one of terror as his owner disappeared inside, suddenly consumed by the thick black smoke. It was Will.
‘Go on, Dr Butler!’ someone shouted.
‘Jaysis!’ shouted someone else. ‘Be careful in there!’
Catherine clutched my arm. ‘Oh my God,’ she breathed. ‘Please let them
be all right.’
Jake stood beside her, watching, eyes wide.
Bernard announced, ‘Right, if he’s going in, so am I!’
And just as he took a deep breath, ready to plunge inside, Mrs O’Keefe screamed. ‘Bernard! Don’t! You’ll get yourself killed!’
But emerging from the smoke was Will again, this time carrying Jennifer-Louise in his arms.
‘I’m all right!’ she shouted. ‘I’m all right!’
Betty fell onto the two of them, sobbing. ‘Thank God,’ she said. ‘My babies, my babies.’
Pablo began yapping at Will, looking to be picked up. ‘Come here,’ said Will, scooping him up. ‘You didn’t need to worry.’
Two fire engines and an ambulance pulled up and, in moments, hoses were rolled out and attached to faucets and water was being directed at the top window.
Jennifer-Louise was sitting in a wheelchair stretcher being examined and Will was also being checked out by one of the paramedics but was soon submerged by the crowd.
‘It wasn’t too bad,’ I heard him say. ‘She was on her way down, and just fell at the end. I think the fire is in the front of the flat, and she was in the back… No, no, I’m fine… I didn’t think, really, just had to go in… No, I’m grand, thank you… Cup of tea would be nice…’ He caught me looking over and he smiled, but then he was suddenly swept up by the crowd again, backslapping, arm-rubbing, excited chatter. There was the sound of steam hissing from the flat as the water extinguished the flames. There was a shout behind us, as Graham, Jennifer-Louise’s husband, raced towards her, his briefcase abandoned mid-road, his face a vision of blind panic. The rest of us stood back to give the crew and Jennifer-Louise space and we crowded around Will, eager to hear his side of the story.
‘I once forced my way into a house,’ Bernard was saying. ‘The lock was broken and…’
But no one was listening as everyone was far too busy marvelling at Will’s heroics.
‘Like Superman,’ I heard someone say.
‘No, Superman would have flown in,’ someone answered. ‘This was more like the Hulk.’
Jake had both arms wrapped around Will’s waist as Will nodded and tried to play it down. ‘It was nothing,’ he kept saying. ‘I was lucky, honestly. I didn’t do anything. I would have had to have turned back if it was any worse.’
Jennifer-Louise’s chair was being lifted onto the back of the ambulance just as Betty was trying to scramble on board, sobbing, ‘I’m here, Jennifer-Louise, Mummy’s here!’ But Graham had jumped on board before Betty could grab hold of the rail.
‘Sorry, Mum,’ said Jennifer-Louise, removing her oxygen mask to speak. ‘It’s only one person allowed. It has to be Graham.’
‘But… but…’ Betty tried to speak. ‘I can be there as well,’ she said, in a small voice. ‘You won’t even know I’m there.’
‘Sorry, Mrs Boyle,’ said Graham.
‘I’ll call you from the hospital!’ shouted Jennifer-Louise just as the doors were closed.
‘Here, Betty.’ Mum held out her hand to her, as Betty, shoulders slumped, turned away from Jennifer-Louise, defeated. ‘Come on, we’ll get everything sorted. Okay?’
‘Everyone come to Albatross,’ shouted Alison to the crowd. ‘Tea and cake on the house!’
28
In the café, Alison went round handing out cups of tea and large slices of various cakes, James was behind the counter expertly frothing milk for the coffees.
‘I’ll try the chocolate cake and the lemon drizzle,’ Bernard said.
‘You could never make up your mind, could you?’ said Mrs O’Keefe, giving him a look.
Jessica had gone back to the shop to close up, not wanting to be late for her pickup by Damien. ‘Will you be all right?’ I asked, meaningfully… hopefully.
‘Of course I will!’ She gave me her beautiful big smile. ‘Remember, alegría!’
‘Alegría,’ I echoed, and then hugged her. I wasn’t quite sure why, but suddenly I felt I needed to. ‘Take care, Jess,’ I said. ‘Okay?’
I watched her walk back up the street to the shop, looking small and dainty, the kind of woman that, if you saw her in the street, you would think she had everything. You might even feel envious of her, a woman who had it all.
In the café, I stood with Mum and Henry, who were talking to Betty.
‘It was a scented candle,’ Betty was saying. ‘Tuberose. Set fire to the curtain. I knew there was polyester in them! I was told they were one hundred per cent cotton, but you can always tell. And we’d know, wouldn’t we, Nell, being in the business we’re in? We know our polycottons from our natural fibres. I knew I was right.’
‘Of course, Betty,’ soothed Mum.
‘And I always say to my customers a scented candle is the most relaxing thing you can have.’ She shook her head. ‘I was wrong. To think that one could have killed my precious daughter and my as-yet-unborn grandchild. You don’t sell them, do you, Nell? I think I am going to start a campaign to ban them… we can’t have innocent families going through this! I’ll write to The Irish Times…’
‘You do that,’ said Mum. ‘But first we’re going to have a nice cup of tea and then we can go and have a look at the damage so you know what you’re dealing with and then you can get your insurance claim in.’
Betty nodded, meekly. ‘Thank you, Nell.’
‘I’ll go and get a cup from Alison,’ said Henry, disappearing.
‘Extra sugar!’ shouted Betty at him. ‘I shouldn’t for my gut biome,’ she said to Mum and me, ‘but I think today calls for it.’
‘At least it didn’t touch the shop,’ went on Mum to Betty. ‘You’ll be open for business in the morning! Ah, here he is, the man of the moment. The hero of Sandycove.’ She and Will exchanged special smiles.
‘How are you feeling today, Nell?’
‘Wonderful,’ she said. ‘I can’t express…’
‘Oh, Dr Butler,’ muscled in Betty, back to her full self. ‘How can I ever thank you? As Nell was just saying, we are so, so grateful for your heroics. Like Rhett Butler when Atlanta was burning, I was thinking. The way you braved those flames! I don’t know how you did it. But the most important lesson to be learned is the perils of the scented candle.’
Will looked confused. ‘Scented candles?’
‘Yes! Do you like them?’
‘Um…’ Will had obviously not given the subject a lot of thought. ‘Well, I am not against them…’
‘But you must be!’ she said. ‘You must be against them!’
‘Okay…’ He nodded at her, making an allowance for Betty’s trauma. ‘I will be against them then…’
‘Good, good, because it would be a great irony if you, of all people, were for them.’
Will turned to me for some kind of explanation. ‘Betty believes it was a scented candle…’ I began.
‘Tuberose,’ Betty reminded me.
‘That it was a tuberose scented candle which started the fire.’
‘Ah,’ said Will, it all making sense. ‘Then I am definitely against any fire-starting tuberose candles.’
Mum and Henry were, I noticed, holding hands. They looked good together, just happy and comfortable in each other’s company. That’s what relationships were meant to be, someone who made your life better simply by being who they were. It didn’t have to be complicated or a constant negotiation or anything that wasn’t easy. It should be easy. Mum was right, I had been living life for other people, putting their needs first. And it would be good if I could think about mine. But I didn’t even know what they were. And now with the redundancy, this was perhaps my chance to make a change. Maybe I could…
Will turned to me.
‘Olivia,’ he said, ‘I was wondering if you might like to join me for a drink?’
‘Just Olivia?’ said Betty, looking put out. ‘Because I could…’
‘Just Olivia,’ said Will, firmly.
He was still smiling at me, while Mum made wild and enthusiastic facial
expressions at me from behind Will’s back. Even Henry gave me the thumbs up.
‘That would be lovely,’ I said, relieved I was wearing my new top and jeans and that my frumpy clothes were destined for the charity shop. And now I was no longer a corporate slave, all those skirt suits and shirts and low-heeled shoes would be gone. I couldn’t believe how much had changed in the last three weeks. I felt like me, but improved. Me, but a little bit more like me, if that made sense.
‘Well, that was exciting.’ Will and I walked, side by side, along Church Street towards The Island, Pablo trotting along between us.
‘Oh God,’ he groaned. ‘I feel something of a charlatan. It wasn’t as if I saved her life. It was only a small fire. And the door opened embarrassingly easy. I think the lock was loose. I mean, Jake could have kicked it open.’
‘You may as well enjoy it,’ I said. ‘How often do you get to play hero?’
‘I should take out an advert in the Sandycove Newsletter, explaining how easy it was. How the lock was loose and Jennifer-Louise was already down the stairs, and how she only fainted when I arrived.’
We sat in the courtyard garden of the pub, on an old park bench surrounded by pots of red-flowered geraniums, their scent hovering around us as the sky above was like a canopy of deep blue.
‘Why do things happen here?’ I asked. ‘In London, nothing happens. It’s just me and my friend Roberto living our lives. Here, it’s been a rollercoaster.’
‘I think that when you live in a small place, you get caught up in things,’ Will replied. He looked up as Matt delivered our drinks. ‘Thanks, Matt. Anyway,’ he said to me, ‘here, you’re really part of things so life seems more dramatic, but it’s really second-hand drama.’
‘I thought I would really miss London,’ I said, ‘but a month back home has been more exhausting than a month in London.’ Pablo had crept up on the bench and was resting his head on my leg. He was warming to me, as much as I was to him.
‘So…’ Will spoke exaggeratedly casually, ‘tell me about your boyfriend?’ He gave me a look which made me feel as though the universe liked me.
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