‘Yes.’
‘Do you know his room number?’
‘No, I’m afraid not.’
‘One minute, please.’
She put Lisa on hold. A tinny version of some classical tune she vaguely recognised kicked in. The wait seemed to go on forever. She was on the verge of hanging up and dialling again when the receptionist came back on the line. ‘I’m sorry. There’s no one of that name staying here. Are you sure it’s right?’
‘Yes, of course I’m sure,’ Lisa snapped.
‘Well, there’s no one of that name staying here. Is there anything else I can help you with?’
Lisa racked her brains, desperately trying to work out what was going on. Surely he wouldn’t have checked out without telling her. Could he be staying there under a different name, perhaps? But why would he? It made no sense.
She told the girl what he looked like and that he was an important businessman from Sydney. She added that he was originally from Aldham and had an unusual accent, somewhere between the two. Surely no one else of that description could have stayed there recently.
‘I’m sorry,’ the girl said, without sounding apologetic. ‘I don’t remember anyone of that description. Is there anything else I can help you with?’
Somehow managing not to swear, Lisa asked to speak to a manager. After being placed on hold again forever, the same annoying voice returned. ‘I’m afraid the manager is currently tied up with something. Can I get him to call you back?’
‘Yes, thank you,’ Lisa replied, forcing herself to remain polite, even though she felt like shouting. ‘Could you emphasise to him that it’s important, please?’
After giving the girl her details and noting down the manager’s name, Lisa hung up. She decided to give it half an hour and, if she hadn’t heard back by then, to go to the hotel in person.
Something didn’t feel right.
She was in the process of recounting the story to Mike when the phone rang.
‘Oh, good,’ she said, racing back to the landline. ‘Hello?’
‘Lisa?’ a shaky voice asked. It was a woman, but definitely not the receptionist she’d spoken to earlier.
‘Yes, speaking. Who’s this?’
‘Um, sorry to call at this time. I know it’s late with you. It’s Wendy, Elliot Turner’s mother,’ the voice replied, totally catching Lisa off-guard.
‘Wendy? Oh my God. How on earth are you? How lovely to hear from you after all these years. Is everything all right? Are you looking for—’
‘No, I’m afraid everything isn’t all right. I’m …’ There was a pause during which Lisa heard a muffled sobbing and then, away from the handset, Wendy’s voice again: ‘I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this.’
‘Wendy, what’s going on?’ Lisa asked, her heart thumping in her chest. ‘What’s happened?’
An Australian man’s voice came on the line. ‘Lisa, love? It’s Ian, Wendy’s husband. I don’t know if you remember me?’
‘Yes, of course. What’s the matter with Wendy, Ian?’
He sighed into the phone. ‘She wanted to do this herself, love, but I’m afraid she’s not up to it. It’s too soon. Everything’s still so raw.’
‘Sorry, I don’t understand. I don’t know what either of you are saying. Is this about Elliot, because I—’
‘I’m afraid it is. There’s no easy way to say this, Lisa. Elliot was in a terrible accident just over a week ago.’
‘I’m sorry, what? I don’t—’
Lisa felt the room start to spin as Ian’s voice continued.
‘Bear with me, darling. This isn’t easy. Please let me finish. He was out surfing in some pretty wild conditions and, well, he got into trouble. They found him washed up on the beach, unconscious and in a really bad way. His head had taken a pounding on some rocks. The docs did everything they could for him, but there was no brain function. We eventually agreed to let them turn the life support off and … we stayed with him as he slipped away. He’s gone now, love.’
Ian kept on talking. He was saying something about how important she’d always been to Elliot and about his will, but Lisa could no longer process the words. She couldn’t comprehend what was going on. This had to be some kind of trick. Or maybe she was dreaming.
How was any of this possible?
She fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, the receiver tumbling out of her hand. She felt woozy and lightheaded – and then she passed out.
CHAPTER 41
NOW
Friday, 3 August 2018
Lisa woke up feeling awful. It was 8.03 a.m. She’d barely slept. She hadn’t been able to turn off her brain, which had been thinking the whole time about Elliot, whose funeral had taken place overnight.
It had been in Sydney, of course: his adopted home; the place where he’d made his life for the past twenty years; the place where he’d died. They were nine hours ahead there, so the 1 p.m. service had occurred at 4 a.m. local time, when Lisa had been tossing and turning in bed.
A week had passed since she’d learned the impossible truth about Elliot and still she couldn’t get her head around it. Of course she couldn’t. It made absolutely no sense. How could Elliot have been here in England with her and her family when he was actually lying in in a hospital intensive care unit in Sydney following the horrific surfing accident that ultimately took his life?
The whole thing was crazy. It was like something out of an old Twilight Zone episode, except – as little sense as it made – she knew that somehow it was real. It had definitely happened, because she and her family had all experienced it; they all remembered Elliot being here.
So how was it possible?
This was the question Lisa had been asking herself non-stop ever since that devastating phone call from Wendy and Ian last week. The only logical explanation she could come up with was that it hadn’t been Elliot at all but rather an impostor. He’d certainly looked and behaved very differently from when she’d last seen him, so to begin with this was a possibility her rational mind had clung to, although her heart told her otherwise.
Then she’d looked up his death on the Internet and found an Australian TV news story that included recent video footage of Elliot being interviewed about his successful educational app. The man she saw and heard was, without question, the same person who’d cooked a roast dinner in her house a few days ago; who’d saved Ben from choking and done so many other things to help her family during the course of his short visit.
So how was it possible?
It wasn’t. And yet it was.
Either that or Lisa had gone insane.
Or maybe this was some long, convoluted dream that she’d suddenly wake up from and her life would be normal again.
The only other person who knew the truth was Mike. He’d found Lisa passed out on the floor after hearing the news from Ian, so of course she’d had to tell him. He’d thought she was winding him up at first, or at least someone was winding her up. When the manager from The Grange had called back, Mike had been the one to speak to him. The next day he’d insisted on visiting the hotel in person. But no one there had remembered Elliot, even when Mike had used his phone to show them that video online.
Now Mike seemed more ready to accept it than Lisa. He said it somehow made a strange kind of sense after what he’d been through with Elliot on his final afternoon. He claimed that Elliot had done something to him then: helped him in a way that he couldn’t exactly remember but which had made him feel an awful lot better about his life in general, infusing him with a new sense of purpose and an ability to move on from the whole Liam Hornby thing.
Obviously Lisa had probed Mike about this, keen for more information, but he genuinely appeared to have forgotten. He said the last thing he remembered was walking down Vicky Lane with Elliot and him pointing out the spot where Lisa had first met her old friend, all those years ago, hiding behind a bush in his underwear. Then he was walking home alone, feeling happier than he had in ages.
They’d already told them that Elliot had needed to rush home unexpectedly. Now the plan was to wait a few weeks before breaking it to them about the surfing accident and the fact Elliot had died, only skipping the details that made no sense. Because how could they tell the kids everything? How could she explain that the accident had taken place before Elliot came to visit them and – as a result of some miracle – a healthy, vibrant version of the man lying broken in hospital in Sydney had turned up here on the other side of the world?
Sometimes as a parent you had to protect your children from the truth. Right or wrong, that was what she and Mike had decided to do. Ben and Chloe had enough on their plates without having to get their heads around this. The plan wasn’t flawless, bearing in mind the information available online, but it was the best they had.
Mike stirred next to her in bed. ‘Are you awake, love?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you manage to get much sleep?’
‘No.’
He leaned over and kissed the end of her nose. ‘I’ll make us a cup of tea.’
Mike had been incredibly supportive about the whole mind-bending situation. He’d been her rock over a difficult few days. It was like her husband of old had returned to take charge at the very moment she needed him most, wrapping a strong arm around her and guiding her through the minefield she’d been dropped into.
‘Do you think I can ring Wendy now to see how the funeral went?’
Mike looked at the alarm clock. ‘Um, five past eight here, so that makes it … five past five in the afternoon there. The funeral was at one, right? And the wake is at their house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Should be fine.’
Lisa took a deep breath. ‘Okay. I’m going to do it. Shut the bedroom door, would you? I don’t want Ben or Chloe to hear anything.’
‘Of course.’
Once she was alone, Lisa picked up the phone and stared at it for a long moment before dialling the number. She hadn’t told Wendy or Ian about Elliot’s visit here. How could she? They’d think she was loopy. She had discussed flying over for the funeral, but they’d talked her out of it.
‘That’s lovely of you, darling,’ Wendy had said when Lisa phoned her back the day after the initial call, having gathered her thoughts. ‘But you really shouldn’t fly all that way. It’s not what Elliot would have wanted. He’d rather you remembered him how he used to be. He’s not here any more. His body’s an empty shell now. His soul is free. You don’t need to come here to say goodbye to him. You can do that in Aldham, where there are so many happy memories of the two of you together.’
Wendy was calmer that time. She was more philosophical, although she confessed to being constantly up and down, saying that Lisa had happened to catch her at a good moment.
Today it was Ian who answered the phone. Wendy was in a bad way, he said. And although the wake was still in progress at their house, she’d retired to bed.
‘Poor thing,’ Lisa said. ‘Give her my love, won’t you?’
‘Of course.’
‘How was it?’
He let out a heavy sigh. ‘Difficult, of course, but everyone was lovely. There was a fantastic turnout and … you know. It went as well as these things can.’
‘I wish I could have been there.’
‘Don’t be silly. It wouldn’t have made any sense for you to fly all this way. No one expected you to, Lisa. Oh, and thank you for the lovely flowers you sent. They arrived first thing this morning.’
‘It was the least I could do.’
Ian cleared his throat. ‘You meant a great deal to Elliot. I know you hadn’t seen each other for a long time, but that was only because of the distance. He often spoke of you and how you were always coming to his rescue as a nipper. And none of us will ever forget how you saved him from that fire.’ His voice wavered as he added: ‘He might not have lived a long life in the end, but you more than doubled what he did get. I know he always planned to return to Aldham one day to see you and your family. It’s such a shame it didn’t happen. He never forgot about you, though. I can promise you that, love. That’s why we called you so soon after he died.’
After Lisa had hung up, promising to phone again tomorrow, Mike returned with two cups of tea. ‘Did you speak to Wendy?’
‘No, she was too upset. She’d gone to bed, apparently, but I had a word with Ian. He said everything went well.’
It felt so weird to be talking about this like it was a regular funeral, when nothing about the situation was normal. She and Mike had discussed it so many times over the past week, there was little more to say. It made absolutely no sense – but it was what it was.
‘Do you think we’ll see him again?’ she asked her husband.
He sat down next to her on the bed and gave her a reassuring hug. ‘It would be nice to think so, wouldn’t it? I guess anything’s possible in light of what we now know about Elliot.’
‘But he was still alive – well, his body was at least – when he came here. Do you think that was the key?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know. If you’d asked me that same question a month ago, I’d have feared for your mental health. But look where I was a month ago, compared to where I am now. I feel like a different person, like I’ve found myself again, and so much of that is down to him.’
Lisa couldn’t argue with this. Mike’s new calmness and understanding had been a godsend. His rediscovered tenderness and affection had also done wonders for their relationship, which had flourished both physically and mentally in recent days.
‘However he did it, Elliot came to us for a reason,’ Mike continued. ‘He helped all of us in different ways and we’re much better for it as a family. I think we need to focus on that and try to forget about the inexplicable stuff, because we’ll only tie ourselves in knots. You, Ben, Chloe and I: we all need to appreciate how lucky we are to be here and to have one another.’
Lisa knew that her husband was right. Previously, before learning of Elliot’s death, she’d found herself envying the time he’d spent with the rest of her family rather than her. She recognised how incredibly selfish that was now. But still she yearned for some closure. She couldn’t help but wish that she’d got the chance to say a proper goodbye to her old friend and to thank him for everything.
That afternoon Lisa, who was feeling the effects of her lack of sleep the night before, told Mike she was going for a nap upstairs.
‘No problem, love.’ He barely looked up from his laptop, typing enthusiastically at the kitchen table.
It was a sunny afternoon and the kids were both out with friends. In Chloe’s case it was Saima, who she was getting on well with, now that horrible Holly was out of the picture. They’d been meeting up daily and Chloe seemed to have put the whole nasty messages thing behind her for now.
Ben was with Oliver, a boy he’d been friends with since primary school, who Lisa had always liked. He was shy but polite. She had a feeling Ben might be warming up to telling him about being gay, although the official line was that he didn’t plan on sharing the information with anyone outside the family yet. All in good time. The important thing was that Ben seemed far more happy and relaxed since telling them. Lisa doubted it would all be plain sailing. When was it with any teenager? But at least he could now be open and honest with them.
Up in the bedroom, Lisa opened a window to let in some air and drew the curtains. She didn’t bother undressing, opting to lie down on top of the quilt. A moment later, she was asleep.
She found herself back in her childhood bedroom. She was lying on the single bed and everything was just as it had been when she’d first moved to Aldham, before they’d had a chance to change the manky brown carpet and cover the ‘bogey’ green walls, as Jamie had loved to call them.
; Madonna and Prince were staring down at her from the walls; there was a healthy pile of well-thumbed Smash Hits and Jackie magazines, alongside her old pink radio-cassette player. She sat up and walked over to the dressing table, which was covered in the kind of hair and beauty products she used to love as a girl. Then she looked in the mirror and, staring back at her, she saw the reflection of her eleven-year-old self.
There was a knock on the closed bedroom door.
‘Hello?’ she said, walking over and opening it a tiny crack to see who was there.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a bespectacled, curly haired, overweight young Elliot flashing a wonky grin back at her, looking exactly like he had when they’d first met.
‘Are you going to let me in then, or what?’ he asked.
‘Of course,’ she replied, swinging the door open. ‘Is it really you, El?’
‘It sure is,’ he replied in his high-pitched boy’s voice. ‘How are you, Lise?’
She pulled him into an embrace and held him tight. Then she let go and looked him square in the eyes. ‘Is it you you? The one who came to visit us somehow, despite the fact it was impossible?’
He nodded. ‘The very same.’
‘So why did you leave without saying goodbye? How on earth were you there in the first place? And …’
She paused as her mind caught up with her mouth. In a quieter voice she added: ‘So you’re dead?’
‘In human terms, yes.’
For the first time, the hard truth of this fact really dawned on her. It was too much. She fell back on to the bed and the tears started to flow. ‘Are you okay? Will I ever see you again, like you were, for real? I’ve only just got my best friend back and now …’
Elliot took a seat next to her and pulled her into a hug. Despite the boyish tone of his voice, Lisa still recognised the man within as he spoke. ‘Listen, we don’t have long.’ He took a deep breath. ‘And after this, I don’t know if or when we’ll see each other again.’
His words only increased the flow of Lisa’s tears. She’d feared this was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Stand by Me Page 32