‘And of course,’ Will carried on, ignoring me, ‘there was that sighting of a big cat in the village recently. Betty saw it when she was putting her bins out.’
‘Don’t be so dramatic, Will. Everyone knows Betty drinks far too much sherry. Vernon probably thinks we have a village shop. I expect he’s gone to get some chocolate,’ I said.
Marie looked very serious. She bit her bottom lip. ‘Vernon doesn’t like chocolate,’ she said.
We sat in silence, except for the sound of the odd slurp as we tried to drink our tea.
‘Did you hear that?’ asked Sasha.
‘No. What?’ I asked.
‘Sssshhh,’ Will said.
We all sat very still, mouths poised over the tea mugs, to listen.
‘Mummy! There’s Vernon, look…’ Sasha said, pointing to the dining-room window.
We all looked. Vernon was staring in at us, mouthing words that were inaudible through the only double-glazed window in the house. He raised his hand in the general direction of the porch.
‘I’ll go,’ said Will.
He opened the door, calling out into the garden to Vernon.
‘All right, mate? We thought we’d lost you. You coming in now?’
‘Where’s that dog?’ Vernon shouted. ‘He hates me. Best I stay out here for a bit ‘till it calms down.’
Marie scraped her chair back from the table. ‘For God’s sake,’ she muttered, ‘only a mother could love ‘im. He shouldn’t be allowed out on his own.’ She joined Will at the front door. ‘Ger in ‘ere you daft prat,’ she called through the doorway. ‘It’s only a dog. Ger in ‘ere NOW! Or I’ll ruddy kill yer myself.’
Vernon managed to get as far as the porch. He stared through at us, gripping the door frame for balance. Eventually, Will nursed him into the safety of the dining room.
‘Sit here, Vernon,’ Will said, pulling out a chair.
I bustled about giving tea and sustenance. We did hear a movement from the upstairs bedroom, but it was only Merlin turning over in his sleep. He’d had his fun.
Chapter 26
Mum and Marie meet
We drove to our local pub for dinner, where we’d arranged to meet Mum and my stepdad, Al. We pulled into the pub car park and Mum was already there, sitting in the car with Al. Her mouth was set firm, but she brightened when she saw us. My mother had been consistent in her message to me over the past few months.
‘Nothing can stop our love for each other, and we’ve got more to go around,’ she had said.
Will, Sasha, Marie, Vernon and I got out of the car and walked down the slope to greet them.
My mum held out her arms when she saw Marie, and they hugged. Marie’s high heels made her tower above my little mum, who looked small and depleted, but once mum’s mouth went into action there was no disputing who was going to be in charge that night.
There was a lot of polite chat at first, which all seemed very formal. We need not have worried, though, because once Al got an eyeful of Marie, he took us all down to his level.
‘Oh aren’t you lovely! You look like Dizzy, come here and let me give you a hug.’
Without waiting for permission, he tried to grab hold of Marie, who held her elbows firmly in front of her.
‘I see where Dizzy gets her boobs from,’ he said.
‘Al, behave!’ Mum spoke through gritted teeth,
Marie was a match for him, though. She’d met his sort before. Taking hold of his arm, she led him into the pub.
What a strange party we must have seemed. To all intents and purposes, we were just a family out for a meal, yet what a history we’d had to bring us to this place.
Sasha clung to her Nanny Paula’s hand as usual and they talked about school. Mum rummaged in her brown leather handbag for treats, pulling out a colouring book and a bar of chocolate.
‘For later, mind,’ Mum told her.
Will said nothing, bringing up the rear in his silent, solid way. Vernon clopped along in his cowboy boots, whilst my mum tried to understand his remarks, made with a strong Sheffield accent overlaid with a slight speech impediment.
‘Well, this is a shock, isn’t it Praline?… I mean, Pauline, Paula. Dervla certainly looks like her mother… um… I mean, Marie.’
‘She does, yes. And I’ve heard a lot about you, Vernon,’ said Mum.
Mum and Vernon went for a cheek-to-cheek kiss; but bumped noses and giggled. Once inside the pub, the matriarchs sat opposite each other.
‘How was your journey, Marie?’ Mum asked.
‘Oh, all right, Paula. Vernon gets free travel on the trains and that’s a blessing, I’d kill myself if he had to drive me all this way.’ They laughed. ‘I’d love to live down here, though. Hasn’t Dervla got a beautiful home?’
‘Will and, um, Dizzy, have worked hard to get it up to scratch,’ said mum.
‘Oh sorry, Paula, I just can’t get used to calling her Dizzy.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Mum. ‘Nobody minds.’
Mum nipped to the loo, maybe to compose herself, but I couldn’t be sure. Marie leaned across the table and took my face in her hands.
‘Let me look at you darling, you’re so like me,’ she whispered.
As soon as I was able, I dashed to the loo so that I could see for myself. On peering into the mirror I was horrified to see that Marie and I had done our hair in exactly the same way. It was her staring back at me from the glass; I wouldn’t escape her now.
Mum ordered her usual, which was salmon with no sauce, and Sasha had the same. The men ordered mixed grills and Marie asked for a salad. I didn’t want anything, but lived in hope that I would muster an appetite for the cauliflower cheese I’d ordered.
As Al had lived up North, we were glad of him to distract the early conversation. He and Vernon discussed the merits of Leeds versus Sheffield. I glanced at Mum. Small and demure, she was immaculately turned out in a top that covered up her chest and upper arms, sensible but well-cut trousers, flat leather shoes. She was also wearing a silver brooch left to her by my nan.
Marie, on the other hand, looking glamorous, was in a plunging Primark top in bright pink. Black leggings made her legs look even longer, all set off with galactic heels. Her jewellery was plentiful. Sasha, as usual, was wearing green, in keeping with her camouflage phase. She had been wearing the same clothes for months, even though she had other brighter garments in her wardrobe.
It was good to have her there. She was too young to say the wrong thing, but if she had done, she would have been quickly forgiven. The adults would have laughed and looked at each other in a knowing way. So, yes, her presence was a great distraction.
In fact, the whole event was fine and weird, not horrible and weird. I got tipsy in the corner and longed to be at home in bed. It was like being on a works do where you couldn’t let your hair down. Mum picked at the salmon and Marie picked at the salad and we all carefully avoided the subject of Tommy. Vernon had been through enough of late without Tommy being mentioned. Marie talked about her other children and grandchildren, and Mum made her laugh with stories about my teenage exploits, which included stealing road cones, a flashing yellow beacon and some window boxes from outside a bank after a night out. The others made headway with their main courses as more tales were told at my expense to entertain Marie; this time, mum told her about how I’d crashed two cars, shaved my head and went out with a boyfriend who was a taxidermist – whilst I stared down at my plate and pushed the cauliflower cheese about. Marie reached over and stroked my cheek.
‘Dervla looks like my family. Her sister, Helena, was a card when she was growing up. We had right trouble with her, didn’t we, Vernon?’
‘Aye.’
Vernon mumbled through a mouthful of mixed grill and flashed Marie a look. He gulped it down when he realised he was meant to expand on the story.
‘Ha, she was a proper tinker was our Helly.’
The silence sat heavily between us. Our table was cluttered with discarded red napkins and empty glasses; apparently a party had been going on.
‘Does anyone want pudding?’ I asked.
I was trying to keep it normal, move it along without disaster.
‘No thanks, my love.’ Mum smiled and gave me a knowing glance. Composed, professional but kindly, like when she was a teacher.
I looked to Marie, who dabbed her mouth with a frayed red napkin.
‘No love, I’m stuffed, that was lovely.’
She looked down at my untouched plate.
‘You need to put some flesh on your bones, love. Look at you, so skinny.’ Marie paused, she tilted her chin up slightly; her teeth were straight, I noticed, she had good teeth.
‘I was only eight stone when I fell for the twins, Paula. Of course, I didn’t know there was going to be two of them, no scans in them days. It was a shock when another little one arrived after Dervla. Still… she has had a wonderful life with you, I wouldn’t have worried half so much if I could have known where she had gone.’
‘Well, she’s been hard work at times, Marie, but we all love her ever so much. Dizzy, her brother Ellis and the grandchildren have all made our lives.’
‘Oh, I can see that, I’m so grateful to you, Paula. You see you never stop wondering…’
Marie looked away, out of the window; she was somewhere else a long time ago, remembering.
‘No, after I lost my babies, I…’ Mum went on, her voice quieter now. ‘Then Dizzy came along when we thought we would never have the chance of another child.’
Marie clasped my hand beneath the table.
‘I can make sense of it now,’ she said. ‘You were meant to have her, Paula. I brought her into the world and you cared for her.’
That surely was the biggest thank you there could be between two women. Like a puppet, dangling helplessly in mid-air, on strings of silver thread that they were both holding, I was in the middle. The thread to Mum was taut and solid; the thread to Marie was looser, but still there – an invisible umbilical cord.
Mum and Marie obviously had a lot they wanted to say to each other in private. They told us they would like to meet on their own the next day.
‘We’ll drop you over, Marie. Eleven o’clock, Mum?’ I suggested.
‘Yes fine, Vernon can go to the workshop with Al and look at the engines, so Marie and I can have a proper chat. We don’t want the men around, do we, Marie?’ said Mum.
Vernon nodded in appreciation of the fact he could look at model steam engines tomorrow. Working on the railway for donkey’s years hadn’t quelled his appetite.
Mum and Marie had hit it off in a spectacular fashion, as I’m sure I would have done – if Marie was someone I’d just met on a holiday we would probably have become friends. But, back then, on that night of the meal, I was still keeping her at a distance – stopping myself from knowing her properly.
*
On the way home, Marie said that if she could have picked a mum for me she would have picked Paula. ‘She’s a wonderful woman, I think she’s fantastic. So kind, and funny. It’s been important for me to meet her. Thank you, Dervla.’
I turned to face her, ‘No problem, Marie. We had a lovely evening, didn’t we?’
‘And Al, what a card.’
‘I’m sorry about him.’
‘No love, he’s great.’
Will had been even quieter than normal. It’d been a strain for him having Marie and Vernon – the strangers that had unintentionally caused havoc in our home for the last sixteen months.
Sasha was dozing in the back seat of the car. Marie put her arm round her shoulder, she studied her little sleeping face. The moonlight danced on the wet road ahead of us, sending its brightness to light our way home.
Chapter 27
Marie and the afterlife
We were all relieved to be home. A sleepy Sasha disappeared off to bed, while Will disappeared into the kitchen to have a cigarette. I made a pot of strong coffee and carried the tray through to the front room, where Merlin had wasted no time in choosing to bestow his attentions entirely on Marie, who was sitting in his leather chair. With the skill of Fagin, he took up more and more of her space, edging into it inch by inch without her really noticing. Although, he was unsuccessful in evicting her, he spent the remainder of the evening sharing her chair, snuggling up to her as she tried to drink her coffee. Every time she stopped stroking him, he pushed his head into her hand, reminding her of her task. Marie kept up a constant petting of Merlin; she didn’t seem to mind that he was encroaching on her personal space.
By bedtime, he had almost swamped her completely. He made it all look so effortless. With his head perched on her bosom, he rested his front legs on her shoulders but, as he was so long, his back feet were still on the floor, stretching himself out so that nobody else could get near her.
Merlin wasn’t so sure about Vernon, the Sheffield lone ranger. Clad in cowboy boots, he looked like he should be in a band singing country and western songs. All that was missing was a guitar. In fact, Vernon was lucky that his prized footwear, all shiny now and smelling of leather polish, had been returned to him. Shortly after his arrival, he had stood in something that he really shouldn’t have stood in and I had spent a fair while cleaning his boots out in the garden, cursing under my breath.
When at last the evening’s small talk was over, I explained to Marie and Vernon that we’d had to put them in the walk-through bedroom. There was nowhere else unless they could fit into Sasha’s single bed, but she was already there, surrounded by images of dolphins and fast asleep. So, if we needed the loo in the night, we would either try to have a wee out of the window, or walk through the room they were going to be sleeping in.
Our quirky accommodation didn’t lend itself to privacy. Also, I told them, they would be sleeping in the room that Merlin found most desirable, in his own double bed in fact.
‘What would you prefer?’ I asked. ‘Merlin outside your door, crying all night to be let in, or him getting into bed with you straight away?’
‘Oh, he’s all right love, let him in. Since my Radar was re-homed, I’ve really missed him. I’d love a dog of my own,’ said Marie.
‘He farts a bit, I’m afraid.’
‘I’ve had twenty years of Vernon now, so a dog won’t worry me!’
‘I hope you sleep well,’ I said.
‘Well, it depends if there are any spirits that make themselves known to me.’
‘Spirits?’
‘Yes, Dervla, I have ‘The Gift’ you see. I told you before – you’ll have inherited it, too. All my other three children have it, but Helena is the only one that has accepted it.’
‘Right… okay.’
‘Sometimes I get a psychic vision, sometimes it’s a message,’ Marie said.
I made for the door.
Later, when I went upstairs to check on Sasha and say goodnight to Marie and Vernon, Merlin followed me – he was never far from my heels. He pushed the spare room door with his two front paws so that it opened, then he shyly peered round the bedroom door, eyeing up Marie and Vernon. He moved closer, tiptoeing across the wooden floor, making the lightest of sounds on the pine boards. Merlin stared at his double bed and the strangers who lay on it. He then disregarded the fact that other individuals were on his patch. With his only two brain cells lightly rubbing together, it seemed a rare spark was ignited and it dawned on him that the easiest thing would be to pretend Marie and Vernon weren’t there and get into bed as normal. So he jumped up, flopping down on top of Marie, temporarily flattening her.
‘Merlin, come on, come here,’ I said. He lifted an ear, but then chose to ignore the request completely. Letting out a weary sigh, he snuggled closer to Marie, nuzzling into her neck with
his nose. She didn’t wake.
Needing the loo at three in the morning, I intended to slip as quietly as was humanly possible through the guest bedroom. I was surprised to see the light on full blaze; I paused. Vernon looked very small in the bed. He had adopted the fly-catching, open-mouthed position of a man who had consumed too much Newcastle Brown Ale the night before. His newly polished cowboy boots were cast to the side of the bed. The bottom half of Marie was by now nearly completely covered by Merlin.
With his head on the pillow between her and Vernon and his nose level with Vernon’s snoring mouth, he seemed to be guarding her in case Vernon should attempt any funny business. Marie, however, was sat bolt upright in the bed, half-concealed in pink Primark pyjamas, with her black dressing gown collar turned high up to her neck. This gave the overall alarming effect that she had kind of slid down inside it. She remained outside of the duvet, purple fluffy socks covering her feet and disguising her webbed toe. Even without the make-up, she was very glamorous. Her right hand was placed on the wall. I stopped in my tracks to the bathroom and stared at her.
‘Are you all right, Marie?’ I whispered. ‘What are you doing?’
Marie had her eyes closed, but was speaking very slowly; not exactly in tongues, but in a distant voice.
‘I’m… talking… to… the… spirit… world… Dervla. It’s… your… Will’s… Aunty… Marjorie.’
Oh blimey, that was all we needed.
‘Oh, okay then,’ I said, sarcastically. ‘What’s she saying?’
‘A… bad… man… came… on… a… horse.’
‘Anything else?’ I asked.
Marie opened her eyes, blinking, as if woken from a sleep. Her speech returned to normal.
‘Oh, you know, chatting away. She’s ever so friendly.’
I stared at Marie, realising instantly that my birth mother was, in fact, a lunatic. I nipped to the loo, then stomped off downstairs for a sherry. If it wasn’t surreal enough having her to stay, now she had informed me she was mystically given. I eventually got back into bed and woke Will.
Strays and Relations Page 15