The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane - Part One: A Summer Surprise
Page 9
Home after her disastrous morning, Sam called Audrey in Mapleberry. Since they’d got a bit of distance between them, Audrey at least managed the odd conversation on the phone. She never offered much, but it was better than the battlefield they’d so often found themselves on before. She always politely asked how the job hunting and house hunting was going, but little else. Sam had a feeling she was happy enough getting out and about in Mapleberry and having time away, although she was surprised Audrey didn’t moan about her gran more. She wasn’t sure whether to be offended Audrey appeared to prefer her gran’s company to Sam’s, or pleased the plan hadn’t gone belly up when it very easily could’ve done.
Sam spoke to Veronica briefly – she was never one to have a long telephone conversation – and these days it was all about Audrey and whether she was helping in the house, respecting rules, not getting into trouble. She thanked her yet again for stepping in to help, but it was a relief to put the phone down. And she’d made sure she’d got the call out of the way before she poured a glass of wine so she could enjoy the relaxation without any stress to take her by surprise.
She poured a generous glass of wine and stood at the kitchen window looking out to the garden, the patio, the outside space where she and Simon had once hosted gatherings with friends. After the split, friendships were strained and only the strongest had come through. Jilly was one of those friends who had always been there and always would be, she’d stuck around, and it was only after Simon left that Sam realised so many of the people they’d spent time with had merely been to add to their group to make up the numbers. These days she preferred to put quality over quantity when it came to her friendships.
A knock at the front door was a welcome diversion from feeling so down. Sam opened it to see a smiling Jilly on the other side.
‘You beat me to it.’ Jilly pulled out a bottle of wine from behind her back as she eyed Sam’s glass already in her hand.
‘What are you doing here?’ but she was beaming, she needed a friend. As much as she and Audrey weren’t getting on, the house was way too quiet without her.
‘I’ve come for a sleepover.’
‘No way.’
‘Yes way, and it was my husband’s suggestion before you put up a fight – he even handed me the wine. You’re moving out soon – we need to get very drunk and commiserate.’
The evening was exactly what Sam needed. They got through all the wine, they talked long into the night and the next morning Sam still didn’t have a house or a job on the horizon, but she felt as though she was still in control. She’d just needed to hear it from someone else. And this morning she decided she’d make a start at packing up the house. It would have to be done eventually and putting off the inevitable was only making her worry more.
Sam assembled the flat-packed cardboard boxes she’d picked up a few days ago in anticipation of her move. She started with Audrey’s room, which was a task in itself. The amount of clothes one teenager needed was baffling – multiple colours, fabrics, shoes in all colours and styles. She tackled the desk drawers, one littered with old pens with dried out tips, another with scraps of paper that resembled schoolwork, although clearly not the to-be-handed-in version. She piled everything together for Audrey to deal with later, and as for the overflowing rubbish bin beneath, it looked as though Audrey hadn’t emptied it in weeks.
Sam grabbed the bin, about to take it outside, when something caught her eye. And when she saw what it was, she felt nausea surge through her body. It was a book about New Zealand and tucked between the first couple of pages was a printout of instructions of how to apply for a visa. And not just any visa – there was no mention of a tourist or a temporary stay, this was permanent.
Sam slumped down on the end of Audrey’s bed. Her daughter intended to move to the other side of the world to be with her dad.
How much research had Audrey already done? Had she made official enquiries, looked up requirements? And when was she going to tell her? When she bought her ticket? When she got to the airport?
Sam found her way downstairs, dazed at the discovery. A cup of coffee hit the mark, but still she was lost. The equilibrium she’d found with Jilly’s help last night had all but disappeared and she called Audrey’s phone – she needed answers.
But Audrey didn’t pick up. Sam tried her mum’s landline instead, and when Veronica answered and explained Audrey was doing her school work and probably had her earphones in, it all poured out. The woman who had never been Sam’s confidante suddenly became the one person she felt she could tell. The one person she prayed could help her from spiralling into the abyss and losing her daughter.
‘I bet Simon put her up to this,’ Sam said. ‘Just like him to do that and not think to mention it.’
‘Let’s not jump to conclusions,’ was all Veronica said.
Sam persuaded her mum not to mention it – Audrey would only accuse her of snooping and then it would be back to the battlefield with her daughter – and she ended the call after a mumbled goodbye.
She turned her attentions to her computer and bashed out an email to her ex-husband, demanding to know how far this thing had gone, what progress had been made.
Sam could feel the walls closing in around her; she felt as though her relationship with Audrey was hanging on by a gossamer thread and it wouldn’t take much to sever the attachment.
Out of character for Simon, he replied to her email pretty much straight away. Was it night time there, evening, morning? Sam didn’t care – all she wanted was answers. ‘She seems pretty insistent,’ he told her in his message. ‘She’s looking into visas and wants me to somehow get her over here.’ Audrey had always worshipped her dad and now Sam had the proof jeering at her from those books and the email from Simon.
Until now Sam had held onto the hope that she was overreacting, but this was real. It was no overnight dream – Audrey had been mulling this over for a long while.
For the next two days Sam’s determination overtook anything else. The completion date for the sale was threateningly close and so with Jilly’s help, they packed up Sam’s entire house between them. Her furniture and most of her belongings went to a storage facility, keeping back the bare essentials, they cleaned the place top to bottom ready for the new owners. Sam hadn’t heard anything about her latest job applications and right now she couldn’t care less because there were more important things in life. And with nowhere suitable to rent around here, it made sense to Sam to try to save her family in whatever way she could. Which meant there was only one option left now.
Sam barely glanced at the house when she reversed off the driveway after a tearful farewell with Jilly, she was too focused on the next step. She had to do this for Audrey, but her mother was part of the equation too. She’d ignored their estrangement for too long as it was, burying her head in the sand, hoping it would all go away if she kept calm and carried on. She only hoped this choice now would be the right one for all of them.
The drive went smoothly as though the traffic had cleared a path for Sam, and when she pulled up outside number nine Mapleberry Lane, she sat for a moment. It was the same when she’d brought Audrey here. She needed time to settle her mind, to remember that this wasn’t her a return to her teenage years, this was different. She had to do this. She was an adult, in control, and it was time for her to step up.
She pulled two suitcases from the boot, passed through the little gate at the front, not a blade of the immaculate lawn daring to blow in the light summer breeze as she made her way up to the front door.
Sam hadn’t slept under this roof in almost two decades, she barely managed a civil conversation with her own mother, let alone came to stay. But all of that had to change if she wanted to put a stop to history repeating itself. And so now, three generations under one roof was the way it would have to be. She hadn’t forewarned her mum of her arrival either; she hadn’t wanted her or Audrey to argue a case against it because now she was here, they all had no choice but to go through
with it. She was moving in.
Sam raised a hand to knock but she might have known her arrival had already been witnessed by the slight tilt of the shutters in the sitting-room window, the immediate sound of the door being unlocked the other side.
She was here. This was real. And there was no going back.
Not if she wanted to put her family back together again.
Will Sam’s arrival bring the three generations of women together? Or will there be fireworks in Mapleberry…?
Continue the story in Part Two, An Autumn Promise, available to pre-order now:
About the Author
Helen Rolfe writes contemporary women’s fiction and enjoys weaving stories about family, friendship, secrets, and community. Characters often face challenges and must fight to overcome them, but above all, Helen’s stories always have a happy ending.
To learn more about Helen and her writing, find her at:
www.helenjrolfe.com
Facebook: @helenjrolfewriter
Twitter: @HJRolfe
Instagram: @helen_j_rolfe
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Orion Books
Copyright © Helen Rolfe 2020
The right of Helen Rolfe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 3987 0026 0
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