Once in a Lifetime

by Chrissie Manby

  Then Flossie did text.

  Dani glanced at the screen automatically.

  ‘Mum will you flippin’ answer the phone. This is serious. I’m in trouble!!!!’

  Trouble?

  ‘Nat, I’m sorry. I’ve got to ring my daughter,’ Dani said.

  Dani phoned Flossie back at once. Flossie picked up on one ring.

  ‘Where are you?’ Dani asked. ‘What’s going on?’

  Nat watched, his face growing concerned, while Dani fired questions at her daughter.

  ‘I’m OK, Mum. At least, I haven’t had an accident or anything but … Oh Mum! Something terrible’s happened.’

  Flossie burst into loud, anguished sobs.

  ‘Flossie,’ Dani tried to cut through the crying. ‘What is it? Where are you?’

  In between sobs Flossie managed to choke out. ‘Jed’s broken up with me.’

  ‘What? But I thought you broke up after the arrest?’

  ‘Not exactly. Not really. And now I’m stuck in Gretna Green.’

  Dani covered her mouth. She felt nauseous. Those two words had more power to move her than Flossie could possibly know. When at last she could speak again she said, ‘Are you serious? But what are you doing there, love?’

  What did Dani think she was doing there? Flossie asked.

  ‘Were you and Jed going to get married?’

  Flossie choked out a ‘yes’. ‘Yes, Mum, we were.’

  But evidently – thankfully – Jed had changed his mind. They’d had a huge row outside the wedding chapel where their ceremony was supposed to take place and Jed had walked off with their shared rucksack.

  ‘And he’s got my purse and passport and my wash-bag and my charger. The only thing I’ve got with me is my phone and I’m running out of …’

  The line went dead.

  ‘Flossie!’

  Dani tried calling back but was put straight through to Flossie’s voicemail. Dani listened in agony to the oh-so-familiar message.

  ‘Hi, this is Flossie! Leave me a message!’

  ‘Flossie? Flossie? It’s Mum. Listen, darling, please don’t worry. Stay calm and stay exactly where you are. We’re going to sort this out. Everything will be fine. I’m on my way.’

  Though how she would be on her way she had yet to work out.

  Dani stood in the middle of the pavement, with her phone in her hand, just staring at the screen.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Nat asked.

  ‘She’s only in bloody Gretna.’

  ‘What’s she doing there?’ Nat asked.

  Dani covered her eyes at the thought.

  ‘Stupid question,’ said Nat. ‘Is she OK?’

  ‘I don’t know. She sounded terrible and now her phone’s out of battery. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Is she on her own?’

  ‘Since Jed’s walked off, she is.’

  ‘Has she got money for a train?’

  ‘Jed’s got her purse and her bloody charger. I swear I’m going to kill him. How on earth did she end up falling for such an idiot? If only her phone was working, I could get her to go somewhere safe like a B and B and call them with my credit card details so they could look after her but god knows where she is.’

  ‘Should you phone the police?’

  ‘Good idea.’

  But the local police station didn’t want to get involved. The subtext was that they got a lot of sixteen-year-olds up in Scotland without their parents’ knowledge. And once someone gets to sixteen, they’re no longer considered vulnerable. Not vulnerable enough for a search in any case.

  ‘Of course she’s vulnerable!’ Dani insisted. But she got no joy from the woman at the end of the line, who said she would take Flossie’s name and ask her team to look out for her in passing but could promise nothing more.

  ‘You just spoke to her,’ the woman said. ‘You know she’s OK really.’

  ‘We should go there,’ said Nat, when Dani threw her phone onto the grass in despair. ‘That’s the only solution I can come up with.’

  ‘To Scotland? How? A train will take all day.’

  ‘I’ll drive you,’ said Nat.

  ‘But …’

  ‘I’ve got time.’

  ‘It’s the weekend. I can’t take you away from Lola.’

  ‘Lola’s on her hen do. I dropped her off at the airport first thing this morning. She’s in Majorca with her friends. I was going to spend the weekend reading back issues of the Economist.’

  ‘You still can, Nat. This doesn’t have to involve you.’

  ‘Dani, you don’t have a car, right?’

  That was true.

  ‘Heaven knows how long it would take to get there by public transport. Not to mention how expensive it would be at short notice. I can drive you to Gretna Green. You’ll get there faster and you’ll have company. It’s a no-brainer.’

  ‘You’d really do that for me? Drive me to Gretna Green? After …’ she didn’t finish the sentence.

  Nat nodded. ‘Isn’t that what friends are for?’

  They walked quickly back to the house Nat shared with Lola so that he could pick up his car. The dogs were going to have to come with them. Jane wasn’t at home to look after Jezza – she and Sarah had gone to Exeter for the day, despite Jane’s crutches – and likewise Nat had no one with whom he could leave Princess. They’d tried Will but he wasn’t picking up his phone.

  ‘Sounds like a foreign dial tone,’ said Dani. ‘He must have gone away.’

  So they put the dogs into the back of the car with everything they’d need for the journey. Kibble. Water. Bowls. Blankets. Toys.

  ‘Jezza’s never been in a car,’ said Dani, when she saw that the upholstery in Nat’s beautiful BMW was a deeply impractical light grey. ‘What if he gets travel sick? Your car is so new and clean.’

  ‘It’s just a car,’ said Nat matter-of-factly. ‘It can be cleaned. Some things are much more important than that new car smell. Like your daughter. Come on, we need to get on the road.’

  ‘But what if Flossie starts to head south without telling us?’

  Nat had an answer for that too. ‘She’s not going to beat us back here, is she? As soon as we hear from her, we can adjust our plan accordingly. We can meet her halfway. Or we can turn back and see her when she gets home. Let’s just get started. If she’s in Scotland, the closer we are when we hear from her the better.’

  Dani agreed. She buckled herself into the passenger seat, which was as deep and luxurious as an expensive armchair. If she hadn’t been so stressed she’d have been impressed. She might even have looked forward to eight hours cocooned in such aerodynamic splendour.

  ‘Nat, I’m so sorry about this,’ she said.

  ‘Dani, stop apologising. I’m just glad I can help.’

  As Nat navigated Newbay’s one-way system, Dani sent Flossie a text outlining the plan. The best-case scenario was that before Nat and Dani could get very far Jed – stupid bloody selfish Jed – would reappear with the rucksack so that Flossie had her cash card and her phone charger again. At least then Dani would know her daughter was OK and had the funds to get a train perhaps as far as the Midlands. They could meet her there. On the other hand, Dani sort-of hoped that Jed really had done a runner and would keep on running. The last thing she wanted was to rock up in Gretna and discover she had a new son-in-law. Though that, thank goodness, was unlikely. A quick Google search showed that you needed to send in paperwork at least twenty-nine days ahead of any ceremony. Would Jed and Flossie have been that organised?

  Dani suddenly remembered how Flossie had asked for her passport and birth certificate out of the blue that afternoon. Dani thought it was odd that the sixth form college needed them again. Why hadn’t she asked more questions? And when was it Flossie had asked for her ID? Six weeks ago, Dani calculated.

  ‘Oh please no!’ Dani explained the timeline to Nat.

  ‘Don’t panic. Jed’s walked off, remember? She doesn’t have a groom.’

  ‘I
can’t believe she was actually going to marry him,’ she wailed.

  ‘Young love,’ said Nat, with a half-smile.

  ‘Total idiocy,’ said Dani.

  ‘Stupid things make perfect sense when you’re sixteen.’

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Nat drove as swiftly as he could but there was terrible traffic on the A-road towards the M5 and progress was difficult. It was the very height of the summer season and thousands of people were on the move to and from their holidays in Devon and Cornwall. Dani hated every single one of them.

  ‘Who are all these people?’ she asked. ‘And why can’t they just stay home?’

  Two hours had passed since Flossie’s anguished phone call and Nat and Dani were still only fifty miles from their starting point, trundling along so slowly they might have been in a funeral procession. Meanwhile, Dani checked her phone roughly every thirty seconds, hoping that Flossie would have somehow found someone to lend her a charger. Surely people in Gretna Green had phones like hers?

  ‘She’s going to be OK,’ Nat insisted from time to time. ‘She’s an intelligent girl.’

  ‘You haven’t met her,’ said Dani.

  ‘But she’s your daughter.’

  ‘You’re very kind. She may be clever but she hasn’t got the common sense she was born with. Hence Jed.’

  ‘She might surprise you,’ said Nat. ‘Once she’s calmed down a bit, she’ll come up with a plan. I’m sure she knows you’ll be on your way. I bet she’s already found herself a place where she can sit tight and wait in comfort.’

  Dani wasn’t convinced.

  ‘Do you think it’s cold up there?’ Dani asked. She checked the weather app on her phone. ‘I bet she hasn’t got a proper coat. She never dresses appropriately for the weather.’

  ‘It may be Scotland but it is the middle of summer,’ Nat pointed out. ‘She won’t freeze to death. Or starve.’

  ‘She hasn’t got any money on her. How can she get any food?’

  ‘We’ll be there in …’ Nat checked the sat nav. ‘Seven hours max. She won’t fade away before we get there even if she doesn’t get to have lunch. Besides, I bet someone has already seen how upset she is and taken her under their wing. Most people are good, Dani. You know that. We’ll probably arrive to find she’s spent the day watching telly in a kindly Scot’s front room, while being plied with lots of lovely food. Talking of which …’

  Nat’s stomach gurgled.

  ‘I’d rather we kept going,’ said Dani, answering the unasked question. ‘Your kindly Scot might turn out to be some kind of human trafficker, planning to send Flossie to Russia.’

  ‘Trafficking generally happens the other way round,’ said Nat.

  All the way up the M5, Nat tried to move the conversation onto a happier track but Dani wasn’t to be distracted. She could hardly breathe with worry for her little girl – for Flossie would always be her little girl – on her own all the way up there in Scotland, with no money, and a dead phone. Jed hadn’t even left her with a toothbrush.

  ‘How could he do this to her!’ Dani exclaimed.

  ‘You really didn’t have any inkling they were planning to run away together?’ Nat asked.

  ‘None at all. After the arrest …’

  ‘The arrest?’

  Dani had neglected to tell Nat about that.

  ‘Yes. Jed got them both arrested. They were only selling cupcakes on the beach but he insulted a policeman who tried to move them on …’

  ‘Never a clever move.’

  ‘Exactly. And the whole thing ended with them both being taken to the station. After which, I grounded Flossie for a week and told her she couldn’t see Jed any more at all. Not if she wanted to be let out of the house again. She promised me – promised me to my face, Nat – that she wouldn’t go anywhere near him. She said she understood he wasn’t right for her. I believed her. She hadn’t mentioned him in the best part of a month.’

  ‘So where did she pretend to be last night?’

  ‘She told me she was going to stay over at her friend Xanthe’s. She goes there almost every Friday night. They have a takeaway and watch a DVD and then on Saturday morning, they work on their school coursework together.’ Dani paused. ‘Oh god. She’s never been at Xanthe’s house, has she? Every time she’s told me she’s stayed over at Xanthe’s, she’s been with that awful waster underneath the pier.’

  ‘He lives there?’

  ‘No, his parents have got a very nice house at the good end of town – his mum’s a doctor and his dad’s a solicitor – but that’s where he hangs out when he’s not at the Arts café. And my daughter’s been there with him! Drinking and taking drugs and doing god knows what else. I’m going to kill him!’

  ‘Sounds like you won’t need to if Flossie gets hold of him first.’

  ‘I never trusted him. He comes across as this big-hearted eco dude but I knew he was a waste of space the first time I met him. He’s full of hot air and entitlement. I should have put my foot down right at the start. Oh god, Nat. You don’t think they decided to get married because …’

  Dani suddenly imagined her darling Flossie cradling a baby bump.

  ‘It’s not the only reason people decide to get married,’ Nat reminded her, without needing to hear the rest of the sentence.

  ‘But …’ Dani was about to say something else but her phone rang. She leapt on it. It wasn’t Flossie. It was Jane.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mum. I’m going to have to cut you short. Nat and I are on our way to Gretna Green.’

  ‘What? But he’s getting married to that Lola girl!’ Even Nat could hear Jane’s exclamation.

  ‘I’m not going to Gretna with Nat. At least, not like that.’

  Nat’s mouth twitched at the corners.

  ‘Mum, Flossie wasn’t at Xanthe’s last night. She ran away to Scotland with Jed. And yes, I know she wasn’t supposed to be with him any more. Clearly, she’s been seeing him behind our backs.’

  Jane asked if she needed to worry.

  ‘There’s no need to worry,’ Dani said, in her own most worried voice. There was no point getting Jane all worked up too. ‘But perhaps if you could get back home as soon as you can and check the answering machine. And of course, if she calls you on your mobile, please let her know we’re on our way and then call me right back.’

  Jane said she would go straight home to make sure she was on hand should Flossie somehow turn up there.

  ‘But you’re out with Sarah?’

  ‘This is a great excuse to leave. She’s tracked down another date on Tinder. Now, darling, are you sure you’re OK? You sound anxious.’

  Jane repeated many of the arguments Nat had as to why Flossie would be OK and Dani listened to her mother’s soothing words but didn’t feel soothed in the least.

  Once Jane had hung up, Dani tried Flossie again. She went straight through to voicemail.

  ‘Flossie, sweetheart. It’s Mum. We’re getting close to Manchester. We’ll be in Scotland before you know it. Just hang on, my love. Hang on.’

  ‘I really am going to have to stop at the next service station,’ Nat said.

  ‘I don’t need to,’ said Dani.

  ‘No,’ said Nat. ‘But we need to get some petrol. And the dogs might want to pee.’

  Dani turned to look at the two puppies on the back seat. The darkening patch in the middle of the blanket they’d been sitting on suggested it was already too late for a comfort stop as far as the dogs were concerned.

  ‘Nat,’ said Dani again. ‘I am really, really sorry.’

  While Dani aired out the wet blanket, Nat bought a couple of sandwiches in the service station and two bottles of water. Dani took the one he’d bought for her – a Cheddar ploughman’s, which was the most edible-looking of the choices on offer – but she couldn’t eat it.

  ‘How can I eat when anything might be happening to Flossie?’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  Nat had given up trying to persuade Dani that it really wo
uld work out fine. He concentrated instead on getting them to Gretna as fast as he could so that she would know for sure everything actually was fine.

  From time to time, Dani ranted about Jed. She couldn’t understand how her daughter had been so stupid. How had they even got up to Scotland? When did they set off?

  It all made sense now. Flossie asking for her passport and birth certificate. She didn’t need them for college. She needed them to get married. She’d given them back after supposedly getting them scanned but of course she knew the code to the safe.

  And all that business before she left the house on Friday night. All that hugging. Flossie told Jane and Dani and Jezza that she loved them because she wasn’t sure when she would see them again! Dani felt slightly sick as she remembered how she’d spent the previous evening, scrolling through the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame with one eye on the telly, having no inkling that her sixteen-year-old daughter was running away.

  Had Flossie told her friends what she was planning? Dani found it hard to believe that Xanthe and Camilla didn’t know what was going on. Why didn’t they sound the alarm? They were so irresponsible. Underage tattoos were one thing. But a marriage!

  All the same, Dani couldn’t help but chastise herself for not having guessed. The long goodbye was such a giveaway in retrospect. The way Flossie had paused at the door and looked back. There was so much quiet drama in the way she’d left that night. Dani should have known that something was going on.

  ‘Why would you have known?’ Nat asked her. ‘Teenagers are very good at keeping secrets, as I recall.’

  ‘I should at least have checked with Xanthe’s mother every time she said she was going over there.’

  ‘Would your mum have done that to you? You have to show kids you trust them at some point. You can’t watch them twenty-four seven. You have to let them go and hope for the best.’

  Nat paused.

  ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be telling you how to parent when I don’t have any kids myself.’

  ‘But you’ll be a good dad when you do,’ Dani said.

  ‘If I do,’ said Nat.

  Maybe this was all just karma, thought Dani then.