Happy Families

by Janey Fraser

  ‘Minty! Not too late, am I?’

  Bobbie peeped above her magazine. Aramintas with plummy voices were meant to be size 8s with beautifully cut hair and immaculately made-up faces in clothes to die for. Weren’t they? This Araminta was a plump, short, squat girl with spots on her chin and a really boring skirt with flat ballet-style pumps. They were standing so close that she could hear every word, even though the posh voice was trying to be a whisper.

  ‘I’ve missed you so much!’ the man was saying.

  ‘Me too!’

  ‘How long have we got?’

  ‘Half an hour at the most. Like I said, my boss is away in Scotland.’

  They were walking together now towards the revolving doors. As she followed, Bobbie saw a flash of gold on the man’s left hand. He was married! What a creep. His poor wife! Bobbie’s heart soared. This awful husband-hunting Araminta wasn’t after Rob after all! She was after someone else’s husband!

  All those fears about him working late and all that chat about his secretary were groundless, judging from the way the little squat man had his hand on her bottom as they walked along in front of her. As for that kiss after the message that she’d sent Rob, maybe Andy was right! Perhaps it was common nowadays. True, there were those ramblings in his sleep, but didn’t she have the odd dream about Andy? It didn’t mean anything. Did it?

  Bobbie floated home on a cloud. Her marriage was safe! She would finally be able to tell Rob that she was pregnant. In fact, she’d do so as soon as they had a quiet second together. Somehow, they’d manage. After all, Daisy and Jack were getting older, weren’t they? They might even like looking after a little one. ‘Thanks for having the children!’ she trilled when she reached Vanessa’s maisonette. ‘Everything all right?’

  ‘Not really.’ Vanessa’s face was grim. ‘Jack’s wrecked my kitchen floor with his skateboard and now he’s hidden Sunshine’s flute and won’t tell her where he’s put it.’

  Jack flew into her arms and burst into tears. ‘IT WASN’T ME, MUM! HONEST!’

  ‘Well, all I can say is that Sunshine had it in her hand when we got home and now it’s gone. Come on, Bobbie. We all know what he’s like.’

  ‘You shouldn’t label children! We talked about that at class. I’m sorry, but I think you’re out of order here.’

  ‘Like you, you mean?’ Vanessa took in the suede trousers and the jersey top and the high heels. ‘I don’t remember giving you permission to borrow those.’

  Shit. Bobbie reddened. ‘I forgot to ask. I was sick. Think I’ve got this bug. There wasn’t time to change so I thought I would just borrow something. I’m sorry.’

  Vanessa’s lips tightened.

  ‘Would you like me to work in the shop this week?’ asked Bobbie, suddenly feeling very small.

  ‘I’ll let you know.’ Her voice was crisp and sharp. ‘But I want those clothes back tomorrow. Dry-cleaned.’

  It wasn’t fair, Bobbie told herself, walking back a subdued Jack while Daisy skipped ahead. Just because her son had a reputation, it didn’t mean he was responsible for everything that went wrong. On the other hand, she had been out of line with the clothes. How stupid! Just as she’d found a job she really enjoyed, too. Hopefully, she thought, checking her emails while the kids scooted off to argue over the remote control, they’d make it up tomorrow. Oh no …

  Stunned, Bobbie read and reread the message from her online boss at Research Trivia; the words swam before her eyes.

  Complaint … Miss Araminta Avon … traced back your number … inappropriate questions during medical survey … threatened to contact the standards authority … no longer in need of your services …

  There was a young boy called Will,

  Who simply wouldn’t sit still,

  So his au pair smeared glue

  Between floor and his shoe

  And then gave him a mild sleeping pill.*

  * She got six months and it didn’t work.

  Chapter 29

  VANESSA

  ‘NOT THAT WAY, Van Van. Like this!’

  Vanessa tried to look up from the shallow end but her eyes were almost blinded by the water and that horrid stench of chlorine. No wonder she had loathed swimming as a child. How could she have let Sunshine talk her into this?

  ‘Kick your legs this way. As though you’re a frog! Watch me!’

  It had started when they’d seen the poster, during one of Sunshine’s own sessions: FREE SWIMMING LESSONS FOR ADULTS.

  ‘You could do that, Van Van! I know you could!’

  Vanessa had been torn between fear and admiration for her granddaughter’s reading skills. ‘I don’t think that’s for me,’ she’d said uncertainly, although she’d learned that when Sunshine got a bee in her bonnet, there was no getting out of anything.

  ‘But you must learn to swim,’ the child insisted in a voice that sounded so like Brigid’s as a teenager that Vanessa had had to look twice to check it wasn’t her daughter.

  Without quite knowing how, she had allowed herself to be dragged inside where she had signed up for a course of lessons. So far, she’d had just one but, as the instructor said, it was very important to practise, providing you did it in a ‘safe environment under supervision’. That was why they were here, right now, with the rest of Corrywood splashing around them.

  If nothing else, it was helping to keep Sunshine’s mind off the postcard.

  Vanessa had been so angry when she’d first received the cheap, dog-eared picture of a sandy beach with the word Goa printed in the corner that she considered ripping it up and putting it in the bin. Didn’t Brigid realise that a reminder of her absent mother might cause more harm than good? Sunshine was only just getting used to her new life and those nightmares when she had called out ‘Mummy! Mummy!’ in heartbreaking little cries were beginning to ease off.

  If she now showed the postcard to her granddaughter, it might unsettle her again. Yet on the other hand, Vanessa couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. ‘I think you’ve got to come clean,’ advised Brian. So she had.

  Sunshine’s face when she read it had been proof, if any was needed, that Brian had been right. ‘Look! It’s from Mummy.’ Then she read the words out loud clearly as if in class. ‘Hope you are having a lovely time with Granny. Be a good girl. Love Mum.’ Her little face was glowing. ‘I knew she’d be all right!’

  Oh, she was all right, thank you very much, thought Vanessa angrily. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have sent a card like that. She was probably very all right, in fact, living it up at all-night parties, no doubt, and having wild sex on a beach like the one in the picture. Maybe smoking some kind of weird drug too and completely forgetting that she was a mother with responsibilities.

  Sunshine had insisted on taking the postcard into school with her to show her teacher. ‘Miss Davies says we’re going to do a project on India and I’m going to help her,’ Sunshine had announced. But then the nightmares started again. Worse than before, with loud terrified cries that startled Vanessa in her sleep and sent her running in. ‘MUMMY, MUMMY, MUMMY!’ screamed Sunshine over and over again.

  ‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ Vanessa soothed repeatedly but it was impossible to calm her. All she could do was sit by her side and hold her tight while those little limbs thrashed out around her. Yet during the day, she was fine! Happy as Larry, as her own mother used to say, especially now she’d got her flute back.

  Vanessa was still furious about that. ‘I’m afraid Daisy was to blame this time,’ Bobbie had admitted shamefacedly. ‘I found it in the bottom of her bag. But I’m sure it was a mistake.’

  Really? Those kids were uncontrollable and frankly, she was beginning to think that it was Bobbie’s fault for not being firm enough. Vanessa was also cross about the ‘borrowed clothes’. She wouldn’t have minded if she’d asked permission first. She was in two minds whether to sack her or not. But she needed an extra pair of hands in the shop.

  ‘That’s right, Van Van! You’ve got it! Y
ou’re kicking the right way now!’

  Her granddaughter’s voice brought her back to the present. ‘Nice to see you practising, Mrs Thomas,’ said a young man in Speedos, striding by. ‘Got your helper with you, I see! Looking forward to the next lesson!’

  Sunshine giggled. ‘Is that your swimming teacher, Granny?’

  Vanessa nodded, conscious, as she went up the steps of the shallow end, of her body. Protectively she wrapped her towel around her chest.

  ‘He likes you, Granny!’ Sunshine was grinning toothily. Another baby tooth had fallen out last week – one more milestone that Brigid had missed out on, silly girl – and it made her look different. ‘Yes he does! I saw him looking!’

  Vanessa felt uneasy. A child of Sunshine’s age wouldn’t be so aware of a man looking at a woman unless she’d grown up in the wrong kind of environment. ‘Come on now,’ she said briskly, taking Sunshine’s hand. ‘Let’s go and change, shall we?’

  Her granddaughter now nodded seriously, taking in the way that Vanessa was holding her towel. ‘Is your scar sore, Van Van?’

  There were times when this mixture of maturity and childlike sweetness brought a lump to her throat. Her granddaughter could be frighteningly intuitive for her age. ‘A bit.’

  It was too. Ever since she’d found that pea-sized lump, the scar had started to ache as though saying: ‘I’m here. Don’t ignore me.’ She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

  Still, she’d find out soon enough. After all, the mammogram was tomorrow.

  ‘Anything in particular that you’d like me to do today?’ Bobbie asked when Vanessa had reluctantly left her in charge the following afternoon.

  ‘You could sort out the sizing,’ replied Vanessa coolly.

  Bobbie nodded eagerly. ‘Sure. They seem to have got rather muddled up, haven’t they?’

  Normally they would have had a little laugh at this point; maybe talk about one particular customer who was always pulling armfuls of stuff off the rails in her eagerness to ‘secure a bargain’ and then putting them back in the wrong order. But Vanessa didn’t feel like joking. It wasn’t just because of Daisy stealing Sunshine’s flute out of spite (there was no other reason for it, was there?). It was because she was scared. Very scared.

  ‘I’ll come with you, lass,’ Brian had offered when she’d finally told him what was up, but she’d said no, thank you. Secretly, she was worried about making a fool of herself by breaking down in tears. If she was going to do that, she’d do it on her own. Like last time.

  Bobbie of course, didn’t know where she was going. ‘I have an appointment,’ she’d said briskly. Yet now, as she walked down the high street to queue up at the bus stop for the hospital, she began to think that maybe she’d been a bit hard on her assistant. Bobbie was pregnant, after all. And she wasn’t totally to blame for those kids being such live wires. Of all people, she should know that. Just look at Brigid! When she got back to the shop, Vanessa decided, she’d be a bit friendlier.

  ‘Anyone want a lift?’

  Vanessa was about to ignore the man in the white van who had pulled up next to the bus stop and was now leaning across through the open window. ‘Not from strangers,’ she started to say haughtily but then stopped. ‘Brian!’

  ‘Something told me that you might have changed your mind about wanting some company.’ He patted the passenger seat. ‘Go on, lass. Do me a favour.’

  ‘Do you a favour?’ she repeated, getting in.

  ‘That’s right. It will put me out of my agony to be there instead of fretting at home.’ Then he gave her a kiss. A lovely warm kiss in full view of the others standing at the bus stop. And then he winked as he started up the engine. ‘Makes a change to be able to have a snog without being spied on, doesn’t it! How is the little one? Still having nightmares?’

  Vanessa thought back to last night when Sunshine had, miraculously, slept through the night without waking. ‘I think we might be getting there, with any luck.’

  ‘Great!’ He shot her a smile and patted her on the knee. ‘Now all we need to do is to get you there, don’t we?’

  We. Despite her earlier protestations to herself that she could do this on her own, the word was comforting. Two small letters. But with so much meaning. ‘Thanks for coming, Brian,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it for all the world, lass.’

  Her feelings were reinforced when they got to the waiting room and found that nearly everyone there had someone with them. Not necessarily a partner, from the looks of things, but a friend or even, in some cases, a parent. The oncology breast clinic wasn’t limited to the middle-aged, thought Vanessa ruefully as she looked around and took in a couple of young women with toddlers.

  ‘Would you like to come in with your wife?’ asked the nurse when it was her turn.

  Vanessa felt a little thrill closely followed by embarrassment. ‘We’re not married—’ she began to say but Brian cut in.

  ‘What would you like me to do, lass?’

  ‘I don’t mind the company,’ she heard herself saying.

  In the event, it turned out that Brian wasn’t allowed in the actual room ‘because of the radiation’, as the nurse explained. But he was invited to wait by the little cubicle where she got into a gown.

  To her amusement, he gave a wolf whistle as she emerged. ‘Very fetching!’

  The nurse giggled. ‘It’s our new style. The old ones had a gap at the back and were a bit too revealing, if you know what I mean.’

  Brian put on a silly face. ‘I’ve no idea!’

  It all helped to relax her so that by the time she was standing by the machine with that horrible heavy plate that came down and crushed her remaining breast, Vanessa wasn’t as scared as she thought she’d be.

  ‘Just because you’ve had cancer once doesn’t mean you’ll have it again,’ said the nurse sympathetically.

  Vanessa tried to explain that she understood that but the right words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. ‘I just want to know,’ she managed to say.

  ‘Course you do!’ The heavy plate was rising now, allowing her breast to breathe. ‘The results will go to the consultant and you’ll be seen as soon as possible.’

  ‘How long?’

  ‘Within ten days to a fortnight, I should think. Earlier if …’

  She stopped but Vanessa knew what she had been about to say. Earlier if the results weren’t good. That’s exactly what had happened last time.

  ‘But it’s not last time, is it, lass?’ reassured Brian as they drove back. ‘No two things in life are ever the same. I know Mavis and I had our ups and downs but when she died, I thought I’d never find anyone else like her. And I was right.’ Then he reached across and took her hand briefly. ‘She was special in one way. But you’re special in another, Nessie.

  Nessie! He’d never called her that before. It was what they’d called her at school, years ago. Nessie the Loch Ness monster! How she’d hated it! But the way Brian said it was touching. Loving.

  ‘You know what we need to do now?’

  ‘What?’ sniffled Vanessa.

  ‘Pick up that granddaughter of yours from school and take her on a nice long walk with my Bingo! By the way, we’ve signed up for dog training. Fancy coming?’

  It was hysterical! Vanessa had never seen anything like it. Nor, it seemed, had Sunshine.

  ‘Sit, Bingo. SIT!’

  Brian had allowed Sunshine to take his place, holding the lead, while he and Vanessa watched from the side of the field as a dozen or so dog owners and their ‘hounds’ (as Brian called them), walked briskly round. Every now and then, they’d stop to do an exercise, like now.

  ‘Isn’t that cheating?’ asked Vanessa as the group leader, wearing jodhpurs as though she was running a riding stable, announced it was time for a ‘treat’. ‘Dogs will do anything if they’re bribed, won’t they? Just like children.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that,’ twinkled Brian. He nudged her gently. ‘Works on elderly boyfrien
ds too.’

  The distraction was certainly working for her; well, up to a point. Vanessa’s insides glowed as she watched Sunshine walk round the ring, holding the lead in her right hand but also clutching it half way down with the left as she’d been taught to do.

  ‘Right!’ barked Jodhpur Woman. ‘Time for the emergency stop!’

  ‘You’ve got to see this,’ said Brian. ‘Bingo wasn’t bad last week. Let’s see what he’s like with the little lass.’

  Vanessa watched, mesmerised, as each owner took turns to walk to the edge of the field, instructing their dog to ‘Sit, stay’ and then walking back again to the original position. Then they had to call their dogs and yell out ‘STOP’ halfway across the field. The idea, apparently, was to make your dog screech to a halt in an emergency situation, like a busy road.

  ‘STOP!’ yelled Sunshine in a voice that was louder than any of the others. But Bingo, his ears flapping in the wind, completely ignored her and shot right up to Brian, leaping up and covering him with kisses.

  ‘You daft dog,’ said Brian but not in a cross way. ‘Go back to the class now. Don’t worry, Sunshine. It wasn’t your fault.’

  Luckily, Sunshine didn’t seem too upset as they drove back. Instead, she was rabbiting on, ten to the dozen, in the back of the car. Not to her or Brian but to Bingo who was sitting erect, listening to everything she was saying. ‘You’ll have to do better next time! I always stop before I cross the road. It’s safer that way.’

  ‘Best thing I ever did was to get a dog,’ remarked Brian as he pulled up outside her house. He looked her straight in the eye. ‘Stops me feeling lonely.’

  Vanessa couldn’t help it. Sunshine might be in the back of the car but so what? A hug was all right, wasn’t it? ‘You’ll never be that,’ she whispered. And then she broke off. Because that’s just what he might be – and Sunshine too – if her results weren’t good.

  ‘Walked into that one all right, didn’t I?’ sighed Brian. ‘Come on, Nessie. Let’s go out tomorrow night, shall we? All of us. We could try out that pizza place round the corner.’