The Other Side of Wonderful

by Caroline Grace-Cassidy

  Sandra snorted at the mention of Tom’s ridiculous wife Scarlett. “Scarlett, or Bridie as she was originally christened, does not live in the real world, Tom. Bridie married you for the money and don’t kid yourself about that. Sure wasn’t she about all the hot spots in Dublin chasing the rich and the famous? She’d put manners on me? Ha, don’t make me laugh!”

  Tom opened his mouth to protest, his overly bleached teeth blinding Sandra. She continued, “What do you know about me, Tom Darragh? Nothing!”

  “I see a woman who is infertile and can’t give this man kids!” he spat back at her.

  The air hung heavy around them as the sick man in the next bed called out, “Nurse! Nurse!”

  “Yeah. I guess that’s what you would see.” Sandra stood and slung her bag onto her shoulder.

  The nurse opened the curtain and looked at Neil. “You okay, Neil?” she smiled at him.

  “You might spend more time checking on the man in the next cubicle – he’s been calling for you.” Sandra turned on her heel and walked away.

  As she made her way for the last time down the corridor Tom’s words rang loudly in her head. Was it all her fault? She felt like she was walking in a dream. It was all over just like that. It had been a whirlwind of a couple of years and she didn’t know how she felt. She passed a girl sitting at the end of the corridor and then stopped in her tracks. She walked back slowly. It was the girl from the other day in the red dress – the one she had nearly knocked over. She was holding a fresh bunch of flowers tightly in her hand, her head down. Sandra stood in front of her and she raised her face. The new waitress from Hines. The nurse’s words rang in her ears. “There’s a vomiting bug here – how did you both get in?” You both. It had been her.

  “I’m going. I won’t be back. He’s all yours,” she told her and suddenly realised she meant every single word.

  Chapter 18

  The wedding was in full flow now and Cara was over the moon. She checked her appearance in the mirror at reception. Her Stella McCartney suit was teamed with a tight red vest and a red rose was pinned to her lapel. Her hair was scraped back into a low ponytail, hair sprayed into place and her make-up was a little more extreme than usual. She had gone heavy on the black liquid eyeliner for the evening and had added some MAC face and body foundation of Sandra’s and even some red lipstick. She had even managed to get into a pair of black high heels.

  “You look really pretty. And tall!” Jonathan came up from behind her and she jumped.

  “Sorry – and thank you!” She turned to face him.

  “Still so jumpy?” His eyes narrowed.

  “Yes. I’m afraid so. Can’t help it.” She rubbed her hand across the tip of her nose and sniffed. “Better grab a tissue, the speeches are coming up.” She had to turn sideways to slip past him as he stood his ground. She supposed he was wondering why she was so closed off with him all the time?

  She had wanted to offer him a nightcap the other night when he dropped her home but she was so scared he’d start asking her questions that she just didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. She just wanted to be Cara Byrne, Hospitality Manager, and not poor unfortunate Cara Charles. In any case they had both been exhausted that evening.

  She stopped in her tracks as she gazed at the people at the top table eating and chatting happily, the backdrop of the mountains and the sea a bride’s dream setting. Jonathan had added some white outside fairy lights to the trees and it was a complete fairytale. Her top table hadn’t been anything like that. She leaned against the wall at the back of the room. She hadn’t had a top table. The mixed sounds of all the different voices was hypnotising as Cara became lost in her old world yet again.

  ***

  Cara strolled on down the Quays that night after leaving The Law Top and continued hiccupping to herself. It had been a fun evening. Steve was a great guy but just as Aoife wasn’t his cup of tea, romantically he wasn’t hers. It was too late to test it now anyway. They had a great rapport but Cara didn’t know if it would translate outside the job. The Law Top was a really nice place to work. She actually laughed out loud now thinking about it – the drink was painting a rather rose-tinted image of her job and not the reality of the blood, sweat and tears that were the stuff of most days.

  She was so lost in thought that she didn’t hear the person come up behind her. Suddenly she was punched in the back of the head and fell to the ground screaming. A hand went over her mouth immediately and her face was pushed hard into the concrete path. Her attacker smacked her head three times off the ground and she was completely dazed as she tasted the warm blood that flowed into her mouth. He pulled her wallet from her bag and her mobile phone and then he ran. She heard the footsteps receding and then there was silence. She couldn’t move. She tried to cry out but her voice wouldn’t work. She was simply paralysed with fear. Her head was pounding and she was terrified.

  Cara didn’t know for how long she had lain there when she heard heavy footsteps approach. She felt a hand on her body and she screamed. Loud.

  “Shush, it’s okay, I’m a guard, please try and stay still,” came a warm voice. He didn’t move her. She heard his radio beep and interference piercing the line as he called for an ambulance, gave their location and then she must have blacked out.

  ***

  Alex stood over her in the hospital, with Esther on the chair beside her, as Cara opened her eyes.

  “Oh . . . I’m so sorry, Mam . . .” Her lips stuck together as she saw Esther’s pale worried face. Her speech was slurred as it hurt her to speak – her tongue felt the size of a house.

  “Don’t be sorry, love – sure you have nothing to be sorry about and it’s all going to be fine,” Esther replied and held her only daughter’s hand.

  Alex moved up and took her other hand. “There’s a policeman outside who wants to take a short statement,” he said just as the nurse and policeman entered the room.

  “Sorry, Alex,” Cara whimpered.

  “Hey, stop, it’s not your fault.” He rubbed her arm and then smoothed her hair from her face.

  “Just a few quick questions, Miss Byrne, and we’ll be out of your hair.” The guard pulled up a seat at the side of her bed.

  She tried to sit up but the pain in her lower back was piercing and she cried out.

  Alex jumped up, “Is this really necessary right now?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid so, sir,” the guard said as he flipped over a new page on his tiny hard-backed black notebook.

  Cara told him all she remembered and was embarrassed that she had put herself in such a vulnerable position. She was embarrassed she was so drunk and mortified when he asked her just how much alcohol she had ingested on the night in question. “Can you remember anything – any physical attributes about your attacker at all?”

  She shook her head. “He came at me from behind,” she whispered.

  “We had a Steve Brady in for questioning this morning. I understand he was the last person you came into contact with on the night?”

  “Oh no, please don’t, Steve would never do this, he –”

  Alex interrupted her. “He what exactly?” He was standing again. “He fancies you, you know he does, you told me as much yourself on our first date. He’s jealous. If I find out he did this to you so help me God I’ll –”

  “Thank you, sir, that’s quite enough.” The guard closed his notebook, folded the black elastic around it and stood up, replacing his hat slowly. “We can take it from here.”

  He left the room, saying he would be in touch.

  “I want you out of that job,” Alex said.

  Before Cara could respond the doctor entered and took the now-empty bedside seat.

  “Well, Cara, you have severe bruising to your lower back,” he said, “so no lifting for a few weeks. You needed three stitches in your lower lip and your tongue is split but this will heal itself. We also had to put a stitch into the top of your left ear as this was split also.”
<
br />   Esther started to cry.

  “You were very lucky. The MRI revealed there is no swelling on your brain though your head did take quite a pounding off the pavement.”

  “He could have killed you!” Esther wailed. She blew her nose, the noise almost comical in this heavy atmosphere.

  “But he didn’t. I’m okay, Mam, really I am. And it was not Steve, absolutely no way in the world. I’m the idiot getting pissed and walking the Quays at one in the morning alone. Steve had offered to call me a taxi. I wouldn’t let him.”

  “I’m sure we’ll be able to discharge you later today. Plenty of TLC for her now,” said the doctor to the other two and left.

  “How did you get back so quickly?” Cara asked Alex now.

  “That’s the thing, the reason I was calling you – I wasn’t needed. The airline double-booked me and Officer Keily so one of us was free. I called and called you but you didn’t answer and then you turned off your phone so I just headed home for an early night. I made you a supper and left it on the table. When I woke at the crack of dawn this morning and saw it still there I reckoned you must have stayed in Esther’s after all so I called her and she didn’t know where you were. Because you had no wallet the hospital had no ID for you. It’s just as well I called every hospital and I found you quickly. They told me what had happened. I drove over and I collected Esther and here we are.”

  “That explains it – when I rang you I didn’t get a foreign ring tone.”

  “Why did you turn off your phone?” he asked softly now.

  “Ah, here, does that matter now really, Alex?” said Esther. “All these questions and she needs to rest.” She folded the clothes she had brought up for Cara and placed them neatly in Cara’s locker. Cara could smell her mother’s washing powder from them. Comforting.

  “No, Esther, it doesn’t matter, you’re so right.” Alex smiled and pulled up the bottom of the old window – the cold air came whizzing in.

  Esther got up and pulled it halfway back down. “And there was me thinking I was having a night of it! Someone tried to poison poor Victoria – when you called me that time I was running out the door to the bloody vet. I didn’t want to worry you so I kept schtum. I let her out the back but she ate some rat poison. Now here’s the thing, I have never in my life laid rat poison.” Esther had her best Miss Marple face on.

  “Oh no! I did, Mam, ages ago. Mr Dolan next door told me he had seen a rat and I didn’t want to freak you out so I just put some poison down and I forgot about it, but it was like a year ago?”

  Esther Byrne chewed on a nail. “Ah, right, just as well you told me. I was about to knock and blame Dolan because he had shouted over the garden wall for her to shut her yapping trap yesterday morning. The poor little darling was only doing me the favour of yapping at the birds who were shitting all over my freshly hung towels.”

  “Wow, what kind of person would poison a helpless animal?” Alex asked as he smoothed the sheets on Cara’s bed with the palms of his hands.

  “But is she okay?” Cara asked.

  “Ah, she’s grand now but I’m smashed! Them vets are not cheap!”

  Cara closed her eyes. That had been the worst experience of her sheltered life. How had she been so bloody thick? She deserved it, she thought.

  “Cara?” Alex said.

  She opened her eyes.

  “I’m going to drop Esther home and come back.” Alex stood and brushed down his light denim jeans with the palms of his hands, his blue eyes shining bright.

  “What?” Esther asked. “No! I mean . . . I’m grand. I’m stopping here.” She folded her arms.

  Alex put one arm though his sports jacket. “No, I think you should go home, Esther. You need to see to Victoria, don’t you? I will stay and take Cara home as soon as the doctor says she’s good to go.”

  So just like that, after thirty-odd years of minding Cara single-handedly, Esther was ushered out the door. Esther did not look happy but she let Alex take control. Cara looked longingly after her mammy and felt like such a stupid child. She really just wanted to get home to her own bed and have a nice cup of tea and cheese on toast. Alex didn’t do nice tea or indeed carbs.

  She flicked through the magazine Esther had bought her but her head was spinning. What a terrible thing to have happened to her! Funny, she always thought she’d fight back if she was attacked. She’d assumed she was stronger that she was. She wasn’t strong at all. She was weak.

  ***

  When Alex returned he had a takeaway hot chocolate for her. She was dressed thanks to the help of the nurse and was sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “Oh, are you discharged already? That’s great. Here you go, extra hot just the way you like it!” He handed her the drink.

  “Thanks, Alex. Yes, the doctor says I can go. Was Mam okay?” She opened the lid and blew at the drink. It shivered under her breath.

  “Totally fine, glad to get back, I felt.” He picked up her orange plastic hospital bag with her bloodied ripped work clothes peering out at her.

  “I’m so embarrassed, Alex, it was just such a silly thing to do. But, believe me, it was not Steve who did this – please never accuse him of it.”

  “Let’s see what the Guards have to say on the matter first, shall we? I told you that place is dangerous, Cara.” Alex knelt in front of her. “Promise me that you won’t go back?” he pleaded as she sipped the hot chocolate.

  “Well, I can’t go back to work for a month or so anyway so I probably don’t have a choice. “The bar trade isn’t like other jobs – they can’t afford to have staff out of work so they’ll need to employ someone else.” She took another drink and this time let the liquid burn the cut on her battered tongue. “I’ll ring them tonight and tell them I won’t be back.”

  “Good girl!” Alex took her drink as she eased her sore body off the bed. She didn’t want to speak any more, her speech was becoming more slurred due to her tongue being sliced and the stitches in her mouth.

  “Let’s get home and let me take care of you,” he whispered.

  She made baby steps to the door then stopped. “Why were you so cross with me on the phone, Alex? You were like a bloody madman.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I know and I’m so, so sorry. It’s just I needed you, I really needed you. I couldn’t understand why you were ignoring my calls. I was afraid you had gone off me, Cara. I just couldn’t bear it, I am so madly in love with you. I’d die for you, Cara. I can’t believe my luck that I found you.”

  His eyes filled up with huge teardrops and she gently wiped them away as they fell. “It’s okay, Alex, I will be fine. I love you too and you can trust me. I would never do anything to hurt you. I’d never have an affair, never! But you need to start trusting me – you can’t behave like that – I won’t accept that.”

  He nodded. “I understand. I will. I do.”

  She turned and left the hospital room.

  Chapter 19

  Sandra cried all the way back to the hotel but there were no actual tears. She made the sounds and her body shook but her eyes remained completely dry. Next on her list was to call a good solicitor. She wished she had someone to talk to. She kicked the wet leaves as she walked. She had been right about Neil all along. She had known. He had said someone was going to tell her? Who could that be, she wondered. A few people popped into her mind. It was such a small village she wasn’t surprised. She just hoped it wasn’t her mother. God, please don’t let it be her mother! Could Tom do this? Could he just push her out of her own home like that? All her savings were long gone. She couldn’t afford it on her own, he was right about that. Her green Oasis coat was always warm against the weather but now she was shivering with the cold. She had to pull herself together before she went back to work.

  She still had half an hour so she took a few deep breaths and opened the door into Louise’s Loft. The little coffee shop was warm and there was low relaxing music on the stereo. Crowded House. Sandra recognised “You’re Not The Girl Y
ou Think You Are”. Ironic. She shook her head.

  She grabbed a seat in the corner and took off her coat. The smell of freshly baked bread and Louise’s famous cheese-and-ham croissants filled her nostrils but she had no appetite. Without really thinking she opened her bag and took out her phone.

  I am in Louise’s if you have 10 minutes? She pressed send.

  “What can I get you, darling?” Louise stood over her, her light-brown hair tied back in her familiar brown hairnet and her white apron tied tightly. A welcome sight.

  “Can I have a pot of tea? And I’d better try and eat so a white cheese and smoky ham croissant, Lou, please.”

  “Coming up!”

  Louise headed for the kitchen, stopping briefly at tables as she went to check the customers were all happy.

  Sandra watched Louise chat to the customers. Sometimes she wondered how she did it all on her own: ran a really successful business, did the book-keeping, did the ordering, did the cooking and at the end of a long hard day went up those stairs alone. She had never really asked her if she minded being alone as the last thing in the world she wanted to do was to hurt Louise’s feelings. Someday she would though because she wished she could live like Louise.

  A few minutes later Louise was pleased to see the door open and Dermot make his way over to Sandra. She looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, the poor lamb. Louise wouldn’t push her. She wanted the Loft to be a comfortable place for people to come and eat and drink and be left alone. That was always her policy. She knew when to back away and just be a hostess. It had always been her dream to own her own place. Other women had different dreams of what life happiness meant to them. It was this to Louise. She never had any desire to marry, she had travelled and read all the books she ever wanted to read, she had Salt and Pepper, her two Pekinese dogs, to take care of, and she was in a walking club. It was exactly the life she had always wanted and she was exceptionally grateful.