by Ivan B
“Hi, I’m Susan, I think Mary’s expecting me.”
Robert smiled back and let her in; she walked passed him and cast her eyes around.
“Hm, this is a bit of all right.”
Robert smiled, he was thinking exactly the same thing, but not about the flat.
“She should be back at any moment, she’s just shopping with Josie at the Chemist’s over the road.”
He offered her a seat.
“Drink?”
She nodded.
“Mineral water please, I’m on duty this evening.”
He poured her a drink from the mini-bar in the lounge.
“Solicitor?”
She laughed, the gentle sound was music to his ears.
“Doctor.”
He sat down and stifled a yawn.
“Sorry, been pushing Mary about in a wheelchair all afternoon.”
Susan’s eyebrows rose.
“You managed to get her into a wheel chair voluntarily?”
He laughed, it sounded false to his ears.
“Not me, my daughter.”
He mentally decided to put Susan straight about his non-relationship with Mary.
“Mary is really a friend of my daughter, she’s a little too grouchy and dull for my taste.”
Susan gave him a peculiar look and put her drink down.
“Do you know Mary’s story?”
He nodded and said indifferently.
“Read all about it on the Internet.”
Susan’s eyes narrowed and she said forcibly.
“Well I was there. I was shopping at one end of the greenhouse when I saw a young girl point upwards; I looked up just in time to see Mary come through the roof. I will never forget the noise of her plummeting into those pots and the red dust in the air afterwards. It was a life changing moment for her; have you any idea what she went through? One moment her life was full of horizons to be sought, adventures to be experienced and a body that did what it was told without question; the next second everything had changed. Horizons would never be reached, adventures were out of touch and she had a body that refused to be ignored. People deal with major trauma in different ways; some give in and die, some rant against the world, some get up and get on and go for the best they can. Mary is one of those. She suffered an accident that one in a thousand survive; she didn’t walk away, but she damned well did her best. The fact that she managed to stand on her legs afterwards was amazing, the fact that she walked on them was astounding and the fact that she walks about now without any physical support is frankly astonishing. And you know what? She did it all without decent painkillers because she wouldn’t take barbiturates in case she got hooked. Personally if I’d gone through all that I’d feel entitled to be a little bit grouchy. Life kicked her in the teeth and she got on with living. She’s made a good life for herself when many would have succumbed and gone under; I think she’s had enough excitement in her life and just wants to have a normal life, if you think of that as being dull then I pity you.”
Robert felt verbally shredded and desperately wanted to get off of the subject of Mary. “Were you a doctor when it happened?”
Susan picked up her drink.
“I thought I was; I had just qualified and was considering whether or not I should be a plastic surgeon or a paediatrician. It was a life changing moment for me as well, after dealing with her I opted for A&E, I’ve never regretted it.”
Just then the doorbell rang again and Robert let in an exited Josie and an apparently equally exited Mary. Susan suddenly thought, for the second time in the day, that she had never in all the years she had known her seen Mary looking so contented and self-confident.
Mary smiled at her friend.
“Hi, sorry I wasn’t here to meet you, we’ve been doing some serious shopping.”
She looked at Josie.
“Put these in my bedroom, wash your hands, lay the table and then you can help us in the kitchen.”
Josie shot off and Susan looked round the lounge.
“What table?”
Mary smiled.
“Robert will show you, come through when you want.”
Robert walked over to what looked like a Bookcase and pressed a button on the side. The edges of the shelves moved up to hold the books in and then Robert tilted the entire thing forward until it locked in the horizontal position. He then folded out four flaps.
“Bingo, one table.” He said triumphantly.
Susan walked over to it.
“Now that’s what I call a space-saving device.”
Robert grinned like a schoolboy, Susan nodded to the small corridor.
“Toilet down there?”
He nodded and she wandered off, leaving Robert smelling her perfume and watching her languid hip swinging walk. Mary came out of the kitchen and back into the lounge.
“Can you tell Josie that I’ll use a normal fork tonight?”
Robert nodded and Mary smiled.
“And you can put your eyes back into their sockets, she’s happily married .” She walked back towards the kitchen muttering.
“Men, they only have one thing on their minds.”
Robert watched her hobble away and decided there was no contest, Susan made his hormones race; Mary didn’t even wake them up.
Mary turned on the electric wok and began piling ingredients into it from various frozen food bags. She recognised none of the brands, but if previous meals were anything to go by the food would be excellent. Susan joined her.
“Smells good.”
She watched Mary at work.
“Still using the old-fashioned split hook I see.”
Mary tossed the ingredients around the wok.
“I prefer it, I went off the silicon hand when it melted on me.”
Susan shrugged.
“Ten years is a long time, there’s been some wonderful advances with small electronic microswitches and motors working off minute muscle actions.”
Mary shook her head.
“I’m happy with this, it does all I want.”
Susan came close to her.
“He’s a bit of a boor.”
Mary gave a sideways grin.
“He’s not too bad. He’s one of your trauma victims, I rather think his wife walking out on him and leaving him with a young child left him a bit wary of women.”
Susan checked the door.
“Left him for a taller man did she?”
Mary chuckled.
“Actually she left him for a pile of sand, but there’s two sides to every story and I haven’t heard hers.”
Josie suddenly appeared and all conversation about Robert instantly ceased. She bounded next to Mary, nearly knocking Susan out of the way.
“Can I help?”
Mary pointed to the other work-surface.
“You see that Frozen Roulade in the blue box? It needs careful opening and the Roulade needs to be put on that white plate in one piece, can you manage that, I’m not sure I can do it?”
She nodded furiously.
“Okey-dokey.”
Susan spent the next ten minutes chatting to Mary and observed the relationship between her and Josie, to the uninitiated they could have been mother and daughter.
Dinner proved to be less awkward than Mary expected. Robert turned on the charm and the conversation moved easily between subjects. Both Robert and Mary took pains to keep Josie in on most of the conversation, on the other hand they did not let her dominate the meal with an incessant string of questions. When they had finally finished off the roulade Robert picked up the plates.
“I’ll load the dishwasher.”
He turned to Josie.
“And you’re for bed, get ready and I’ll come thorough in a minute.”
Mary stood up.
“I’ve found some expensive looking coffee beans, can you grind them for us?”
Robert wandered off and a few seconds later a plaintive voice came from the kitchen enquiring as to the whereabouts
of the said beans.
Mary rolled her eyes at Susan and made for the kitchen. Susan almost burst out laughing, but instead turned to Josie, who had not yet left.
“Are you having a good holiday?”
She nodded, her whole body vibrating.
“Yes.”
“Mary says that you’ve been here before.”
She cocked her head to one side and kept an eye on the kitchen door.
“Yes, but it’s much more fun with Mary.”
Susan’s curiosity overcame her.
“Why’s that?”
Josie thought, but an explanation was beyond her, so she shrugged her shoulders and then spying Mary’s shadow looming from the kitchen she shot down the corridor at full speed.
Susan watched her go.
“Seems to be full of energy.”
Mary laughed.
“And full of questions, I have never known a child ask so many questions.”
Susan nodded remembering when her daughter was only eight. Mary read her mind.
“And how’s Rebecca?”
Susan groaned.
“All make up and boys, I hope I wasn’t as dreadful as that at thirteen.”
Just before midnight Mary crept into bed, she decided that it wasn’t worth moving Josie, who was fast asleep in what was rapidly becoming her side of the bed. In any case she had a plan for the morning.
Just on seven o’clock Mary felt someone rubbing her shoulder and she came out of a wonderful dreamless sleep. She hadn’t slept so well for so many consecutive days for some time. She turned over to see Josie waving a piece of paper, she whispered.
“You said wake you up at seven.”
Mary smiled, she had placed the note and a large alarm clock next to Josie in the certain hope that she would wake up first. Mary swung her legs off of the bed and sat up. Josie scrambled beside her.
“What are we doing?”
Mary yawned.
“First of all I’m having a cup of coffee, and then we’re going into the bathroom.”
Josie became dubious.
“We?”
Mary nodded.
“I’m re-dying my hair and your having a bubble bath.”
Josie looked even more dubious.
“Why?”
Mary looked her straight in the eye.
“Trust me, you’ll enjoy it.”
A short time later they went into the bathroom and Mary read the appropriate instructions. “Right, first off I’ve got to wash my hair in this special shampoo, it’s supposed to get all the dye out, it never does, but it washes out most of it.”
She pointed to some plastic gloves.
“But I’m going to need help, so put a pair of those polythene gloves on and give me a hand.”
Josie obliged and Mary placed a small metal stool into the large walk-in shower and sat on it after turning on the water and getting the temperature just right.
“Right then, lets get started.”
Nearly an hour later Robert woke up in the lounge and lay listening to the muffled shrieks of laughter coming from the bathroom. He pondered on the improbability of what had happened. He’d asked Mary to join them because he thought that she’d be a good influence on Josie and he really had mentally pictured some sort of aunt-niece or child-Godparent relationship developing. He had not expected the nearly instant rapport between them. He knew that it was not just because Josie lacked any real female figures in the family. He’d taken women home before who had been kind to Josie, but Josie had not responded in the way she had with Mary. He turned over as another burst of laughter echoed through the closed door. The rouble was what next? Would it all fizzle out as swiftly as it had arisen? And after the holiday, what then? He sighed and moved position to ease his slight back-ache; he lay thinking and decided that if only Mary wasn’t the female equivalent of a milk-float he might have known what to do next and went back to sleep before he had a full answer.
In the bath-room Josie was wallowing in the giant bath with bubbles all around her and Mary was sitting on the edge dangling her legs in the water. The hilarity had ensued when Mary had turned on the ‘Whirlpool’ feature and the bubbles had rapidly multiplied almost beyond control. Mary watched Josie wash herself in the bubbles as she felt the water jets intermittently play against her legs, almost like the hydro-pool they had used during her rehabilitation. When she judged that the time was right she leant over and manipulated the control on top of the taps.
“Time up.”
Josie pulled the plug and stood up. Mary swung round, carefully placed her feet on a cork mat and started to dry herself while sitting down. Josie watched her and then sat almost next to her and did the same thing. Mary elbowed her in the ribs.
“Stand up lazy, I have to sit down, you don’t.”
Josie dried herself and then pointed to Mary’s hair.
“Shall I give it another dry?”
“Gently please, I want some roots left.”
Eventually they hung up the towels to dry. Mary bent down and picked up her cork mat.
“You go and get dressed and then come in my room.” She stopped at the door.
“You sure I can borrow your Tower of London tee-shirt?”
Josie broke into a big grin.
“Of course.”
Mary went to her room, got dressed and then sat at the dressing table and looked at herself. She fingered her earrings and then applied some surgical spirit, combed her hair and sat back. She’d not only died her hair, but also her eyebrows, she was now a fully-fledged blonde. She stood up and looked at herself as Josie scrambled into the room. Mary smiled.
“Now go out and knock, I could have been undressed.”
Josie’s mouth fell open at the absurdity of the statement, but she did as she was told. Once back in the room Mary picked up the perfume.
“Now the secret of this stuff is to put enough on that you smell nice, but not so much that you stink. It’s very powerful, so one tiny squirt is enough, just like this…”
Robert was re-awoken by Josie hammering on the door, he grabbed his dressing gown and staggered over to the door. Josie was full of her morning bounce.
“Mary says that breakfast is ready, it’s French toast.” Josie skipped back to the kitchen and Robert followed, he rounded the door and ground to a halt. Overnight Mary’s hair had become exactly the same shade of blonde as Josie, she was also not in a brown outfit, but Josie’s white tee-shirt that was tucked into black slacks. He did a double take.
“You’ve dyed your hair!”
Mary shrugged as she put French toast out onto some plates that Josie carried to the kitchen table.
“Fancied a change.”
Robert sat down; Mary the brown he could deal with, Mary the blonde was a bit of a shock.
They ate breakfast while Robert found it increasingly difficult. Not only was Mary’s hair the same shade as Josie, their eyes almost perfectly matched; it wasn’t a true shade match, but it was close enough to cause him problems as she looked more like Josie’s mother than Marcia ever had. Mary and Josie chatted away about the latest book Josie was reading, Robert ate his breakfast in silence. Eventually Mary finished her coffee.
“Josie tells me that your off to the London Eye this morning and the Planetarium this afternoon.”
He nodded and she responded.
“I’ve got a couple of visits this morning, can I meet you outside the Planetarium at two?”
He nodded again, she stood up.
“Good, I’ve got to go.”
She walked out of the kitchen and Josie stood up and put her hands on her hips.
“Well I’m not doing the dishes by myself!”
Mary’s first port of call was the shop called X-T-R’me Sport’s that Susan had recommended. It turned out to be a huge store on three floors. Mary entered and as she surveyed the store guide a young man in a crisp track suit seemingly appeared from nowhere.
“Can I assist you madam?”
She poi
nted to the store guide.
“Where would I find the department that has knee supports?”
He smiled.
“Top floor along with trainers, go to the left hand side and there’s a small room especially for knee and ankle supports.”
She surveyed the stairs.
“You have got to be kidding? I assume you have a lift?”
He looked slightly embarrassed.
“Not for the public, we only have a goods lift.”
She fixed him with her stern librarian gaze.
“Well if you want me to spend some money you’d better revise that rule right now.”
Two minutes later she was standing on the top floor, again she was approached by a well groomed young man offering help.
“I want to look at your knee braces.” She said hesitantly.
He smiled, displaying his remarkably uneven teeth.
“Come this way and I’ll serve you.”
Mary hesitated and the young man understood instantly.
“Would you prefer one of my female colleagues?”
She nodded.
“Yes please, no offence, but I’d rather a woman.”
He disappeared to be replaced by a young woman who was all suntan, pony-tail and organic bounce.
“Hi I’m Suzï, how can I help.” She intoned professionally.
Mary pointed to a display dummy.
“I’m after a lightweight knee brace.”
Suzï nodded.
“Any special requirements?”
Mary smiled.
“Maximum lateral knee support, minimum discomfort and I’ve got to be able to put it on and off with one hand.” She waved her left arm slightly.
“My doctor mentioned a MKJ Mark V.”
Suzï shook her head.
“Not a chance, they’re designed for hunky man with chunky legs and no feelings.”
She motioned for Mary to sit down and then sat on a little stool at her feet.
“Can I have a look at the leg please.”
Mary pulled up her tights, Suzï hardly batted an eyelid.
“That must have been some car accident.”