The Gift of Friends

by Emma Hannigan

  ‘Don’t speak to your mother like that. Now get inside and take this stuff off. Put that blasted scooter away and we’ll go to the park like a normal family.’

  ‘No,’ Drew repeated, pointing to the gate. ‘We’re scooting to the park now, please.’

  ‘If I have to tell you again, you’ll know all about it,’ said Seth.

  Drew was on a mission and Pearl’s blood ran cold as she realised there was going to be a clash of horns.

  ‘Come on, Mama. We’re going now,’ Drew insisted. He turned to face Seth. ‘If you can’t be more cheerful, maybe you should stay home.’

  Seth grabbed him and dragged him roughly by one arm back into the house. Drew stumbled awkwardly and called out her name. Pearl raced after them but wasn’t quick enough to stop the punch that Seth landed on Drew’s cheek.

  ‘You will do what I say, when I say it. Do I make myself clear?’

  Drew curled into a foetal position on the floor in the hallway of the house and covered his head with his hands. They all knew from previous outbursts that his father detested crying, so he tried to hide his sobs. Pearl longed to drop to the floor and cradle her poor confused boy in her arms. But experience, yet again, told her that any such actions would enrage Seth further. So she made eye contact with Drew and tried to let him know that she’d be with him as soon as Seth was gone from the scene.

  ‘We won’t be going to the park. Instead you’ll stay in your room. Now take that junk off and put it away neatly. Don’t let me see you dressed like some sort of neon clown again, do you hear?’

  Drew had his hands over his ears.

  ‘I said, do you hear?’ Seth yelled.

  ‘Yes I can hear,’ said Drew. ‘I can hear.’

  ‘Now move and do what I said.’

  Drew had a dark red mark on his face where he’d been hit.

  ‘Move,’ Seth yelled.

  Unable to hold back any longer, and terrified Drew would be punched again, Pearl dropped to her knees to try and comfort him. The last time she’d come to Drew’s defence like this, Seth had dragged her away from him and his roughness had left her bruised all along her arm and left side. But this time he’d grabbed one side of her hair and yanked. She heard a ripping noise as some of it came away from her head. She felt no pain, she simply wanted to get to her son. When Seth kicked her, right under her stomach as she was on all fours, the force lifted her off the floor so she crumpled in a useless sobbing heap beside Drew.

  ‘Mama, it’s okay. I’ll mind you,’ he said as he crawled to her.

  ‘Get away from her,’ Seth yelled. ‘Stand up and take that crap off this minute.’

  ‘No, you’ve hurt her and that’s not nice. You’re a bad man,’ Drew shouted.

  With that, Seth grabbed him and with all his might dragged Drew to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Go up and take that stuff off and then stay in your room. I don’t want to see you again tonight.’

  ‘No,’ Drew yelled as Pearl closed her eyes and begged him to do as Seth asked.

  Drew stood up and wouldn’t move, so Seth smacked him with full force across the face and then again. The boy reeled and fell back against the stairs, whacking his back on the banister.

  ‘Ow,’ he said and burst into tears. He tried to reach out to Pearl, but Seth was having none of it. Grabbing his son, he dragged him up the stairs and pushed him into his bedroom. ‘Take that stuff off and stay in here until I’m gone. You’re the bane of my life and you will not disobey me, you moron.’

  As he came back down the stairs, Pearl remained in a ball, sobbing.

  ‘I’ll leave you two to your warped little club,’ Seth said. ‘I’ll be leaving now. I’ll spend a night at a hotel so I can be calm and in the right state of mind to greet my men tomorrow. If I stay here, I’ll be caught up in your weakness. I’ll text you which hotel to collect me from so you can drop me to the airport, as planned.’

  She waited for him to pack his bag and leave before she climbed the stairs to help her son.

  ‘Come on, darling,’ she said. ‘Let’s get ourselves out of our coats. I think we’ll have a duvet day today. It looks as if it might rain anyway.’

  ‘Is he going away quickly?’

  ‘Don’t be scared,’ Pearl soothed. ‘It’ll be just fine.’

  ‘Is he never coming back? ’Cause that’s the only fine I can think of,’ Drew said, sniffling. ‘He’s got a bad and mean heart. Not like Tommy. I wish Tommy was my daddy,’ said Drew.

  So do I, she thought, more than you’ll ever know.

  Seth phoned later that night to tell her where he was staying. He didn’t apologise, far from it.

  ‘I hope you took heed of what I was trying to say, Pearl. That boy needs more manners. He’s going to kill you one of these days. Spoiling him isn’t helping matters. What I did today was for his own good and yours, Pearl. You’ll understand that once you stop being so soft.’

  She didn’t argue nor did she agree. She wasn’t prepared to even try to have a conversation with a man who thought his brutal attack on her and their special needs son was in any way, shape or form right. And to even suggest that he was doing her a favour? The man was an animal and she detested him for what he’d done.

  The following day, Tommy took Drew on a trip to the zoo. Pearl told him quickly what Seth had done but said that she couldn’t talk about it. She was still sick to her stomach, which was completely true. Drew, darling boy that he was, had forgiven Seth. In fact, he’d just buried it and appeared the following morning for breakfast with a smile on his poor bruised face.

  Pearl wanted nothing more than to kick Seth out. She wished she had the guts to tell him to pack his stuff and never come back. But she also knew that wouldn’t come to pass. She’d do what she always did. She’d use the time apart to heal and come to terms with the man she was married to and prepare herself for the next stint as a family. By the time he returned, she’d be able to pretend again.

  As she drove back from the airport, her heart was light and heavy. Light because Seth was safely gone, but heavy because she knew all the pretending in the world couldn’t get them through his retirement. Once he was there full-time, the wheels were going to come off this whole thing. She was kidding herself by even thinking it was a manageable situation. She and Drew had only one joy in life: each other and Tommy. That was the family unit that made them happy. Her life with Seth was a sham, but she hadn’t the courage to change it. Her eyes blurred with tears and she had to pull over on the motorway. She bent her head to the steering wheel and cried with a breaking heart. It felt like her life was slipping through her fingers and out of her grasp.

  Chapter 10

  DANIELLE WAS READY TO DROP WITH TIREDNESS. She had cleaned the house from top to bottom, even though Justin had ordered her to leave it to the new housekeeper he’d hired. Maggie was a lovely woman, but Danielle felt bad when she saw her cleaning their house and doing private things, like stripping and washing their bedsheets. It was totally normal for Justin, but not for her. She kept wanting to tell Maggie to take the weight off and have a cuppa while she did it. So she had worked alongside for the two hours Maggie was there that morning, then she’d done another two hours on her own. Now she was wrecked. This pregnancy was making her feel like an old woman.

  She had a long hot shower, put on a nice dress that hung loose and hid her little belly and tried to prepare for what lay ahead. This was the day Celia-Ann and Jeremy, Justin’s parents, were coming to visit. They’d only been in the house ten days, but Celia-Ann had insisted they wanted to be the first to see it. She had basically ordered them to invite her to afternoon tea and Justin had, of course, given in. He’d moan and bitch about his mother, but when it came down to it, he’d go along with what she wanted. ‘For a quiet life’ he kept saying to Danielle, but she was sick of his quiet life already.

  She went into the kitchen and opened the fridge and surveyed all the stuff she’d bought, according to the list Justin had given her. Standing there, she realised s
he hadn’t a clue how to put it all together – what even was afternoon tea? She’d thought it was a pot of tea and a Bourbon Cream, but Justin had burst out laughing at her and then written out all this stuff – paté, smoked salmon, cucumber, chocolates. It looked like a hell of a lot for an afternoon snack. She sank into a kitchen chair and started crying. She felt like a complete idiot. Justin wouldn’t be back until 3.30 p.m., when his parents were due, so the success of this visit was entirely on her shoulders – and she was the one person who couldn’t carry it off.

  She couldn’t sit here weeping like a princess in a story, anyway. That wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She could Google it – yeah, that was a great idea. The university of Google would educate her about bloody afternoon teas for people with too many hyphens in their name. I mean, Celia-Ann Mulroney-Johnston, who wants to have that much going on in one name? Her mam would laugh herself stupid if she heard that.

  She went over to the sink and splashed some water on her face. As she stood there, looking out of the window, she spotted a figure working in a garden at the end of the road. It was a brightly coloured and petite figure. Nancy! She would know what to do, wouldn’t she? Danielle felt a rush of hope fly through her. Nancy had told her to pop over whenever, so she wouldn’t mind giving a bit of advice. This was her best chance of not messing up.

  Danielle grabbed her house key and let herself out of the front door and hurried down Kingfisher Road to Nancy’s cute cottage.

  ‘Hi Nancy!’ she called out as she reached the wall, panting a little.

  ‘Oh hello, Danielle,’ Nancy replied, standing up straight and stretching out her back. She came over to the wall. ‘Hmm,’ she said, peering at Danielle.

  ‘What?’ Danielle said.

  ‘You’ve been crying,’ Nancy said. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘You’re not a great believer in keeping your thoughts to yourself, are you?’ Danielle blurted out.

  Nancy laughed. ‘Got it in one,’ she said. ‘No point in pretending at my age. So come on, what has you upset? Can I help?’

  The kindness was too much for Danielle. She started crying again, covering her face with her hands in embarrassment. Nancy came around the wall and put an arm around her.

  ‘You just let it out, my love, then you can tell me and we’ll sort it, whatever it is.’

  When Danielle could finally speak, she told Nancy about the invite and the food and the fact that she was about to make a fool of herself in front of the very people she had to impress.

  ‘Afternoon tea’s a cinch,’ Nancy said. ‘I’ll come over and help and once you’ve done it once, you’ll be throwing them like a pro. We’ll have you hostessing à la Martha Stewart in no time.’

  Danielle had no idea what she was talking about, but Nancy was going to dig her out of the hole she was in so she didn’t care. She waited while Nancy went inside and washed her hands and changed her shoes, then the two of them went back to Danielle’s house.

  ‘Right, what have you got?’ Nancy said. She rifled through the kitchen shelves. ‘Ah sure, you’ve everything. This’ll make itself.’

  She showed Danielle how to make salmon and brown bread. ‘No butter,’ she warned, ‘just a squeeze of lemon juice.’ Then they made cucumber sandwiches, which seemed a mad idea to Danielle, but she rolled with it. Nancy went through the cupboards and got out lovely plates and serving dishes and arranged it all beautifully. She cut the Madeira cake and set out the chocolates on their own dish. She set out the bite-sized scones from the bakery and found ceramic ramekin dishes to use for jam, butter and cream, setting them all on a round slate platter she found in the cupboard. The centrepiece was a freshly made chocolate fudge cake – also from the local bakery – which they put on a cake stand with a glass lid. It immediately looked fancy and gorgeous and Danielle breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Right, now for the table,’ said Nancy. ‘Where do you want to set up? In here? Or maybe a table in the sitting room so people can help themselves?’

  ‘Em . . . yeah, whatever you think,’ Danielle said.

  ‘Come on, let’s have a look at the sitting room,’ Nancy said. Danielle led the way. ‘Oh my, this is a really beautiful room,’ Nancy said, looking around. ‘I adore that duck-egg blue on the carpet. Inspired choice.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’ Danielle said anxiously. ‘I was so sure, and I’m afraid Celia-Ann won’t like it.’

  Nancy raised an eyebrow. ‘She doesn’t live here. You do. If she doesn’t like it, tell her to take a running jump.’

  Danielle giggled. ‘I can just see her face – and Justin’s – if I ever came out with anything like that. They are seriously rich and fancy. I’m not in their league at all. They probably eat like this every day. I have a bowl of cereal in the morning and a cheese sandwich for lunch. I’ve never even had smoked salmon before. And it looks revolting, by the way.’

  ‘It does,’ Nancy said, laughing. ‘But it is gorgeous. And don’t you be worrying about those sorts of things. If this Celia-Ann woman is decent and kind, she won’t care about using the correct fork or whether you scalded the pot. She’ll be far more interested in you and her son and your happiness. Just be yourself and don’t sweat the small stuff.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ Danielle said, but she could feel the tension spreading through her body at the idea of the Johnstons sitting in this room and sizing up her efforts.

  ‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ Nancy said, ‘how did you meet Justin?’

  Danielle laughed a little. ‘That’s probably been wrecking your head all along, has it?’

  ‘Well I am a nosy old cow,’ Nancy said, laughing too. ‘You just keep saying how different they are, so I was wondering how your paths crossed.’

  ‘I met him at a gallery in town,’ Danielle said. ‘My friend in college, Hazel, her dad owned it, and there was a show being launched, a show of horse portraits, and Hazel asked if I’d like to serve wine at it and earn fifty quid for the night. So I went along and we had to wear black skirts and blouses and walk around with trays of wine. It was mad, because I thought it would be fancy people being all intelligent and talking about art, but they were knocking back the wine and getting really loud.’

  ‘That sounds about right,’ Nancy said. ‘They have notions, but they don’t always live up to them, that’s my experience.’

  ‘Anyway, Justin was there because the artist was an old family friend, and I noticed him because he was the only person in the whole night who said thank you when he took a glass of wine.’

  ‘Sounds as though he didn’t get his good manners from that mother of his,’ Nancy said.

  ‘At the end of the night, we were cleaning up and nearly everyone was gone, but Justin was still there talking to Hazel’s dad and buying a few paintings. Then he came over and asked if he could buy me a coffee on the way home. I told him I didn’t drink coffee after six o’clock and he called me a Gremlin and that made me laugh. So we ended up going to a café that stays open late, and we sat there for about an hour and it was the easiest conversation I’d ever had. Then he walked me over to Trinity. I had a scholarship and was rooming there. I was in second year and loving it. So we sat on a bench in the cricket field and talked until dawn. If you’d told me before that it was possible to fall in love in one night, I’d have laughed at you. But it’s true. That’s what happened.’

  ‘That’s an amazing story,’ Nancy said. ‘Proper old-fashioned romance.’

  ‘It was an incredible night,’ Danielle said, smiling to remember. ‘And I suppose everything’s moved very fast since then, and here I am. But his mother isn’t happy about it. That’s why I’m so anxious this goes well.’

  ‘Well then, let’s make sure it does. Come on, let’s get this set up nicely.’

  Nancy moved tables around until she had the place looking just right. There was a round table to one side, and she set up the food there, with plates and cutlery and napkins ready to be used. Then they moved the two sofas so that they were facing e
ach other on either side of the fireplace, and Nancy put a low table between them.

  ‘That looks brilliant,’ Danielle said, standing back to admire their work. ‘I should have thought of putting the sofas like that. It looks just right.’

  ‘It’s easy to come in with an objective eye,’ Nancy said. ‘Now,’ she said, glancing at her watch. ‘It’s quarter-past three, so I’m going to skedaddle and let you catch your breath before they all descend on you.’

  ‘Won’t you stay?’ Danielle pleaded. ‘You’re so welcome.’ She would actually pay good money for Nancy to stay and be her ally.

  ‘I won’t, thank you,’ Nancy said. ‘I better go feed Nelly and finish that work I was doing. You’ll be great. I’m sure everyone will be on their best behaviour anyway, so it’ll be fine.’

  ‘Thank you so much, Nancy,’ Danielle said. ‘I don’t know how I could ever pay you back for this. I was a wreck before you helped me.’

  Nancy winked at her. ‘That’s what neighbours are for.’

  As she let Nancy out, Danielle felt a bit bad for all the things she’d thought about the women of Kingfisher Road. Yes, they were old and a bit nosy, but she would have made a fool of herself in front of the Johnstons if she hadn’t been able to call on Nancy for help. She made a mental note to be a nicer neighbour herself in future.

  She heard the sound of car doors slamming outside and ran to the window. They had all arrived at the same time – Justin in the jeep he used for work, and his parents in a big Mercedes. Danielle gulped when she saw how Justin’s mother was dressed. She looked like she was going to a wedding. She was wearing a dress with a pleated skirt, and it looked like silk. Her shoes matched the navy of the dress, and she was encased in a calf-length fur coat. A navy hat perched on the side of her head completed the look. Danielle looked down at her ‘good dress’ and felt a bit sick, but she heard the key in the lock and it was too late to change.