‘It won’t tickle will it?’
‘Shush,’ Maggie instructed.
‘But you started talking first.’
‘Shush.’
Maggie had learnt different therapies over the years and reflexology had proven to be an effective technique for mind as well as body. It often evoked an intense and emotional reaction so when the first sob came, Maggie wasn’t as surprised as Jenny, who had been warned of the side effects but had been convinced she wouldn’t succumb.
‘It’s OK, Jen, don’t fight it. Let yourself go. I’m here to catch you.’
Jenny’s reply was unintelligible, little more than a mumbled snivel. Maggie guessed her friend was still trying to fight against the tide of her emotions but the next sob came nevertheless.
When the treatment was over, Maggie didn’t say a word as she poured a glass of water for her client who was weeping in loud, ragged gasps.
‘I … I … I’m just so scared. What if Mark loses his job? What if it’s me working all the hours God sends? What if I’m the one missing out on Lily growing up?’ Jenny stammered as she finished dressing and took the glass. ‘I don’t know if I could cope with that.’
‘Those “what ifs” haven’t happened yet but if they do you will cope. You have Mark and Lily and you have me too. You’re not on your own,’ Maggie said. She handed Jenny a tissue.
‘I feel like a gibbering wreck,’ her friend said with a hiccup.
Maggie gave her an enigmatic smile. ‘You look ready to face the world to me.’
Jenny laughed. ‘Thanks, Maggie.’
‘The boys are with us next week for half-term so I won’t be in the salon but I can still do home visits, armed with a bottle of massage oil or a bottle of wine; your choice.’
‘Wine sounds good,’ Jenny said. She was doing her best to sound upbeat but her voice trembled very slightly. She blew her nose. ‘I think I’m ready.’
‘You haven’t seen the bill yet,’ Maggie said, although she had already decided that if she was being forced to accept payment from a family whose financial future was in doubt, then it would be heavily discounted no matter how much Kathy protested.
Lily’s cries could be heard from outside the salon as soon as Maggie opened the door of the treatment room. More sobs erupted behind her. Mother and daughter were howling in stereo and the crescendo of wails was enough to wake up Harvey who hurried past them.
Maggie did her best to usher Jenny towards the exit without disturbing the other customers but it was an impossible task. Harvey didn’t have his harness on and she hadn’t thought to pick up her cane. Jenny’s floundering was getting them nowhere until Kathy came to the rescue.
‘You know, Maggie, we might need to invest in a rear entrance,’ Kathy said once they had handed Jenny over to a bemused Mark and promptly closed the door on them. ‘If your scowls earlier weren’t enough to frighten away our customers then that little performance certainly will.’
‘I think she means me,’ came a voice that was immediately recognisable.
‘Elsa?’
Jenny’s treatment oils had overpowered the scent of lilacs when Maggie had walked past the waiting area earlier but she could smell the perfume now.
The woman gave a throaty laugh. ‘People haven’t called me that for sixty years. Even the doctors know better than to use my proper name. I don’t care what’s written on your forms, you can call me either Mrs Milton or Elsie. I prefer Elsie.’
Maggie tried to swallow but her mouth was bone dry.
‘Are you all right, love?’ the old lady said. ‘You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.’
‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ Maggie managed.
‘I’m afraid my memory isn’t what it used to be. Should I?’
Maggie didn’t know what to say or think. Her mind had stalled and a shiver crawled down her spine. She wanted more than anything to tell this woman, who was undoubtedly in her twilight years, that they had met when Elsa was twenty-two-years old, alone and pregnant – not because Maggie believed it to be true but because she wanted it to be true. She had an irrational need for Elsa to remain within reach of her help.
‘Would you like me to wait while you get yourself ready?’ Elsie asked when Maggie still hadn’t responded.
‘You do look a bit pale,’ Kathy added.
Maggie insisted that she was fine but there was no fooling Kathy.
‘How about I make you some hot, sweet tea?’ Kathy asked. ‘Would you like one, Mrs Milton?’
‘That would be lovely. I’ll let my husband know what I’m up to first. I won’t be a minute.’
Mrs Milton headed for the small waiting area and Kathy lowered her voice to ask the burning question: ‘Mrs Milton is Elsa? The Elsa?’
‘Yes.’ There was no hesitation in Maggie’s reply but there was a note of puzzlement.
‘You do realise she’s in her eighties? I’m pretty sure that rules out the possibility of her being pregnant.’
‘I know,’ Maggie said as she tried to think back to when they had first met. The dated perfume and the gravelly voice were the clues Maggie should have used to build up the picture of an elderly woman despite the youthful lilt that had obviously been forced. Had Maggie been so eager to believe that Elsa was some kind of lost soul that she had ignored her instincts? How could she have been so foolish?
‘At least the search can be called off,’ Kathy added kindly when she realised Maggie was finding it difficult to reconcile the two opposing images she now had of her new friend.
‘What have I done, Kathy? She doesn’t remember a thing about me. That poor woman was stumbling around the park thinking she was in her twenties and I did nothing to help her.’
‘Hello, ladies,’ Alice announced as the bell above the door gently tinkled. She tried to muffle her cough as Maggie turned towards her. ‘I know what you’re going to say and I will make an appointment for one of your massage thingies but my roots are showing and that’s my priority for today.’
‘OK, Alice, I’ll be with you in a minute,’ Kathy said. She sounded disappointed that her conversation with Maggie had been cut short.
‘Is that Mrs Milton over there?’ Alice asked. ‘It’s such a shame.’
‘What is?’ Kathy asked before Maggie had a chance.
Alice whispered, ‘I found her in the park the other day. She was a bit confused, poor love. It took me a while to get her to tell me who she was and where she came from but we eventually tracked down her husband. It’s an awful thing, dementia. I saw my dad go through it and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.’
‘At least you helped her,’ Maggie said, comparing Alice’s abilities to her own. She felt humiliated; there was no other way to describe it.
‘Hello, Elsie love,’ Alice said as she directed her attention to the woman whose heels scraped across the tiled floor towards them. ‘Are you feeling better today?’
‘Erm, yes thank you …’
‘I’m Alice.’
‘Of course, how could I forget?’ she said, clearly uncomfortable, then turned to Maggie. ‘I’ve told my husband we could be a while and to go home but he’s having none of it. How long do you think it will take?’
Maggie painted on a smile. ‘That really depends on you. What is it I can help you with?’
‘I’m not sure to be honest. I came across your card and I thought I’d give it a try. Something to ease my aching feet would be good.’
‘I’ll see what I can do for you,’ Maggie said. The old lady was either unaware or unwilling to acknowledge the episodes in the park where she had been transported back to another time in her life so Maggie was going to have to earn Elsa – no, Elsie’s trust all over again. ‘I don’t have any more clients today so we can take as long as you need.’
‘Then we’ll take our time and make the daft old sod wait,’ Elsie whispered, loud enough to be heard ten feet away.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll look after him,’ Alice promised.
As Maggie took her latest client
into the treatment room, she couldn’t help but wonder about the man waiting patiently in reception. Had Freddie returned to save Elsa and refused to leave her side ever since?
The rigid plastic chairs in the treatment room squeaked as Maggie went through a formal assessment with her new client: taking some personal details; a brief medical history; checking for known allergies; and forming an idea of what fragrances Elsie preferred while she did her best to silence the internal voice that wanted to ask more probing questions.
She used a digital recorder for her notes and from experience knew that when she played the recording back, the squeak of the chairs would be as irritating then as it was now. Today the recorder would also pick up the chink of china as Elsie sipped her tea.
‘I’m sorry, these seats aren’t very comfortable, are they?’
‘With my joints, there aren’t many chairs that are.’
‘If I can convince you to try out some of my therapies, then the treatment chair over there will be much better.’
At this point, Maggie was meant to go through some options to help ease Elsie’s aches and pains but she still hadn’t told her how they had met before. The deceit played on her mind and she was about to confess all but the seemingly frail and vulnerable woman in front of her was already one step ahead.
‘I’m afraid I have a confession to make,’ Elsie said and if the squeak of the chair wasn’t enough to give away her agitation then the nerves constricting her throat certainly were. ‘Do you mind if we turn that thing off?’
Maggie switched off the recorder without a word.
‘This is a lovely room, so clean and colourful. It’s not what I was expecting at all,’ Elsie said as she scanned the shelves which held an intriguing mix of jars and bottles with bright labels that brought a splash of colour to counter the clinical white of the walls and the chrome fittings.
‘I’m a bit obsessive about adding lots of colour to the packaging of my products to match the colourful scents inside but as for clean, the dog hairs can be a problem,’ Maggie said, tapping the side of her leg to call Harvey over.
‘Hello, boy,’ Elsie said. ‘You are a cutie, aren’t you?’ The dog shook himself as she tickled his back. ‘One of our neighbours in Liverpool had a guide dog. They were quite a team. Mr …’ Her voice trailed off.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Maggie offered.
‘Remembering names is a bit hit and miss I’m afraid.’ There was a frustrated pause but Elsie wasn’t giving up. ‘Woodhouse, that was it. Mr Woodhouse. Anyway,’ she said, turning her attention back to the dog, ‘he had a German Shepherd and he wasn’t a patch on you, Harvey.’
‘You remember his name?’
Elsie laughed but it was hollow. ‘Like I said, hit and miss.’
‘That wasn’t what I meant.’
Elsie stopped stroking Harvey. ‘I don’t remember meeting you before but I’m not denying that we may have.’
‘We’ve met twice before in Victoria Park. We sat together on the bench by the lake,’ Maggie said gently.
‘That bench has certainly seen a lot of comings and goings in its time.’
A flush rose in Maggie’s cheeks as she imagined Elsie trying to work out how much she had told her. Maggie wanted to explain but something held her back. Bizarre as it seemed, it was Elsa who had trusted Maggie with her innermost secrets and she was loath to break that trust, even with Elsa’s older self. ‘It’s a beautiful spot.’
‘And one that has played on my mind for a very long time.’
‘Do you remember anything of our meetings?’ There was the soft swish of hair brushing against her collar as Elsie shook her head. Struggling to find a diplomatic way to bridge Elsie’s present with her past, Maggie asked, ‘How long have you been having problems with your memory, Elsie?’
‘You mean how long have I had Alzheimer’s? That’s the medical term the doctors in Liverpool labelled me with. Now, when was that?’ she asked herself. ‘We moved to Sedgefield a couple of months ago … I think … So, oh, I don’t know, six months ago, a year maybe? It was when the police got involved.’
‘The police?’ Maggie asked, unable to hide her shock.
‘I kept trying to find my way back to Sedgefield and the local bobbies got used to picking me up and taking me home so I eventually agreed to see the doctor. Of course it started long before then, lots of silly things that we could joke about at first, like when I put my shoes in the oven and claimed I was making Dover sole,’ Elsie said. ‘But there are some things I can’t laugh off.’
‘Like your trips to the park?’
When she replied, Elsie’s words were choked. ‘I come out of the fug feeling so lost and confused and it terrifies me. I keep trying to convince myself that it’ll take time to settle in a new place but I’m not getting better, only worse.’
‘There’s a reason this town is special to you, isn’t there?’
There was a telling pause. ‘You know I’ve lived in Sedgefield before, don’t you?’
‘When we met, you introduced yourself as Elsa and told me you were twenty-two, which would be back in 1953 by my reckoning,’ Maggie said, having worked it out from the date of birth Elsie had given. But that was only one small piece of the puzzle. ‘I think you trusted me, maybe because I’m pregnant too.’
‘I did wonder how I came to have your card in my pocket. Can I still trust you?’
‘Yes,’ Maggie replied, eager to hear Elsa’s fate.
‘Then forget everything I may have told you.’
When Maggie reached out to take Elsie’s hand, the chair squeaked as the old lady pulled away.
‘But you came back to Sedgefield for a reason, surely? Perhaps I can help,’ Maggie offered although for the life of her she didn’t know how.
‘You can help by taking absolutely no notice of my ramblings.’
But the image of Elsa that Maggie had conjured in her mind persisted. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the young woman she had befriended was still there, hiding in the corners of Mrs Milton’s mind, still frightened of the future, still needing her help. ‘And if you find yourself at the lakeside again?’
When Elsie spoke, it was in the barest whisper and had echoes of Elsa. ‘Don’t try to save me.’
Maggie’s skin crawled. She reached over and this time took hold of Elsie’s hand firmly in her own. Elsie’s fingers were icy cold, the flesh slightly sagging and her arthritic joints swollen and gnarled. Little wonder Maggie had recoiled when she had taken hold of Elsa’s hand in the park, expecting the taut, delicate skin of youth. ‘I can’t promise you that.’
‘Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up next to the man you’ve been married to for fifty-odd years and think an intruder has found his way into your bed? Can you imagine how terrifying that is for me and for him too?’
‘No, I can’t. But if you jump into that lake then I promise you, here and now, that I’m going to dive straight in and drag you out.’
There was a moment’s pause as the two women squared up to each other then Elsie sighed. ‘You don’t have to worry – my husband won’t let me out of his sight these days.’
‘Is it Freddie waiting for you outside?’ Maggie ventured.
‘There is no Freddie,’ came the rather stoic reply.
Forced to consider that the American had been a figment of her fractured mind just like the swans, Maggie asked, ‘He didn’t exist?’
‘Freddie is a ghost from the past that my illness seems intent on bringing back to life. I have to keep reminding myself of who I am and where I am. My name is Elsie; I’ve been married to … Ted … for God knows how many years. I have … I have two daughters,’ she said, faltering as her mind failed to keep up with the sense of conviction she had wanted to convey.
‘I still want to help if you’ll let me,’ persisted Maggie. ‘There’s empirical evidence that aromatherapy can help with some of the symptoms you’re experiencing. Are you having any treatment?’
‘Why do you t
hink I ran away from Liverpool? I couldn’t be doing with all that. And this could just be a storm in a teacup. My trip to the park was probably a one-off while I get my bearings in a new town.’
‘I met you there twice,’ Maggie reminded her. ‘And Alice found you there too.’
‘All right, I’m not daft and before that frown of yours gives you premature wrinkles, I’m not in complete denial either. I’ve promised … I’ve promised …’
‘Ted?’ Maggie offered and immediately regretted her haste.
‘I know my husband’s name. Now, you’ve made me forget what I was saying,’ Elsie said with more than a hint of irritation. ‘I’ve promised Ted I’ll go back to the doctor’s so I don’t need your interference. My Ted will look after me.’
‘I’m your friend, remember?’
When Elsie exhaled, the anger left her body. ‘I wish I’d had someone like you around sixty years ago.’
The silence that followed, rather than creating an awkward pause, brought a connection that spanned the decades. Maggie still hadn’t asked the burning question but it would take time for Elsie to trust her enough to reveal what had happened to the baby. However, that didn’t stop her from skirting around the edges.
‘Do you have any family in Sedgefield?’
‘No. My eldest daughter, Nancy, lives in America and Yvonne lives up in Scotland. As for the rest of my family, I only have a brother left now and he’s in his seventies. I do have plenty of nieces and nephews though, some close enough to be called upon if needs be.’
‘And you have me, not sixty years ago but now. Please do go to see the doctor but that doesn’t mean you can’t come here too for some complementary therapy. In fact, you might want to try this cream,’ Maggie said, jumping up so fast it made Harvey start. She quickly found the jar she was after and checked the label, which was written in Braille as well as print. ‘You can apply it to your arms, neck and chest before bedtime to help improve your sleep patterns or you could use it during the day to keep your thoughts clear. It contains lavender and lemon balm,’ she explained, undoing the lid.
‘I prefer lilacs,’ Elsie said without taking the proffered jar.
Where I Found You Page 7