But no, my first instinct had been the right one. ‘I’ll tell you some day,’ Rob said. ‘But not now. Not just before I have to look at them.’
‘Wow,’ Lucy said. ‘It must have been bad.’
‘Yeah, it washaven’t-seen-them-since-I-was-seventeenbad,’ he said.
Lucy reached forward and gave Rob’s shoulder a squeeze. ‘Poor Dad!’ she said. ‘That sounds shitty.’
‘Lucy!’ I said.
‘No, she’s right,’ Rob said with a shrug. ‘It was.’
When we got there, the row of houses looked a lot like Mum’s street in Millmead – small two-up two-down pebble-dashed council houses with scrappy gardens. Instead of overlooking the wonderful seascape they backed onto a car park and an ugly public toilet block. My brief hopes of one day inheriting a pretty holiday cottage in Wales were dashed.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to go for a walk or something?’ Rob asked. ‘I’d be happier. It’s not likely to be pleasant.’
‘If it makes you really uncomf—’ I started to say, but Lucy interrupted me.
‘No,’ she said, defiantly. ‘I want to see them. And then one day soon, when you’re ready, I want you to tell me what all the fuss is about.’
The Havards lived at number 76, which turned out to be the last – and shabbiest – house in the row. The roof was green with moss and a couple of aggressive-looking gulls were picking at it and squawking at each other as we opened the gate.
It was Rob’s father who came to the door and my initial reaction was shock at how old he was. I’d been expecting someone roughly my mother’s age, but of course, in addition to Rob being older than me in the first place, my mother had had me at seventeen. Rob’s father looked well into his eighties. He had ugly out-of-date clothes – shiny school trousers and a shirt with a seventies collar – a bald head and a snowy beard, along with watery grey-blue eyes.
‘Rob!’ he said. ‘Christ! When you said you’d come, I didn’t believe it.’
‘No,’ Rob said. ‘Me neither.’
They stood there on the doorstep eyeing each other up until eventually Rob’s father said, ‘I’d forgotten how tall you are.’
‘Had you?’ Rob said, nodding gently and sounding disdainful, then, more softly, ‘I suppose it’s been a while.’
There was a moment of edgy silence until Lucy stepped forward and held out her hand. ‘Lucy,’ she said. ‘The daughter.’
‘David,’ Rob’s father said, shaking her hand. ‘The father.’ I couldn’t tell if he was mocking Lucy or simply copying her because he didn’t know what else to do.
‘Dawn,’ I said, trying to make a joke out of it. ‘Thewife!’
David shook my hand but carried on looking at Lucy. I assumed he was searching for a resemblance between her and Rob, but then he said, ‘Aren’t you a pretty one, eh?’
‘Don’t!’ Rob said sharply, making us all jump. ‘Just don’t, or I swear…’
David glanced at me then and pulled a face. ‘He’s always been touchy, this one,’ he said. ‘But then I’m assuming you know that by now.’
‘No,’ I said, pointing a fake smile in Rob’s direction. ‘Can’t say I do. Rob’s never been touchy with me at all.’
‘OK,’ David said. ‘Well, lucky you.’
Rob drew in a big noisy breath and then said, ‘So! This box!’ His voice was higher and edgier than usual and he sounded vaguely Welsh. I performed a sort of double-take.
‘Yes, the box,’ David said. ‘It’s in the shed. I’ll just…’ And then he closed the front door in our faces while he went looking for the keys.
‘Gosh,’ Lucy whispered. ‘Welcome to Wales. Do come in!’
‘I warned you,’ Rob said. ‘I warned you he’s—’
The front door opened again sharply. David waved a key at us – it was tied onto the end of a shoelace.
‘Found it!’ he said, triumphantly. As he crossed the tiny garden to the dilapidated shed, he continued, ‘I would invite you all in for a cup of tea, but there’s not much furniture left. They took most of it last Monday. Plus we only kept two cups.’
