‘Laurie Rose,’ Pat repeats, as if allowing the name to sink in.
‘We used to listen to music. You had an old record player in your lounge that used to belong to your hubby. You introduced me to Elvis, d’you remember?’
Pat clicks her fingers and sings, in a surprisingly good voice, Elvis’s ‘All Shook Up’. As Laurie sings along with her, Pat stops abruptly. ‘I know you, don’t I?’
‘Yes! It’s Laurie!’
‘Laurie Rose.’ She opens her arms and Laurie falls into them. Angus and I know we should leave, yet it’s so tender and moving, I can’t. ‘Is it really you?’ Pat asks again, as she strokes Laurie’s hair. ‘What happened to you?’
‘I’m OK,’ Laurie says, ‘I’m good.’
‘Are you happy? Are you safe?’
‘Yeah, I live in London now.’
‘You have a home?’
‘I moved to the big smoke! And these are my friends, Angus and Holly,’ Laurie says. ‘We work in a café.’
Yet Pat only has eyes for Laurie. ‘What happened to you, my darling little girl? I never believed I’d see you again.’
‘Nothing bad happened,’ Laurie reassures her, kneeling by her side, and taking Pat’s hands into her own. ‘If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here. I was fine.’
Angus and I remain so touched by the scene that we don’t notice the door opening until we hear, ‘What’s going on?’
‘Rochelle, it’s Laurie Rose,’ exclaims Pat joyfully to a grey-haired woman who can only be her daughter.
Rochelle seems to be suspicious. She looks at Laurie, as if she’s beginning to piece together who she might be. ‘Mum, do you want these people to leave?’ She doesn’t wait for her to reply. ‘I think you should go. Mum’s tired.’
Pat looks confused now.
Laurie looks at us, then back to Pat. ‘But I’ve only just got here.’
A man enters the room next, possibly Rochelle’s husband or brother, friend, partner, who knows. ‘They won’t leave,’ she says to him. ‘This is the girl who squatted with Mum, took her money—’
‘To buy her stuff!’ Laurie protests. ‘I’d go down the shops for her ’cos her knees were bad.’
He swiftly walks across the room, yanks Laurie up by the arm, as if she’s an animal.
‘Hey,’ Angus shouts.
Soon he’s pushing her out of the room.
Angus intervenes, grabbing Laurie from this man’s clutches.
‘How dare you upset my wife,’ the man says before the three of us are turfed out of the room like bad smells. He closes the door firmly behind us and moves us down the corridor, out of the way. ‘Pat’s old. Fragile. You can’t turn up like this.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Angus says, trying to keep a lid on his temper. ‘If we could explain why we’re here?’ He looks over to Laurie.
‘All I want to do is say thanks.’
‘You stole from her.’
‘I swear I didn’t,’ Laurie says, on the verge of tears.
‘Pat trusts anyone. She did this all the time, opened her doors to the waifs and strays. It was a huge stress for Rochelle. What have you come back for? What do you want?’
‘I didn’t take anything from Pat,’ Laurie says again. ‘I don’t want anything!’
