‘Go.’ Alice shooed her away. ‘But I am taking a taxi into town in fifteen minutes. You can travel with me if I collect you outside the school? It’s on the way.’
Jess was almost certain she would miss her bus to work.
‘Oh my goodness, yes please, you are a lifesaver. Thank you.’ She blew Alice a kiss and then she was gone.
As they walked to school, a little hurriedly that morning, Jess thought about Alice and how grateful she was that she had taken the ground-floor flat.
She had never known her own maternal grandmother, as she had tragically died before she was born, and her father’s mother moved abroad when she was around ten years old. She remembered feeling envious when her school friends would tell stories of their grans, after popping around to see them after school. Jess could already feel the positive impact of Alice living downstairs.
She was relieved that personal things were no longer allowed into school. It was hard to keep up with trends sometimes, although she had tried to explain to Maisie that owning the latest toy or fashion accessory did not make someone a better person. Besides, she was hardly in a position to be able to afford all the latest things for her daughter. She was already dreading the teenage years, when Maisie would probably insist on the latest designer trainers or whatever to fit in with her peers. It was a balancing act providing nice things for her, yet not wanting her to be spoilt.
‘Am I going to be late for school?’ asked Maisie as Jess pressed the button at a crossing on the busy road.
‘No,’ said Jess. ‘You will be perfectly on time; I may have been late for work, though, had Alice not offered me a lift.’
She had spoken to Maisie about the school incident, and she had insisted the child on the playground had pushed her first. Even so, Jess wanted the matter cleared up.
SEVEN
ALICE
Flat 1
Alice had already been up for over an hour and was pondering how she might spend the day.
She had considered taking a bus to Sefton Park and having a gentle stroll. She loved that park, with its soothing lake and Palm House reminiscent of Victorian days gone by. As a child, she had walked there regularly with her parents, especially on a Sunday after church.
It wasn’t the closest park to their house, but her mother loved it so much her father would drive them there. There was a huge house overlooking the park that her mother dreamt of living in, and her father would smile and say, ‘Maybe one day.’ But they never did live on the leafy street.
The park visits held such lovely memories for Alice that she would occasionally catch a bus or train, and enjoy a trip down memory lane. There was a tree there that looked old and gnarly to her young eyes, but her father told her of an even older tree at Calderstones Park called the Allerton Oak and had taken her there to see it. She read recently that the tree was now around a thousand years old.
Alice often pondered why a tree could live for hundreds, even a thousand years, but humans, if they were lucky, had seven or eight decades. At ninety-one years old, Alice felt extremely grateful to be alive and in such good health. The problem with living as old as an oak tree, though, was that most of her friends had departed this earth, including her beloved husband, George. She looked forward to seeing them in the next life and hoped that the Bible stories she remembered from Sunday school were true, when they spoke of Jesus resurrecting people and giving them eternal life. She had so much to tell George.
She had heard the clattering of footsteps on the stairwell as Jess flew down with her daughter, and after hearing her plight, decided she would take a trip into the city centre instead of going to the park. That way she could treat herself to a new dress for Friday evening’s dinner, as well as helping her neighbour out.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, after Alice had finished listening to a discussion about animal welfare on the radio and whether horse racing ought to be banned, she pulled up outside the school gates in a white taxi, to find Jess already waiting.
She had considered the horse debate but was unable to take a side, which was unusual for Alice, who was never one to sit on the fence. As a child, she had been taken to the horse racing with her parents and had viewed the Grand National from a private box. Watching the horses gallop through her binoculars and shouting the name of the horse her father had allowed her to have a little flutter on was exhilarating.
There had been no indication during those joyous days that horse racing would have such an impact on their future lives.
‘Is everything okay now?’ asked Alice as Jess took a seat beside her in the back of the white cab.
‘Yeah, all sorted.’ Jess told Alice all about the incident with the pencil case.
‘And the girl’s mother was okay really, after Maisie apologised. I told her about what Maisie said about being pushed first, so she made her daughter apologise too. Lottie did look a little shamefaced, so I am inclined to believe Maisie was telling the truth.’
‘I’m glad it has been sorted,’ said Alice.
‘Me too. And at least I know there won’t be any more problems regarding personal possessions.’
‘I must say, it sounds as though some schools are far too liberal these days. No wonder there are so many issues with behaviour,’ mused Alice. ‘At least that’s what I gather from reading the news. We had to work in silence when I was a child, although admittedly that is probably going a bit too far. Children like to chat.’ She smiled.
‘Tell me about it.’ Jess laughed thinking of Maisie’s constant chatter and questions about the world, but she wouldn’t have her any other way.
Alice was appalled that teenagers were carrying knives these days, and the news of a teenager recently being stabbed outside a high school had led her to no longer tune in to the local evening news.
‘I feel sorry for the teachers sometimes,’ said Jess. ‘Half the time the parents take the side of their little darlings, even when they are in the wrong.’ She shook her head.
