‘Sorry they are not home-made, although it is from Co-op’s finest range,’ she told Mark as she set the food down on the table.
They were all sitting around on plastic garden chairs that Mark had found online and ordered half a dozen from Amazon. He had retrieved an old table from the shed and covered it with a nice tablecloth for the food, and thankfully it looked quite presentable.
Carol, chatty and entertaining, charmed everyone and had Mark in fits of laughter, as she recounted tales about this and that, including customers at the Co-op when she worked there.
‘One lady used to call in and occasionally bring her parrot with her, tethered to her wrist like one of those birds of prey you see at displays.’ She chuckled. ‘She said it enjoyed the fresh air and hated being alone.’
‘You’re kidding!’ said Mark.
‘No, it’s quite true. The manager didn’t mind at first, as she was usually in and out for some milk or something, but he had to ban it when it told a customer in the queue to—’ She looked at the girls and continued, ‘Well, you can guess what it said!’
The group laughed loudly. Alice said it took all sorts, which was so true. A day in the city and you could just about observe a whole cross section of life right there.
Mark felt a sudden gratitude sitting here and laughing with these people. It occurred to him that we never really know what is going on in other people’s lives. And without taking that first step to get to know those around us, we never will.
TWENTY-NINE
JESS
Jess was sitting next to Declan, and their legs brushed once or twice, giving her those butterflies once more. She was sure he must have felt it too, and the way she caught him glancing at her told her that it maybe was not just in her imagination.
All the same, she wasn’t sure about letting another man into her life. Could she go through the heartache again if things didn’t work out? It had taken all of her strength to get her life together, juggling work and being a parent to Maisie after she split with Maisie’s dad. It would have to be someone very special if she was to open her heart again.
At least her mum looked happy and a little like her old self again, thought Jess, as she observed her and Mark laughing at something together. It struck her that she had not really looked like that in quite a while and realised that it was important for her to be around good people who shared her sense of humour.
The pain from her dad’s betrayal seemed, thankfully, a little easier for her mum to bear these days, and maybe Pete had been a distraction when she needed it.
There was no doubting it now, though: her mum had made a mistake moving in with Pete. However pretty the Lake Districtwas, with its stone houses and river running through the village, she had told Jess it just didn’t feel like home.
By all accounts the problem had been Pete himself, who had presented himself as fun and adventurous in the early stages of the relationship. Despite his good looks, it hadn’t taken long for him to reveal his serious, and at times, dull nature. Ironically, when Jess was young, her mother had warned her about the exceptionally handsome guys, believing they didn’t try as hard, and relied on their looks. Maybe there was a grain of truth in that.
The problem was that Carol had sold her old house that was snapped up in five minutes, such was the popularity of the area. She had bought a decent car to get her to and from the Lake District and settled a credit card debt.
She had revealed to Jess that she would never be able to afford to return here with the money she had left in the bank with the current house prices and would probably be forced to rent.
Jess was delighted that her mum was having such a good evening and hopefully not thinking about such matters. She was proud to have a mother who always found the solution to things in life, something Jess herself had inherited. It was comforting to know that if life knocked them down, they would always be there to lift each other up.
THIRTY
ALICE
Alice was happy to sit back this evening and enjoy watching those around her have a good time. She generally enjoyed holding court and contributing to the evening a lot more, but this evening she still felt a little tired. Maybe all that sea air the other day had taken it out of her, although there was no denying that something else was troubling her.
‘Are you okay, Alice?’ asked Mark as he placed some freshly cooked pork and red onion sausages on to the table.
‘Yes, I’m perfectly fine.’ Alice smiled. ‘A little tired maybe, it’s been rather a long day.’ She didn’t need to tell him that she had recently felt a little sleepier than usual and her breathing felt a little laboured. Not when they were having such a lovely time together. And when she could see the seeds of friendship, and more, growing in this group after she’d planted them at the dinner.
It was also bothering her somewhat that she had lost a gold necklace that George had bought her for their golden wedding anniversary. She tried to tell her herself that things like jewellery were unimportant and merely possessions. You could not take them with you when you departed this earth. Even so, her neck felt strangely bare when she touched it this morning, and ithad upset her having to replace the gold jewellery with a glass necklace.
She had scoured the flat this morning, but it was nowhere to be seen. It puzzled her why it would become loose after all these years and slip from her neck. It had subdued her mood far more than she might have expected it to, but she would soon bounce back as she always did. There were terrible things happening in the world right now, so in the great scheme of things losing a necklace was not so tragic, was it? she told herself.
When Mark put some music on later, and Maisie and her little friend danced around the garden, Alice’s mood was instantly lifted. They waved their arms in the air and danced with such unabandoned joy that she found herself clapping along to the music and tapping her feet.
Dear little Maisie pulled Alice to her feet then and Alice found her rhythm and began to dance. Soon enough she was laughing. Children were such a tonic, she reminded herself as Carol stood up and joined in the dancing too.
Soon enough everyone was on their feet, and the look of sheer delight on the children’s faces was something to behold. The sound of their giggling rang around the garden, thrilled that the adults were joining in, especially when Mark did the ‘Gangnam Style’ dance, that had everyone in fits of laughter.
When the adults sat down, and Mark announced in a whisper to the adults that he was ‘buggered’ after all the dancing, Maisie did a perfect cartwheel and Jess clapped loudly.
