He walked out of the room briefly to retrieve the sparklers and back in the kitchen, he set them down on the table. ‘I do, and we can use these.’
Gio expected her to smile, which she did. But what he didn’t expect was for her whole face to light up, for her to put her hands across her mouth to hold in the emotion and for him to be transported back to his childhood in a way that almost knocked him off his feet.
That evening, after they’d eaten their takeaway, they went out into his back garden and lit the sparklers one after the other.
‘Hold them at arm’s length, remember,’ he instructed.
‘So bossy.’ But she did as she was told.
With the lit sparkler, she did her best to writeMariannein the air. ‘There are too many letters, easy for you with only three.’
‘Why don’t you just writeMum.’
His suggestion was met with a wide smile.
‘M… u… m.’ The letters sparkled against the night sky one by one and Gio sensed the poignancy of the moment wasn’t lost on either of them.
When each sparkler was spent, they dropped it into the bucket of water he had nearby. ‘Sparklers hold their heat for a long time,’ he reminded her.
‘Ever the firefighter,’ she replied. ‘You and Marco both love your jobs; I’m proud of my boys.’
Marco had gone into the profession first and Gio a few years after. Joining the fire service had appealed to Marco after a careers fair when he had no idea what else to do but knew he didn’t want to be in an office. Gio was built the same way and so when it came to the time he had to make some decisions about his future, it seemed like a decent career. And he’d never looked back. Neither of them had.
Marianne balled up the empty wrappers from the sparklers and Gio opened the top of the wheelie bin for her to drop them inside. ‘You both grew up to be fine men. And you did that in spite of me.’
She prompted him to close the bin when he stood there, the lid still up and in his hand.
He didn’t address the last part of the claim – he wasn’t sure what to say – so he went with, ‘There’s nothing else I’d rather do,’ before they headed inside and into the warm.
‘Are you sure you don’t mind me going to the AA meeting tonight?’ Marianne asked as Gio set the dishwasher to go a few nights later. ‘It’s at your local town hall; I thought maybe it’s too close. It saves me the bus fare, see, and the extra time it’ll take.’ She pulled on her coat, ready to leave.
Gio and Marianne had spent three consecutive evenings together, just the two of them, and rather than Gio feeling suffocated, like he needed to get the hell out of his own house, they settled into a routine. Not working, Marianne had cleaned his house from top to bottom, she’d cooked meals that weren’t too complicated, and better than that, she’d looked for jobs. He’d seen evidence of it in her email account, all the applications, the effort she was putting in.
‘I’ve said it’s fine, Mum. You go.’ He had a sudden thought. ‘I could maybe walk you there, meet you after.’
He’d expected her to say no, claim that he didn’t trust her or tell him that this wasn’t something she wanted to share with him. But she didn’t. She zipped up the coat they’d found for her in the charity shop – a warm, faux-fur-lined one that would see her through winter – and told him to hurry up as she didn’t want to be late.
The winds of the last few days had gone, the temperature was falling but there was something about being out in the crisp evening air that was pretty special.
While Marianne went to her meeting, Gio walked down to the river and sat on the bench he’d seen his mum on that day. If he hadn’t seen her, how long would it have taken her to admit the truth: that she hadn’t done a single shift on the job that had brought her this way in the first place?
He stared out at the river but he didn’t sit on the bench forlong – it was too cold – and so he walked alongside the water and back until it was time to meet his mum.
When he arrived at the town hall, she came running down the steps waving a piece of paper.
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a cleaning company; they had those little tear strips on the bottom of an ad on the noticeboard.’
He looked at the logo. He’d heard of them. ‘They’re a big company.’ Maybe too big – she’d likely need experience and references. But he wasn’t going to put a dampener on it.
He’d made the right choice not to put any doubt in her mind because as soon as Marianne got home, she applied for the job online and the very next morning, she had an interview.
The interview was at the company’s premises. Gio took her there and rather than waiting around to make sure she did what she claimed, he was instead waiting around and keeping everything crossed for good news.
She came out happy enough but it wasn’t until the early evening that she got the call she’d been wishing for.
She came running at him when he came downstairs with his holdall, ready for work.
