He couldn’t face another ride on public transport so for the next viewing, he treated them both to a taxi. ‘I’m getting full pay, Mum, don’t stress,’ he told her when she voiced her concern again.
In the back of the taxi, Marianne clutched the Post-it she’d scribbled the details onto after finding another spare room to look at. ‘I’ve got a good feeling about this place.’
‘You said that about the last.’ He didn’t mean to sound so despondent. That wouldn’t help things for either of them. Atleast this next one was a female landlord, or should he say landlady? He was never sure. He wasn’t sexist but the last three rooms they’d viewed had all been in homes owned by men and not one of those had been suitable. They’d called a fourth, a male landlord again, but there must be something in the water around here for men renting out their spare rooms because he was hard to understand on the phone and the only bit Gio comprehended as his mum used speakerphone so he could listen in was when the guy asked Marianne to send him a photograph for identity purposes. Gio had leaned across the arm of the sofa and hung up the house phone himself on that one, uttering the word, ‘Pervert.’ Before explaining that asking for photo ID at this stage was bullshit.
‘I just need somewhere for a good three to six months and then I can get my own bedsit. I’d rather live on my own, Gio. I need that. You need it too.’ She wiped her hand against the condensation on the back window so she could see out.
‘I want to see you get a good place, Mum.’
‘I know.’ But she seemed to be losing hope the same way he was and with any downer for his mum came the risk she’d seek solace in the bottle. He knew that. And so did she.
‘Cheers,’ said Gio to the driver before paying the fare with his card when they reached their destination.
Kerbside, his mother was waiting in front of the pretty little house with a bottle-green front door that he was familiar with.
This couldn’t be it.
‘Are you sure you have the right address?’ he asked after she handed him his crutches.
‘Yes, of course.’ And she was already on her way up the path to meet Elizabeth, the owner. The woman he knew as Bess.
Gio hovered next to his mum as Marianne lifted the door knocker and rapped twice, not too loud but firm enough to getattention and sure enough, it wasn’t long before they heard the key turn in the lock.
‘Hello, I’m Marianne,’ his mother said brightly. She’d obviously rehearsed it to say the second the door was open because the words were out before she registered. ‘Bess, it’s Bess! Look, Gio, it’s your friend.’
He grinned. ‘So it is.’
Bess ushered them inside in the warm and it was obvious from her reaction that she’d suspected there weren’t too many Mariannes looking to rent a spare room.
‘What’s with the name Elizabeth?’ he asked once they were inside. ‘Did you make that up?’
‘Of course I didn’t. It’s my full name.’
‘How did I never know that?’
She shrugged. ‘Nobody ever, ever calls me that – think Dad did a few times when I was little and in trouble, but apart from official letters and documents, I’m Bess. You clearly weren’t nosy enough when we shared a house.’
‘You have a beautiful home,’ Marianne told her, even though she hadn’t seen much of it.
‘Thank you.’ Bess looked hesitant and he wondered whether that was because he was here too. But she must have expected it, surely, or was she remembering their conversation not so long ago and a none-too-subtle hint that his mum and jobs didn’t always mix? If that was what she was thinking, that she was going to get a tenant who couldn’t pay the rent, then this was all about to implode. But then why give Marianne the opportunity to come here if this wasn’t going to work?
‘Let me show you the room,’ Bess smiled. Perhaps she’d forgotten all about their previous conversation and he was just being paranoid.
‘I’ll stay here.’ Gio lifted the crutches as explanation while his mum took off her coat and shoes.
‘Make yourself comfortable in the lounge,’ Bess smiled to him.
He looked down at his feet.
‘Don’t worry about it; I’ll make the exception for you this once.’
‘Appreciate it.’ Man, it was good to see her, sod the awkward circumstances.
He made sure he’d rubbed his shoes well against the mat before he went through to the lounge and settled on the sofa. He could hear the women’s muffled voices from upstairs as the sound carried enough for him to deduce the room was adequate, as was the matching of landlady to tenant, given the sounds of laughter.
Bess came downstairs first. ‘I told your mum to have a look in the bathroom without me and to check out the room again. I always think it’s easier to be nosy when you’re on your own.’ But sure enough, she came out with it quickly: the real reason she’d come down first. ‘I’m worried, Gio. Last time we spoke, you mentioned something about your mum keeping this job, for once. I remembered after I agreed to her coming over today but it worries me, I won’t deny it.’
‘I did say that. But she still has her job, she’s still earning, still working hard. And I’ll be her guarantor. That isn’t a problem.’
