‘It was supposed to be a living funeral. I?—’
‘What on earth is a living funeral?’ Susanna wanted the facts and fast.
‘It’s a celebration of life… but obviously nobody has died.’
‘Glad we’ve cleared that up,’ Susanna snapped.
‘I didn’t mean it to happen.’
‘Really.’ It wasn’t a question; the remark dripped with sarcasm. She looked at Addie who was so in shock that she wasn’t talking. Susanna looked at their aunt, the person who had tricked them into coming back to the island. She was the same Gayle, except now her hair was more white than grey, and the sun had left deep creases in her face and brown spots on her forearms. Gayle still sounded the same as she had done the last time they spoke, decades ago, with the same caution in her voice, mixed with regret and wariness that Susanna remembered from when they’d first come here as young girls.
‘I used online guides to work out what to write,’ Gayle went on, as if an explanation would ever make this any better. ‘My concentration span these days isn’t the best. I was toying with what to call the gathering. I could’ve called it a celebration of life, or a pre-death party or a pre-funeral. I’d decided on “living funeral” but I’m afraid I lost focus and ended up forgetting to add in the word “living” entirely. I didn’t do a check before I folded the invites and popped them into the envelopes.’ She looked at the girls very briefly over the top of her fingertips before she tore her gaze away.
Addie finally found her voice. ‘Why not just have a party rather than anything to do with a funeral?’
‘It’s not my birthday for ages. I don’t have anything else to celebrate coming up.’
‘Then you should’ve made something up.’ Susanna’s voice rose like her fury.
‘We can’t be the only ones who got invites,’ Addie chipped in.
‘Well, no, there were plenty of other guests.’
‘Your neighbour?’ At the puzzled look on Gayle’s face, Addie added, ‘The woman from before. She obviously didn’t think you were dead.’
Susanna sat straighter in her chair. ‘Hang on, when did you realise you’d made the mistake?’
Aunt Gayle looked deflated. ‘Soon after the invites went out in the mail, I had a knock on the door from Nancy… You remember Nancy?’ Her brief uplift of demeanour sank again when she realised neither of her nieces were going to embrace a bit of nostalgia. ‘We’d only seen one another a few hours before she got home and found the invite. She came over to see what was going on.’
Susanna crossed her arms in front of her chest. ‘And what did you do next?’
‘I had to call around and spread the word.’ Her composure faded when she realised what she’d admitted.
Addie took her by surprise when she shouted, ‘So basically, you told everyone apart from us!’
Susanna stood up. ‘This is so wrong. Come on, Addie. We’re leaving.’
‘No, please…’ Gayle stood up too, hands firmly on the table, but when she wobbled she sat straight back down. As the girls retrieved their suitcases from the side of the room she begged, ‘Please don’t go, not now you’re finally here. I know I should’ve told you. But tell me this…’ Her voice followed them to the door as Susanna tried to wrangle her suitcase between the chairs and head out the front, which was closer to the kitchen than the rear door.
‘Tell you what?’ Addie asked.
Susanna kept her back to them both; she didn’t want Gayle to see her weak, to see that her eyes had filled with tears, from the shock, the audacity, the cruelty of the situation.
Aunt Gayle’s voice shook as she said, ‘Tell me, would either of you have bothered to come for a party?’
Susanna turned round. ‘Probably not.’ Her words delivered a sting she hoped Gayle felt as keenly as the one delivered to them as the only people not to know the truth, the same cruel sting Susanna had felt when she realised Gayle had told Mateo to end things with her.
Gayle’s eyes implored Addie to give a different answer to her sister. But Addie didn’t say a word. She slumped down at the table again while Susanna stayed where she was in the doorway.
‘You girls left and never came back,’ said Gayle. ‘There are things I need to put right before it’s my time to go, whether that’s soon or not for a number of years.’
‘Are you sick?’ Addie immediately asked.
Susanna harrumphed. ‘That’s it. You’re not well and you want us here to look after you.’
Gayle shook her head. ‘That’s not it at all. I’m getting old, nothing surprising there. When I realised my mistake I thought I would test the waters, see whether either of you came. I thought you might if it was for a funeral, if only to clear out your father’s things.’ She managed a small smile. ‘And you came together. You’ve no idea how happy that makes me.’
‘Don’t you dare say that!’ Susanna roared. ‘It’s not our job to make you happy!’
