‘To Ginger, Sam and Callie.’ Everyone drank, the waiters watched and lovely dance music from Grace’s favourite era, the 1940s, came on in the background.
‘The staff,’ said Grace wickedly. ‘They follow my every silent command. Now, you must all sit.’
Everyone sat, with Grace at the head of the grouping, standing with her stick in one hand.
‘I believe they call them DLEs,’ said Grace proudly, with her bifocals on and looking deliciously eccentric with her fluffy hair and her new – shopping channel – pink lace dress dolled up with plenty of new jewellery – off the internet – accessorised with the old porridge cardigan she was devoted to.
‘DLEs?’ asked Phil. ‘I never know any of these new words.’
‘Damned Learning Experiences,’ finished Grace, like the opera singer delivering the final, triumphant note. ‘It means you have all gone through a year of learning and really, darlings, haven’t we all learned enough?’
Everybody laughed. Even the handsome agricultural students in the kitchen could be heard giggling.
‘I am a big fan of the old ceremonies ...’
‘The old whatsits?’ said Ginger’s father, who was definitely going a bit deaf.That darned bandsaw, Ginger thought, whispering ‘Old ceremonies’ to him loudly enough so he could hear.
‘When we get back, I am taking you to get your ears sorted,’ said Grace. ‘Men always go deaf first when, in fairness, it should be us women who get deaf first so we no longer hear when we get roared at about when dinner is ready.’
Declan and Mick laughed out loud. Grace had never tolerated anyone shouting at her about their dinner.
‘Anyway, as I was saying, we need a ceremony to say goodbye to this learning year so we can usher in the new one.’
‘Is this from some new book you and Esmerelda got off the internet, Grace?’ demanded Ginger.
‘No look at me for this madness!’ said Esmerelda. ‘I do the praying like all my family.’
‘Only when you want something,’ said Grace testily. ‘I don’t believe in all that praying. I like my smudge stick—’
‘The thing that smells like the drugs the people smoke in the wacky cigarettes,’ stage-whispered Esmerelda.
‘It’s dried herbs, not that cannabis muck,’ said Grace. ‘It has cleansing properties. Tonight—’ She raised her arms like a pink-lace-and-porridge-clad goddess and gently shooed the dogs away, who had decided it was a game and wanted to join in. ‘Tonight, we all need to think of all the pain we went through, write it down on these pieces of paper in the centre of the room and burn them in the fire, then I will smudge the room, we will wish for better things. And tra la la! The old year will be gone, and the new one will come.’
‘Sounds great,’ said Poppy enthusiastically. ‘Do we wear special make-up?’
‘If you want, sweetie,’ said Grace, who had taken a real shine to Poppy from the first time she met her when Poppy, Callie and Sam had come to visit her and Esmerelda in Dublin. ‘Something ancient ...?’
‘Egyptian,’ decided Poppy and ran upstairs to get her make-up kit. She loved the Egyptian look.
‘What’s the aim of it all?’ asked Callie with interest. Nothing surprised her anymore and she loved Ginger’s crazy old great-aunt. Grace had such spirit. Nobody would cheat on her or run a fraudulent business under her nose.
‘Ah, Callie,’ said Grace softly, ‘it helps you move on, forgive yourself and stop thinking that only you were stupid.’
Callie felt suddenly that Grace must be a witch because she had seen so clearly into her soul. She teared up at the idea of her soul so open.
‘You have a beautiful face and those eyes tell everything,’ said Grace gently. ‘Why is that a bad thing? It’s not. It’s only bad if the person with the eyes has not learned to protect themselves and if a bad person takes advantage of them.’
Callie could only nod. Grace had pretty much laid out her whole year in that statement.
Sam reached over and touched Callie’s fingers with her own.
‘Courage,’ she whispered.
‘I keep thinking that you could go back to modelling, Cal,’ said Phil, wiping away a tear.
‘Older models are in,’ said Ginger, not adding that bigger, sexy ones were too. Her billboards for the sportswear were up all over the country and if there were negative comments, Will was hiding them from her.
‘I don’t know,’ said Callie. ‘I was so young and I felt like a non-person. It’s different for you, Ginger, because you are in a position of power.’
