For Violet it was as if the air had been sucked from the room. She felt her face fall into a serious expression and turned to face her friend.
‘I think he’s,’ she swallowed. What did she want to say, whatcouldshe say without belying their sixty years married, three children, five grandchildren, a solid little life lived in harmony, a life that would be denied Elsie who currently wore his grandmother’s ring? A ring that would be lost in the rubble forever. ‘I do think he’s lovely, a lovely man, a good sort.’
Elsie reached out and took Violet’s hand into her own.
‘I think, Vi, me old mucker, that if anything happened to me then I would like nothing more than the two people I love most in the whole wide world to make each other happy.’
Violet felt the rush of tears and did her best to keep them at bay, as decades of remorse and shame lifted from her shoulders.
‘Really?’ her voice no more than a whisper, as she clutched Elsie’s hand tightly.
‘Really. But ifnothinghappens to me and you so much as go after a hair on his head, I’ll knock your bloody block off!’
They laughed then, the two girls. One with so much life left to live and the other about to go to her final rest.
‘I’d better go. Me mother’ll be getting her knickers in a twist, you know what she’s like about me being out in the dark, said I’d go straight back.’
As Elsie stood and restored her hat and mittens, Violet felt something close to panic, wanting so badly to tell her friend to stay the night, to sleep in the shelter, to empty the house! But Chen was right, it had already happened, and this was no more than a window, a brief peep back in time.
‘I know we don’t say it, but I d’narf love you, Elsie Porter.’
‘Oh, you great big softie!’ – her friend pulled her close – ‘and I bloody love you. See you tomorrow. God bless.’
Elsie spoke with certainty, casually, as she reached for the door, turning briefly to face her friend for the very last time. There was a moment, a mere second when the smile on her face suggested she might have some small knowledge, the merest hint that all was not as it seemed.
‘Yep.’ Violet smiled back, doing her best to keep her tears at bay. ‘God bless. See you tomorrow, Els.’
The moment her friend had gone, Violet staggered to the chair and sat, doing her best to catch her breath, to calm her flustered pulse. Closing her eyes, she let her head drop to her chest, exhausted by the seemingly unremarkable exchange, yet knowing it was the greatest, most wonderful, life changing thing! She wanted to tell the world, but who would believe her? She scarcely believed it herself.
It was as she lifted her head that she felt the pain in her lower back, and a heaviness to her being. To have been briefly free of it only served to remind her of how much her age ailed her.
Her tears fell freely then. A potent mixture of sadness for Elsie’s young life wiped out in the blink of an eye and also something very close to relief, as the guilt of decades leeched from her bones.
Her best friend – her very best friend – had given Violet permission, and this was the greatest gift.
Looking up now into the starry sky overhead, she whispered through her tears, picturing Chen, wondering who he was and how,howit was possible! Hoping her words might spiral up into the night sky, find their way through the stars and land in his ear,
‘Thank you! Oh my goodness, how can I ever thank you…’
Chapter Three - Lewis Mark Noble
Aged 36
Henbury, Bristol
Lewis stood in front of the open fridge staring at the less than inspiring contents that lurked on the glass shelves where stubborn fragments of salad leaves, now transparent, clung to the surface. Out of date jars of pickle and jam with equally sticky misaligned lids huddled forlornly in the door. He sighed. He was still learning. Eighteen months in and he was still learning.
How to make a meal out of nothing, something that Jane had always made look so easy.
How to wash and dry the laundry without it either shrinking and over baking in the tumble dryer or the sheets going back onto the bed with a faint and unpleasant dampness to them.
How to keep track of everyone’s birthdays, anniversaries, house moves, christenings, engagements, exams, driving tests and weddings that all, it seemed, required the sending of a bloody card.
How to make the house feel cosy, the lighting not too harsh or too dim.
How to take care of the plants so he neither drowned and killed them or underwatered and killed them.
How to plump a cushion!
