‘You have?’ asked Mrs Moss, clearly unbalanced now, for she was blinking rapidly. ‘Well, someone ought to go andpull these handbills down, then. For they’re pasted all over Liverpool.’
She rummaged through her bag and fished out a thin, slightly damp sheet of paper, handing it to Ava.
Her own face stared back at her, or rather, a line drawing of it, and above in black, bold lettering were the words ‘The Memory Binder’.
‘I found that one near the docks,’ said Mrs Moss – taking a seat at the table beside her. ‘But they’re all over the city.’
‘Are they, indeed?’
Ava glared at her brother’s back, for he was suspiciously quiet. ‘And how did they get there, I wonder?’
Oliver took the eggs off the heat, and turned back to her, his good hand clutching the elbow of his broken one. ‘I put them up, Ava. I thought I would be helping you. I didn’t know you’d given it all up – becauseyou never wrote to me.’
Ava could feel her breath starting to catch in her throat. ‘I see. So this ismy fault?’
‘Partly, yes! What could you possibly have been doing that rendered you too occupied to scratch out a note that said: “Good day Oliver, I’m still alive, in case you are worrying – oh, and just so you know, I’ve given up my life’s work.”’
Ava opened her mouth, and then closed it again. ‘You hadno rightto make this decision for me, Oliver.’
‘Well, I’m quite glad I did now,’ he said, pale eyebrows furrowed. ‘Because giving it up is foolish. You’re too good at it.’
‘Hear hear,’ said Mrs Moss. ‘I thought you were just wonderful when I saw you on stage myself – and that poor young woman’s story still brings a tear to my eye. As someone who has lost someone myself—’
Ava gritted her teeth together. ‘Then I must be foolish,’ she said, her voice low and dangerously measured. ‘Because I’ve made my decision.’
‘Why?’ Oliver pressed. ‘Because of what some silly critic wrote in theHerald?’
Ava felt his words like a sizzle of heat across her face. ‘It wasn’tjust—’
‘Don’t be like Pa, Ava.’ Oliver looked at her, his blue eyes serious. ‘Don’t hide from the world just because it knocked you down. Learn to hit back, instead.’
She opened her mouth to reply, but not a single word came out. For what could she say to that? He was right. Shewashiding. That was the promise she’d made to herself after Edinburgh: to be more careful. More cautious. To put less of herself out into the world.
But she didn’t say any of that to her brother, and his worried eyes. Instead she stood, taking the pan and spooning portions of eggs onto the plates.
‘You should’ve asked me,’ she said.
‘You would’ve said no,’ countered Oliver.
‘For good reason!’ Ava looked back at the handbill on the table. ‘Tell me what you have you promised these people, so that when we cancel the interviews—’
‘We can’t cancel them,’ Oliver said, snatching the poster up.
‘Why not?’
‘Because they’re today.’
Ava felt as though the world had slowed for a moment, and been replaced with only the angryth-thudof her own heartbeat roaring in her ears. ‘Say that again.’
‘They’re today,’ said Oliver, his tone more tentative now, as though he knew she was just a hair’s breadth away from throwing the eggs – and the pan – onto the floor. ‘Ava, ithadto be today. If it’d been any later you’d have seen them around town, and it wouldn’t have been a surprise.’
She looked at him as though she would spear him with her gaze. ‘Oh, I think you’ve achieved the element of surprise rightly enough,’ she spat. ‘Thenyoushall be theone to turn them all away at the door, Oliver – for this isyourdoing.’
‘No, Ava.’ He sat down, looking to Mrs Moss for support. Wisely, Mrs Moss busied herself rummaging around for something in her carpet bag. ‘I shan’t do that. Just as you shan’t give it all up.’
Ava narrowed her eyes.. ‘Why not?’
‘Because …’ Oliver said slowly. ‘Because you think the best solution to life’s problems is running away, and hoping they will disappear. Well they won’t, Ava. They don’t. And I shan’t make them disappear for you. If you wish to quit – then you shall tell those women yourself.’
