Bertie had raised his bony fingers in greeting.
‘Hey, kids!’
It was then, as the boys made as if to walk forward, that Glenda pulled them back, a split-second decision, anchoring them to her with her arms around their shoulders.
‘We’ll let you get on, Lil, I’ll ... I’ll give you a ring.’ Glenda spoke nervously, as she shepherded them out of the gallery.
‘Okay, then!’ She managed to wave them goodbye with enthusiasm. It was only as she turned back to Bertie that she saw he was crying. It had broken her, to see him so affected.
Lilly hadn’t waited for her friend to ring and had dialled the number the moment she got back to the flat, relieved that it was Glenda who answered the phone, unable to imagine making small talk with Norm while her gut churned with all the fire it tried to contain.
‘What on earth was that, earlier?’ was her opener, as anger fizzed in her veins.
‘What was what?’ Glenda’s confusion didn’t fool her for a second.
‘You know exactly what I’m talking about! The way you pulled the kids towards you as if you didn’t want them infected! That!’ She had raised her voice, picturing Bertie’s tears, and unable to back down.
‘I don’t—’
‘Don’t deny it, Glen! I saw you, we all did, and you did that to our friend, our wonderful friend who is poorly, dying! He just wanted one last look at the gallery, and you did that to him!’ She hated the crack to her voice.
‘I wasn’t going to deny it—’
‘Are you for real?’ she interrupted.
‘I was going to say, I don’t know how to make you understand.’
‘Well, shame on you, Glenda! Shame on you! You’re right, I will never understand!’
‘That’s right, you can’t!’
‘Jesus, how are you even trying to justify what you did!’ Lilly yelled.
‘I don’t have to justify it, I just have to do what I think is best to keep my kids safe. And that’s why you’ll never understand because you don’t know what it feels like!’
Lilly felt the sting of her friend’s words slap her around the face. Glenda wasn’t done.
‘I wouldn’t want to upset Bertie for the world!’ Glenda cried openly now. ‘But if there is a choice between offending him and putting my boys in danger, there’s no choice, none at all!’
‘Putting your boys in danger?’ Lilly’s voice was hoarse from a throat pulled thin with equal measures of anger and distress.
‘You’re not a mum, Lil! You don’t have children!’ The words had landed like a punch in her throat. ‘I would throw myself in front of a speeding bus, I’d take a bullet, I’d do anything, anything to protect them, and we just don’t know enough about it, and if there is the slightest risk ...’
‘Fuck you, Glenda. How could you? Fuck you!’ She had slammed down the phone and they hadn’t spoken for the longest time.
Six months, to be precise.
The call came, after her dad’s funeral, as if time hadn’t passed.
‘Hey, Lil, I was so sorry to hear your news. How’re you holding up?’
‘Oh, you know . . .’
And that had been that; they had built a bridge back to each other.
Glenda waved the pound notes in her hand. ‘Right, so I’m nipping to the delicatessen on Lupus Street to check on the order for tomorrow. I’ll grab us a couple of sandwiches for lunch. Back in a tick.’
‘See you in a bit.’ Lilly waved her off.
