Page 38 of Birds of a Feather

The waiter appeared from nowhere.

‘Is everything okay with the food?’ he asked, his eyes wide with concern.

‘Oh sorry,’ I said apologetically. ‘Yes, everything is great.’

I deposited a large spoonful of soup into my mouth to reassure him, but the scalding liquid burnt my tongue and irritated the back of my throat. I coughed and spluttered, which did little to appease his concerns.

‘Everything is wonderful, darling. Thank you,’ Gran said.

The waiter bowed his head and scurried away.

‘I’m pissed off,’ she said in a hushed whisper this time, ‘because it’s taken this long. All those years of wondering and wishing.’

I searched for something reassuring to say, or practical to offer. I wanted to say that Gran and Gerry had been at the mercy of time and circumstance, and the distance between them for all these years had been greater than just the oceans that separated their homes. But I didn’t trust I could speak without bringing on another coughing fit. So I just nodded.

Chapter 21

Elise

There was a soft knock on the bathroom door.

‘I’m going to head off shortly, Gran,’ Beth called out.

‘Hang on, pet,’ Elise replied. ‘Just give me a jiffy.’

Elise had one last glance in the mirror. The concentration involved in applying eye and skin make-up for the first time in years had offered her a brief reprieve from her nerves. She rarely wore make-up, save for some lipstick and pressed powder for special occasions, but, before leaving Perth, Elise had ventured to her local department store, where a cosmetologist whose eyelashes reminded Elise of hairy spiders had helped her to upgrade her make-up products to some made this century. (The cosmetologist had also encouraged her to visit the waxing booth to take care of the rogue facial hair, which, until then, Elise hadn’t been aware she had.)

Elise had replicated the cosmetologist’s application of some BB cream, three tints of eye shadow applied on different areas of her lids, mascara, and a plumping lip-gloss that tingled her lips. She hoped her efforts would lessen the shocking contrast between the last time Gerry had seen her and how she looked now. The rest, she thought, would rely on Gerry’s hopefully failing eyesight.

Elise opened the bathroom door and looked to Beth expectantly.

‘Gran!’ she exclaimed as she stood up from the small table with such haste that the chair rocked behind her. ‘You look unbelievable.’

‘Is it okay?’ Elise asked, suddenly self-conscious that she was overdressed. She smoothed her new black pants, which she had paired with new boots and a charcoal velveteen jacket. ‘I haven’t got this dressed up to see an Englishwoman since the 1960s when I went into the city to see Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. “I did but see her passing by, and yet I’ll love her till I die,”’ she added, reciting a Thomas Ford poem, quoted by Sir Robert Menzies.

‘It turns out Her Royal Highness wasn’t the only Englishwoman you’d love until you die,’ Beth added with a dry smile. ‘You look amazing. Your clothes, and your face … everything looks great.’

Beth leaned in and kissed Elise on the cheek, careful not to smudge anything.

‘Unless there’s anything else you need from me, I’ll get going and leave you to it.’

Elise looked at her watch. It was 6.45, fifteen minutes until she was due to meet Gerry in the lobby. The butterflies in her stomach were waking from their slumber.

‘I’m fine. You go and enjoy yourself. Give my best wishes to Nick.’

‘I will,’ Beth replied, hurriedly moving towards the door. When she turned back, Elise noticed her eyes glistened with tears. Seeing Beth so sentimental did nothing to alleviate her nerves.

‘I’m so happy for you, Gran,’ she said. ‘I imagine nothing about this has been easy, but I really admire you for … well, for everything.’

Elise marvelled that sixty years ago her family would have disowned her if they knew she was in love with Gerry. But now she was earning her granddaughter’s admiration for travelling across the world to see her.

‘Thank you, love,’ Elise said, shooing her out the door. ‘Now get out of here. I have far too much make-up on to get misty-eyed. It took me half an hour to get my eyeshadow to look symmetrical.’

~

As Elise descended to the lobby in the lift, she felt lightheaded again.

‘Not now,’ she muttered to herself as she put her hand to the lift wall to steady herself. The feeling passed after a few moments, but it reminded her that, with the different time zones and long-haul flight, she hadn’t taken her blood pressure medication. She took the blister pack from her handbag and swallowed the pill dry.

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