Page 33 of Waiting for a Bright New Future

With love comes great responsibility. If it helps, I think you’re making the right call, bro. Do you remember when you were kids, before the hormones kicked in? You both always made a point of giving each other your last Rolo. You were like kids in a TV advert.

“Not relevant now,” he muttered under his breath. “This is a life-or-death situation. Go away.”

Just a random memory I wanted to share.

Stuart ignored his sister and went over to Jayne. He put an arm around her shoulders and held her close. He felt her breath on his neck plus the shame of a traitor as he spoke quietly. “Me being here won’t have any influence on whether or not Lillian’s found. The police will be looking for her in a calm, logical way. We’re too emotionally involved to do that.”

“ButIneed you.”

“I want to be here for you, believe me.” If he had a normal job he would’ve phoned in and told them the truth. “But I have to see to William first. If the situation between William and Lillian was reversed, you wouldn’t want her left to fend for herself. If I stay with you, I’m putting another old person at risk.”

Jayne raised her tearstained face and looked at him. “I give in. But be as quick as you can.”

He nodded and kissed her gently on the cheek.

“You’re late!” William shouted as soon as Stuart stepped into the hallway.

“Sorry! I’ll tell you why as we go along. Porridge or cornflakes today?”

“And you’ve forgotten.”

“No, I haven’t. Andrea’s coming and it’sbest-bib-and-tucker day.”

“It’s my birthday!”

Stuart hit his forehead with the heel of his hand and cursed. “I’m sorry,” he said and then he told William about Lillian and Jayne. “It’s no excuse,” he finished up. “But there’s only so much stuff I can juggle around in my brain. After years of quiet living with Dad, it feels like I’ve been tossed into the middle of a car crash and am trying to separate the tangled wreckage with my bare hands.”

“No matter. That poor lady out there in the dark and cold all night. I’ll try and be as pliable as possible so that you can get off early. I’ll eat while I’m still in my pyjamas, no point in risking a spill down my best shirt. And because it’s my birthday, I’ll have extra golden syrup, please.”

Between them, they managed to reduce the one-hour call to only forty-five minutes.

“Enjoy the cakes.” Stuart tidied his stuff away.

“The cakes will be lovely but I don’t think Andrea will see eye to eye with me when I tell her what I’ve decided.”

There was no time to follow up on that remark.

A police car was parked outside Lillian’s house when he got back. The string of tension that had been teasing his shoulder blades all night pulled tight. He took a breath and prepared himself for the worst.

Florence opened the door before he reached it. She was smiling. The string turned to elastic and his shoulders eased back a little.

“She was in the shed! Jayne’s about to run her to the hospital for a check-up.” Florence pulled him to one side so that two uniformed police officers could leave. “Our shed.”

Then Jayne appeared and touched him on the shoulder. “Will you drive us? I feel too frazzled to be safe.”

Stuart nodded and within minutes was back in his car. Lillian sat in the back wrapped in a blanket, looking pale and tired. Jayne was next to him and looking equally exhausted.

“So tell me about it?” he asked, checking his mirrors as he slowly reversed over the gravel and back into the road.

“She was in your shed. You don’t keep it locked.” There was a faint accusatory tone in her voice.

“Why was she in there?”

“Don’t talk about me as though I’m not here. It’s quite simple. I forgot who I was supposed to be meeting. I thought it was your mother, Stuart. She and I used to take a flask of coffee and a plate of scones into your shed when we wanted a good gossip. You and Jayne played on the lawn and it was easy to keep an eye on you through the open door of the shed. As long as you had your own mini picnic of orange squash and biscuits you never bothered us and we spent hours putting the world to rights. I forgot I was meeting Nora in the park and went to the shed instead.”

Jayne twisted around in her seat. “But Mum, Stuart’s mother’s been dead more than forty years. It was more than a simple slip of the memory.”

“I drank coffee and ate all the scones. And I’m sorry, Stuart, but I had to have a wee so I went behind the shed. I came to no harm. I’m just tired.”

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