Page 99 of Love in Tune

‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ she whispered, stepping inside, as terrified as the heroine in a horror movie even though it was broad daylight and she knew better than to make the schoolgirl error of running up the stairs. Scanning the lounge and kitchen quickly, she confirmed what she already knew. They were empty. Returning to the hallway, she looked at the bedroom and bathroom doors, both of them closed.

Placing her clammy hand over the bedroom door handle, she turned it slowly, and then at the last moment threw it open and almost jumped inside in her haste to speed up the agony.

Empty.

Honey almost doubled over with relief, gasping, able to put away the horrific images she’d conjured of him lying ghost pale on the bed.

And then she remembered the bathroom.

Stepping back into the hallway, she stood still outside the final door.

‘Please don’t let him be in here,’ she said out loud. ‘Please no.’

She turned the handle and pushed the door slowly, all the time expecting resistance from his body on the floor in the small room. It swung easily, all the way back. Only when she was one hundred per cent certain that he wasn’t in there did she let the air back into her lungs and the tears rain down her face.

She’d spent the last half an hour terrified that she’d find him, and now she at least knew he wasn’t dead, she was even more terrified that she wouldn’t.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

A silver people carrier pulled up outside the home a couple of mornings later and a dark-haired care worker wheeled her charge into the building.

‘Could I possibly speak with Lucille and Mimi please?’ the man in the wheelchair asked the care worker walking through reception.

Nikki smiled. ‘Of course. Who can I tell them is calling?’

The man straightened his shoulders.

‘Please tell them it’s their brother.’

And so it was that Mimi, Lucille and Ernie sat down together for the first time in their lives that morning and shared a pot of tea.

Mimi found herself stripped of any lingering anger or reticence by the kind, frail man who so resembled her, and when he held both of their hands in his trembling ones and his tired eyelids drifted down midway through their conversation, she held on to him until he woke again and apologised for his terrible manners.

‘It’s not you who needs to apologise,’ she said. ‘It’s me. I was a silly old fool not to see you sooner.’

Mimi hated the fact that time obviously wasn’t on Ernie’s side. What had she been thinking of? She was thoroughly ashamed of herself.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw you both yesterday on the news,’ he smiled. ‘You first, Lucille, and then of course you, Mimi. I’d have known you anywhere.’

‘You both look like our mother,’ Lucille said.

Ernie’s face turned wistful. ‘I’ve never looked like anyone else before.’

‘Two peas in a pod,’ Lucille smiled, pouring them all more tea.

‘I came to give you something,’ Ernie said, looking around for Carol, who’d tactfully taken a seat across the other side of the conservatory with a magazine. She caught his eye and crossed to hand him a file from a bag on the back of his chair. Once she’d faded away again, he pushed the file into Lucille’s hands.

‘What is it?’ she asked, looking down at the beige file and wishing she had her glasses with her.

‘It’s my savings. I want you two to have them.’

‘Ernie, no,’ Mimi said, agonised. ‘Please, we don’t want your money. Let’s just all have another cup of tea, and we’ll meet up again. We can do it every week, can’t we, Lucille?’

She turned to her sister for back-up, and Lucille nodded.

‘Of course we can.’

Ernie sighed. ‘I’ve known I had two sisters for many, many years. Dozens of birthdays and Christmases without being able to give you anything. This is for all of those years.’

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