Page 123 of Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society
‘We’ll take him,’ Rose says.
Clearly there’s some kind of support-Simon movement on in this house today.
‘We?’
‘Cora and I were planning to go for a walk. Simon’s little friend is only a few streets away. We’ll take him. Don’t make yourself late.’
‘I wasn’t planning to. That’s why I was hurrying him up.’
Lorraine feels a few different ways about the fact her mother and mother-in-law are so cosy. She knows Rose is on her side in all things, but this sort of caper makes her feel a little ganged up on. Which she told Rose the other night and Rose just winked and said, ‘You know what they say: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’ Lorraine said, ‘That’s just an excuse you’re making because you’ve decided youlikeCora now.’ Rose didn’t deny it. So Lorraine has to live with it.
‘We’ll take care of him, sweetheart,’ Rose says. ‘By the way, I sewed up Terry’s shirt.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
That’s an advantage of having two grandmothers in the house: clothing repairs are taken care of swiftly. Cooking, too, because that’s another thing Rose and Cora are ganging up to do. Suits Lorraine – she was never that wild about it in the first place. It’s relentless, and she’s constantly frustrated that it takes her hours to make dinner and it’s gone in five minutes.
Terry himself ambles into the kitchen and rubs his eyes.
‘Did you have a good sleep-in?’ Lorraine asks and he nods slowly.
‘What’s for breakfast?’ he mumbles.
‘Whatever you make,’ she answers and Rose shoots her a look.
‘What, Mum? He’s old enough to get it himself. Simon got his own.’
‘I am making pancakes,’ Cora says as she enters the room.
And now Lorraine really feels like she’s being ganged up on – mainly because the kitchen isn’t big enough for all of them. Or for the cloud of irritation that’s building over her head, because lately Cora has decided that Terry is her new favourite, and while Lorraine would have thought Simon would be upset about that, Rose has taken to cosseting him. So her sons get a grandma each and she, Lorraine, the one keeping it all together, has no one.
Although she is grateful about the cooking, especially as she’s taken on a new job after telling Mike to run things himself. She’s bookkeeping for some local businesses – her friend Jane asked if she’d be interested because she couldn’t keep up with the work herself. The hours are good and now there’s actual money coming in, as opposed to Lorraine saving Mike money by doing his books and admin.
‘Wish you could have mademepancakes,’ she grumbles, because she had a piece of toast and a cup of tea.
‘Next time, Lorraine!’ Cora says brightly, and Lorraine can’t tell if she means it or if she’s sucking up for some reason yet to be revealed.
She still doesn’t trust Cora, no matter how much she loves the boys – Mike is her son and he’ll always come first. Lorraine knows this because her sons will always come first. If one of them did what Mike has done, she’d try to understand then try to help, and she’d always be hoping he’d come good.
‘Where are you off to today, Loll?’ Rose asks.
‘Motel Hill. Some old bloke carked it and the garden was a mess by the time that happened. His daughter’s inherited and she’s not coping with all the work. So in we swoop.’
‘People around here are lucky to have you,’ Rose says, patting her cheek.
‘I guess. It’s not like there’s a medal in it for us. But … I suppose that’s not why we do it.’
‘Whydoyou do it?’
It’s Terry asking the question, and as this is the first time he has shownanyinterestwhatsoeverin the Sunshine Gardening Society Lorraine will give him a proper answer.
‘I like feeling useful. In a way I don’t …’ She was about to say ‘in a way I don’t around here’, but that wouldn’t sound too good.
‘It’s different,’ she says instead. ‘We’re helping people who want to take care of their gardens but they just can’t, for whatever reason. And when I’m there, I’m really there. I don’t think about anything else. I’m not worrying about …’ She makes a face. ‘About you wandering off on your skateboard or your brother being unhappy at school.’
‘Or Dad being a dickhead.’
‘Terry!’
