Page 14 of Coming Home to Roseford Villas
‘So that was the first time one of the little buggers got into the house, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard my mum screaming so loudly!’ Leo leaned back in his chair as he finished recounting the story, and Rory couldn’t stop howling with laughter.
‘Wow,’ she said, when she was finally capable of speech. ‘I can’t imagine being surrounded by so much potentially fatal wildlife. Your mum must have been terrified every time you and your brother and sister set foot outside.’
‘She was, until one of her friends invited her round, fed her a bucket of margaritas and told her to stop being so bloody British about the whole thing. Eventually, she calmed down and realised that it was just a case of being a little more vigilant. But she never did quite learn to live with the redback spiders. Every time she saw one, she’d have to get Dad to come and remove it from the house.’
‘But they’re settled there, now?’ Rory asked.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Leo replied. ‘My sister’s got two kids and they love being grandparents. I don’t think they’ll be coming back to live in the homeland any time soon.’
Rory paused. ‘And what about you? Are you back to stay?’
Leo looked at her, and his serious stare sent her equilibrium a little off kilter.
‘That depends,’ he said. ‘I’m only meant to be helping Aunt Vi and Uncle Bryan out for the next few weeks, and then I’ve got a job in London to go to, but I still don’t know if I’ll be here for the rest of my career.’ He shrugged. ‘Mum and Dad would rather I was back in Australia with them, where they can keep an eye on me, but then I suppose it’s always the way when you’re the youngest child.’
‘Nice to have options,’ Rory replied. ‘I’ve been spending the past few years doing maternity covers at different schools in Yorkshire. I’m doing one at the moment, but I’m not sure what I’ll do after that. To be honest, though, I don’t want to keep doing temporary contracts. I’ve been teaching for fourteen years now, and I’m not sure if I’ve got any more left in me.’
‘You sound tired,’ Leo said.
‘Not exactly.’ Rory took a sip of her wine. ‘More… bored, I suppose. There’s only so many times you can teach the same poems and find something new in in them, and while Shakespeare will always be my first love, I think I need a break from him!’
Leo assumed a mock-affronted expression. ‘I thoughtIwas your first love. Now I find out I lost out to The Bard?’
Rory laughed. ‘You know what I mean. We shared a lot in common with that couple fromTen Things I Hate About You,I always thought.’
Rory saw Leo preening slightly. ‘Well, I always thought I looked a bit like Heath Ledger when I was sixteen!’
‘Notthatcouple.’ Rory kept on laughing. ‘The Shakespeare-mad girl and the geek!’
‘Gee, thanks,’ Leo replied dryly. ‘That’s burst my bubble.’
Rory took a sip of her wine. ‘I’m sure you’ll recover,’ she teased. ‘And I do have to admit, dodgy fashion choices aside, wedid have a rather spectacular leavers’ ball, I remember. Maybe even one to rival Kat and Patrick’s.’
A look of delighted recollection passed over Leo’s face, and Rory knew he was thinking back to that night, so many years ago, when, slightly drunk from a surfeit of Hooch alcoholic lemonade, they’d danced the night away in the school hall, surrounded by their mates, and thought they were invincible. They were young, tipsy and having the time of their lives.
‘I remember that night so well!’ Leo laughed. ‘I had that pastel-pink satin bowtie that we spent weeks trawling around the shops looking for, so that it was the perfect shade to match your dress.’
‘That’s right!’ Rory shook her head. ‘It felt like it wassoimportant to get the right colour, as if no one would have known we were an item if we hadn’t!’
‘And then that bloke, God, who was it?’ Leo wrinkled his brow, lost in the memory. ‘Oh, that’s right, it was Ed Truman who smuggled in a half bottle of vodka under his dinner jacket and poured double measures into our Cokes.’
‘Then he puked up all over the curtains by the stage in the school hall!’ Rory completed the anecdote. ‘If we hadn’t already finished our exams by then, I think he’d have been expelled!’
Leo leaned back in his chair. ‘I suppose you get to see it all from the teachers’ point of view now.’
‘Yeah,’ Rory replied. ‘And there’s no vodka involved when you’re on that side of things, although still the odd bit of vomit!’
‘All the consequences without any of the fun. Sounds like being a responsible adult.’
‘Something like that.’
They fell silent, but it was a companionable one. Eventually, Leo broke it again.
‘So, what do youreallywant to do, if you’re fed up with teaching?’ he asked.
Rory paused before she answered, feeling self-conscious again all of a sudden. ‘Well, what Ireallywant to do is write.’
‘Why don’t you do it, then?’
