Page 70 of Coming Home to Winter Island
‘Oh, now if I know anything about this island, it’ll all be a storm in a teacup,’ says my mum. ‘We’ll pitch in. Get this place sorted in no time. It’ll be fun!’ She smiles, making me smile too. She may not have been the most dependable of parents, but she did used to make things fun, and I know she loves me. ‘Let’s get the radio on and get this party started!’ She looks around. ‘Might even feel like old times.’
I follow her gaze. It’s as if she’s drinking in the memories.
‘Mum, why have I never been here before?’
‘Well, once your dad fell out with his father, that was it. Hector told him if he left to never return. He was dead to him. I don’t think he meant it, but the two of them...’
‘...locked horns?’
She looks at me. ‘Exactly. And never spoke again. Your dad did plan to bring you here for a visit. But after he died, there didn’t seem any reason for me to make contact. You were happy enough. We had our own life. And then we just lost any chance of getting back in contact.’
I nod. I suppose you can only do the best you can in the moment. Regrets won’t help. It’s living in the now that matters. And right now, I have had the chance to meet Hector, and that seems very special.
‘Oh, Hector. Come and say hello.’ I guide them down the hall.
‘He’s here?’ says my mum, suddenly apprehensive.
‘Of course. Although he may not actually know who you are. But he’d love to say hello, I’m sure. Come on in. Hector, we have guests.’
‘Guests? Is it them? Are they here?’ He goes to stand from the wheelchair that he’s taken to using without complaint over the past few days. ‘Is it Campbell and the baby?’
‘No, not yet. I’m sure they’ll be here soon, though.’ I put a steadying hand on his shoulder. ‘These are friends, here for the tea party.’
‘Oh, right, smashing. Will we have a nip, Mairead?’
‘Who’s Mairead?’ Jess whispers in my ear.
‘His wife,’ I whisper back.
‘What, your grandmother? Ew!’
‘Sometimes I’m Mairead, sometimes I’m his personal assistant, Miss Rubes,’ I say with a fond smile.
‘But never Ruby?’ she asks.
‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘He can’t seem to remember that part yet. Thinks I’m still a baby.’
‘Hello, Hector,’ says my mum, putting out a hand. Suddenly all her loud, brash ways seem to have left her. ‘We met a long time ago.’
‘Did we?’ He looks at her with no recognition whatsoever in his frail face. He’s lost weight since I got here, despite Lachlan’s fabulous cooking. ‘You’ll have to excuse me. The memory’s not quite what it used to be.’ He looks out of the window, his mind wandering, and starts to hum gently to himself.
‘Seems like all the sad memories have been left in the past,’ Mum says. ‘That’s not a bad place to be in life.’ She looks at him. ‘I took his son away, and with that, his chance of family life here on the island. I didn’t mean to. I just...we just fell in love. But it wasn’t meant to be.’
‘You mean you got bored,’ I say, and wish I hadn’t, but she just nods sadly.
‘I wish your dad could have made it up with his family.’
‘Maybe they were about to. Hector seems to think that Dad and the baby were about to visit the island. He’s living in hope,’ I say.
‘Again, not a bad place to be. We should all live in hope.’ She smiles. ‘Right, let’s get this place ready for a tea party, shall we?’
‘Oh, and here comes Lachlan,’ I say, watching him walking across from the distillery with bottles in his arms.
‘Who’s Lachlan?!’ asks my mum and Jess and the rest of the band at the same time, their eyes widening.
For some unknown reason, I find myself blushing.
‘Lachlan, oh he’s—’
