Page 16 of The Wishing Tree Beside the Shor
I can’t even remember the last time I saw New Year’s Eve in at midnight, never mind bothered with fireworks. I’m usually asleep by then. I don’t know what they think my life is like, but I drag myself home on the tube at somewhere between eight and nine every night, pick up something to eat on the way, do whatever studying up there is for the next day, and then crawl into bed with a book and usually manage a paragraph or two before falling asleep on top of it.
‘Speaking of work, if anyone asks, I’m a chef.’
‘A chef?’ Dad says.
‘Achef?’ Cheryl asks. ‘You?’
‘Why does everyone keep saying that?’ I quickly explain why I can’t tell anyone where I really work, and why they have to back me up if they get asked because my whole story will fall apart otherwise.
It all feels so wrong, but the lie is out there now I’ve told it. I can’t go back and change it, and I can’t come clean because the protestors will throw me out, and Ryan will despise me for lying to him.
‘Fliss …why?’ Dad asks, sounding more confused than a giraffe with a knot in its neck.
‘The guy running it … It’s Ryan Sullivan.’ I say his name like it explains everything.
‘Oh, your ex-boyfriend!’ Dad exclaims.
I choke on the pasta salad. ‘He’snotmy ex.’
‘Of course he is. I always thought he’d be my son-in-law someday. Loved that lad. All I heard for years was “Ryan this and Ryan that”.’
I can feel how red my cheeks have gone at the idea that even my dad knew the extent of my crush. And I’d thought I was so good at hiding it. ‘I talked about him because we worked together every single day, and you always made a point of asking me what we’d been doing that day.’
‘It was a bit more than just work though, wasn’t it? All those field trips you went on together …’
‘That was just Ryan being protective. The old farmers spent too much time ogling my boobs and he knew I was uncomfortable being alone with them, so he asked me to go along for the ride when he went to meet suppliers or collect stuff. It was all perfectly innocent.’ I can see that now, but at the time, I thought he wanted an excuse to spend time with me. ‘He was being friendly. Because that’s what we were – friends.’
‘Never could understand why you two had that falling-out.’ Dad shakes his head, continuing like I haven’t spoken.
I remember the lie I told back then too – on the morning I was leaving and Dad asked when Ryan was coming to say goodbye, and I’d muttered something about us having a row. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone the truth.
‘It’s a shame neither of you thought to tell me he was still here. I could’ve done without the heart attack this morning.’
‘Didn’t know he was,’ Dad mutters.
‘I didn’t think you’d want to know,’ Cheryl adds. ‘You fell out with him, remember? The one time Dad mentioned him to tell you about his company closing down, you snapped his head off and said you didn’t want to know.’
‘Ididn’twant to know; that doesn’t mean I didn’twantto know.’ I sigh. Nothing I’ve said tonight has made sense. Was Ryan Sullivan always this confusing?
‘He’s the one trying to save the tree, is he?’ Dad asks, and continues when I nod. ‘Good. I always loved that tree. Did you girls know that your mum and I carved our names onto the trunk many moons ago?’
‘What?’ Cheryl and I say in unison.
‘On the night we got married. We were both a bit tipsy after the reception and wandered home to clear our heads, and back then it was impossible to walk past the sycamore tree andnotadd a slice of your own life to it. Your mum checked our carving hadn’t faded every time we went there after that. I used to joke that she’d trust the tree and chuck me out pre-emptively if it ever did.’
I never knew that. Of all the time I’ve spent looking at the names on that trunk, I never knew Mum and Dad’s were on there somewhere.
‘I remember scattering her ashes on the beach and feeling like she was watching over us. The tree was a reassuring presence in the background, like she was somehow there with us.’
Dad swallows hard. ‘It’s a good thing that you and Ryan are going to save it then, isn’t it?’
I put on a bright smile for him even though I’m not sure doing anything with Ryan is a good idea … but saving that treedefinitelyis. No matter what Harrison says, no matter what my job is supposed to be, I can’t be responsible for destroying the wishing tree, especially now I know that. Maybe there’s a happy medium. Maybe I can genuinely help with the protest by pretending to be undercover but not really pretending to be … I give my head a shake to clear it. I’ve even confused myself.
Chapter 6
‘Will you stop tossing and turning? The hiss of you deflating is invading my dreams!’ Cheryl throws a cushion at me.
The idea of me deflating makes me giggle, and I turn over again, which causes the inflatable bed to squeak with friction against the carpet and let out a nails-on-blackboard screech, and I hear the unmistakable unsticking of the repair patch I stuck on earlier.
