Page 84 of The Wishing Tree Beside the Shor
‘Of course I’m not hurt,’ Tonya calls as we approach the gate where the residents are now gathered around outside, looking pleased with themselves. ‘But I’d make an excellent actress, don’t you think? I might apply to some casting agencies this afternoon. I’ll google them.’ She whips her definitelynotbroken phone from a pocket by her definitelynotbroken hip.
I glance at Ryan and he gives me a bewildered shrug.
‘And I’ve got your phone.’ Cynthia waves it around in front of her.
‘And I pilfered Ryan’s earlier,’ Alys announces proudly while patting the pocket of her tunic.
Ryan and I share another bewildered look. ‘What are you doing?’ We ask in unison.
‘You can’t call for help, and neither of you are leaving until you’ve talked this out. You love him. He loves you. The pair of you have been blummin’ miserable without each other. Fliss, we know you’re thinking about not taking the job, but you’re not going to miss the meeting with Steffan today. You’re one of us now. We’re not going to let you go, and you’re not going to give up the joy you’ve found here and go back to a place that makes you unhappy. Ryan, she’s the love of your life. Over the years, you’ve spoken to all of us about your “one that got away” and we all now realise that’s Fliss.’ Tonya looks proud of herself and does a bow as she finishes.
‘One little white lie doesn’t eradicate all the good things between you,’ Godfrey takes over. ‘Take it from an old man who’s lost the love of his life to a cruel and unforgiving illness and would give anything for another day with the woman she was. Some things are worth fighting over – this is not one of them.’ He turns to me. ‘None of us have any doubt that your intentions were good, Fliss. Not even Ryan – he’s just too stubborn to admit it.’
‘So you’re stuck.’ Alys claps her hands together cheerfully. ‘We’ll provide you with food and refreshments if this goes on too long, but you’re not coming out until you’ve made up.’
‘Kissedand made up,’ Ffion interjects. ‘Quite a lot of kissing would be perfectly acceptable.’
‘You can’t do that. We’ll go out the other way …’ I trail off as I turn to the other entrance from the care home driveway. The solid wooden gate that’s always open is closed, and I have no doubt there’s a padlock on the other side of it. Even Baaabra Streisand is gone from her post.
On cue, Morys walks into view on the coastal path, Baaabra trotting in front of him on her lead like a well-behaved dog.
‘And we’ve got your sheep and you’re not having her back until you sort yourselves out.’ Tonya folds her arms. ‘Go on now. There’s no point in arguing with us; we’re well organised. The staff are in on it so you won’t get any help from them either.’
‘No wonder no one came running at the supposed “fall”,’ I mutter.
‘Just remember that customers are waiting, and every moment you’re in there, the strawberry patch is losing valuable trade,’ Godfrey says.
‘So hop to it,’ Morys calls over, standing at the grassy verge while Baaabra Streisand potters around. ‘Or I’ll let your sheep eat whatever she wants and you’ll have to deal with the aftermath.’
‘Have you people ever heard of The Boy Who Cried Wolf?’ Ryan calls after them as they all start to stroll away to give us some privacy, although I get the impression they aren’t going to go far.
The communal batch of hearing aids must choose that moment to stop working because no one replies.
‘They’re holding my sheep hostage.’ Ryan pushes a hand through his hair and sinks down on the nearest bench.
‘There’s a sentence I didn’t expect to hear today when I woke up this morning.’
He looks up at me, and the moment our eyes meet, we both burst out laughing and something eases in my chest for the first time since I saw Ryan on the phone the other day.
‘I can’t believe they did that.’ He shakes his head fondly.
‘I’m not sure if we should be horrified at their deviousness or give them points for ingenuity,’ I say. ‘Did they really fake all that?’
‘I guess they think we’re worth it,’ he says.
‘That’s L’Oréal,’ I mutter. ‘Maybe they’ve got confused by the TV adverts again.’
He’s leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and he pushes a hand through his hair again even though it didn’t need pushing back. ‘Oh God, Fee, I’m so sorry. I’ve been taken advantage of by companies like the one you work for and it skyrocketed me back to how stupid I’ve felt in those moments. In my younger days, I was completely out of my depth and I got stepped on by a lot of hard-nosed business types who only care about the bottom line. The thought of you being like that …’ He waves his hands around his head like his brain is exploding. Or like he’s doing the Steps dance move to “Tragedy”. ‘Before the phone call was over, my barbed wire walls had shot up. Alarms were ringing inside my head and I couldn’t think of anything else.’
‘I don’t work for them anymore. I know you don’t believe me and I don’t blame you, but being here has shown me a different side to what they do, and seeing things from your perspective … what you said about making the world better … I’ve realised I don’t want to be part of a firm that makes the world worse.’
‘I didn’t mean to be so hard on you. I haven’t slept for a couple of nights because I was lying there having flashbacks of all the horrible things I said, and no matter what, you didn’t deserve that. When I got back yesterday and they told me about Steffan deciding not to sell because of you …’
‘It wasn’t because of me, it was because of all of us.’
‘Yeah, but you saw a way to bring Steffan in, to talk to him, to involve him. I’d counted him out as an enemy, butyousaw past that. You found a better way, just like you always used to.’
‘It wasn’t just me,’ I repeat, even though my face has heated up.
