Cath Staincliffe - Go Not Gently

‘Who is Mrs Palmer’s closest relative?’

‘Her son. But he’s down in Devon.’

‘Nevertheless he’ll be informed of anything that matters. Perhaps you should talk to him. Are you related at all?’

‘Just a friend,’ I smiled. I didn’t want questioning too closely. ‘I’ll speak to her son then.’

After the sweltering heat of the hospital the outside world felt arctic. I was shivering by the time I got into the car. I drove back along the dual carriageway and past Southern Cemetery. Lily would end up here. How long would the disease take to kill her? If it had come on more quickly than usual would it progress quickly too? And would that make it any easier on Lily or those who loved her? Impossible questions.

I cut through East Didsbury and up to Withington. At the office I switched on the heater and stomped around until it felt safe to take my coat off. I made a few notes about my visit, checked the answerphone and locked up. But I couldn’t lock up so neatly my memories of that woman, alone in the hospital. Nor could I forget that momentary feeling I’d had that Agnes wasn’t being quite straight with me.

The wind had got up by late afternoon. Straight from the North Pole by the feel of it. My nose dripped and my eyes watered. I wrapped my scarf tighter round my face and struggled to school. The children hated it, whining all the way back about being freezing and stinging snow (meaning hail) and how itchy their hats were. I bought crumpets from the corner shop to celebrate our return to base camp.

The house was like an ice-box. I checked the central heating dial. It had stopped. The lights were on in the kitchen but the fridge wasn’t working either. Or the toaster.

‘I want my crumpet now,’ demanded Maddie, bashing the washing machine controls with her fist.

‘You’ll get it as soon as I’ve sorted this out,’ I snapped.

‘I hate you,’ she retorted.

‘You could come and help. We’ll have to check the fuses in the cellar.’

She wheeled away disdainfully.

‘I will,’ piped up Tom.

‘It’ll all go dark for a bit,’ I called after Maddie while I rooted around in the drawer for the torch.

Some brilliant thinker had actually labelled the fuses in the past so I could find the right one quickly. And, joy of joys, there was fuse wire on top of the fuse box. I switched off the mains and removed the fuse. It was burned through.

Solemnly Tom held the fuse while I measured a piece of wire in the light from the torch. I could hear Maddie shuffling on the cellar steps, wanting to be with us but not wanting to admit it.

‘Maddie,’ I called, ‘could you hold the torch?’

‘Why?’

‘Then I can fix the new wire.’

Big sigh. She came down and took the torch. I fixed the fuse and replaced it, turned the power back on. Tom and Maddie ran upstairs to see if it worked.

Victory. Crumpets on, heating reset, oven warming up. I grabbed a crumpet and some tea. Then chopped vegetables up and slung them in a casserole with tinned butter beans and stock.

The evening paper had arrived. I picked it up and returned to the kitchen. It was warm now, smelled good. I closed the blinds, turned Digger out of my chair. Fifteen minutes’ peace catching up on the local news would be just the job. I’d empty the washing machine first, a reminder to take it downstairs to dry later. I opened the door. Gallons of cold soapy water gushed over my feet and into the kitchen.

Ray came in cursing the weather. It had affected supplies of various materials and as a result he was laid off until further notice. The bright side, as far as I was concerned, was he’d be around to take his turn with the school run and the cooking. I didn’t think it would be tactful to point it out at the time.

We’d just finished eating when the bell rang and Sheila introduced herself. She was older than I’d expected, with a grey bob and wire-rimmed specs. We talked first in the kitchen. Explained how things were organised, rent, bills, shared use of the kitchen, the washer and drier and so on. There were few rules; no smoking and clean up after yourself being the most important.

Sheila grinned. ‘Tell me about it. I’m sharing with two students at the moment. The mess. I got it through the university – I’m doing a degree course. I’d no idea there’d be so little choice. I might have been able to stand it at eighteen but…’ She looked over at Tom and Maddie, who were silently fighting over a chair. ‘I’ve two boys myself actually.’

‘How old are they?’ piped up Maddie.

‘Nineteen and twenty-two. Dominic’s up at St Andrew’s studying law and Peter’s in India backpacking.’

I wondered whether Peter and Dominic would descend on Sheila in between terms. And what had happened to the family home? Sold, she later told me, to pay off her husband’s debts. His business had failed, spectacularly. And then the marriage

failed, too.

‘I’m five,’ announced Maddie.

‘I’m four,’ said Tom.

Would she be tempted to interfere with how we raised the children? She seemed easy-going enough.

‘Would you like to have a look at the rooms?’ I suggested.

‘Follow the leader, I’m leader,’ shrieked Tom.

We filed upstairs to the first floor.

‘Bathroom,’ Ray pointed out, ‘bath and shower. Sal’s room, mine.’

‘This is my room,’ called Maddie.

‘It’s not just yours,’ Tom proclaimed, ‘it’s mine as well.’ Sheila tolerated a tour of the children’s room and made all the right noises as they showed her their treasures. We climbed up the attic stairs. Digger lay sprawled on the landing.

‘We’ve got a dog,’ I said.

‘He’s called Digger,’ said Tom.

‘Do you like dogs?’ Maddie asked.

‘I like cats better,’ Sheila replied diplomatically.

‘He’s Ray’s dog,’ I told her. ‘I rescued him from the pound and then discovered I wasn’t all that keen on dogs.’

‘He’s a great dog,’ said Ray proudly.

Digger pricked his ears, opened his eyes and beamed love at his master. His tail thumped the ground. We stepped over him to show Sheila the rooms. ‘Bedroom here, loo in the middle, sitting room there.’

‘You can shift them round,’ said Ray.

‘It’s lovely,’ said Sheila, ‘all the sloping roofs, and you’ve kept the old fireplaces.’

‘They work too,’ I said. ‘The windows are pretty poky but I think the owners ran out of money once they’d put the central heating in up here. We’ll leave you to look round a bit,’ I suggested. ‘We’ll be down in the kitchen.’

Downstairs Ray and I had a quick confab and agreed that we’d like her to move in if she was still keen. When she reappeared Ray asked her what she thought.

‘It’s lovely. I don’t know if you’re seeing other people.’

‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s yours if you want to move in.’

‘Oh, yes.’ Her hands flew to her mouth as she stifled an exclamation. ‘Oh, it’s such a relief.’ For a moment I thought she was going to go all weepy on us but she took a deep breath and beamed. We agreed that she’d bring her stuff on Friday and sorted out a time when we’d be in.

Everybody was happy and a third adult paying into the rent and bills would ease the financial strain that Ray and I had been under for the last few months.

That evening Ray did bedtime and I put my feet up, sank into one of my books. When the phone rang I thought it was going to be Agnes but it was my friend Diane.

‘I need a good natter,’ she said. ‘This weather is driving me round the bend. Do you know what I ate for tea last night? All because I couldn’t face walking to the shops – tinned pilchards, pitta bread and limp celery.’