Maeve Binchy - Tara Road

She was speaking to him urgently. 'Never, never again as long as you live, leave me with five phone calls unreturned.'

'Sweetheart, I told you…' he was stroking her thigh and raising the lacy edge of the slip.

Marilyn stood there frozen. This was the second time she had watched Danny Lynch without him seeing her. She seemed to be condemned to spy on this man. She was utterly unsure of which way to move.

Rosemary was angry. 'Don't, Danny. Don't play with me. There's too much history here. I've put up with too much, saved you, warned you too often.'

'You and I are special, we've always agreed that what we have is something that's outside everything else,' he said.

'Yes, I put up with your housey-housey marriage, with your affairs, I even put up with you getting that child pregnant and moving away from this road. God knows why.'

'You know why, Rosemary,' Danny said.

And Marilyn fled. Back to the safety of her garden where she watered Colm's vegetables and everything else in sight with a ferocity that they had never known and might not indeed have needed.

Clement came and watched her gravely, sitting at a safe distance. She was using that hose like a weapon. She was astounded at how shocked and revolted she felt. This was the falsest friend she had ever known. Poor, poor Ria, so unlucky in her man, which could happen to anyone. But so doubly unlucky to be advised and betrayed by her best friend as well. It was beyond understanding.

In a fit of generosity Marilyn decided she didn't care if Ria was entertaining whole coachloads of people in 1024 Tudor Drive, serving them platefuls of home-made delicacies. She deserved it. She deserved whatever bit of pleasure she could get.

Ria was in fact on her own in Tudor Drive bent over Marilyn's laptop.

Hubie Green had given her a computer game. She was going to master it and be able to show it to them when they got here. Sheila Maine's children had lots of these and both Annie and Brian did of course work on computers at school, but Ria had known nothing about them and had never been interested. Still this game was defeating her.

She sent Hubie an e-mail. ' Hubie, it would only take you thirty minutes to explain this game to me. It's worth ten dollars of my time to learn it. Do you think you could come by at some stage? A seriously confused Ria Lynch .'

The kid must live beside his screen: he answered immediately. ' It's a done deal. Can you call me on the telephone at this number and tell me where you live?’

She called him and gave the address.

There was a silence. 'But that's Dale's house. Dale Vine.'

'That's right.' She was solemn now. She had somehow thought he would have known. But then why should he know?

'Oh I couldn't go there, Mrs. Lynch.'

'But why not?'

'Mr and Mrs. Vine wouldn't like it.'

'They're not here, Hubie, I'm living in the house. Marilyn's in my house in Ireland, Greg's in Hawaii.'

'Did they split up?' He sounded concerned.

'I don't know,' she said truthfully.

'You must know.'

'I don't as it happens, they don't tell me. I think after Dale's death they needed to get away.'

'Yeah, sure.'

'But of course I understand, Hubie, if you don't want to come round here, if it has bad memories for you. I'm sorry, I should really have thought.'

She heard him take a breath. 'Hey, it's only a house, they're not there to get upset. Your kids have to play this game and ten dollars is ten dollars. Sure I'll come, Mrs. Lynch.'

It was so simple once he explained it, and also quite exciting. They played on and on.

'That was much more than half an hour, I'd better give you twenty.'

'No, we agreed ten. I stayed because I enjoyed it.'

'Would you like some supper?' She brought him into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

'Hey, you've got one of those lovely Irish flag quiches they sell at John and Gerry's.'

'I make them,' she said, pleased.

'You make them? Fantastic,' he said. 'My mother bought two of them for a party.'

'Good, well I'll give you some Irish soda bread with currants in it to take home to her when you leave, then I don't feel too bad keeping you out for so long.'

He walked around the kitchen, restless, uneasy maybe to be in this home again. Ria said nothing about the past. Instead she busied herself talking about the visit of Annie and Brian. Hubie picked up a picture of the children. Ria kept it out where she could see it.

'Is this her? Your daughter? She's real cute,' he said.

'Yes, she's lovely but then I would think so, and that's Brian.' She looked proudly at the son who would be here soon. Hubie showed no interest at all. They sat and talked companionably over the meal. Hubie used to come here a lot, he said. Great swimming pool and always a welcome. Not food like this, mind you, but cookies from the store and this was the house where the kids came. In fact his parents were quite friendly with Mr and Mrs. Vine before everything.

'And now?' Ria was gentle.

'Well you see how she is, Mrs. Lynch. You know what she's like now.'

'No, the funny thing is I don't know what she's like, I've never met her and I've only seen one photograph of her.'

'You don't know her? You're not a friend?'

'No, it was a home exchange, that's all, she's in my house you see, digging up my garden, buying my daughter pink jeans.'

'You don't want her to do that? Why don't you tell her?' To Hubie it was simple.

'Because we're old and complicated, that's why. Anyway to be fair I'm doing something now that she mightn't like, having you to supper.'

'She wouldn't like this, believe me, Mrs. Lynch.'

'It wasn't your fault.'

'Not the way she sees it.'

'I don't know all about it, people don't talk and I don't like to ask. I just heard it was your birthday.'

'Yeah it was.'

'But why is she upset with you?'

'You really don't know her?' He wanted to be reassured. 'You're not a friend of theirs?'

'No, I promise you, we just got in touch by accident. I had problems of my own, you see.'

'Did someone die?'

'No, but my husband left me and I felt bad and upset over there.'

'Oh.'

'And Dale's mother obviously couldn't come to terms with what had happened around here so…'

'Yes, that's true. She went insane, I think.'

'People do for a while, but a lot of them get better.' Ria tried to be encouraging.

'She hates me.'

'Why should she hate you?'

'Because I'm alive, I guess.' He looked very young and sad as he sat there trying to make sense of what had happened. And the lights went on in the garden as the darkness came down, as it did so quickly here in America, unlike at home where everything seemed to move much more slowly.

'But surely if she were to hate anyone it would be the other boy, the one who died?'

'Johnny?'

'Yes, Johnny. I mean he was the one driving. He was the one who killed her son.'

He said nothing, just looked out at the garden lights and the sprinklers beginning to play on the lawn.

'She can't hate Johnny. Johnny is dead, there's no point in hating him. We're alive, David and I. She can hate us, it gives her life some purpose.'

'You sound very, very bitter about her.'

'I do, yes.'

'But it must have been so terrible for her, Hubie. So hard to forgive. If Johnny hadn't been drunk…'

'Johnny wasn't driving. Dale was driving.' She looked at him in horror. 'Dale stole the bikes, Dale set it up. It was Dale who killed Johnny.'

Ria felt her heart turn over. 'That can't be true.'

He nodded sadly. 'It's true.'

'But why? Why did nobody… how did they not know?'

'You don't want to think what that wreck looked like, you don't want to think about it. I saw it and David saw it so we have to think about it for the rest of our lives.'