Maeve Binchy - Tara Road

'Would she know about Dad's money?'

'Not about Dad's money, you moron, to say goodbye, like we did to Finola.'

'Oh, do you think she'd give us anything too?' Brian was interested.

'Of course she wouldn't, Brian, you are a clown. You get worse all the time.' Annie was exasperated with him.

'No, well, I don't suppose she'd be cleaning the house for Mam if she had any money herself.' Brian had worked it out.

'I think Mam would like it if we called on her,' Annie said.

Gertie was very pleased to see them. 'You tell your Mam that the house is fine, won't you?' Gertie said.

'I think she's forgotten all about the house,' Brian said philosophically.

'She remembered that you told her the whole garden was cut down,' Gertie said.

Brian felt there was some criticism implied here but was not sure why. 'I was going to tell her that Myles and Dekko got into an over-eighteen film because they said they were dwarves, but I thought she might prefer to hear about the garden,' he said by way of explanation.

'We're going to be meeting your relations out there, Gertie, Mam told us.' Annie was hoping to steer the conversation into safer channels.

But Gertie didn't seem all that pleased. 'Won't there be plenty of young American boys and girls for you in your own place without going all the way to Sheila's place or dragging them over to you?'

Annie shrugged. It was impossible to please people sometimes. 'Sure,' "she said.

'And will you be sure to tell your mother that everything's fine with me too, just fine, for weeks on end. She'll know what I mean.'

Annie agreed that she'd tell that to her mother. She knew what Gertie meant: Jack hadn't lifted a fist to her recently. Gertie was right, Mam would be pleased. Annie felt her eyes fill with tears. Mam was so kind in many ways, it was just that she didn't understand anything at all that was going on in the world. She knew nothing about clothes, and people's friendships, and how to keep Dad or get him back once he had gone away. And Mam didn't understand why she should put Brian down more and how awful Rosemary was. And she'd probably be terrific for the first ten minutes and then go back to being hopeless and understanding nothing. Annie sighed a deep sigh.

'Won't you have a great trip the pair of you?' Gertie said.

'We will. Finola gave us twenty dollars each to spend on the way,' Brian said cheerfully. Annie tried to stand on his foot but he was too far away.

'That was grand. Tell me, who is Finola?' Gertie asked.

'You know, Bernadette's mother,' Brian said. Annie rolled her eyes.

'That was kind of her, she must have plenty of money to give you all that.'

'No, she's broke, that's why she fought with Dad.'

'I don't think Brian quite understands the whole scene,' Annie began.

'But she told us, Annie, she told us, you're always saying I'm a moron and I'm brain-dead, but you must be deaf. She said she fought with Dad over money.'

'Brian, we'd better go now. Marilyn's expecting us, and we have to call in on Granny as well,' Annie pleaded.

'Well I hope she'll have more than those ginger-snaps,' he grumbled, red-faced and annoyed.

'No, don't worry, Colm's making your dinner,' Gertie said.

'Oh good.' Brian brightened up. Maybe he could talk to Colm about football and videos and not have to listen to Marilyn Vine and Annie talking about clothes.

'Listen, maybe I shouldn't have said that. If she doesn't tell you that he made it, don't say I told you. She might be passing it off as her own.' Gertie was contrite now.

'Oh, I'm sure Brian Lynch would be able to cope with that, Gertie—tactful, diplomatic, he'll handle it beautifully.'

'She's always picking on me, even before I do anything,' Brian said. 'Don't worry, Gertie, I'll say, "It's terrific, Marilyn, haven't you become a good cook!" That's what I'll say.'

Gertie put her hand into the pocket of the pink overall she wore in the launderette. 'Here's a pound each, I'd love to be able to give you more, but it'll get you an ice cream at the airport.'

'Thanks, Gertie, that's terrific,' said Brian. 'Hey, I wonder if Marilyn will give us anything.'

'Why don't we just stand at the gate of our house at Tara Road and shout out how much we want? Wouldn't that be a good idea?' Annie said with her face set in a fury as she marched her brother out of the launderette.

'Sheila, won't you come up this weekend?' Ria asked Gertie's sister on the phone.

'But you'll want to be alone with the children.'

'Don't believe it, they'll be bored with me in twenty minutes. I'd love you to bring your two over again.'

'They won't wait to be asked twice, they've never stopped talking about the pool,' Sheila said. 'So if you're sure?'

'I'm sure. Imagine, in only a few hours they'll be getting on the plane. I can't believe it.'

'You know I've been going over and over the conversation we had when you first came. I'm so sorry about thinking Danny was with you and asking about him. You must have thought I was so crass.'

'No, no.' Ria remembered her own conversation with Greg Vine. 'How could you expect to be inspired? If people aren't told things how would they know?'

'Gertie certainly keeps things very secretly to herself,' Sheila Maine said.

It was all quite clear now to Marilyn why Colm was so protective of his sister. The woman was hooked on drugs. Her husband, a coarse and flashily dressed man who had been present on the night of the restaurant debacle, did not look as if he would be any great help in such a situation. In fact he might well be part of it. Marilyn wished now that she had listened when Rosemary and Gertie had gone wittering on about Monto or whatever the man was called. She couldn't remember what he had done for a living or if it had been at all clear. Perhaps he might even have been involved in what his wife was addicted to.

What a truly extraordinary cast of people she had met since she had come to Ireland. Not for the first time she wished she were talking to Greg properly and could tell him about them. But at the moment she couldn't tell him anything.

'There's going to be a party in my house next weekend, Mrs. Lynch, if your daughter would like to come along.'

Ria bit her lip. Hubie had been so helpful and straight with her. Yet she didn't want to let Annie go to a party with a whole lot of young people that she didn't know. All she did know was that some of them had been involved in drinking and stealing motor bikes.

Hubie saw her reluctance. 'Hey, it's not going to be anything wild,' he said.

'No, of course not.' Suppose Annie got to know that her mother had refused a party for her before she even arrived, the summer would be off to a very poor start. And that appalling Kitty wouldn't be here to lead her astray. Ria forced a cheerful smile to her face. 'Hubie, that would be great, but we will have friends staying here that weekend and the boy Sean is about Annie's age… can he be included too?'

'Why not?' Hubie was easy.

Annie's social life was hotting up already. At least she would enjoy it more than the boat trip, Ria thought with some satisfaction.

'When we go in to Granny, if you ask for money I'll kill you there and then and let Pliers drag your body up and down the street before he devours it,' Annie said.

'I never ask anyone for money, they keep giving it to me,' Brian said. 'Howarya, Nora,' he said cheerfully as his grandmother opened the door. Annie still insisted on addressing her grandmother in a more traditional way.

'I'm fine,' Nora Johnson said. 'You don't have Kitty hidden in the hedge or anything?'

'No,' Annie sighed. 'I suppose Bernadette was on red alert about that. God, she missed her vocation, she shouldn't be teaching music, she should be running a prison.'