Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

'Isn't it? Tony got all these shelves made, same man who did the shelves for Dad. How is he?' Grania really wanted to know.

'Oh, you know, the same.' Brigid was no help.

'Is he still ranting and raving?'

'No, more sighing and groaning.'

'And Mam?'

'You know Mam, hardly notices you're gone.'

'Thanks, you know how to make someone feel wanted.'

'I'm only telling you the truth.'

Fiona was trying to talk to the old man so that he wouldn't hear all this intimate detail about the Dunne family. But he probably knew it all already.

Tony poured them a glass of wine each. 'I'm delighted to see you girls, but I have a bit of business up in the school to attend to, and you'll want a chat, so I'll leave you at it.'

'You don't have to go, love.' Grania called him love quite unselfconsciously.

'I know I don't have to, but I will.' He turned to Brigid. 'And if you're talking to your father, tell him… well… tell him…' Brigid looked at him expectantly. But the words didn't come easily to Tony O'Brien. 'Tell him… she's fine,' he said gruffly, and left.

'Well,' said Brigid. 'What do you make of that?'

'He's desperately upset,' said Grania. 'You see, Dad doesn't speak to him at school, just walks out if he comes in, and it's hard for him there. And it's hard for me here not being able to go home.'

'Can you not go home?' Fiona asked.

'Not really, there'd be a scene, and the no daughter of mine speech all over again.'

'I don't know, he's quietened down a bit,' Brigid said. 'Maybe he'd only moan and groan for the first few visits, after that he might be normal again.'

'I hate him saying things about Tony.' Grania looked doubtful.

'Bringing up his lurid past, do you mean?' Brigid asked.

'Yeah, but then I had a bit of a past too. If I was as old as he is I'd hope to have a very substantial past. It's just that I haven't been around long enough.'

'Aren't you lucky to have a past?' Fiona was wistful.

'Oh shut up, Fiona. You're as thin as a rake, you must have a past to beat the band,' said Brigid.

'I've never slept with anyone, made love, done it,' Fiona blurted out.

The Dunne sisters looked at her with interest.

'You must have,' Brigid said.

'Why must I have? I'd have remembered it if I did. I didn't, that's it.'

'Why not?' Grania asked.

'I don't know. Either people were drunk or awful or it was the wrong place, or by the time I had decided I would it was too late. You know me.' She sounded full of self-pity and regret. Grania and Brigid seemed at a loss for words. 'But I'd like to now,' Fiona said eagerly.

'Pity we let the stud of all time out, he could have obliged,' Brigid said, jerking her head towards the door that Tony O'Brien had closed behind him.

'I want you to know that I don't find that even remotely funny,' Grania said.

'Nor do I,' said Fiona disapprovingly. 'I wasn't thinking of doing it with just anybody, it's someone I'm in love with.'

'Oh well, excuse me ,' Brigid said huffily.

Grania poured another glass of wine for them. 'Let's not fight,' she said.

'Who's fighting?' Brigid asked, stretching out her glass.

'Remember when we were at school we used to have truth or dare?'

'You always took dare,' Fiona remembered.

'But tonight let's do truth.'

'What should I do, the two of you tell me.'

'You should go home and see Dad. He does miss you,' Brigid said.

'You should talk about other things like the bank and politics and the evening class he runs, not things that would remind him of… er • •• Tony, until he gets more used to it,' Fiona said.

'And Mam? Does she really not care?'

'No, I only said that to annoy you. But you know she's got something on her mind, maybe it's work or the menopause, you're not the Big Issue there like you are for Dad.'

'That's fair enough,' Grania said. 'Now, let's do Brigid.'

'I think Brigid should zip up her mouth about being fat,' Fiona said.

'Because she's not fat, she's sexy. A huge bum and big boobs, isn't that what men just love?' said Grania.

'And a very small waist in between,' Fiona added.

'But very, very boring about bloody calories and zip fasteners,' Grania said with a laugh.

'Easy to say when you're like a brush handle.'

'Boring and sexy, an unexpected combination,' Grania said.

And Brigid was smiling a bit, she could see they meant it. 'Right. Now Fiona,' Brigid said, visibly cheered.

The sisters paused. It was easier to attack a member of your own family.

'Let me have another drink to prepare for it,' Fiona said unexpectedly.

'Too humble.'

'Too apologetic.'

'No views on things.'

'Not able to make up her mind on anything.'

'Never really grew up and realised we all have to make up our own minds.'

'Probably going to remain a child all her life.'

'Say that again,' Fiona interrupted.

Grania and Brigid wondered had they got too carried away.

'It's just that you're too nice to people and nobody really knows what you think,' Grania said.

'Or if you think,' Brigid added darkly.

'About being a child?' Fiona begged.

'Well, I suppose I meant that we have to make decisions, don't we. Otherwise other people make them for us and it's like being a child. That's all I meant,' Grania said, afraid that she had offended funny little Fiona.

'That's extraordinary. You're the second person who's said that to me. This girl, Suzi, she said it too when I asked her should I cut my hair. How amazing.'

'So do you think you'll do it?' Brigid asked.

'Do what?'

'Make up your own mind in time about things, sleep with your man, get your hair cut, have views?'

'Will you stop bellyaching about calories?' Fiona said with spirit.

'Yeah, I will if it's that boring.'

'OK then,' said Fiona.

Grania said she'd go out for a Chinese takeaway if Fiona promised she wouldn't dither about what she wanted and if Brigid didn't say one word about things being deep fried. They said that if Grania agreed to go and see her father next day they would obey her rules.

They opened another bottle of wine and laughed until the old man came home and said that at his age he had to have regular sleep so he would chase them away.

But they knew by the way he was looking at Grania that he wasn't thinking about regular sleep.

'Well, that was a great idea to go and see them.' Brigid thought it was her idea by the time they were on the bus home.

'She seems very happy,' Fiona said.

'He's so old though, isn't he?'

'Well, he's what she wants,' Fiona said firmly.

To her surprise Brigid agreed with her vehemently. 'That's the point. It doesn't matter if he's from Mars with pointed ears if it's what she wants. If more people had the guts to go after what they want the world would be a better place.' She spoke very loudly, due perhaps to the wine.

A lot of people on the bus heard her and laughed, some of them even clapped. Brigid glared at them ferociously.

'Aw come on, sexy. Give us a smile,' one of the fellows shouted.

'They called me sexy,' Brigid whispered, delighted, to Fiona.

'What did we tell you?' Fiona said.

She resolved that she would be a different person when Barry Healy asked her out again. As he undoubtedly would.

The time seemed very long, even though it was only a week. Then Barry turned up again.

'Are things all right at home?' she asked.

'No, not really. My mother has no interest in anything, she won't even cook. And in the old days she'd have you demented baking this and that and wanting to force-feed you. Now I have to buy her instant meals in the supermarket or she'd eat nothing.'

Fiona was sympathetic. 'What do you think you'll do?' she asked.