When, struggling for ideas, I asked the online quads what was the thing they would like to do most in all the world, the answer nearly always came back as, ‘Have sex.’ I got quite a lot of unsolicited detail on that one.
But essentially it was not a huge help. There were eight weeks to go, and I had run out of ideas.
A couple of days after our discussion under the washing line, I returned home to find Dad standing in the hallway. This would have been unusual in itself (the last few weeks he seemed to have retreated to the sofa in the daytime, supposedly to keep Granddad company), but he was wearing an ironed shirt, had shaved, and the hallway was filled with the scent of Old Spice. I am pretty sure he’d had that bottle of aftershave since 1974.
‘There you are.’
I closed the door behind me. ‘Here I am.’
I was feeling tired and anxious. I had spent the whole bus journey home talking on my mobile phone to a travel agent about places to take Will, but we were both stumped. I needed to get him further away from home. But there didn’t seem to be a single place outside a five-mile radius of the castle that he actually wanted to visit.
‘Are you okay getting your own tea tonight?’
‘Sure. I can join Patrick at the pub later. Why?’ I hung up my coat on a free peg.
The rack was so much emptier with all Treena’s and Thomas’s coats gone.
‘I am taking your mother out for dinner.’
I did a quick mental calculation. ‘Did I miss her birthday?’
‘Nope. We’re celebrating.’ He lowered his voice, as if it were some kind of secret. ‘I got a job.’
‘You didn’t!’ And now I could see it; his whole body had lightened. He was standing straighter again, his face wreathed in smiles. He looked years younger.
‘Dad, that’s fantastic.’
‘I know. Your mother’s over the moon. And, you know, she’s had a tough few months what with Treena going and Granddad and all. So I want to take her out tonight, treat her a bit.’
‘So what’s the job?’
‘I’m going to be head of maintenance. Up at the castle.’
I blinked. ‘But that’s –’
‘Mr Traynor. That’s right. He rang me and said he was looking for someone, and your man, Will there, had told him that I was available. I went this afternoon and showed him what I could do, and I’m on a month’s trial. Beginning Saturday.’
‘You’re going to work for Will’s dad?’
‘Well, he said they have to do a month’s trial, to go through the proper procedures and all, but he said he couldn’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t get it.’
‘That – that’s great,’ I said. I felt weirdly unbalanced by the news. ‘I didn’t even know there was a job going.’
‘Nor me. It’s great, though. He’s a man who understands quality, Lou. I talked to him about green oak, and he showed me some of the work done by the previous man. You wouldn’t believe it. Shocking. He said he was very impressed by my work.’
He was animated, more so than I had seen him for months.
Mum had appeared beside him. She was wearing lipstick, and her good pair of heels. ‘There’s a van. He gets his own van. And the pay is good, Lou. It’s even a bit more than your dad was getting at the furniture factory.’
She was looking up at him like he was some kind of all-conquering hero. Her face, when she turned to me, told me I should do the same. It could contain a million messages, my mother’s face, and this one told me Dad should be allowed his moment.
‘That’s great, Dad. Really.’ I stepped forward and gave him a hug.
‘Well, it’s really Will you should thank. What a smashing bloke. I’m just bloody grateful that he thought of me.’
I listened to them leave the house, the sound of Mum fussing in the hall mirror, Dad’s repeated reassurances that she looked lovely, that she was just fine as she was. I heard him patting his pockets for keys, wallet, loose change, followed by a brief burst of laughter. And then the door slammed, I heard the hum of the car pulling away and then there was just the distant sound of the television in Granddad’s room. I sat on the stairs. And then I pulled out my phone and rang Will’s number.
It took him a while to answer. I pictured him heading to the hands-free device, depressing the button with his thumb.
‘Hello?’
‘Is this your doing?’
There was a brief pause. ‘Is that you, Clark?’
‘Did you get my dad a job?’
He sounded a little breathless. I wondered, absently, whether he was sitting up okay.
‘I thought you’d be pleased.’
‘I am pleased. It’s just … I don’t know. I feel weird.’
‘You shouldn’t do. Your dad needed a job. Mine needed a skilled maintenance man.’
‘Really?’ I couldn’t keep the scepticism from my voice.
‘What?’
‘This has nothing to do with what you asked me the other day? About him and the other woman?’
There was a long pause. I could see him there, in his living room, looking out through the French windows.
His voice, when it came, was careful. ‘You think I’d blackmail my father into giving yours a job?’
Put like that it did sound far-fetched.
I sat down again. ‘Sorry. I don’t know. It’s just weird. The timing. It’s all a bit convenient.’
