Chapter 35 #2
Caitlin rang the doorbell; the front door was a deep blue, it had been red when they had lived in the house.
Stop, she told herself.
Lee opened the door and as she crossed the threshold she could not help admiring the sleek, duck-egg blue paint that had replaced the violently orange, rag-rolled effect wallpaper her father had chosen for the hall in the early 1990s and never changed.
Lee hugged her in relief. ‘Come in here,’ he said, leading her through to the back of the house.
The kitchen had not been replaced but the doors had been painted in a series of pastel shades of yellow, orange and cream, with contrasting handles, and a wooden worktop had replaced the battered white marble her mother had chosen years earlier.
A new pale wooden floor had been laid and the tri-fold doors updated.
Lee’s two large blue sofas dominated the living space, with a long pine dining table on the other side.
On this was an old-fashioned biscuit tin and a battered leather briefcase.
‘It looks great, Lee,’ she said.
‘Not too strange?’ he asked.
‘A bit,’ she replied, ‘but we all knew the house was desperate for an update and what I’ve seen so far looks amazing.’
‘Thank you,’ he said before walking to the table and pulling out a chair. Caitlin sat beside him. ‘These are what I wanted to show you.’
‘What are they?’ she asked. ‘The tin looks familiar, Dad used to have one, he kept important documents inside it – passports, birth certificates – until Alan explained they might be safer in a lockable box or safe and organised for one to be installed in their dressing room.’
‘The safe is still there,’ said Lee. ‘These were in a hidden section of wall in your parents’— I mean, my bedroom.’
‘What do you mean “a hidden section of wall”?’
‘You know the corner where your mum’s wingback armchair used to stand?’ said Lee.
‘Yes,’ she nodded.
The armchair had been covered in a vibrant patchwork fabric and was a favourite with them all. Gillian had asked if she could keep it and the chair now sat in her open-plan kitchen, dining, living space that had been designed to be so similar to the one their parents had created.
‘Did you know there was a cupboard behind it?’
‘Vaguely,’ she said. ‘Dad wallpapered over it years ago by mistake and I assumed it had remained unreachable ever since.’
‘No, it had been opened recently,’ said Lee. ‘The builder found these inside and I think your dad must have forgotten to take them when he moved. I wasn’t prying, I opened them to see what was inside.’
‘Of course, I would never think you were being nosy.’
‘Did you know?’ he asked. ‘Is this what the row with your sisters is about?’
Caitlin swallowed nervously, wondering what Lee had discovered. ‘Know what?’
Lee flipped open the biscuit tin and removed the contents, spreading it on the table. There were multiple leaflets from various sources – Living with Alzheimer’s Disease, Telling Your Loved Ones You Have Alzheimer’s Disease, Next Steps for Living an Active Life with Alzheimer’s Disease.
‘There was a diary in the briefcase,’ explained Lee. ‘There are appointments with a private GP dating from the beginning of the year. From April, there are details of his attendance at an Alzheimer’s treatment centre.’
‘No,’ said Caitlin, tears welling in her eyes, she could feel panic and denial rising in her throat. ‘Dad’s only sixty-five. You must be wrong.’
‘We have to ask him,’ said Lee.
‘Why didn’t he discuss it with your dad?’ Caitlin asked.
‘Perhaps Uncle Larry couldn’t face putting his best friend through something as awful as testing him for such a cruel condition,’ replied Lee. ‘Despite his occasional outburst, your dad usually tries to protect those he loves from being hurt.’
Caitlin stared at the leaflets, unable to process the enormity of Lee’s discovery.
Then she remembered the night she had sung ‘Moon River’ with Gillian and Rachel, the strangeness of her father’s behaviour, the way his concentration had drifted and the announcement that it would be his grand finale.
‘This is why Dad has said King Lear will be his last performance with the Players,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t work it out. If he was retiring, he could have devoted his every waking minute to each production.
’ She looked at Lee, her eyes filled with distress.
‘This must be the real reason he didn’t want to buy another house either, why he wanted to be with one of us. ’
‘It’s probably the reason he announced his retirement in the summer, too,’ said Lee, wrapping his arm around her.
‘The TIA was a good excuse and, having changed his will and updated his paperwork, it means everything is arranged before the Alzheimer’s makes its presence felt even more deeply.
I wonder if he might have arranged Lasting Power of Attorney too.
Perhaps you could ask his assistant, Heather? ’
‘I have to tell Bean and Rabbit,’ Caitlin said. ‘We have to resolve this stupid argument and then we need to speak to Dad.’
‘Would you like me to come?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘thank you for offering but this is a conversation which has to be between the three of us.’
She leaned into Lee’s side, taking comfort in his closeness, his familiarity, breathing in his aftershave.
Woody, she thought, a woody scent for Woody.
With his arm around her, she felt safe, protected, and without thinking she tilted her head, his mouth was millimetres away.
Adrenaline coursed through her and the reckless feeling she had experienced the night she had taken the henbane tea overwhelmed her.
She moved forward and felt his hesitation but when she leaned nearer, he bent to kiss her as though they had done it a million times before.
Caitlin kissed him back with a passion that surprised her.
‘Moon, are you sure?’ whispered Lee, gently disentangling himself. ‘You’ve had a shock.’
‘This has nothing to do with shock,’ she replied. ‘Ever since the day you helped me move the boxes from here, I’ve wanted to kiss you.’
‘Really?’ he said.
‘It was as though I suddenly saw you and realised I love—’ She halted.
‘You…?’ he prompted.
‘Love you as more than a brother,’ she mumbled.
‘At last,’ he sighed and kissed her again. ‘Trust me, I’ve never seen you as a surrogate little sister. My feelings for you were why I couldn’t go to Australia with Poppy, the thought of being on the other side of the world from you broke my heart.’
‘But I was engaged to Stan,’ she said in surprise.
‘Yes, but I could see you weren’t happy and while I’d never wish what he did to you on my worst enemy, the fact you went white with panic whenever the wedding was mentioned gave me hope.’
‘I had no idea,’ she said as they kissed again.
‘You were always a bit clueless,’ he teased and she gave him a gentle shove.
When they drew apart, staring at each other in wonder, the bubble of their new-found feelings burst as the reality of the Alzheimer’s leaflets blared from the table.
‘I have to speak to my sisters,’ Caitlin said, pulling her phone from the back pocket of her jeans. ‘Then you and I need to talk, too.’