15. Max
CHAPTER 15
MAX
F or once, the bank holiday sunshine was in attendance which would make a massive difference to how the weekend would pan out. It meant we’d be barbecuing, the kids would be lost to the breeze, and everyone would be more at ease. Relaxed.
I pulled up on the drive, the boys and Lucy wide awake and bubbling with excitement because they loved weekends in Oxford, and there was a celebrity cricket match nearby on the Sunday which I’d promised to take them to.
We were met by Rose and Seph, who’d been to their car to collect something that’d been forgotten. Rose looked more grown up each time I saw her, her denim shorts cut offs that looked too trendy and illustrated that she wasn’t far off being a teenager, which meant my youngest brother would soon be a father to a teen.
That was going to be good fodder for taking the piss out of him.
“How long’s it taken you to get here?” Seph asked, looking in his car boot for something that wasn’t there.
“About an hour and a half. I think we missed an accident by about five minutes which Jackson’s ended up stuck in.” I’d left the office fifteen precious minutes before Jacks and that'd been the difference between a dream and a nightmare.
“Good going. We had to stop twice because your namesake drank too much juice and couldn’t wait.” He glared at me like it was my fault.
I’d been bowled over when Seph told me they were calling their twin boy after me. I’d nodded and said something like thank you, then we hadn’t mentioned it since.
“Better than a drenched car seat.” I’d experienced a couple of those, one from Seph himself but we didn’t talk about that either.
“True. Ava’s here already. She got here yesterday with Nancy and Eli and I think she’s staying for the week,” Seph closed the car boot. “It isn’t in here, Rosie. Are you sure your mum didn’t bring it into the house?”
“I’ll go and check.” She walked off, not running like she’d do usually.
“What’s she lost?”
Seph shook his head. “A book. No surprises there. If she can’t find it, she’ll have to find something else to read. It isn’t like there isn’t a library for her to pick from here.”
I laughed because he was right, there was a library and Marie had never thrown away any of our books from when we were kids and teenagers. Rose would have a great time finding the trashy teenage novels Claire and Payts and Ava had read when they were her age. “Judy Blume’s Forever will still be in there.”
Seph grinned. “I think that book taught me all I know.”
“I pity Georgia then.”
Another grin and then he started helping lug our luggage and children into the house.
By seven we were all together again. Callum and Wren and their three had come over from their nearby farm, some of their land neighbouring Mum and Dad’s which meant they usually walked over the fields, traipsing dirt through the kitchen which didn’t please Marie, but she still enjoyed telling us off even though we were now grown.
Dad barbecued the meats he’d been marinating for the last couple of days and Marie had put out a spread of fresh foods, French cheeses that she kept giggling at, and cakes and trifles for all of us, not just the kids.
The cousins spilled out into the garden, free ranging across the grass towards the trees where rope swings had been built and a treehouse that’d had various renovations since I’d been about ten.
I watched Lucy and Eliza form their girl gang with Rose, involving Orla and Bea, who were just about old enough now for them to be of interest. Will and Maddox had found the cricket gear my dad had left out, so that was them for the next few days, it’d be leather on willow and a re-enactment of the Ashes.
“They’re settled.” Ava sat down next to me. “I need you all to come and see The Room.”
The Room had been given capital letters in our last few messages. Ava had given a few hints with what she was doing in it, which was finding a way to show of the items that held memories, making sure nothing was lost.
“Now?”
She nodded. “Now. There are some bits that I’m storing because the kids aren’t old enough to see them yet, but I want you to have a look at them before I put them away.” She sounded enthusiastic and even if I hadn’t been too bothered to revisit the past again, I’d have found some enthusiasm for her. It’d always been hard to say no to my baby sister, which was why she’d gotten away with everything when she was younger.
“Okay. I’ll come now.”
I was the last sibling she’d rounded up, the rest of them already in the small space, along with our parents. Our partners were outside with the kids and the food, which was almost ready for serving up and could be demolished while we were in here, which I was acutely aware of.
The room was something else though. She’d made our baby stuff into pictures, even things that’d been Dad’s when he was born. Booties, photos, a dummy that’d belonged to Jackson, our first pairs of shoes, baby books – they were all artfully displayed.
Then there were the school photographs and reports put into a book so our kids could see exactly how much of a pain Callum had been. Wedding photos were everywhere, a big gallery wall, but underneath each was the date and venue, capturing a timeline, and that was when I realised that was how she’d structured it. The room was a timeline of events, right from our Dad’s birth through to Ava and Eli’s new baby, where there was space for another photo.
“It’s a good job no one’s planning any more babies,” Mum said, gazing at the photo of the day when Seph had formally adopted Rose. “We’d have to knock through into Grant’s study.”
“Yeah, not happening.” My dad was taking up the doorframe. “I like that study.”
“I like this room. It’d be good if there was more room.” Marie was teasing him, I could tell. “Wouldn’t be difficult to knock this wall down.”
“I rarely say no to you, Marie, but no.” He shook his head. “And the food is ready, so unless you want Killian, Owen and Eli to finish the ribs before you get there, we need to put a pin in this journey down memory lane.”
I was at the back of the room, so I let everyone go first, looking at one of Ava’s creations that I’d missed. It was a model house, exactly the same as the family home in London, the rooms inside just like our teenage bedrooms.
I wondered if she’d made it herself or if she’d had it made by one of her contacts. It was brilliant, each room so similar to how the real thing had been.
“It’s good, isn’t it?”
I looked up at the door, not realising she’d hung back.
“Who did it?”
“Eli and me. We started it as soon as we knew Mum was selling up. I’ve been trying to take it easy this week so I managed to get it finished for today.” She grinned, but I noticed she looked pale.
“You okay?”
“Very. Just morning sickness, or afternoon sickness, or evening sickness – exactly the same as I was with Nancy. My body doesn’t like being pregnant.” She rubbed her belly. “Or this point of being pregnant. In another three or four weeks I’ll be blooming.”
“I’m sure. Vic was the same. You’ve done an amazing job with all this.” I looked around again, the smell of barbecue drifting in through the open window.
“Thank you. I’m going to go outside and try and eat. You never know. It might stay down.” She turned and left, leaving me in the room for a little longer.
It was Rose who found me in there, a bit of sauce on her cheek, probably from a burger.
“Mum said there’s a model of Grandma’s old house.”
I pointed it out to her, talking her through each of the rooms, showing her the garden where there was also a tiny replica of her orange roses.
“I wish I could make things like this.” She looked sad. “I don’t think I have the patience though.”
“You have other talents. I don’t think Ava’s read a book in her life unless it was about interior design.” Ava couldn’t sit still long enough to read a book, I was pretty sure of that.
Rose giggled, which was the desired outcome.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. I just want to get it over now, or at least get to next weekend because Uncle Owen’s got my favourite poet in Cases to do a talk and a signing.”
“I heard about that. You excited for it?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Can Lucy come?”
“If she wants to. I think she has a cricket match so she’ll need to choose.” She couldn’t make her mind up, so it would be decision made at the eleventh hour but I suspected cricket would win.
“She’s really good at cricket.” Rose followed me outside. “She’s just bowled Uncle Eli out.”
“Really?”
Rose nodded again, very seriously. “Overarm, hit the wicket. Uncle Eli swore. I think Lucy liked that best.”
“I bet she did.”
The cricket match had taken a pause when we got outside, the barbecue in the process of being obliterated with every man for themselves. My sons were arguing over corn on the cob, which I didn’t intervene with, they could work it out for themselves. Lucy was having a picnic with Eliza and Orla now, the cricket ball next to her, and Vic was talking to Vanessa, in their own little world, probably moaning about the decorating that Jacks and I never got round to doing.
“This is nice, isn’t it.” Marie sprang up next to me. “Being here for the weekend.”
“It is.” I nodded, attacking a rib that Dad had done a really good job of marinating. “I think we’ll all get out here more often now, without the London house.”
“Which is how it should be. It’s only an hour and a half and there’s more space here and more for the kids to do, and you grown ups. I can’t believe you’re all grown ups with children of your own. Now we can watch them have revenge on our behalf.” She chuckled, only slightly evilly.
“We weren’t that bad.”
“Oh, you were. I wouldn’t have changed any of it though, as long as I don’t have to live it again.” Another laugh.
“How was it handing the keys over?” I hadn’t really spoken to her since.
“Easier than I thought. The dad likes gardening so Rose’s plant will be looked after. It didn’t feel like our home anymore when I showed them round. The building was ready for someone else, another family.”
Her words resonated with a memory. “You said that before. I asked you if you and Dad would always live there, even when we’d moved out and had families of our own. You said that you’d know when it was time to leave it.”
I watched her as she looked about the scene as the sun started to set, grandkids and children sprawled out across the garden, laughter and chatter amongst the midges.
“It was time, Max. Time to walk into a new era.”
I didn’t respond, seeing everything through her eyes. Her family.
Our world.