Chapter Forty-Eight
Adelaide has never been to any of the cafes at Circular Quay – not even before she moved overseas.
As she steps off the ferry from Mosman, she can see that the one Desmond has picked is right next to the wharf.
Did he know that when he picked it? Possibly.
She’s learning that he is a thoughtful man.
She’s aware that she moves slowly these days – and that he will never know her as moving any faster.
He won’t know her as she was when she was accomplished and busy, pursuing a creative life and working hard.
To him she is, most likely, an old woman with whom he has a strange, if strong, connection.
She sees that he’s waiting for her outside the cafe, his smile wide. He’s wearing a plaid jacket with leather patches at the elbows, and a light blue shirt tucked into smart pants with a smarter belt, finished off with highly polished brown boots.
‘I look like an ad for R. M. Williams,’ he says with a laugh after he’s kissed her hello.
They’re easier with each other now. After several phone calls and meeting in person occasionally, it’s starting to feel like a friendship. Which is all Adelaide could hope it would be. And even that would be a miracle.
‘You look very smart,’ she says as he steps back for her to enter the cafe first.
‘Thanks,’ he says, and asks the waitress for a table for two.
‘Three,’ Adelaide says, and he looks at her quizzically.
‘Someone is going to join us.’
He frowns quickly then smiles again. ‘Sounds mysterious.’
They sit at a table for three, and Adelaide looks up and sees the Sydney Opera House.
Desmond notices. ‘I thought you may like the view,’ he says.
‘I never tire of that building.’
‘Nor do I.’ The frown returns. ‘Who’s joining us?’
Adelaide takes a breath. ‘As you know, I’m so sorry that you didn’t get to meet your father before he died. There just wasn’t a way to …’
She stops. They’ve been over this. She’s apologised, he’s told her she doesn’t need to apologise, but that hasn’t made Adelaide feel any better. So the other day she went to visit Daphne in the shop.
‘You never told me you designed clothes,’ Adelaide had said, after looking around the new boutique. She’d tried not to sound like she was scolding, but wished they could have shared their creative dreams earlier in their lives.
‘It wasn’t personal,’ Daphne said, a little coldly, and Adelaide knew she wasn’t quite forgiven. ‘I didn’t tell anyone.’
Adelaide had asked how she was, and after Noel and Janet.
‘Janet wants to meet your son,’ Daphne said.
It was the simplest of statements and it couldn’t have had a bigger impact on Adelaide. It felt like a bridge back to Daphne.
The next day Janet had called, and Adelaide mentioned she would be seeing Desmond for lunch.
‘May I join you?’ Janet had asked, and Adelaide was thrilled.
Now she smiles at Desmond and says, ‘Your half-sister Janet is joining us. I hope you don’t mind.’
He stares at her for a couple of seconds, then a smile almost splits his face. ‘Mind? That’s brilliant! I can’t wait to meet her.’
The waitress approaches and they ask for a few more minutes. Not long afterward Janet appears, neatly dressed with a colourful scarf around her neck.
‘Hi,’ she says tentatively, darting glances at Desmond but looking as if she’s not sure she should.
Desmond shoots to his feet. ‘I’m Desmond,’ he says and extends his hand.
‘Janet,’ she says, taking it.
They both sit and Adelaide holds her breath.
‘So … this is odd, right?’ Janet says. She turns to Adelaide. ‘I feel a bit like I’m cheating on Mum, you know.’
‘I understand,’ Adelaide says, and she does, even though Daphne knows about it.
‘But I need to …’ Janet smiles sadly. ‘I miss Dad. I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Desmond, but it feels like you’re a way of bringing him back – because I can tell you about him. I’m sorry you didn’t get to know him.’
‘I am too,’ Desmond says.
Adelaide watches as sadness flits across Desmond’s face, yet she can only marvel at Janet’s generosity.
At Daphne’s. At Noel’s too, for he has to know about this meeting and presumably hasn’t objected.
They could all have refused to have anything to do with her or her son, and while she wouldn’t have liked it, she would have understood.
Janet’s sad smile returns. ‘All families are strange,’ she says.
‘I don’t think there’s one right way for them to be.
My ex-husband …’ She swallows. ‘He’s having a child with his new wife.
So my grown-up kids are going to have a baby sibling.
And I keep wondering, who am I to that baby, you know?
Not his aunt. Not his stepmother. Who am I?
’ She shakes her head. ‘No one, really, I guess – but I’ll be in that child’s life, even a little bit, because my children will be.
So I reckon you’re in our lives, Desmond. ’
She turns to Adelaide. ‘And you too.’
Adelaide has no idea if this is a message from Daphne as well; she may never know. It is a door to the future that is ajar, however, if not open, and she wants to walk through it.
‘Thank you,’ she says.
Desmond nods. ‘Yes, thank you.’
The waitress reappears and they put in their orders. Then they sit and talk, and watch ferries coming and going, people passing by, seagulls trying to steal food, cruise boats picking up and dropping off passengers.
It’s life going on around them, just as they are making a new life together as a sort-of family. This is more than Adelaide had a right to hope for, and she will never forget this day as long as she lives.