Chapter 13
Dot and I stand on the street where Sean instructed us to wait. He’s gone to pick up the hire car. There’s the blast of a horn and I look up to see him driving an old Cadillac with the roof down. Dot squeals with delight.
‘He remembered!’
‘What?’ I ask.
‘I told Sean once that I dreamed of driving a Cadillac down a highway in the States with the wind blowing in my hair.’
Sean’s pulled to a stop and is out of the car, ushering us towards it. I’m pretty sure he’s not allowed to stop where he has.
‘Your wish, Nanna, is my command.’
We get in, me in the back and Dot in the passenger seat. The seats are leather and it takes me back to a time when cars were elegant and shiny.
‘Let’s gooooo,’ Sean says. ‘I’m pretty sure I could lose my licence for pulling over here.
’ He pulls out into traffic and uses his mobile telephone to navigate us out of the city and through the Queens Midtown Tunnel.
When we’re on a quieter road, he turns slightly to look at me.
‘What do you make of New York so far, Mabel?’
I beam. ‘I feel like I’m in a dream.’
‘I always feel like that here,’ Sean says. ‘I think it’s because places look familiar, from films and TV, but I know I’ve never seen them in real life. It makes things a bit surreal.’
‘Have you been many times?’ I ask. This is a once in a lifetime trip for me, but he sounds like an old hand.
‘This is my third,’ he says. ‘But I love it so much. I would come every year if I could afford to.’
We are quiet for a while, the spring air whipping past us, the landscape becoming less built up, more open.
‘How long is the drive?’ Dot asks.
‘About an hour and a half, according to Google,’ Sean says.
I’m still feeling tired from the flight, so I close my eyes and let their chatter and the roar of the wind wash over me. And I must drift off because it feels like hardly any time has passed when Sean pulls the car to a stop outside a small, white house that looks out to sea.
‘Oh Mabel, isn’t this just the perfect house for Geoff?’ Dot says, and then we both laugh because I don’t know him yet.
‘It’s perfect,’ Sean agrees. ‘What a lovely place to grow old.’
By the time we’re all out of the car, Geoff’s standing at the door.
He’s taller than I’d expected, a little stooped, and he’s dressed impeccably.
His trousers and waistcoat are a rusty brown, and he has a white shirt and a burnt-orange cravat.
He’s leaning on a walking stick, but he flings his arms out when he sees Dot and almost knocks Sean over with it.
I notice a glimmer of burnt orange at his wrists. Cufflinks.
‘Geoff!’ Dot cries, and they hug for a long time. I feel tears come into my eyes, at the sight of this extraordinary friendship. What a shame that they let it lapse.
When Geoff pulls away, he quickly replaces Dot with Sean in his arms.
‘It’s good to see you, Geoff,’ Sean says, his voice slightly quivery.
‘And who is this fine woman?’ Geoff asks, and I look up to see he’s gesturing towards me.
‘This is Mabel,’ Dot says. ‘I’m so happy to bring her here to meet you.’
And in this moment, it feels impossible that we might not have had this experience, that Dot and I might have chosen to have this conversation with Geoff on the telephone, rather than coming all this way and standing in the late spring sunshine on his doorstep, the sound of the ocean in our ears.
‘Come in, come in.’ Geoff ushers us inside, and his house is light and pretty, with abstract art on the walls and all sorts of little trinkets that I feel sure must come with stories attached.
We sit down in a little courtyard garden out the back.
There are roses growing in pots, and a comfy outdoor sofa that Dot and I sink into.
Sean and Geoff sit opposite us on cushioned wooden chairs, and then Geoff jumps up again because he remembers he hasn’t offered us anything to eat or drink.
While he’s in the kitchen, Dot asks me if I’m all right.
‘Do I look as if I’m not?’ I ask her. ‘I couldn’t be better, Dot. Seeing you reunite like that, it was pure magic.’
‘It was,’ Sean agrees. ‘I can’t believe we lost touch. It’s so easily done and you don’t always realise until you see the person again how wrong it is.’
‘He was a broken man after Rupert died,’ Dot says. ‘Didn’t really want to see or hear from anyone. But time has done some healing, it looks like. He’s got a spring in his step that I haven’t seen for a while. I wonder whether there’s someone in his life.’
‘Dorothy Brightmore, I think I’m a bit old for falling in love,’ Geoff says, reappearing.
‘Nonsense,’ she says. ‘Look at Mabel and me.’
And he does, his eyes flitting from her to me and back again.
‘She talked about you, Mabel. All the time I knew her. I used to ask why she didn’t go looking for you and she always said it was too late, or that she didn’t think you’d want to see her.
And now here you are, looking like the end of a fairytale. Will you have some tea?’
I like this man. I like his house, his garden. I like knowing that he was Dot’s best friend in the years I couldn’t be.
While Geoff’s pouring the drinks from a little teapot, Dot returns to her question. ‘Why the spring in your step, if you’re not in love?’
‘But I am in love,’ Geoff says. ‘I’m in love with my life and my home. I miss Rupert every day, but I’ve built something here regardless. I have friends and I read books and play chess and sometimes I paddle in the ocean. What could be better than that?’
I think about the life I’ve lived, how I thought that staying where you were brought up was just the normal thing to do. I don’t think I ever knew, really, that you could go anywhere, do anything. Be anyone.
Dot claps her hands together. ‘It’s wonderful to see you, Geoff. It’s really wonderful.’
We’re not staying with Geoff. He offered, but there isn’t really room, so Sean rented us an apartment a short walk away.
We go back there for a nap after a couple of hours.
It feels like there’s no rush with any of this.
We’re here for two weeks and Geoff says there’s all the time in the world to eat good food and get acquainted, and that sounds good to me.
The apartment is simple and clean, and Sean takes the sofabed in the living room, which leaves us with the bedroom.
There’s light flooding in and I close the shutters and we lie down on the bed, pulling a blanket over our bodies.
‘I still can’t quite believe that I’m here,’ I say.
Dot laughs. ‘I know what you mean. You think your life is going one way, sometimes, and it just makes a turn and you end up somewhere unexpected.’
‘I can’t think of anything better,’ I say.
And then I must fall asleep, because the next thing I know her side of the bed is empty and I’m a little bit cold and there’s a sour taste in my mouth. I find Dot in the living room, playing a game of cards with Sean.
‘You’re awake,’ Dot says. ‘Shall we deal you in?’
‘Yes please,’ I say. ‘Is there anything to eat?’
‘I’ve been out and bought a few bits and pieces,’ Sean says. ‘There’s a little shop between here and Geoff’s place. There’s cheese in the fridge, and fruit. I’m going to grill some burgers in a while, if that sounds good.’
‘It sounds perfect,’ I say. And it’s true.
* * *
The next day, we go out on a little boat and Geoff hosts a lunch to introduce us to some of his friends.
They’re a ragtag assortment of people, all different ages, who’ve ended up in this pretty coastal town for a myriad of reasons.
It makes me think of Julie and Erin, Patty and Kirsty.
So when we go back to the apartment, I message Erin to ask if she’s free and she video calls me.
‘Mabel, we miss you!’ she says.
She’s sitting on my sofa with Julie next to her.
‘We do,’ Julie confirms. ‘But tell us all about the fabulous time you’re having.’
‘I don’t know where to start, really,’ I say.
‘It’s all just so wonderful. Geoff is a real character, and he lives by the sea in a dainty little house.
And New York itself feels like a dream now that we’re here, on the coast. But we’re going back there for a couple of days at the end of the trip because Dot wants to show me the Empire State Building—’
‘Not the Empire State Building,’ Dot interrupts, coming into the room. ‘The view from the top of the Empire State Building. Hello, Julie, hello, Erin.’
‘Hi, Dot,’ they chorus.
‘How was the flight?’ Julie asks. ‘You were so worried about it.’
I wave a hand. ‘Oh, it was a breeze, wasn’t it, Dot?’
‘She was very brave,’ Dot says. ‘A natural.’
‘What’s going on there?’ I ask.
They look at each other.
‘Well, Erin’s come home,’ Julie says.
I was hoping she would, after the funeral, but I didn’t know whether she’d wait until I was back from this trip.
‘Julie’s feeding me up,’ Erin says. ‘Brain food. Lots of fish. And I’m just revising and working. Sometimes I meet Dad in town for a coffee after a shift. I think it helps us both. We talk about Mum, but we talk about me, too, and him. It’s… nice.’
I didn’t expect this, but I’m pleased. And I can see Julie is too. She ruffles Erin’s short hair, slings an arm around her.
‘Nothing to report from me,’ she says. ‘We’ve hardly seen Patty. She’s been spending a lot of time with that new man of hers. And we see Kirsty when we pick up the dog. She’s starting to feel a bit less tired.’
‘Good,’ I say. And for a moment, I ache to be there, in that room. But it’s silly, because I’m having such a good time here, and I’ll be back there in a couple of weeks.
I hear voices in the hallway and say we’d better go, and Julie and Erin wave and pull silly faces, tell us to call again soon. And then Sean brings Geoff into the room and he’s holding two roses, one for Dot and one for me.
‘Shall we go out for some dinner, ladies?’ he asks. ‘There’s a place just on the water, a few minutes from here, that does the most delicious crab.’
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten crab, but I don’t say so. I say I’ll get my jacket.
And that’s how it comes to be that we’re trying to get the meat from a crab, buttery jacket potatoes and corn on the cob steaming on our plates, when we tell Geoff why we’re here. I’m sure it’s not a huge surprise, but he does us the courtesy of listening till the end without saying anything.
‘So you see,’ Dot says, ‘Mabel and I would like to get married, once we’ve spent a bit more time getting to know one another, but we can’t do that because—’
‘Because you’re married to me,’ Geoff says. ‘And we wouldn’t want you committing bigamy.’
‘That’s right,’ Dot says. ‘So do you think we could possibly get the world’s most amicable divorce?’
Geoff throws his head back and roars with laughter, and it tickles me too, the way she’s put it, and so we’re all three of us laughing and people at other tables are looking over and I find that I don’t care.
‘Let’s get divorced,’ Geoff says, when he’s recovered himself. ‘It sounds like a blast. In fact, I’ll call my lawyer friend Ron tomorrow, see if he can help us get it through quickly.’
He lifts his glass, and we follow suit. ‘To love,’ he says. ‘Wherever and with whomever we find it. To Dot and Mabel.’