Chapter 36
‘Surprise!’ Geoff’s standing at the door and I don’t think I could be more surprised if I tried. ‘Well, don’t just stand there, Mabel, let me in!’
I lead him to the front room, where Dot’s doing a Sudoku puzzle.
‘Who was that at the—’ She breaks off mid-sentence, seeing Geoff. And then she’s on her feet and they are hugging. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I heard there was a wedding,’ Geoff says.
We sent him an invite but made it clear we knew he might not be able to come. It’s a long way, after all.
‘Are you staying here, with us?’ Dot asks, and I know she’s mentally checking that there are freshly washed towels in the airing cupboard.
‘No, I’ve rented a little place just down the road for a few days, and then another place in Broughton. I didn’t want to get in the way. But I come with news.’
I hold my breath for a moment, because I think I know what he’s going to say, but I can’t quite believe it.
‘The divorce?’ Dot asks, and she sounds a bit breathless, like she’s just walked up several flights of stairs.
‘Finalised,’ Geoff says. ‘Just in the nick of time. I knew Ron would come good. And I was going to send you an email or a text message, and then I thought about how nice it would be to deliver the news in person.’
Dot is speechless. I am, too.
Geoff bursts out laughing. ‘Is no one going to offer me a cup of tea?’
It’s when we’re drinking tea that Dot recovers herself.
‘I didn’t let myself believe it would happen in time,’ she says. ‘And now it has, and… Thank you, Geoff.’
‘For divorcing you?’
‘Yes. For being so kind and helpful about it.’
‘Well,’ Geoff says, ‘if we’re doing thank yous, I owe you a huge one, Dot. For marrying me in the first place.’
Dot bats a hand. ‘It was a pleasure. And I would have stayed married to you until I died if it wasn’t for—’
‘Meeting the love of your life,’ Geoff supplies.
‘Yes. That.’
I sneak a look at my watch. ‘I hate to break this up, Dot, but have you remembered that we’re due at Peter’s in half an hour?’
Geoff looks surprised. ‘Peter? As in your son?’
‘Yes,’ Dot says. ‘Do you want to come with us? We can catch up in the car?’
‘No, I wouldn’t want to intrude, and besides, I’m tired from the flight. You go and I’ll see you later. Maybe for dinner, if you don’t have plans?’
I think about the chicken breasts that are defrosting on the kitchen side. If we put them in the fridge, they’ll be fine for tomorrow.
‘Dinner would be lovely,’ I say.
* * *
At Peter’s house, Rhys comes to the front door and we see that there’s another young man hovering behind him.
‘Hello again, Rhys. And you must be James,’ Dot says, not missing a beat. ‘I was hoping I’d get to meet you. I’m Dot.’
James is tall and dark, like his brother, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s wearing glasses I think I might have a job to tell them apart. Dot shakes his hand, and I know she’d prefer a hug, but she’ll watch for what his boundaries are.
‘I’m Mabel,’ I say, slipping my shoes off.
Just then, Maria appears, the cat in her arms. ‘Don’t bother taking your shoes off. Peter’s taking us all on a walk, if that’s all right with you two?’
‘Fine with me,’ Dot says, and I mutter agreement, slipping my shoes back on.
Autumn is coming, and there’s a chill in the air that wasn’t there a week or so ago. The walkers are Dot and me, Peter and Maria. The boys stayed at the house, but Maria says they’ll be joining us for lunch.
‘Where are we heading to?’ I ask.
‘I just wanted to show you around where I live a bit,’ Peter says. ‘I thought it might help, with getting to know each other.’
He points out where he works, where the boys went to Cubs and Scouts, where Maria’s book club meets.
It’s a nice town, and I watch as Dot drinks in all the information, committing it to memory.
He takes us to a park, and Dot says she’d love a sit down so we find a bench and Dot and I sit while Peter and Maria stand opposite, hand in hand.
‘I’ve got a good life,’ Peter says. ‘I suppose that’s what I wanted to show you. I’ve made a life that’s full and mostly happy. I have a family, and we’re not perfect but we’re close. And I’d like you to be a part of it, from now, if you want to. Both of you.’
I feel a bit teary and when I turn to look at Dot I see that she is biting her lip in the way she does when she’s trying not to cry.
‘Those boys,’ she says. ‘All grown up, and me, a stranger to them. I’ve missed so much.’
There’s no denying this, and I’m glad Peter doesn’t try. ‘You have, but we have photos and videos and you can get to know them now.’
‘I’d like that,’ Dot says.
We set off back to the house. Peter and Dot go ahead and I see him link his arm with hers and know what that touch will mean to her. Maria and I walk side by side, just behind.
‘How’s she been, Dot? Since they met?’
I mull this over. Dot’s been well. We’ve been busy wedding planning, and moving, so we haven’t talked about Peter perhaps as much as we might have done. But something’s lifted from her. I feel like her heart is mended.
‘When we met,’ I say, ‘there was a sadness in her. And now it’s gone, or going. I don’t mean she never gets sad. Everybody does, don’t they? But this was something different. It was like a shroud, covering her.’
Maria listens carefully. ‘I know just what you mean. Peter’s the same.
It’s like there was always a bit of him missing, and nothing could fill the gap.
Not me, not the boys. Finding out about his father, about what he did, that was so hard for him.
But the lightness that’s come from seeing his mother is the more powerful thing, overall. ’
‘Do you think she was right to tell him, about his father?’ I ask.
‘Yes. Because he’s always had a missing piece where his father should be, too. But now he knows he always will have, and it seems like he’s all right with that. Dot’s enough, to make him whole.’
I like the idea of that, of Dot and Peter making one another whole. I chew on it until we get back to the house.
The boys tell us that lunch is ready, and Dot says she can’t believe they’ve been slaving over a hot stove the whole time we’ve been out.
Maria laughs. ‘It’s been in the slow cooker. All they had to do was put the bread in the oven with ten minutes to go.’
We go through to the dining room, and I take a seat next to Dot while Peter and his family bring in the food and a jug of water and glasses.
‘Did you want wine?’ Peter asks. ‘I don’t drink but I’m sure we’ve got a bottle—’
‘No thank you,’ we say, in chorus.
The food is delicious, some kind of rich, beefy stew with vegetables and dumplings.
‘I feel like I’m feeding ten people, sometimes,’ Maria says, gesturing to Rhys and James, who’ve got huge portions.
‘I remember that from when my boys were this sort of age,’ Dot says. ‘Couldn’t keep them full. They’d devour whole loaves of bread and bags of apples and you couldn’t leave a bag of crisps in the cupboard for five minutes without it disappearing.’
‘How are John and William?’ Peter asks.
This is the first time they’ve come up, as far as I know, and I can see that Dot is trying to work out what to say. I imagine it’s about the fact that William’s children have been such a big part of her life while Peter’s are not.
‘Well, John is moving to the south of France with his girlfriend,’ she says.
‘And William lives in Portsmouth with his wife. They’ve got two children, but they’re not children now.
Both retired. John and William, that is, not the children.
Tasha, that’s the elder one, she’s having a baby.
And Sean’s the younger one, and he’s wonderful.
He’s been a good friend to me over the years. ’
‘I’d like to see them,’ Peter says.
And Dot recognises, as I do, that this is the perfect time to ask the question we want to ask them. She looks over and I nod enthusiastically.
‘Will you come to the wedding? Our wedding, that is. Mine and Mabel’s. It’s a week on Saturday, so I know it’s short notice. But we’d love to have you there. All of you.’
A smile comes across Peter’s face, and I see Maria watching him. She’s a good one, always checking in on him and making sure he’s doing okay. And he is.
‘That would be lovely,’ Peter says. ‘These boys will probably have to check their busy diaries but Maria and I will be there, won’t we?’
‘We will,’ Maria says.
‘I’m free,’ James says. And then Rhys chips in that he’s available too, and it’s all sorted.
The conversation moves on, after that, to a film James saw with his girlfriend and an online game Rhys is playing with a friend.
Dot and I are mostly quiet, though Peter tries to bring us in several times.
But it’s not a problem, being left out of the conversation.
It’s an opportunity to watch this family, how they interact.
Dot’s right about having missed a lot, and there’s nothing any of us can do to change that.
But she’s here, now, witnessing the life that Peter has lived, the choices he’s made. And I know how it will soothe her.