Chapter 5
If Terri’s day off coincides with one of Celia’s shop days, she often pops into the boutique to see her.
‘What the heck does he want that for?’ she asks, having arrived armed with what Celia thinks of as ‘luxury coffees’ (i.e.
takeaway coffees). On this somewhat slow-moving Monday morning, Celia is delighted to see her.
‘Honestly,’ she replies, ‘it’s a complete mystery to me.’ The pair are poring over pictures of the decrepit caravan that Celia took on her last visit there.
‘D’you think he’s still grieving, and this is his way of hanging on to a part of his dad?’ Terri suggests.
‘Maybe.’ Celia exhales. After all, only seven months have passed since her father-in-law passed away, and she’s aware that Geoff misses him deeply. ‘I’ve tried to broach it but got nowhere,’ she adds. ‘You know what he’s like. So stubborn and unwilling to discuss anything.’
Terri nods, continuing to scroll through the caravan pictures as Celia attends to customers.
Two friends, whom she would put at late sixties, are in search of outfits for a wedding.
‘How about this?’ Celia plucks an elegant dusky blue dress from the rail.
‘It’s lovely with this embroidered detail under the bustline…
’ Elegance is a ‘bustline’ kind of shop.
There is much trying on and debating, and happily a couple of purchases too.
Once they’ve gone, Celia perches next to her friend on the chaise longue and sips her coffee. Geoff’s frugality has seeped into Celia’s psyche over the years, and she regards a cafe-made Americano as a rare treat. ‘So, your favourite boy’s coming home on Friday,’ she says with a smile.
‘Logan? Already?’ Terri beams. She has always been extremely fond of Celia’s son.
‘Yep, exams are over so that’s him back for the summer.’
‘Can’t wait to see him,’ she enthuses. ‘Does he know you’ve been landed with that shitty old caravan?
’ A psychiatric nurse at a high security hospital, Terri is never one to mince words.
The day they moved into the flat below hers, she was at the door in a tight pink top and skinny jeans, welcoming them with a towering coconut cake.
Logan, who’d just turned four, was delighted.
However, Celia had caught Geoff’s slight lip curl at Terri’s short choppy blonde hair, dark roots showing, and the big gold hoop earrings and neon nails.
As soon as she’d gone, he had hurried to Chubb-lock the front door as if she might burst back in.
‘I hope she’s not going to make a habit of that,’ he had announced. I hope she is, Celia had thought.
‘No, I haven’t told him yet,’ she says. ‘He hates talking on the phone and I didn’t want to get into it all by text.’
‘Yeah, I get that.’ Still clutching Celia’s phone, Terri zooms in on an interior shot. ‘Y’know, we could transform this place. Give it a really deep clean – get right down to the bones of it…’
‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ Celia says briskly. ‘Honestly, I’m hoping he’ll just get rid of it.’
‘He won’t though, will he?’ Terri grimaces. ‘Be realistic.’
Another customer comes in and Celia jumps up, fixing on her bright and helpful shop-lady face. However, as she and the elderly woman discuss separates and fitted jackets, she is aware of Terri still scrolling and hatching a plan. The customer leaves, and Terri hands Celia her phone.
‘Right – I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,’ she announces. ‘We’re going to transform it into a proper little holiday home.’
‘What?’ Celia exclaims.
‘You and me – and Logan too, if he’ll help us.
I’ve got tons of fabric at home. I could make curtains, cushion covers, cheer the place up…
It’ll be unrecognisable by the time we’ve finished.
’ Celia is still struggling to picture it as anything other than a mouldering heap.
‘Wouldn’t that be great, to have a little place on the coast?
’ Terri goes on, dark eyes glinting. ‘I mean, we could use it. You and me – any time we’re free over the summer. ’
‘What – go away together, you mean?’ Celia brightens.
Having been flung into motherhood at nineteen, and gotten together with Geoff that same year, girls’ holidays have never felt like an option for her.
She skipped those typical friend-acquiring stages – the student flat-shares, the office gang – and her small cluster of school gate friends have long since scattered away.
As for the caravan, the thought of being trapped in it with Geoff has hardly been enticing to her.
But with Terri, and the place all spruced up? That’s a different matter.
‘D’you really think we could make it habitable?’ she asks.
‘Definitely. The thing is, you just have to see its potential.’ Terri plucks a pink fascinator from its stand and positions it on her head.
‘Gorgeous!’ Celia laughs.
She checks her reflection in the full-length mirror, affecting a pout. Sometimes Celia is reminded how lucky she is that Terri lives upstairs. Ten years older, and certainly wiser, she has always had her back. ‘So when can we start?’ her friend asks.
Celia considers this. ‘It’ll be a lot easier to tackle with Geoff out of the way.’
‘Definitely.’ Terri nods.
‘He’s heading up north for golf this weekend. They normally set off on a Friday night to get the whole day in…’
‘Saturday, then? I’m free.’
Celia finishes her coffee and smiles. ‘You really want to scrub out a disgusting caravan on your day off?’
Terri whips off the fascinator and places it back on its stand in the window. ‘Can’t wait to get my hands on it. What’s that thing your old friend does? That thing on morning TV?’
Celia chuckles. Although they have never met, Terri is aware of Amanda’s glittering career. ‘It’s a makeover thing. Look for a Lifestyle , it’s called…’
‘That’s what we’ll do, then. We’ll give the old heap a total makeover.
It won’t know what’s hit it.’ Then Celia leaves Terri to attend to a mother and her grown-up daughter who are bubbling with chatter about their forthcoming cruise, and the kind of outfits they’ll need to see them through it.
‘A holiday of a lifetime,’ Celia enthuses, aware that her affluent customers often have several ‘holidays of a lifetime’ every year.
Yet now Celia is also filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation. She certainly feels entirely differently about being gifted her father-in-law’s rank old mobile home.
With the prospect of weekends away with Terri, it could turn out to be pretty wonderful after all.