‘Cathy’s my grandmother,’ Olivia pointed out importantly.
Moira looked momentarily taken aback. ‘Yes, I suppose she is. How silly of me to forget. Now don’t tell her I told you, but she was a very naughty little girl, always getting into trouble.’
Olivia was agog. ‘Really? What kind of trouble?’
Moira waved a hand dismissively. ‘Oh, this and that. But I can tell that you are a very good little girl.’
‘I am,’ Olivia assured the older woman. ‘Even my new nanny, Kasia, says she’s never met anyone as good as me.’
‘Kasia, that’s an interesting name,’ Moira mused.
‘She’s from Poland,’ Olivia said with an informative air.
‘Ah, Poland. Our housemaid was Polish, too.’ Moira seemed to start at the memory. ‘Now what was her name again? I can’t believe I’ve forgotten. I can see her face as clear as day, but her name escapes me … I must ask Cathy when I see her. She’d remember.’
Olivia’s eyes widened. ‘Did you and Granny Cathy live together?’
‘Yes. In Paris. Cathy and me … and Joe.’
‘Who’s Joe?’
Laura winced at Olivia’s perfectly innocent question. She tried to catch her eye, to signal to her to talk about something else, but Olivia’s attention was firmly fixed on Moira.
‘Joe was my husband,’ Moira replied sadly. ‘He died before you were born.’
More often than not, Moira referred to Joe as though he were still alive and she expected him to walk in the door at any minute. She seemed exceptionally lucid today – other than mixing up breakfast with dinnertime.
‘How did he die?’
‘Olivia,’ Laura interjected. ‘Don’t be a nosy parker. You’ll upset Moira.’
‘It’s okay.’ Moira shrugged matter-of-factly. ‘The child is curious, and that’s understandable. He died of cancer, Olivia, which is a horrible disease. It was in his lungs, and so he had trouble breathing. He’s in heaven now, and he can draw lovely, deep breaths.’
‘How far up is heaven?’
‘I would say it’s where the sky ends and the universe starts.’
‘And is it inside or outside?’ Olivia was going off on another tangent, thank goodness.
‘Well, that’s an interesting question, I suppose it’s a bit of both.’
Laura roused herself to clear the table, while Moira and Olivia continued to chatter. Moira had barely spoken throughout Laura’s other visits, and it was wonderful to hear her so engaged, and just as wonderful to see the rapt expression on Olivia’s heart-shaped face. Laura scraped the plates clean, before sinking them into sudsy water. Rubbing the grease with the scouring pad and listening in on the conversation about heaven going on behind her back, she felt unusually serene. Overall, this had been a really lovely visit. For everyone. She resolved that she would bring Olivia to see Moira more often.
* * * * *
‘You’ve what?’ Mel exclaimed when she came home from work and Erin broke the news.
‘I’ve decided not to take the job at Macquarie,’ Erin repeated calmly from where she was sitting on the sofa.
‘But you told Jack that you would.’ Mel’s voice was so incredulous that it quivered.
‘No,’ Erin corrected her friend, ‘I told Jack I would call him once my paperwork was sorted out. I didn’t ever say that I was accepting the job.’
‘You implied it by omission,’ Mel argued, coming closer and looming over Erin in her seat.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mel.’
‘You’re the one who’s being ridiculous. You’re throwing away a perfectly good job here!’
‘It is a perfectly good job, but for someone else, not me,’ Erin tried to explain. ‘Every fibre of me is screaming in protest.’
‘At least one of your “fibres” must understand that Macquarie is one of the most elite schools in the city,’ Mel countered sarcastically, ‘and that it pays well – you know how rare that is for teaching. You’re mad, Erin, stark raving mad to turn this down.’
Erin hadn’t expected Mel to be this upset. Of course, she realised that Mel had been looking forward to them working together, but surely Mel could see that particular benefit was incidental to the job being right for Erin in the first place?
‘Sit down, Mel.’ Erin waved at the spot next to her on the cream sofa. ‘I can’t explain properly while you’re glowering at me like that.’
‘I don’t want to sit,’ Mel retorted, sounding a lot like one of the mutinous teenagers she taught at school. After a few moments, she relented and landed next to Erin with a flop.
Erin rewarded her cooperation with a slight smile. ‘Let’s start again. I’m not taking the job at Macquarie, and maybe I am mad, but that’s my decision, okay?’ She stared at Mel, who eventually nodded. ‘Now, you’ll be glad to hear that I have a plan. I’ve already been online and looked at some other jobs, ones that I’m genuinely interested in. There’s one in particular that I’m going to apply for.’
‘What is it?’ Mel enquired, still sounding very petulant.
‘It’s teaching English as a second language in an English and Settlement Services College.’
Mel frowned, clearly perplexed. ‘But it’s still teaching, isn’t it? I assumed, from the fact that you’re going to turn down a perfectly good job, that you wanted to get away from teaching?’
‘Not from teaching: from school. I want to get away from school,’ Erin clarified, but Mel still looked confused. ‘I hated school when I was a student, absolutely hated it, and I would have never taken that job in St Patrick’s if Dad hadn’t been so ill. With him having chemo and going in and out of hospital, I couldn’t pass up the flexibility of the shorter work days and the long summer holidays, and I consoled myself that I would get something else eventually, when the time was right. But I got stuck there. Me, who hated school, teaching in the same one for almost twelve years. When I went to Macquarie last week, I realised I can’t compromise myself like that again, no matter how good the job seems on paper.’
Mel’s expression had softened. She looked as though she was beginning to understand. ‘I didn’t realise you hated school so much. You’ve never said so before.’
Erin shrugged. ‘Well, I’m saying so now.’
‘But this job you want to apply for is in a college. Isn’t that splitting hairs?’
‘The college helps people settle in the country, find childcare and jobs and somewhere to live as well as ensuring that they have functional English,’ Erin elaborated, hearing her voice become animated. It seemed that simply reciting the job description was enough to make her feel excited. ‘I know I’d really enjoy those broader aspects of the role. And I’d be dealing with adults, Mel, not school kids. So there is a difference. In fact, a big difference.’
‘What if you don’t get it?’ Mel was playing devil’s advocate now. ‘You shouldn’t get your hopes up.’
‘I phoned the agency before you came in,’ Erin admitted with a sheepish grin. ‘The pay is lousy, the college is located in a particularly unattractive part