‘I’m so sorry,’ she was gabbling now. ‘My mother was supposed to come. Oh God. Erm. I’ll try and ring her. See where she is.’
‘I’d appreciate it if you did,’ said the secretary, not noted for her diplomatic skills, ‘I’m not paid to babysit your children.’
Cat put the phone down and said to Bev,‘I’m really sorry, this won’t take a minute, can you excuse me?’
Bev rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be long.’
Cat went into the corridor and punched in her mum’s number. She was shaking like a leaf. Suppose Mum was ill? Or had had a fall? She was normally fit and healthy, but Cat had to remind herself from time to time that her capable mother was now seventy-three. Something must have happened to prevent her from picking the children up. She never made mistakes like that.
On the third ring, her mother picked up. ‘Hello,’ she said.
‘Mum, are you okay?’
‘Well, of course I am,’ said Mum. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘I was worried about you,’ said Cat, trying to remain calm. ‘You haven’t picked the kids up from school.’
‘What?’said Mum.‘That was today? I thought you wanted me to do it tomorrow.’
‘No, Mum,’ sighed Cat, ‘I rang last night and said today.’
‘You said tomorrow,’ replied Mum tetchily.
‘I did?’ said Cat, convinced that she hadn’t got it wrong.
‘Yes, you definitely said it was tomorrow,’ said Mum. ‘I even wrote it down.’
‘Sorry, my mistake then,’ said Cat, trying to make light of it, but seething inside. She felt guilty about feeling so cross with Mum, who rarely let her down, but panic was making her agitated. ‘Can you get there now? The school are pretty frantic and I’m stuck in a meeting.’
‘I’ll be there in ten minutes,’ her mother promised.
Cat rang back the school, mollified the secretary, and went back to her meeting with relief. It was hard enough juggling work and home commitments without disasters like that befalling her. Thank goodness it was so rare, otherwise she’d really be in trouble.
‘Glad to see you’re more cheerful.’ Pippa walked into Gabriel’s kitchen pushing Lucy’s buggy, followed by Stephen and her two boys, Nathan and George. She’d offered to return his favour from the morning and pick the kids up from school. Gabriel had accepted gratefully as he’d spent the morning fence-mending and had got seriously behind on his domestic chores.
Gabriel paused from whistling ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ and realised with a jolt that since his meeting with Ralph Nicholas that morning he had been feeling a lot more chipper. He’d gone to work with a will and being out in the fresh frosty air had invigorated him. Even coming back to an untidy, silent house hadn’t caused him as much internal wrestling as it normally did. He’d got down to tracking down the socks that always mysteriously vanished under Stephen’s bed with an enthusiasm he hadn’t felt for ages. Maybe Ralph was right. He just needed to focus on the stuff he could do.
‘Good day at school?’ he asked his son, who nodded his assent before running off to watch TV with his cousins.
‘Cup of tea?’ he asked his cousin. ‘You look tuckered out.’
‘I am a bit,’ said Pippa. ‘Lucy’s a lot better now, but we did have a bad night with her.’
‘I don’t know how you cope with three of them,’ said Gabriel.
‘Well, what else am I going to do?’ said Pippa laughing. ‘Slit my wrists? By the way, have you seen this?’
She shoved a leaflet in his hand.
STOP POST OFFICE CLOSURES NOW!!
SAVE OUR VILLAGE!! PUBLIC MEETING THURSDAY 7.30pm
‘Oh, that’s what he was talking about,’ exclaimed Gabriel.
‘Who?’
‘Ralph Nicholas,’ he replied. ‘I met him this morning and he was wittering on that I should try and do something about the things I can do something about, not get hung up on trying to help Eve.’
‘He’s right,’ said Pippa. ‘I’m going to the meeting. Poor old Vera’s beside herself. They want to close her down and move the postal services to Ludlow.’
‘But that will be a disaster,’ said Gabriel. ‘How will people get there? There’s only one bus a day.’
‘Exactly. You should have heard Miss Woods going on about it today. They could probably hear her in Ludlow.’
Gabriel laughed. Pippa was such good company. It did him good to be around her.
‘So, what do you think? I could get Mum to come and babysit for my lot and Stephen could stay over if you like?’
‘We-ell…’
‘Oh, come on, Gabe, it’s hardly like you’ve got a busy hectic social calendar now, is it?’ teased his cousin. ‘You need to get stuck into something else for a change. It’d help take you out of yourself. Plus it is important. Just think how this place will change without its post office.’
Gabriel stared out of his kitchen window at the bird table Eve had been insistent they’d bought. It had started off, like so many of her interests, as a burning enthusiasm and she went out every day for several weeks to show Stephen the different varieties of birds that were attracted to the garden. But, after a while, she lost interest, and though Gabriel still left food out, it was as if the birds knew she wasn’t there any longer. Apart from a lone robin who was pecking at some crumbs, very few of them now came to the garden. But it was time he stopped dwelling on stuff like this and got on with the business of living. Ralph and Pippa were both right. He needed an outside interest.
‘Okay,’ he said, ‘you’ve twisted my arm. Where do I need to go?’
‘Noel, you haven’t forgotten your mum’s coming on Sunday, have you?’ Catherine said before yelling up the stairs to Mel: ‘I haven’t finished talking to you, young lady!’
Noel walked in on Wednesday evening to the usual chaos. The little ones were arguing over the DVD control, Magda was sobbing hysterically in the corner because Sergei had ditched her—again—James was hardwired into his Playstation and looked like he wasn’t going anywhere any day soon, and, as Noel opened the door, he’d heard the telltale thumping of feet on the stairs and slamming of a bedroom door that indicated that Mel was in another of her moods. Though, as Cat often said to him, when wasn’t she these days? He couldn’t remember the advent of going to secondary school causing the amount of trauma it was evidently causing his eldest but, as his wife frequently pointed out to him, It’s Different Now.
‘Yes, I had actually. Damn, can’t we put her off ?’
Cat gave him a withering look.
‘You know we can’t. I’ve been making excuses to her since Christmas.’
‘Oh, bugger,’ grumbled Noel.
‘It would be nice if you talked to her for once in a while,’ said Cat. ‘She is your mother, not mine.’
‘Yeah, well, you got the lucky straw in that department,’ said Noel, unknotting his tie. ‘I’d trade Granny Dreamboat for Granny Nightmare any day of the week.’
‘Hmm.I’m not so sure of that,’said Cat.‘Granny Dreamboat didn’t pick up the children from school today.’
‘You’re