Waiting for Lindsay E-Book

Moira Forsyth

• Herausgeber: Sandstone Press
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

All afternoon the voices called, the two syllables of her name singing through the woods, down the steep garden, and across the sands to the sea.On a hot July day, thirteen year old Lindsay Mathieson walked along the shore, past the rocks and out of sight. For ever. Thirty years later, a new crisis draws her family back to that familiar beach, and to memories too long buried.

Leseprobe

Moira Forsyth

Also by Moira Forsyth

David’s Sisters

Tell Me Where You Are

The Treacle Well

Published in Great Britain by

Sandstone Press Ltd

Willow House

Stoneyfield Business Park

Inverness

IV2 7PA

Scotland

www.sandstonepress.com

This edition published by Sandstone Press 2020

First published by Hodder and Stoughton 1999

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored or transmitted in any form without the express 

written permission of the publisher.

Copyright © Moira Forsyth 1999, 2019

The moral right of Moira Forsyth to be recognised as the 

author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the 

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-912240-95-1

ISBNe: 978-1-910124-20-8

Cover design by Antigone Konstantinidou

Contents

The Past: Thirty-four years back – Lindsay

WINTER

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

The Past: Five years back – Annie

SPRING

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

The Past: Ten years back – Jamie

SUMMER

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

The Past: Thirty-four years back – The Beach

The Past

All afternoon the voices called, the two syllables of her name singing through the woods, down the steep garden, and across the sands to the sea. All afternoon, and then through the long bright evening, they searched, and did not find her.

At ten, Christine made the children go to bed. They lay awake, whispering across the landing to each other, listening to anxious talk, the banging of doors, cars on the drive labouring in first gear, more voices outside. Jamie fell asleep, but the others got up and stood at the top of the stairs. All the lights were on; the house was bright as Christmas. Outside the pale midsummer sky was dimmed and the moon rode high, as if searching too, casting her light across the width of the Black Isle, looking for Lindsay.

Jamie woke, and called for his mother. He had a pain in his stomach. His Aunt Christine came upstairs; she was the one left in the house to watch the other children.

‘Have you found her yet?’ they asked, as she tried to shoo them back to bed.

‘Not yet,’ she said, going in to Jamie, who was wailing, Mummy, Mummy!

‘Your mummy’s looking for Lindsay,’ they heard her say. ‘She’ll be back soon.’ She held Jamie in her arms, rocking him. He tucked his thumb in his mouth and was quiet.

They all stood in the doorway, watching.

‘He was asking for his mummy,’ Annie said. ‘He’s wanting Auntie Liz.’

‘Go to bed,’ her mother scolded wearily. ‘You should all be in bed.’

‘Will you wake us when you find her?’ they demanded.

‘Yes, of course we will.’ She nodded at Annie. ‘I’ll come and tuck you in when Jamie goes off to sleep.’

Annie’s bed was cold now and her cousin Lindsay’s, next to it, was empty, her felt rabbit flopped where she had left him this morning, next to her pyjamas. Annie got out of bed again to fetch the rabbit and take him in with her. He lay next to her bear, and Louie, the rag doll.

Perhaps she fell asleep before her mother came in. But till the moment she took the rabbit into bed with her, it all remained clear in her memory. On midsummer nights she could recall it vividly, and did, thinking again of the day Lindsay left.

‘Left’ was the word Annie used, though everyone else referred to her ‘disappearance’. But a child, a girl of thirteen, cannot vanish like a bubble, a puff of smoke. Even at six, Annie knew that. Her cousin Jamie, for months afterwards, had a story about his big sister Lindsay being ‘magicked’ away, as if by a wizard, a spell. Perhaps some misguided adult had suggested this to him; Annie did not know. He grew out of it, anyway.

She had always known Lindsay inhabited the real world, not some fairy tale. Lindsay was solid, substantial, and even Annie’s memories of her had a vitality no story ever acquired. She remembered her cousin’s ringing voice, her long brown arms and legs, dusted with blonde down, and her hair reaching almost to her waist, thick and fair. When she closed her eyes, she could see Lindsay banging her sneakers against the lintel of the back door to empty the sand out, and picture her racing down the steep garden path, faster than anyone else, yelling Last one on the beach is a hairy kipper! It was always Jamie who was last and he always cried. Then Lindsay would scoop him up and swing him round till he laughed again.

It was not possible that someone so vigorous and beautiful could be spirited away by mere magic. That was why, Annie knew, they went on looking for her so long. She must be somewhere, they must be able to find her.

And yet, however loud and long they called, however far and deeply they searched, they did not find her. Lindsay did not see, or hear, or answer them. When the children woke in the morning, remembering some strange thing had occurred in their world, and then what it was, they went downstairs together, all four, Tom and Alistair first, the little ones behind. In the kitchen their parents, Mrs Macintyre from the post office, and Hamish who worked in the shop with Stuart, Lindsay and Tom and Jamie’s dad, were all sitting round the table. They were white and tired, and the air was clouded with cigarette smoke. ‘Have you found her yet?’ they asked. ‘Is she back?’

Outside the sun moved up the blue sky and far out in the firth porpoises dived and played. A few early holiday-makers strolled past the tennis courts and down on to the beach. In the kitchen of the High House, Liz Mathieson rose from her chair, unhooked her cardigan from the back, and leaving the others in the kitchen, walked out of the back door. She stood at the top of the steep path that zigzagged through the garden to the gate among the blackcurrant bushes at the bottom, that opened on to the track to the beach. She often stood there, watching the sunshine climb the garden slowly, the children scrambling up it fast. Beyond the bushes lining the path, the shining sea rolled to and fro, swaying gently up on to the sand and retreating again.

In a few minutes she must go back indoors so that they could begin looking again, in daylight this time, for her daughter. Absently, she stretched out a hand and rubbed a few leaves from the lemon balm bush by the living-room window. She raised her fingers to her face, and breathed in the sharp citrus scent. Just this moment, she thought, that’s all I have, perhaps, for ever and ever, that will not be filled with pain. She was light-headed with lack of sleep, with something so terrifying it could no longer be called mere worry, or fear. The scent of lemon, the shining sea, the leaves of the silver birches quivering, catching the light: all these she held, not wanting the moment to change.

Someone called; she turned and went back indoors. Sunshine lay across the big table where her boys were seated, oddly silent. Her sister Christine sat keeping her own children close, Alistair leaning on her shoulder, Annie on her lap. Stuart was talking on the telephone; the police would be here again in half an hour. They fed the children, who, like the adults, did not want to eat. All the time, unable to help themselves, they told each other there was some mistake, some misunderstanding. Anyway, they would find her today, or she would come back.

‘It’s just not like her,’ Stuart kept saying, ‘to wander off without telling anyone.’

‘Not all night,’ Christine said. ‘Not all night.’

The children were going down to look along the beach.

‘Stay together,’ their mothers said. ‘Look after the little ones.’ They felt helpless: should they keep the children with them or not? But they had spent all the summers of their lives on this safe familiar shore.

‘We’ll call you,’ they said. ‘Don’t go past the rocks. Come back when we call.’

And they all trooped back as soon as they were called. All except Lindsay. They went on calling for her down the days and weeks and years to come, till there was no point in calling any longer. She did not hear them; she did not come back.

1

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ Annie said. ‘After Christmas is over, everything seems so bleak.’ She opened the cupboard in the alcove next to the fireplace. ‘What about a drink? You haven’t had your New Year.’

‘Aye, sure.’ Tom came over to look at what was left from Hogmanay. One thing about coming to stay with Annie and Graham – they always had a grand selection of drink. He chose his malt and Annie had the same.

‘Canny there. I’ve still got to drive over to Jamie’s later.’

‘Oh, is that too much? Usually Graham does the drinks. Pour some back if you like.’

‘No, I won’t go that far, thanks.’ He took his glass and sat down again. Annie moved around the room switching on lamps, and the suburban street, fading in winter dusk, vanished behind their reflections in the bay window. Then she sat down, curling her legs beneath her in the big chair. Tom was sprawled on the sofa, growing sleepy with the heat of the room and the early whisky. He roused himself, realising Annie had asked him a question.

‘What?’

‘You’re in Aberdeen to talk to Jamie about the shop?’

‘Yes – that’s it. To see you as well, of course.’

‘Oh, of course.’ She smiled. ‘Uncle Stuart’s agreed then – he’s OK about selling it now?’

‘I don’t know about agreed . . . but yes, he’s going along with it.’

‘He’ll miss the place, though, won’t he? He’s still there quite a lot, when you’re teaching.’

‘He doesn’t do any dealing now. I’ve been handling the antiquarian side, mail order and so on, for years,’ Tom said. ‘I think that’s why it’s difficult to get him to see there’s no future in it. He imagines we can just tootle along indefinitely. But we can’t.’

‘But that’s what you’ve been doing,’ Annie pointed out. ‘Why does it have to end now? Are you fed up with it?’ Tom didn’t answer this. ‘You could do with a change, maybe,’ she prompted.

‘Aye, I could do with that, certainly.’

‘But you won’t leave the High House – you’ll go on living there?’ Of course he would – impossible to imagine Tom anywhere else. But for a moment, Tom didn’t answer.

‘I hadn’t thought about that,’ he said at last. ‘But the shop’s actually losing money now. That’s the point.’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘And Jamie’s joint owner, since Dad handed over to us, so I need to discuss it with him.’

‘I know.’

‘Don’t worry,’ he said, smiling. ‘One change at a time is enough for me.’

‘It’s a wonder we don’t hate the place,’ Annie said, ‘after all that happened. Especially you and Jamie. But you don’t, do you? I still feel sort of tied to it myself.’

She was thinking of Lindsay, and of his mother’s death, a few years later. But Tom did not talk about these things, even for Annie.

‘When’s Graham home?’ he asked, hoping to deflect her.

‘First day of term,’ Annie said, ‘so he might be late.’

‘So we can get another drink in?’

‘D’you want one? I thought you were driving?’

‘I am. Only kidding. Tempted by this wonderful malt.’ He leaned back and closed his eyes. ‘It’s warm in here. This is a very relaxing room.’

‘Is it?’ Annie looked round, trying to see it afresh. It was too familiar: all she saw was that the life in it came from Tom being there, the pile of books slipping sideways at his feet, the crumpled newspaper he’d been reading, his navy sweater slung over the back of the sofa.

Tom opened his eyes. ‘Where did you say Alistair was – not at home for Christmas?’

‘Munich. Business, then he stayed with people he knows there. But he’s away somewhere else now, I think. What an exotic life he leads,’ she wondered, ‘so unlike the rest of us.’

‘Alistair was never like the rest of us,’ Tom said.

‘I know. Anyone would think you and Jamie were my brothers, not him.’

They contemplated this in silence for a moment and Tom finished his whisky. He grew drowsy, the room floated, and Annie’s voice droned softly on. Mm, he said, and You’re right, or Did he? Christmas, her parents, Graham’s bad temper over something that happened at Hogmanay, all the family trivia she gathered and stored, and relayed to him each time he came.

Somewhere, a bell rang.

‘That’s the door!’ Annie exclaimed. ‘Who on earth—’ Tom stirred to wakefulness as she got up. ‘Probably someone selling something,’ she said. ‘Back in a minute.’

She was gone for several minutes, but no one seemed to come in. He got up and poured himself another large dram, having forgotten about driving to Jamie’s. Jehovah’s Witnesses, he thought, sitting down again. Annie always made the mistake of feeling sorry for them. She’d be there for ages. Maybe he should call out, rescue her. Then suddenly she was back in the room. Her face was flushed and she carried with her a rush of fresh air, something new.

‘What is it?’

‘Tom – it’s Rob. He’s here – by himself.’

‘Who?’

‘Oh, Tom, for God’s sake – Rob – Alistair’s boy.’

‘What?’

He could see she was excited: she loved the unexpected.

‘What – is Alistair here?’

‘No, that’s what I’m saying. He’s on his own. He came by himself – I’ve put him in the kitchen.’

‘The kitchen? Are his shoes dirty or something?’

‘Don’t be daft. I asked if he wanted something to eat and he said yes. He says he’s had nothing since yesterday – imagine that, Tom.’

‘Annie—’

‘He’s been hitching lifts.’

‘I don’t follow this – where’s his mother – he lives with his mother, doesn’t he?’

‘Well, yes, Sussex – no, Surrey, not Sussex. I’d have to look up the address on my Christmas list. But anyway, I keep telling you, he’s come on his own. I don’t think – I have the feeling no one knows he’s here.’

‘But he’s just a wee boy, isn’t he?’

‘About fifteen, sixteen – it’s hard to tell. With that hair and everything.’

Tom was startled. ‘Is he that old? I thought he was only about eleven.’

‘Oh no. Older than that.’ Each contemplated, silently, the oddness of not knowing Rob’s age. Then Annie turned away, going out of the room. ‘I have to admit I didn’t recognise him myself – at first.’ She paused by the door. ‘Come through – I have to feed him. Whatever else.’

Tom followed her into the kitchen.

On a revolving stool, spinning slowly, was a boy in a denim jacket covered in badges, and jeans torn at the knee. His hair was cut brutally short and adolescence had enlarged and coarsened features that might once have made him an attractive child. Tom did not recognise him at all. But then, he couldn’t remember seeing him since Alistair and Shona were still living together, and that must be more than ten years ago.

Annie was slicing bread.

‘Will a sandwich do just now?’ she asked. ‘I’ve a casserole for later, but it’s not in the oven yet.’

‘Yuh. OK.’ This was little more than a grunt, ungracious. Even so, it was clearly a South of England grunt. Good grief, thought Tom, surprised, he’s English.

‘Hello, there. Don’t suppose you remember me.’

‘Yuh.’ The boy nodded. ‘She said. You’re Tom.’

‘Right.’

‘Tuna or cheese?’ Annie asked briskly, opening the fridge door.

Rob shrugged. ‘Don’ mind.’

‘Mayonnaise?’

‘Yeah. Ta.’

Tom sat down at the table. A vase of pink carnations was in the centre, shedding flakes of petal on the pine surface.

‘Any chance of a cup of tea, Annie? Or coffee. Something.’ Even for him, it was a bit early in the day for so much alcohol. Annie put a plate of sandwiches down in front of the boy and went to fill the kettle.

‘Well then,’ Tom said, looking at Rob. He had begun to eat, very fast.

‘Tea or coffee?’ Annie offered.

‘Got any Coke?’ Rob asked, his mouth full.

‘Oh – I don’t know.’ She opened a cupboard and stared doubtfully at the contents. ‘I think there’s some lemonade here, left over from Hogmanay.’

It was flat.

‘Milk?’ she suggested.

‘I’ll have tea. Tea’s OK. Two sugars.’

‘Oh. Right. Sugar.’ She began to hunt again and eventually found some caked hard in a little china bowl that was familiar to Tom. Perhaps it had been his grandmother’s. Annie had a lot of her things.

The hot tea, and some of Annie’s Christmas cake, steadied Tom.

The boy did not touch the cake, but he ate two chocolate biscuits. It was difficult to ask him anything while he was eating so much and so fast, but Annie tried.

‘Maybe you’d like to ring your mother?’ Annie suggested. ‘Let her know you’re OK. Or your dad?’

‘They’re in Tenerife.’

‘What – Alistair?’ This didn’t seem credible.

‘No, not Dad. Mum and Ken.’

‘Ken,’ she said. ‘Is that—’

‘Me step-dad.’

‘What – they left you on your own?’

‘Na. Had the dog, din’ I?’

‘Did you?’ Annie echoed. Tom could tell what was going to worry Annie, so he leaned towards Rob and said, ‘What have you done with the dog?’

‘Giv ‘im to me mate, din’ I?’

‘Did you?’ This was ridiculous. Annie would have to phone Alistair. Or he would. Just as soon as his head cleared. You needed a clear head to speak to Alistair.

The boy got to his feet.

‘I use the toilet?’

‘Yes, sure, there’s one just on the right.’ She got up and opened the kitchen door to show him. Tom got up too and shut the door behind Rob.

‘Annie,’ he said, ‘you’ll have to get in touch with Alistair. Now.’

‘I’ve just remembered – he’s in New York. He said when he phoned last week. His office’ll have a number, I suppose. But he couldn’t do anything – just worry.’ She saw Tom’s eyebrows rise. ‘Oh, he would, Tom. Anyway – better wait till he gets back.’

She began to clear the table and Tom could tell from the vigour with which she wiped up crumbs that she was annoyed.

‘Annie—’

‘What on earth was Shona thinking about – leaving a boy that age on his own?’

‘He had the dog.’

‘It’s not funny.’ She shook her cloth into the sink and ran it under the hot tap.

‘Well, look at it this way,’ Tom suggested. ‘He’s here, he’s safe, and you can easily put him up for a few days till Alistair gets back. Then he’s his responsibility.’

‘Oh, I know that.’ Annie sat down opposite Tom at the table.

‘It’s just—’

‘What?’

Annie had wiped up flower petals along with the crumbs, but more were falling. She pushed them together in a little heap with one finger.

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why has he come here?’

‘Why not? You’re family. All his family’s up here, apart from his bloody useless parents.’

Annie let this pass, in the interests of pursuing her own train of thought.

‘None of us has seen him for years – since that awful Christmas after the divorce, when Alistair was in such a state, demanding his rightful access, making sure Shona didn’t have Robbie for a minute more than she was entitled to. He was such a bonny wee boy, too.’

‘Now, presumably because he’s big and spotty instead of blond and angelic, neither of them wants him.’

‘Ssh!’ Annie glanced towards the kitchen door. ‘He’s a long time, isn’t he? D’you think?’

‘Shooting up,’ Tom suggested. ‘Isn’t that what it’s called?’

‘What – drugs?’

‘Och, don’t be daft. I’m only joking. Constipation, more likely, if he hasn’t been eating properly.’

They heard the cloakroom lavatory flush and the door opening and closing. Rob came back into the kitchen.

‘Right then,’ Tom said, getting to his feet. He was taller than Rob, but only just, and the boy was probably still growing. ‘I’d better go. Jamie and Ruth are expecting me about half five, and I’ll need to walk after all that whisky.’

‘Oh.’ Annie looked disappointed. ‘I’d forgotten you were going there to eat. But you’re coming back, aren’t you, to sleep here?’

‘Well – I’d intended to, but – I mean, I’d eat here too, but Ruth asked me—’

‘No, it’s OK. Wouldn’t be enough food anyway now.’ She got up too. Tom nodded at Rob.

‘OK – see you again. Have a chat with Annie.’

Out in the street, walking past his own car and Annie’s little white hatchback, Tom felt as if he’d abandoned them both, aunt and nephew. But it would be good for Annie to deal with Rob on her own. She hadn’t enough to do – that was the trouble. Pity, he thought, as he so often did, she hasn’t got her own kids. He tucked his hands into the pockets of his long black coat, hunting for the leather gloves he kept there. It was cold, the sky starry, the air tingling with frost. He tried to think about the shop, about what he was going to do. That was what he’d come to discuss with Jamie. They had to sort something out. He did not want to think about children at all, longed-for and unconceived like Annie’s, or present and unwanted, like Rob.

2

Once, Annie and Graham had loved each other completely. Annie knew that was true.

‘I love you,’ she had told him on their wedding night, ‘more than anything or anyone else in the world. I love you so much.’ And he had lain with his arms round her, his mouth on one breast, tugging the nipple.

‘You’re a grand girl, Annie,’ he had said, his mouth full of young milkless breast.

Maybe, she thought, years later, when she had too much time to think, that was the best moment of all. A moment of letting go. Annie wondered a lot about her marriage, as she did about everything else in the years after she stopped teaching. But all this wondering wasn’t quite enough to fill the days. She seemed to wade through a lot of empty time. Rob’s sudden arrival had shocked and worried her, but it pleased her too. She bustled round him.

When Graham came home he could hear the television from the hall, where usually there was quiet, except for the sounds from the kitchen of Annie cooking, and the mild drone of Radio 4. Often, he was so late even these sounds had ceased, and the smell of his dinner drifted through a silent house. Annie would be in her chair in the bay window, the cat on her lap, or the dog at her feet, dreaming. The sight of her like this always roused in him a faint irritation. Had he been the one with all day to himself, he’d at least have listened to music in this empty waiting time, or have found a job for himself. He didn’t know how she could just sit there, doing nothing.

He stood for a moment listening, puzzled, to canned laughter, American voices. Then he pushed open the living-room door.

A boy with cropped hair was stretched on the sofa, his feet in grubby trainers propped on one arm, his head supported against the other by three cushions. The television absorbed him, the noise cutting him off from Graham’s entrance.

‘What the – who the hell are you?’

The boy jerked round, his feet landed on the floor and he stood up.

‘Rob,’ he said. ‘I’m Rob.’

Annie was in the doorway. ‘Graham, it’s Alistair’s boy.’

Graham readjusted several thoughts at once.

‘Is Alistair here then?’

‘No.’

‘He’s in New York,’ the boy offered.

‘And his mother’s abroad too,’ Annie added. ‘He’s come on his own.’ She turned to Rob.

‘Food’s nearly ready. I’ll give you a shout.’ She made for the kitchen, the briskness of her walk indicating that Graham should follow.

In the kitchen the American voices faded. The table was set for three.

‘What’s going on?’

‘He just turned up, when Tom was here in the afternoon. They left him on his own, Graham. Shona and her fancy man. Well I think he’s her husband now. Something’s upset him – he hitchhiked all this way.’

‘I don’t even recognise him,’ Graham said, bewildered, belligerent. ‘He could be anybody, for me. How old is he?’

‘Fifteen, sixteen.’ Annie waved a hand vaguely. ‘Something like that.’

‘You’d better ring Alistair.’

‘He’s in New York.’

‘Well, ring him in bloody New York then.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake – what could Alistair do? We’ll just have to keep him here till one of his parents is home. That’s all.’

‘Well, he can get those godawful trainers off for a start,’ Graham said, heading out of the kitchen. ‘I suppose that’s the way he behaves at home – Shona always was a slut.’

‘Graham!’

Annie sighed and went to prod the potatoes. She was just too late: they were turning to mush in the pan. Quickly she drained them and began to mash, the fork sinking into soft white, the knob of butter melting greasily golden, then disappearing. She turned them into a serving dish, marked the surface with a fork and put them in the bottom of the oven. As she shut the oven door and stood up she was giddy and had to steady herself, clutching the back of a chair till the moment passed and her vision cleared. Shouldn’t have had a drink in the afternoon, she thought, aching now, and weary.

Graham reappeared. He seemed more cheerful.

‘Right,’ he said, ‘that’s sorted him out.’

‘You weren’t unkind to him, were you?’

‘Unkind?’ Graham echoed, trying out the word as if he’d never heard it before. ‘Annie, he’s an adolescent. They all have hides like leather. Believe me.’

‘Oh well,’ she said, putting the warmed plates on the table, straightening cutlery, ‘you would know.’ She put on oven gloves and waved her linked mittened hands at Graham. ‘Tell him to come through then. It’s ready.’

Graham stood at the kitchen door and bawled, ‘Grub’s up!’

Annie flinched.

‘I could have done that myself,’ she said. ‘I meant you to go and fetch him. He’s got the television on.’

‘It’s OK, I made him turn it down. They’re all deaf as well, kids. Too many discos.’

But Rob appeared almost at once.

‘You’d better wash your hands,’ Annie said. ‘Here, use this towel.’

‘’S OK.’ Rob looked at the table and sat down on the chair nearest him. Graham, annoyed, almost said, That’s where I sit, then decided this was petty and moved round to the side, to the unaccustomed third place, where his bulk was in Annie’s way as she dished up the meal.

Rob ate fast, shovelling food, finished long before either of the others. In the pauses between increasingly stilted scraps of conversation, Annie was conscious of the noises of chewing and swallowing. Desperately, she cast around for things to talk about. Rob was monosyllabic, his responses a series of grunts. She gave up and gathered empty plates.

‘I’m not finished,’ Graham said, helping himself to the last of the casserole. He was a slow eater; it had often irritated her to watch him laboriously clear his plate while she, setting a good example to the children she’d never had, waited for him.

Rob kept glancing at his watch.

‘OK if I watch the telly?’

‘What? Oh yes. I was going to make coffee. And there’s cheese and biscuits or fruit.’

‘No thanks. Had all them sandwiches.’

‘So you did.’ Helplessly, she watched him scrape his chair back, wipe his hands down the side of his jeans and leave the room.

‘Well.’ Graham leaned back in his chair.

‘Well what?’ With a clatter, Annie heaped plates and stacked the dishwasher.

‘We’re stuck with him, I take it.’

‘Look, he came to us. That must mean something.’ Graham was picking shreds of meat from between his teeth with a probing fingernail. Abruptly, Annie turned away and ran water into the sink to soak the empty casserole dish. She longed for Tom to come back.

When he did, bringing the smell of cold January air, a whiff of some larger, fresher world, Graham was still scornful, Annie still cross. They sat round the kitchen table, while from the living room came the roar of excited laughter and the blare of cymbals and trumpets celebrating each round in a game show.

‘I think they watch TV a lot at that age,’ Annie said.

‘Certainly,’ Graham agreed. ‘But they don’t all walk into strangers’ houses to do it.’

‘We’re not strangers,’ Annie protested. ‘We’re his family.’

‘Then he should treat us with more respect.’

‘Oh shut up,’ Annie sighed. ‘You must be so popular with your pupils.’

‘What the hell’s my job got to do with it?’

‘Just a minute—’ Tom broke in. They were working up to a row here. They both turned to him at once. Unnerved, he raised his hands, as if to fend them off. ‘He’s only a kid. I mean, Annie’s right, of course, he’s family. But we don’t know him. He doesn’t know us.’

‘Well, now’s our opportunity.’

‘Annie, what d’you think Alistair’s going to do when he gets back? He’ll be up here like a shot, dragging the lad home, scoring points off Shona as he goes.’

‘Right, it’s their problem,’ Graham said, ‘not ours.’

‘I don’t think Alistair wants him either,’ Annie said. ‘Cramp his international style, having a child in tow. Weekends, the odd holiday – that’s about it.’ She folded her arms. ‘If he cared, wouldn’t he have brought him here sometimes, to meet his family?’

Before either man could answer, the kitchen door opened and Rob came in.

‘Sorry,’ he said, backing away again as they turned in unison to look at him. ‘Sorry,’ he said again. ‘I just…’

‘Come in,’ Annie said. ‘Can I get you anything? Is the programme finished?’

‘Yeah. I just wondered – could I get a bath or something?’

Annie got up at once. ‘Yes, of course. Come on, I’ll show you where everything is.’

The men sat on without speaking, listening to the water draining from the tank, Annie opening and shutting cupboard doors upstairs.

‘You want a drink, Tom?’

‘No, I’ll get back to Jamie’s. Ruth said they’d put me up.’

‘I thought you were staying here?’

‘Well that was the original plan, but Annie’s going to need a room for Rob.’

‘She can make up another bed, for God’s sake.’ Graham reddened. ‘Sorry. Please yourself, Tom.’

‘It’s OK.’ Tom hesitated. ‘Yes, right. I’ll have a drink. We all need a drink.’

When Annie came downstairs they were in the living room, and the bottle of malt was on the coffee table.

‘He’s having a bath,’ she said. ‘I’ve made up the bed in the little spare.’

‘Tom said Ruth was giving him a bed.’

‘Oh Tom—’

‘It’s all right. I’ll stay if you want me to.’

‘I do.’ She heaved a sigh and pushed her hands through her hair so that the curls sprang back loose and untidy. ‘It’s upset me,’ she said. ‘Rob turning up like this. I don’t know why.’

‘It’s upset all of us,’ Tom assured her. ‘When I told Jamie—’

‘Why on earth should it bother him?’ Graham asked.

‘The same reason it bothers me,’ Annie said. ‘Because nobody seems to care about Rob. And yet he’s part of our family. It’s all wrong.’

‘Have you asked him?’ Graham broke in. ‘Asked him why he’s turned up here? Has he run away, or does he think he’ll have a wee holiday – what? I mean, he must be due back at school. Even if they broke up later than we did, he must be—’

‘Yes, yes.’ Annie waved a hand at him. ‘I know all that. But I haven’t asked. I thought he’d tell us, when he’d settled in a bit. I thought tomorrow, when you’d both gone, I’d have a chat with him.’

She pictured herself sitting opposite Rob at the breakfast table, Graham off to work, Tom driving north again. Thinking of this made her feel different, more responsible. Was this what having your own children was like? Did they push you on a generation, make you adult, by their very existence? But she was adult, sensible, reliable. She was all those grown-up things.

She had imagined herself with babies. In the early years of marriage, while she was still teaching full time but seeing it as a temporary thing, a way of saving money for a better house, a family house, she imagined babies. When she held a friend’s baby on her lap, solid and warm, felt plump arms whose skin was tight with newness, she had thought, I’ll have babies soon. She had a list of names, she made decisions about prams and cots and where the baby would sleep. The first one would be a boy. They would have two sons, then a daughter. It was all there, planned, in her mind. Later, during years of repeated hopes and disappointments, these imaginary babies grew and changed. It was children she missed having now. Her friends had children: they met them from playgroup or school, took them to Brownies and Cubs, taught them to swim, bought bikes, complained about the cost of bringing them up.

They bought a family house, and eventually Annie gave up teaching. This idea came from counselling sessions Annie had been having, but Graham encouraged her to do it, saying she should relax more.

‘Teaching wears you out,’ he said. Underneath was the still-living hope: then you’ll get pregnant, then it will work. But it had not.

Now there was this cuckoo, a gauche unattractive boy who was not theirs and never could be. He had simply landed, and might just as simply and suddenly take off again. No wonder Graham was annoyed, no wonder Annie was upset.

Rob did not reappear.

‘He’s got one of those things,’ Annie explained. ‘You know – a Walkman. He was listening to it in the bath. Do you think that’s safe enough?’

No one answered her. Graham put on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which Annie hated. After a few moments, she got up and turned down the sound. She could feel Graham’s resentment, but ignored it.

Tom said, ‘I’ll ring Ruth,’ and went into the kitchen to use the phone there. He seemed to be gone a long time.

‘Sorry,’ he said, when he came back. ‘Jamie wanted to talk about the shop again. He was expecting me back tonight. He wanted to come over, but—’

‘But what? It’s a bit late, I suppose.’

‘I said Rob had gone to bed.’

‘What – he wanted to see Rob?’

‘Well, of course he did. His nephew too,’ Graham pointed out.

‘Second cousin,’ Annie amended. ‘Something like that.’

‘Family,’ Graham said. ‘Family, Annie.’ But she did not rise to this.

Winter crashed to an end on the CD player. Tom went to bed before Graham could start on Wagner. Annie followed him out into the hall.

‘I’m going to make a cup of tea. Do you want one?’

‘No thanks.’ He paused on the half-landing, looking down over the banisters to where she stood leaning on the newel post at the bottom, smoothing her hands over the pitch pine acorn.

‘It’s strange, isn’t it,’ she murmured, ‘the way Rob turned up just when I wanted to talk about Lindsay. As if . . . as if it wasn’t the right time for that. I don’t know.’

‘But you often want to talk about Lindsay.’ Tom smiled down at her. ‘You weird woman. But in the end, we never do.’

‘Don’t we?’

‘Goodnight, Annie. See you in the morning.’

Tom lay on his back in Annie’s spare bed, between ironed white sheets. The central heating had gone off, but the room was still warm. It was a pretty room, the wallpaper blue and white Regency stripes, the curtains a deeper blue, the rosewood dressing table brought from their grandmother’s house a long time ago. He lay with the bedside lamp still on, soothed by this tasteful, unused room. All Annie’s rooms were pretty, he thought, the colours blending, the pottery bits and pieces matching, the carpets soft. She had plenty of time and money to choose the right things. He reflected on this and on the unfairness of life. There were sounds from the kitchen, then footsteps in the hall, the front door opening, the clink of milk bottles. Then the front door was locked, the chain rattled up. Annie came upstairs slowly, sighing as she reached the top.

Tom drifted into a doze, thinking about the shop again, and his discussions with Jamie. They were going to have to sell, no question. The sound of traffic on the main road kept him from absolute sleep. He was used to a stillness torn only by an owl’s cry and the wood pigeons in the trees around the High House, and the wind in the trees, brushing fir branches against each other. In Annie’s street the trees were too spindly to give voice to the wind: it shook the leaves with a derisory rustle, and moved on.

In the narrow third bedroom Rob slept hunched beneath the downie, his clothes scattered on the floor, his rucksack spilling out cassette tapes on the pale green carpet. Now and again, the sound muffled by duck down, he whimpered a little, and once cried out. His legs twitched, throwing off the cover, and at two in the morning the cold woke him. He was in a strange house, an unfamiliar bed. He sat up, bewildered. Then he remembered, and lay back, listening. Silence. He hadn’t wakened anybody, hadn’t been shouting. It was just the dream in his head, the lorry thundering up the M1, the smell of cigarette smoke and diesel, the shaky feeling when he got out at the service station and the driver said, OK, son?

Sometimes at home, he woke with a jolt to find his mother in the room, saying, You having a bad dream? I told you not to watch that horror film, give anybody the heebie-jeebies. Then she would straighten the covers and leave the landing light on, as if he were still a kid.

It wasn’t a film that did it, he wasn’t such a nerd. But he’d no idea what did, that was the scary thing. As long as it didn’t happen here. But why should it? He was OK.

After all, he’d got here. He’d made it.