The Keeper of Lost Things(75)
Eunice watched in astonishment as Laura punched the air with joy, and through the open window there blew a swirling shower of rose petals.
As Laura walked Eunice to the garden gate, Freddy pulled up outside the house in his battered Land Rover and jumped out. He greeted Eunice politely and then looked to Laura.
“We need to talk.”
Eunice kissed Laura on the cheek and winked at Freddy.
“That’s exactly what I said.”
She closed the gate behind her and walked away smiling.
CHAPTER 50
The five of them walked together along the promenade; Eunice and Gavin arm in arm carrying Bomber, Douglas, and Baby Jane in a striped canvas shopping bag. Eunice had been going to go alone, but Gavin wouldn’t hear of it. When Bomber had first been forced into Happy Haven, he had asked Gavin to keep a friendly lookout for Eunice, but Gavin hadn’t known how to do so without offending Eunice’s notoriously independent spirit. However, since the memorial service, when Eunice had made her full and frank confession, Gavin had found a chink in her armor and was using it to keep his word to Bomber. It was a perfect seaside day; bright and breezy with a sky the color of blue cura?ao. Gavin had left the Audi at home and they had traveled by train so that they could both toast soon-to-be-absent friends thoroughly and with impunity.
Eunice wanted the entire day to be a proper memorial for Bomber, and so they were following the time-honored itinerary. As they strolled toward the pier they met a young couple walking a pair of miniature pugs wearing his-and-hers diamante collars. Eunice couldn’t resist stopping to admire them. The two little dogs submitted to appropriate fuss and compliments before trotting happily on their way. Gavin looked at Eunice’s downcast face and gave her arm a squeeze.
“Chin up, old girl. It won’t be long before Bill Bailey comes home.”
Eunice was finally permitting herself to adopt a dog. She had always intended to do this after Bomber died, but then, when she had lost his ashes, she somehow felt she didn’t deserve one. She had to honor her obligations to old friends before she could allow herself a new one. The black-and-white collie with a white blaze and black spots had been kept on the end of a chain outside a shed for most of his miserable life, and the staff at Battersea had not been optimistic about his chances of rehabilitation. But the little dog had a big, brave heart and was willing to give the world another chance. The staff named him Bill Bailey after the song, for luck, in the hope that he would find the perfect person to come home to. And he had. Eunice. As soon as she saw him, she fell for his pointy ears and his big, dark eyes. He was wary at first, but after a couple of visits he had decided that Eunice was the one for him and deigned to lick her hand. Next week, he would be hers for good.
Eunice and Gavin took it in turns to carry the shopping bag. To start with, Eunice had been reluctant to part with it, but the combined remains of her three friends were surprisingly heavy and she was glad for Gavin to take a turn.
“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed. “We should have put them in one of those tartan shopping trolley affairs that old ladies push instead of a bag.”
Eunice shook her head emphatically.
“You must be joking! And make me look like an old lady?” she retorted.
Gavin winked at her. “Don’t worry. You don’t look a day over forty, old girl.”
Inside the amusement arcade, it was hot and noisy and the air was thick with the smell of hot dogs, donuts, and popcorn. By the expression on Gavin’s face, he thought Eunice had lured him into Babylon. The colored lights spun and flashed in frantic synchronicity with the buzzers and bells. The money clinked into the machines and clattered out; although the former much more frequently than the latter. As one of Gavin’s best brogues slipped on a squashed chip he looked ready to flee, but Eunice filled his hand with coins and nodded toward Bomber’s favorite machine.
“Come on, you, get stuck in! Bomber loved this one.”
As Eunice posted a coin into the slot, she remembered the confusion on Bomber’s face the last time they were there; but then how quickly it had been replaced with a smile when she had come to his rescue. Today was for happy memories, not sad ones. Eunice made Gavin stick it out for almost half an hour, by the end of which he was almost enjoying himself. Against all the (most likely fixed) odds, he won a small and very ugly teddy bear on a claw game machine which he proudly presented to Eunice as a gift. As she inspected the lopsided bear’s comical face, she had an idea.
“We should buy a souvenir for each of them,” she said, holding up the striped bag.
In one of the kiosks on the pier, they found a key ring in the shape of a donut for Douglas. In a shop in the Lanes, Gavin spotted an antique Staffordshire china pug.
“He looks like a boy dog to me,” said Gavin, “but perhaps Baby Jane would prefer that.”
They had fish and chips for lunch and Gavin ordered a bottle of champagne for them to toast the contents of the striped bag, which had its own chair. Eunice was determined not to let it out of her sight for a single moment. The champagne gave her the courage to face what she had to do next. She had to let them go. The Pavilion sparkled white in the sunlight and its domes and spires billowed and pricked the sky.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree . . .
It always put Eunice in mind of Coleridge’s opium-inspired verse. They went inside first. It was to be Bomber’s last tour and Douglas and Baby Jane’s first. Eunice carefully bypassed the kitchen where the dog-powered spit roast was exhibited. In the gift shop she bought a snow dome containing a model of the Pavilion for Bomber’s souvenir. Just as she was about to pay, something else caught her eye.