All That She Can See(53)

‘Margie’s right,’ Bruce said. ‘People will ask for help when they need it and we’ll offer it when things get bad. But most of all, we don’t hold our mistakes against each other or bring them up to win a cheap point in a nasty argument.’

Danior took another step back, her breathing shallow.

‘Saying that, and forgive me, Sally, but I need to clear your name just a little.’ Margie scanned the crowd until she found Sally. In a moment Sally understood that Margie knew what she’d kept hidden all these years. She nodded her consent that yes, Margie could tell everyone the truth.

‘Ron had a secret too. Something he didn’t want anyone to know and his reasons for that were his own, but the truth was that Ron was gay. And I know you loved him, Sally, but no one is judging you for seeking physical comfort elsewhere, because yours and Ron’s wasn’t that kind of love. I just wish he felt he could’ve opened up to us, his friends, and that you didn’t have to spend all these years thinking we would think any less of you.’

‘But it’s so wrong,’ Danior whimpered. ‘They were married. She shouldn’t have —’

‘Like you’re such a saint!’ Margie whipped around to face the podium again. ‘These things are never black and white. Feelings and friendships and relationships – they’re complicated. Even when things are going well, it can still be so messy.’

‘Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’ Bruce offered, ‘And by the sounds of it, you two have been chucking bricks.’ Bruce shook his head and laughed at his own joke.

Danior took one last step back and her heels slipped off the back of the podium. Flying backwards, her arm caught the Psychic Sisters shop window and it shattered, shards of glass raining down around her. The crowd gasped and pushed forwards but Velina screamed, ‘LEAVE HER!’ No one had noticed the tears pouring down her face. She clambered down off the podium as best she could in her ill-fitting dress and helped her sister to her feet, Danior’s arm streaked with blood.

‘Leave us. All of you,’ Velina said, opening the door to the shop.

‘You’re all terrible people!’ Danior wailed, wrapping the ends of her headscarf around her hand and arm. ‘You keep dreadful secrets and act like saints but I know the truth! I know the truth! I know the —’

Velina slammed shut the door, cutting off Danior’s voice. The crowd remained stagnant, lost without someone or something to look at and listen to. A flock of sheep without a shepherd.

‘Is that really who we are?’ whispered the girl with black lips. ‘Are we terrible?’

‘Of course it isn’t!’ Bruce exclaimed.

‘Well… it is… and it isn’t,’ Margie said, facing Bruce and the rest of crowd. ‘We’ve all done stupid things. Bad things, even. Things we aren’t proud of but…’ Margie tried to push herself up onto the podium but her arms slipped.

‘Here…’ Bruce interlinked his fingers and opened out the palms of his hand. Gratefully, Margie put a hand on his shoulder, placed her foot into his hands and he hoisted her onto the podium to stand before the crowd.

‘Where was I?’

‘We’re terrible people!’ Chase called out, some residual Honesty still left in his system.

‘Thank you, Mr Masters. No. We’ve done stupid, ill-advised things but that doesn’t make us bad people. The fact that all of the things disgracefully announced on this stage today were secrets we hid from each other doesn’t mean that we’re bad. We just weren’t ready to share them with one another.’ She turned her kind eyes to Sally. ‘And even when you think you’ve done a bad thing and it isn’t a bad thing at all, it can still make you feel remorseful.’

‘What does that prove?’ Sally said, her cheeks wet and burning.

‘Do you think bad people feel remorse for the things they do? No. We feel bad even when we haven’t done anything wrong! We feel shame and we feel lonely. And we try to be better because we don’t want the world to think we’re terrible people because deep down, we know we’re not. We just… we just…’

‘Fuck up?’ Chase offered again. Honestly.

‘Exactly. We just fuck up.’

‘Nice one, Margie,’ Cherry whispered in Chase’s ear, linking her arm through his.

‘Everyone’s getting their mojo back,’ Chase said. He watched tiny spots of light begin to appear above people’s heads.

‘You can see that?’ Cherry said in a low voice. ‘Their happiness is coming back?’

‘Happiness. Hope. Even Horniness! You name it. They’re just not depressed any more.’

‘Hey, no one was depressed. Just a bit…’ Chase raised an eyebrow. ‘OK, perhaps,’ Cherry sighed.

Chase watched the lights transform as Margie kept talking. At first they were just little blobs of gold, blue and pink but then they took shape and became Hope, Acceptance and Pride.

‘We’re people. As much as we try to be perfect something is always going to go a little bit awry somewhere along the way. While we should accept whatever consequences come our way as a result, none of us should be defined by our mistakes, nor should we be subjected to ridicule by some silly little ninny in a dress that, I promise, did not come from my shop.’ Margie laughed. ‘We’re human. That’s all there is to it!’ Margie shrugged, suddenly embarrassed and very aware that everyone was staring at her. The crowd whooped, cheered and clapped as Margie accepted Bruce’s hand and delicately climbed down from the stage.