Impossible to Forget(101)

Daniel’s car was a black Audi. Smart, functional, dull. It wasn’t that tidy inside, however, with empty coffee cups and the packaging of a couple of pre-packed sandwiches rolling around on the back seat.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Eating on the run. Occupational hazard. You’d think, working with food all day . . .’

He looked at her regretfully, but Romany just shrugged. She wasn’t going to lose her shiz over a bit of rubbish.

As they drove back, he quizzed her in a little more detail about her plans for the next year, what she wanted to do when she graduated, and Romany was happy to tell him all. He seemed impressed, and it made her feel proud, as it often did, that she had got this all together despite what had happened to her mum.

They reached the turn-off for the house and Romany was about to give directions when he flicked on the indicators and turned anyway.

‘You know where I live?’ she asked.

He hesitated for a moment. ‘Yes. Hope was going to get me to pick you up this morning but then the plans changed, and we ended up swapping over.’

He found a parking space not far from her house and slid the car neatly into it. Romany went to open the door and was about to say thank you when he spoke, his voice urgent as if he really needed to get the words out.

‘Listen, Romany,’ he said, his hand rubbing his chin. ‘There’s something that I should probably tell you.’

‘Oh yes?’ replied Romany, her hand resting on the door handle. ‘What’s that then?’

For the first time that morning he looked awkward, his easy confidence of earlier gone.

‘It’s just that, I knew your mum, back when . . . Well. I knew her.’





52


Romany’s hand fell away from the door handle. She was all ears. Meeting someone new who had known her mum, particularly in the days before she had been around, was a rare treat.

‘Did you?’ she asked, curious. ‘How come?’

‘You know those trees I mentioned,’ he said. ‘Well, me and your mum, we were in the same trees.’

Romany eyes grew wide. ‘Really! That’s so cool! Mum always said it was one of her favourite times, being on that protest.’

Daniel nodded, his smile fond and distant. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It had its moments. It was tough, especially when it got cold. But we had a camaraderie thing going on. We were all in it together, with this one common purpose, to save the woods. We were so sure we’d win, that the government would see the sense in what we were saying. We were na?ve, I guess, but we were bloody good at climbing trees.’

Romany bit her lip. ‘Can I ask you a question?’ she said.

‘Of course.’

‘What was Mum like back then?’

Romany loved talking about her mum. She hardly ever got the chance, because everyone assumed that she would want the complete opposite, and most people avoided the subject as if it might explode if they touched it. And here was someone who had known her before she’d even been born. Of course, she’d heard things from back then – Maggie and Tiger never shut up about the old days when they got together – but she knew all their stories as well as if she had been there herself. Daniel was offering a peep into a totally new area of her mum’s life. It was too tantalising to miss.

Daniel flicked off his seatbelt and pushed his seat back so that he could stretch his legs. The mention of her mum brought a warmth to his smile. He had really liked her, back in the day, Romany could tell just from that expression.

‘Your mum was like a force of nature,’ he said. ‘She just didn’t care what others thought of her. She did what she thought was right. She was completely chaotic though. Was she like that later too?’

Romany thought of the mess the flat used to get into, the way her mum never had what she needed when she needed it, her refusal to ever make a plan and then her frustration when things didn’t work out the way she wanted. She nodded.

‘Yeah. Pretty chaotic,’ she said with a smile.

‘And she was loyal,’ Daniel went on, his eyes focused on the bins further down the street. ‘If you were on her team, she’d do whatever it took to make sure you were okay. Did she tell you about her own mum?’

‘A bit,’ said Romany.

Daniel nodded. ‘Well, she had a pretty hard time growing up. I think that’s why she never made plans. There just hadn’t been any point when her life was so out of her own control. But I also think that was why if she found you and she liked you, then you could never quite shake her off. She stuck like glue and she would defend you against anyone. Like I say, loyal.’

Romany loved hearing this kind of thing and it fitted so neatly with her own understanding of her mum, so she knew he wasn’t stringing her along.

‘Did you two go out?’ she asked, shyly.

Daniel, still staring resolutely out of the windscreen, nodded again.

‘We did, actually,’ he said, although Romany knew they must have done because of the way he was talking. She would guess that the two of them had been pretty close.

‘That’s cool,’ she said. ‘And how weird that you should be going out with one of Mum’s friends now. That’s a mad coincidence.’

Daniel turned his head and looked at her out of the tail of his eye.