The Younger Wife(85)

(‘I’m not missing the chance to meet my girlfriend’s mum,’ he’d said.

‘She’s not going to know who you are, Darcy,’ Rachel told him. ‘Most likely, she won’t even know who I am.’

‘Maybe not,’ he said. ‘But I’ll get to see who she is.’)

Darcy was fantastic with Mum. He had a calm, easy manner about him that relaxed and engaged her. It was hardly surprising; it had the same effect on everyone.

‘How are you today, Pam?’ he asked her.

Mum’s eyes moved to Rachel and widened a little.

‘Where’d you find him?’ she asked.

She’d asked the exact same question the last time Rachel had brought Darcy to visit.

‘Cup of tea, Pam?’ he said. ‘White with one sugar, right?’

‘How did you know?’ Mum cried, delighted.

Mum used to love it when Tully brought boyfriends home. She’d been particularly enamoured of Sonny when she first met him, and manoeuvred herself into the seat beside him at Christmas where she demanded to know everything about him. It was funny how some parts of her remained, even after her memory was gone.

While Darcy busied himself making tea, Mum looked at Rachel meaningfully.

‘Where’d you find him?’ she asked again.

She’d asked Rachel that about seventeen times during their last visit. Rachel was starting to feel insulted.

‘He works for me,’ she said.

‘Works for you?’ Mum said. ‘What is it that you do?’

‘I’m a baker,’ Rachel replied. ‘I’ve got some pictures of my cakes. Would you like to see?’

Mum nodded enthusiastically, and Rachel got out her phone and flicked to a picture of a cake she’d made recently for a christening. Mum always enjoyed looking at pictures of cakes.

‘I also brought in some other pictures,’ Rachel said, reaching into the canvas bag she’d brought with her. ‘I thought you might like to look through them.’

‘All right,’ Mum said, as Darcy placed a cup of tea in front of her.

Rachel pulled some framed pictures from the bag. There were some family photos, Tully’s graduation picture, a photo of Mum and Dad’s wedding. In Mum’s early days in care, Rachel had found that while Mum didn’t always recognise the people in the photos she showed her, they usually caused a lift in her mood.

Rachel held up a picture of Tully at her debutante ball.

‘Isn’t she pretty?’ Mum said.

Rachel held up one of Christmas just a few years back.

Mum didn’t even pretend to look at it. Instead she stared at Darcy. ‘Where’d you find him?’ she asked.

‘This is a nice one,’ Rachel said, finding the photo she’d really wanted to show Pam. It was the earliest picture she had of Mum and Dad together. According to legend, it was taken on their third date, when they’d played lawn bowls. Mum always laughed about the fact that she wore heels because she’d thought they were going out to dinner. Rachel held her breath as Mum frowned at the photo. Was that a glimmer of recognition in her eyes? Rachel waited for her to say something. Anything. Pam didn’t. Instead, she lifted the frame to her face and pressed her lips to the glass, right where Dad’s face was.





66


TULLY


Two months later . . .


A hundred hours of community service. That was Tully’s sentence for her theft from the hardware store. She had to admit, it was quite exciting fronting up to court. She felt like she was on one of those TV crime shows. The Magistrates’ Court wasn’t quite as exciting as the ones shown in Law & Order SVU – it was mostly just traffic offences and some quite entertaining drunk-and-disorderlies – but she’d been reasonably entertained until her name had been called.

The case had been dealt with in a matter of minutes. The judge and her lawyer both seemed somewhat bored as they spoke, and Tully hadn’t had to do much other than state her full name for the record. Her lawyer had been apologetic afterwards; he’d tried to get her off without any punishment at all. But community service wasn’t too bad. She’d been assigned to cleaning graffiti from local tennis courts and neighbourhood community centres. A couple of the areas were quite close to Tully’s house, and she found the exercise quite gratifying. That graffiti had been bothering her for a while.

‘Come on, girls!’ Tully yelled. ‘Elbow grease!’

She liked to think she’d taken on a bit of a leadership role in her community service group. Honestly, some of them didn’t know the first thing about stain removal. Yesterday she’d gone to Bunnings – the scene of the crime – and bought better rubber gloves for everyone. The full circle of this delighted her. As she went up to the cashier to pay for the gloves, she contemplated telling the young man the story, but she suspected he wouldn’t appreciate it. Youths could be so self-absorbed these days. Didn’t know a good story if it came up and bit them. And so she just paid her money and took the gloves. That in itself was no small victory.

She enjoyed the banter between the ladies as they scrubbed the walls. Valerie – a woman about Tully’s age whose proudest achievements were her son and the fact that she’d never paid a parking fine in her life – was one of her favourites.