Three Things About Elsie(17)

FLORENCE


‘Justin’s bringing his accordion this afternoon.’

She stood in the middle of my sitting room, although it’s too small to really warrant having a middle.

‘Perhaps next week,’ I said.

Miss Ambrose took a deep breath. ‘Just five minutes, Florence. We’ll walk over together.’

‘It won’t be worth taking my coat off.’

‘That’s fine,’ she said. ‘However you want to do it.’

‘His eyes are very close together.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Justin’s,’ I said. ‘It’s an indication of criminal tendencies. You can tell a lot by how far apart people’s eyes are. I read about it. In a magazine.’

I stared into her face.

‘Florence, I’m quite certain that Justin—’

‘And he doesn’t get any thinner, does he?’

‘Florence!’

Whilst she wound all her layers back on, my gaze travelled the room. The dining chairs were pushed tight against the table, and the newspaper was read and folded in the corner. The vase was in the middle of the sideboard. Perhaps slightly off-centre, looking at it. Perhaps just an inch to the left. The newspaper was in the right-hand corner. The vase was an inch to the left. Or was it the other way around?

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ I said. ‘I’m staying here. I’m busy.’

‘Florence. I thought we agreed?’

‘You did all the agreeing,’ I said. ‘I didn’t do any of it.’

‘Socialising is just as important as eating and drinking properly. You need to mix with people. If you don’t …’ Her sentence couldn’t find its ending.

‘If I don’t, what?’ I said.

She smiled a frown. ‘If you don’t, perhaps Greenbank really is the right decision for you.’

I closed my mouth as tightly as I could, because I was worried about what might fall out of it.

‘Ready?’ Miss Ambrose tucked her scarf inside her jacket.

I nodded.

The last thing I thought of, as she pulled the door to, was the elephant. Staring at the window. Waiting for me to get back.

I looked for him as soon as I walked in the room.

I went through all the faces. I did it more than once, because people kept moving around, and I was worried I’d miss somebody out. I even had a walk up and down. Once or twice, someone tried to speak to me, but I refused to involve myself, because if you’re not careful, you find yourself caught and you have to spend the next two hours sitting with someone and inventing things to say. In the end, I found a chair at the back on my own. I was given a cup of tea, that must have been Miss Ambrose, and I balanced the saucer on my knee.

The room started to fill with residents, with walking sticks and overcoats, and after a few minutes, there was a wall of conversation around me. I couldn’t tell what anyone was talking about, because they were all standing up and their voices wandered away, but every so often, a word would escape and find me. Gardening, I think. And the television. Perhaps the weather. I had used up my conversation on all these subjects a long time ago, and so I stayed in my seat and lived in the middle distance.

I’d been there a few minutes before I realised Elsie had sat next to me.

‘You came, then?’ she said. ‘After all?’

I held on to the saucer. ‘I didn’t have much choice. Miss Ambrose was in one of her moods. The kind where she doesn’t hear the word no.’

‘You’ll enjoy it, Florence. He’s very good, is Justin. He gets everyone singing. Even Mrs Honeyman.’

‘He won’t get me,’ I said. ‘He isn’t here yet, I’ve had a look.’

Elsie glanced across the room. ‘He’s over there, by the weeping fig. He’s just getting his accordion out.’

‘Not Justin.’ I looked around before I whispered, ‘Ronnie.’

Elsie shook her head. ‘I thought we had an agreement that there was no point in worrying until we could be certain.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I didn’t agree with any of that. You made that agreement with yourself. How can you say we shouldn’t worry, when you saw him with your own set of eyes?’

‘Even if it is Ronnie, and it may very well just be someone who looks like him—’

‘Exactly like him,’ I said.

‘—then perhaps we just need to sit tight and batten down the hatches. He may not want anything at all. It might just be a coincidence.’

‘He’s been inside my flat.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because he’s moved things around. I’ve a good mind to go over there right now and catch him at it.’

A pool of quiet spread around us, and a few people looked across.

‘Florence, stop shouting. If Miss Ambrose notices—’

‘I’m not shouting. I’m making a point,’ I said. ‘I’m not letting him get away with it.’

Elsie shook her head again. ‘You made a mistake. Forgot where you put something.’

‘I didn’t forget. It was the elephant.’

‘But it can’t have been the elephant, because elephants never forget.’