Postscript(69)
‘You’re going back again?’ he asks, amusement in his tired eyes, a small smile on his lips.
‘No,’ I say, ready this time. ‘I’m a friend of your daughter, Ginika.’
His smile doesn’t disappear, but the way it freezes on his face says the same thing.
‘She’s wonderful, very brave, and has inspired me and taught me so much. You should be very proud of her.’
It’s really all I have the courage to say. All that I, perhaps, want to say. Because he has a right to know. No, more than that: he should know. It is better to know while his daughter still lives and breathes the same air as him that she is wonderful and brave and inspiring. It is not enough to be told after, nor is it good enough to realise it after. I step off the bus quickly before he shouts at me or calls to me or we get further involved than I want to be. That’s enough, I think. I hope.
It is lunchtime and, buoyed by my brief encounter with Ginika’s dad, there is a bounce in my step, a sense of overriding duty to fulfil my next promised task. I have one envelope filled with cash that I have tightly guarded in my bag, one lovingly, carefully written shopping list, and one large desire to continue pushing out the darkening corners of my fragile mind. I must not let the clouds move to the centre, they must drift on, just as I watched the clouds float by my window yesterday. It is the first Saturday in June, and I must begin Christmas shopping for Joy.
Joy has three sons: Conor, Robert and Jeremy. Conor is married to Elaine and they have two children, Ella and Luke. Robert is married to Grainne and they have four small children, twins Nathan and Ethan, Lily-Sue and Noah. Jeremy has a child called Max with Sophie and a baby on the way with Isabella.
Joy has three sisters and one brother; Olivia, Charlotte, Emily and Patrick. Three are married, one divorced, but Joy is close with her in-laws. Collectively they have eleven children, and five of them have children. Joy also has two sisters-in-law and one brother-in-law, all have children and between them make her an aunt to eight more nieces and nephews. Four of these nieces and nephews have a total of seven children. And then there’s Joe, her tower of strength, and her two closest friends, Annalise and Marie.
All of these names have been written on Joy’s Christmas list, along with a specifically chosen gift. She has asked me to do this, the agent of the PS, I Love You Club, not her children, not her daughters-in-law, or her dear friends, because she wants normal business to resume, nothing to feel out of step, even when life has taken a turn in a direction no one wishes it had. She doesn’t want anybody in her life to feel left out; everyone near and dear to her will receive her parting gift.
Delivering Bert’s letters, Christmas shopping for Joy and watching her bake and cook Joe’s favourite meals, making notes to add to her scrapbook of secrets, being invited into Paul’s home and world to film personal messages, getting insights into his private thoughts and memories, has been an intimate welcome into people’s precious and private worlds. I feel a sense of purpose, of responsibility to those who have entrusted me with a great duty. While it has undoubtedly distracted me from my own life, it has also gifted me with distraction from my woes. I find myself getting lost in the job at hand. Following Joy’s shopping list, buying the gifts according to her budget and then ticking each name and item off the list feels extraordinarily satisfying. I’m busy. I have a purpose, a great one, fulfilling Joy’s wish.
When I return home, I sit on the floor of my TV room, spread the gifts around me in preparation for wrapping. I usually despise wrapping, leaving that task to the wrapping stations in the shops at Christmas. But it’s not Christmas and this is my duty. Using craft paper and string, I take greater care than I ever have in ensuring the corners are neat, double-sided sticky tape hidden.
Denise returns to the house at 7 p.m., and Sharon is with her. I feel a flicker of irritation that my isolation has been broken and, even though Sharon is my friend too, that I haven’t been asked permission. I’m so used to having my own space, I like being alone. Even when practically living with Gabriel, having our own homes meant we could take necessary breathers for our headspace, and even when together we were good at being separate.
‘Are you wrapping Christmas presents?’ Sharon asks, watching me from the doorway.
‘Yes, for Joy.’ I brace myself for a smart retort.
‘OK. I won’t disturb you, I’ll be in the kitchen with Denise.’ She swiftly leaves, picking up on my mood. Moments later, I hear music. A stringed instrument leading into the smooth and calming tones of Nat King Cole singing ‘The Christmas Song’, Sharon’s phone the source of the music. She places down a glass of red wine and a bowl of crisps, winks at me and leaves, closing the door behind her.
Each package has a gift card: To Conor, To Robert, To Jeremy … to everybody on the list, signed off with PS, I Love You. I box them all up in three regular cardboard boxes and label them ‘Christmas Tree Lights’, the plan being to store it in the attic for Joe to find when he decorates the house for Christmas.
I told Gabriel that my life would return to its normal running, that I would be able to extract myself from these people’s lives at the appropriate time when I had fulfilled my obligations. But he was right about me: I can’t do that. Where he was wrong, though, was in believing that it was a negative thing. It’s not something to avoid, this is my life now. This life is giving me life. I drooped yesterday, I crashed, but I’m different now. I’ve learned from my mistakes and today I picked up the pieces.