Part 7 (1/2)

'Yeah,' said Don. 'It was similar for me. Aine and I had been going together since school. It was a running joke with both our families and all our friends that we still weren't married. But by the time we'd both finished with college and had done a bit of travelling and were saving for the deposit on a house, we kind of realized that we'd done with each other. It was almost like we'd lived a whole life together and were ready to move on. It was a shame, but it was true. It hit our families the worst.'

'My break-up was pretty messy, though,' continued Lorna. 'I knew Steve didn't love me and I knew there was no point in us getting married but a big part of me wanted to get on with it and be married and deal with the rest later. Steve was furious when I confronted him. We'd already spent an awful lot of money on the wedding and everybody had been invited. It was the money and the humiliation that bothered him most. Eventually he admitted that he was just going along with it to keep me happy. He said that, no, he didn't think realistically he would have been faithful.'

'And then we met,' said Don. 'Speed-dating, would you believe?'

'I didn't want to go,' said Lorna, 'but a group of my friends dragged me along. As soon as I saw Don I knew he was the one.'

'I felt the same way,' said Don. 'You just know when it's right.'

'Oh, you do,' I said emphatically, because it was what their two pairs of expectant eyes were demanding, but it made me wonder if I had ever had that feeling deep in my gut that it was right with Keith. Anyway, what does 'right' mean? n.o.body can know for sure that they're going to live happily ever after. There mightn't even be any such thing.

I had enjoyed their company over the few days, but I was glad they lived in Fermanagh. n.o.body expected you to keep in contact if you lived in Fermanagh.

I had made only one cursory phone call home all week. The obligatory no-we-didn't-die-horrific-deaths-in-the-worst-air-crash-of-the-millennium-even-though-it-didn't-make-the-evening-news phone call. My mother was suitably nonplussed about our adventures and merely told me not to forget to bring back something for my aunts. 'I don't want a thing, you know me, but your aunts would really appreciate the thought.'

I had already filled a bag with the appropriate kind of tat. I would pick up some White Linen for my mother at the airport.

So when we got back to the hotel on that last evening and there was a message for me saying simply, 'Ring Lucy,' I was more than surprised. Oh, G.o.d, had something awful happened? Was I being punished for daring to have a good time or for having led a dissolute life up to now? Ring Lucy. There was nothing for it but to do it.

'Hey, Luce, what's up?'

'Come home quick. Mum's in a state. Jean has left Mike.'

7.

I came back to a madhouse. We landed in Shannon at seven o'clock and less than an hour later I was in the thick of it at Sycamore Lodge. Before we could even think about Jean or Mike we had to deal with Mum. Despite the efforts of Lucy, Marion, Ruth, Dad, her GP and the local pharmacist, she was still hanging from the chandeliers (almost literally). When I arrived through the door she was leaning over the landing banister, threatening to drive herself to Dublin.

'Don't be silly, love,' Dad was saying from the hall below. 'n.o.body's going to Dublin. We don't even know where Jean is.'

'Don't call me silly. I'm not the silly one here. I'm not the one throwing up my marriage on a whim. And I've been tempted. Believe me, I've been tempted. I've had far more to put up with than that girl has.'

'Yes, love, we know. Now, will you come down here and we'll have a cup of tea?'

'I don't want any tea.'

'Look,' he continued, pus.h.i.+ng me in front of him, 'look who's home.'

'Kate, is it? I'm sure you had a hand in this, Kate.'

I wasn't ready to be attacked the minute I got in the door. 'Honestly, Mum, I don't know a thing about it.'

'Hrrmph!'

Marion came out to greet me and responded to my look of desperation with one of her own. 'We've been at this all afternoon,' she said.

I decided it was ridiculous to be shouting at Mum up the stairs so I began to go up to her.

'Don't come near me!' she flashed. 'I don't want anyone near me.'

'OK, OK, Mum,' I said, turning on my heels, wondering if anybody had tried leaving her on her own for a while. 'We'll be in here if you need us.' I grabbed Dad by the shoulders and led him forcibly into the sitting room. 'She'll be fine, Dad. I really don't think she's going to throw herself over the banister.'

Keith followed us in but remained standing by the door. He didn't know what to do with himself.

'I wanted her to take a Valium,' piped up Ruth, 'but she refused. Valium's good for her it's always been good for her.'

'Oh, take one yourself,' snapped Lucy.

'I'm only trying to help!'

'Maybe she'll have one later,' said Marion, 'but right now Kate's right. We should leave her alone for a while. We still need to get out of her what Jean actually said.'

'So Jean was here last night,' I established, 'and said she was leaving Mike?'

'Well,' said Lucy, 'it seems she said something about going to Dublin on a course, some two-week thing for her job. And then when Mum asked if Mike was going to join her at the weekend she said, no, he wasn't and that actually she was leaving him. And that was it. According to Mum, she just waltzed out of the house, having dropped her bombsh.e.l.l.'

'I don't believe it. She wouldn't do that. Where is she now? Has anyone spoken to her?'

'I've been ringing her mobile,' said Marion, 'but it's switched off. I've tried her work and they won't say where she's staying.'

'She must have told them not to,' said Ruth.

'What about Mike?'

'Mobile and house phones are ringing out. And he wasn't at work today.'

'But why would Jean leave Mike like that? They weren't unhappy, were they?'

'Who knows?' said Marion. 'But I don't think so. I mean, she never said anything to me anyway.'

'Or to me,' said Ruth.

'Mike did say something at your engagement party,' said Lucy.

'Oh, yeah?'

'Yeah. I suppose I wasn't taking that much notice I mean, when has Jean ever been exactly happy?'

'Well, what was he saying?'

'Oh, just that she was working very hard and she wasn't around much in the evenings. She always had somewhere else to be. He wasn't saying anything in particular, but he seemed a bit concerned about her.'

'Concerned she'd tire herself out? Or concerned she was going to leave him?'

'Oh, I don't think he had any notion she was going to leave him. He just seemed a bit... bothered, you know?'

'Yeah,' said Marion. 'He was a bit quiet that night.'