CHAPTER 31
Naomi rang the following evening. We had sorted out everything we thought they might need in addition to what we had packed in haste the day before, and Simon once more had done the shuttle run, accompanied by Merry. His face had lit up when he saw her, and I got a sly look of guilt when I winked at him over her shoulder as they embraced. Naughty vicar.

Breakfast was held in Steph’s conservatory, and it was seriously carnivorous, much to Ginny’s disgust. I watched Shan slip her the odd glance as she speared another sausage and, perhaps unfairly, I wondered if she was getting all vegetarian on Chantelle’s donkey.

Geoff was taking charge of the roster for hospital, while his wife organised a shopping run with Kate to make sure we had enough for all the guests. My life seemed to be turning into a series of large gatherings, and the thing they all had in common was a healthy appetite. I looked at my figure in the mirror as I dressed that morning, and realised that I would never truly match Miriam’s, but Simon, and Aunty Esther, were right. Facially, there was a definite resemblance, poor girl.

The day dragged, at one point Geoff taking Darren and Shan out for a ride on some flimsy excuse or other, but the clock ticked, tea was drunk, and we waited. No news.

I was just filling the kettle yet again, round about six, when the phone went. Darren was first to it, and in a clear voice said “Woods residence”

That was the last clear thing he said for a while, as the tears and mumbling came, and I took the phone from him. A very weary voice just replied to my hello with “Annie…”

“Naomi? What…how? What is, what do you need?”

“He is OK, my dear. As OK as one would hope for, given the circumstances. He has a bruised nose, of all things, and he is not as clear in his speech, but they have done a marvellous job here. Eric is with me at the moment, but my Albert is now awake and demanding tea. Now, is Darren all right?”

I looked across to where he was shaking in Shan’s embrace, and raised my eyebrows. He just nodded, and tried to flick me a smile.

“Naomi, he is shaken, but I do believe he is fine, aye?”

“Good. We are now allowed visitors, so please inform him that his grandfather has requested his presence. He also says he may bring his floozy if he so wishes. Then tell her that my beloved husband has a rather odd sense of humour”

“How many visitors, love?”

“One adult with the children, please, and not Virginia as yet. Albert would not survive her. Oh yes, do thank Chantelle for the presence of her friend Tabitha.”

“Right, perhaps best make it Kate for now, she has the car, aye? Naomi---how are you doing yourself?”

“Fucking shattered, Annie, weary to the bone, but I am so relieved”

There was a catch in her voice then, and I realised exactly how close the hard, proud woman was to collapse.

“Annie, I don’t know what I would do if, you know…”

“Not happening, DI Woods, not happening, aye?”

“Not on your watch, yes?”

“Never, Naomi, never ever, aye? They will be with you in half an hour or so. Give him our very best”

I hung up, and turned to the faces before me.

“He is fine. Some small problems, a little off in his speech, but he is awake and demanding tea, as well as his boy. Kate, could you do the driving? Daz, he wants to see your floozy as well”

“My what?”

“Tart, bird, bit of skirt, girlfriend, Shan”

I turned to her. “And he says, Naomi says, thank you, really thank you, for taking Tabby to look after him. Both of you, both, you’ve done really well, I am proud of you, aye? Now, off with Kate and make him better for the rest of us to see”

I looked over to Ginny. “Not you, though, Gilbey girl, Naomi thinks you’d kill him just now”

“Cheeky fucker! How dare he not die on me!”

Laughter, lots of it. Lots of hugs and embraces of relief, and not a few snatched snogs. I sat down, then; I had to. Someone had cut my strings. That man had a job in a little over a month, and on his feet or in a chair, I would have him there. He was a healer; he had healed his boy, and now his boy could hopefully return the favour. Said boy hugged me hard, just before the three delegates were off and away. I suddenly realised Steph was standing over me, two steaming mugs in her hands, and she sat next to me and passed one across.

“We are odd, aren’t we? Look at this lot, no blood kin apart from you and Merry, but it works like a family, yes?”

I forced a joke. “At least here, you can pick who you want as a semi-relative, aye? Got lumbered with my real ones”

Steph gave me a hard look. “No, you just had a family with strong beliefs, a clear vision of what they think is right and proper. They are like Sar’s, you show them reality and they go, aye, didn’t realise, and change. Can’t get fairer than that. Me….I miss my family, never had a chance to see them, to let them see me, you know?”

She showed me her locket, open to show a middle-aged couple on some clifftop somewhere. They were simultaneously posing for the shot and yet clearly utterly at peace with each other, and I could see the resemblance in what was clearly Steph’s mother.

“One of the first things my beloved man ever gave me, and one of the sweetest. I miss my parents, and that is why Albert and Naomi are so important to me. Everywhere I have turned, wherever there has been a problem, there they are, Naomi has the gab, but it is that sweet old man who has done the legwork so often. Even with poor Melanie…sorry, Annie, I know that one hurts.

“Look around you; it’s like some Sargasso here, all these waifs and strays finding something they need. What are we doing that is so right?”

“Ych, Steph, I just think it’s a sort of advertising, aye? Live your life as right as you can, and others will see, and sort of flock in. You’ll get the odd arsehole, indeed, but, well, I always say…ah, you know I like Tull, it’s that phrase of Anderson’s, ‘It’s only the giving that makes you what you are’, aye, and if you can’t give when needed, you’re a pretty sorry excuse for a human being, aye?”

I took a breath. “Sorry, love, I’m ranting”

She smiled. “No, you’re just putting my own thoughts into words. Look at Ginny over there, teasing Simon. Like a force of bloody nature, and not a bad bone in her. Look at us two…you miss the drink?”

She caught my little twitch. “Two of us, indeed. It was one of my own self-harm things too, but once you see what the world has, you learn better. Then you pass it on. Albert’s like that, always passing it on. He and Naomi are like you, seen too much shit to ever want to increase its quantity. Look, you’ve done really well with Darren, he was ready to top himself”

She drew in a deeper breath. “How many things do you still blame yourself for? Look around this room, and see who loves you. I have been watching you, Annie, and you hide it well. Darren blames himself, but you, you are thinking, ‘I introduced them, my fault, aye’ “

How in hell had she worked that one out? She was, of course, spot on, and her arm went over my shoulders as my defences crumbled. Ginny came over, seeing my distress.

“What’s up?”

Steph gave me another squeeze. “Annie here blames herself for letting an old man find and love a new grandson”

The mad one just sniffed. “She always was bloody stupid. I mean, look at her, spent all that fucking time pretending to be a bloke when she could have been out snogging them, silly cow. MERRY! Get over here, your cousin needs a slap”

Once Merry was near, Ginny was back on song, as if she and Steph were a wrestling tag-team.

“Look around, girl. This little convention only exists because of you. The love in this room, apart from Red here and her hubby, and my gorgeous woman, comes directly from you”

Merry said her piece. “Giving you away, isn’t it? That he won’t be properly able to walk down the aisle? Well, love, dearest cuz, it will be on his own feet, and there will be strong men about to make sure of that. Have you thought, perhaps he is so strong, so able to demand tea and the presence of a floozy, perhaps it is because he is as determined to do it as you are to behold him?”

There was more, but they were right. My recriminations were all that was left after my professional side had been relieved of duty. Albert was whole; someone had to be blamed for the near tragedy.

Darren and I were not so different, in the end. I drew a couple of breaths to calm myself, and then:

“He’s alive, he’s well, we are together, aye? Why are we not in the pub?”