CHAPTER 56
Cathy and Nell had left us with one mumbled apology, and that was for their failure to pack up and head home immediately after their term had finished. Nell in particular had done her unsuccessful best to hide a sly smile.

“Leo’s never been to Scotland, so, well… lot’s of places to explore”

Cathy had burst out laughing at that remark, leaving Nell blushing even more fiercely than she had done at that infamous New Year’s Eve party. She started to stammer something else, and I shut her up with a hug and a finger to her lips.

“I understand, love. Make the best of it, but save some time for us. Only fair, eh? Can’t guarantee a single room for you when you do come home, though. Got a bit busy”

Cathy smiled at that one.

“Still home, though. Still a real home. Neither of us would be here, like this, without you, would we? Now, we are off. Long drive to Glencoe”

“Ring me, both of you. Let me know you are okay”

Promises were made, and duly kept over the next few weeks, but it was the post that brought the real treat. I came in from a day of short local runs, and along with a cup of tea, Charlie handed me a padded envelope and a small cardboard box, one postmarked in Aberystwyth, the other in England. I guessed that the first would be from the girls, but the second puzzled me until I had opened it and found the letter from Pat.

Hi Debbie
Tell Kim I was really disappointed not to see her, so I thought I’d try my hand at arm-twisting. I’ve been back through old photo albums, as well as the photo files from my digital camera, and I have scanned or downloaded as many shared memories as I thought were worth letting you have. Tell her that while there may be others, it would be nice to take some new ones, so she has to engage her rump and get it back up here.

Say hello to all the others for me!
Love
Pat

Two CD boxes were with the letter, and of course the other package held two more, this time from Cathy and Eleanor, with mock-serious threats and warnings about failure to comply with sitting the whole House down with ‘hot choccie and Gemma specials’ for a ‘night at the pictures’.

I found myself tearing up, to Charlie’s clear concern, but I smiled, reassuring her that there was no actual problem, and that she should tell the others that we would be having a social evening, all of us.

“Can you ring this number, Charlie? Ask to speak to Gemma. We have a load of photos to look at tonight, from our trip to the mountains, so we need treats to share while we do so. Tell her I’ll sort out the cash when she gets in”

While she ordered cakes, I gave the Grove a ring, finding Ruth on duty.

“Hiya, Deb. You after Kim? She’s with a customer just now”

“Ah, let her know we’ve had a present delivered”

“Oh?”

“Nothing that special; just a load of pictures a friend took in the hills for us. Going to have a sit-and-watch-with-cake evening tonight”

Ruth laughed out loud.

“So I need to tactfully suggest that she tactfully doesn’t stay out with Phil tonight, then?”

She got my own laugh in return.

“Would be rather helpful, love! Tell her we’ll start at about seven, okay?”

We all sat in the second dining room that night, for a House meal of sausages and mash, and once the dishwasher was loaded and set running, I passed Kim the two letters, the first from Pat and the second a brief note from Cathy and Nell. She held Pat’s message for a minute or so, then looked hard at me, seeming embarrassed. I held up a hand to stop her gushing when she didn’t have to.

“I know, Kim. So many people to fit into your life now, isn’t it? And no, I am not teasing. Bit better than when we found each other, isn’t it?”

She nodded.

“Pat really loves you, Debbie”

“That’s ‘us’, Kim. Loves us. Yes, I think you’re right there. Agreed, girls?”

There was a chorus of cheers, and I set up the TV as Gemma brought in a number of well-loaded plates. A quick fiddle with the channel selector, and I slipped in the first of Pat’s discs. She had interspersed the pictures with some hand-lettered captions, and the first set was ‘Ancient but still warm memories’.

The chorus of puzzled noises was what I should have expected.

“Pipe down, you lot! So I was skinny when I was a little girl! That was when we met, okay?”

I muttered a small prayer that she had only uploaded the other photos to one disc, and not the one I was showing my girls. I wasn’t ready to talk about Mam and Dad just then. Keep the evening light, DPW.

The photos marched onward in time, Kim’s first appearance drawing similar comments, as did Nell’s, and when I saw some pictures I had never suspected Pat had sneaked, I gasped. Kim turned to me, as the screen showed a remarkably well-toned young man in nothing bit boots, shorts and climbing harness,

“Well, she said she might be older, but she could still go window-shopping!”

The pictures continued through the years, and as each girl spotted herself, or was spotted by her friends, there were cheers, as well as a lot of cheeky comments about climbing technique and awarding of points for style. There were shots of mountains, South Stack, even the folk club nights, including a couple that showed the ginger misery in full insanity with his fiddle, and all told, the collection warmed my soul. Alicia coughed for attention, holding up a hand.

“Debbie, got an idea”

“Go on”

“I had a… I have a thing at home. Digital picture frame, it’s called. You can load it with a set of images, and it scans through them one by one. Like a self-moving photo album. If I ask Dad, when I see him…”

“You okay with that, girl?”

“I think so. Got a day out, an afternoon, next weekend. He wants to go shopping, and have a meal”

Nicky jerked up at that, as did Tiff, and Alicia looked at them with a gentle smile.

“No. Not like that. Just his way of getting used to me, he says. Not just clothes, either. He says I should have a new laptop, help with my studies. Wanted to get me a phone, but Mrs Milton said no, not yet”

Still as switched on as ever, Heidi. I decided to change the subject.

“Right; next two discs are from Cathy and Nell. Everyone ready?”

I clicked them over, and we started the same process of face-spotting and mickey-taking, until the scenery changed, and I burst out laughing.

“I know that place!”

Charlie sniffed, a sound that seemed more and more to be her signature.

“Everyone knows Gretna Green, Debbie!”

“Not what I mean1 I used to.. Mam and Dad and me, we stopped there to sell stuff to tourists, was our trad. Got told to move on once, officious prick. Called us pikeys! Oh, that next one, oh how I remember that, but not in sunshine, the jammy sods. That’s the Red Moss; always had an open fire, cause that bit was always, always wet when we crossed the top of the Summit”

I was gushing, so I reined myself back in, and the pictures settled down to more scenery, shots of the girls and their men climbing, a few shots obviously inside pubs or restaurants, a few group shots on mountain tops, some in snow despite the time of year, and then one where…

“Debbie?”

“Yes, Chloe?”

“Tell me those boys have got swimming trunks on in that river”

“Um, I can’t be sure, love”

“Well, neither can I, especially as Nell hasn’t got a top on!”

I peered more closely at the screen, and no, there appeared to be a remarkable lack of clothing visible. It seemed my girls were indeed flying free, and at greater altitudes than I had realised. Shit.

I took a look round the group, and so many of their expressions could have been described as soppy. It would have been all of them, but three were clearly doing their best not to weep, while Kim just looked guilty. I could understand her feeling.

Three of them in what probably felt like love, and perhaps was exactly that, but whether or not it was the real deal was irrelevant, as they were living their genuine lives at last. The final disc finished on some spectacular coastal sunsets, and we all sat for a few minutes in silence, until I called to Alicia.

“If you can’t get your picture thing back, let me know, and we will all have a look online to see what they cost. We’ll have a House session to pick which photos we’ll load onto them if we find some, okay? And before you say it, NO! Certain pictures will not be acceptable”

Emma and Rachel’s heads turned, as if geared together.

“Oh. Which ones might they be?”

“Half naked climbers and naked swimmers, just for starters!”

The full room in chorus shouted “Spoilsport!”, before Gemma turned to the television.

“Um, there are some rugby previews on…”

Patricia, Chloe and Charlie, as one, mock-swooned.

“Oh, Georgie!”

I raised an eyebrow, and Charlie grinned, so much more confident in the group than outside it.

“Gemma’s got the cream horn, or rather she wants Georgie’s. New Wales player, all young and big. George North. She’ll be sorting out her cupcakes for him, just you wait”

Gemma laughed, blushed and threw a tea-towel at Charlie before switching channels, where the national news was just finishing.

“Sentencing has been carried out in the Melanie Stevens case. Our reporter Emily Henshaw was at Croydon Crown Court for the outcome”

The camera cut to the entrance to a scruffy and brutalist building in red brick, where a woman stood under an umbrella with a microphone in hand.

“Proceedings have now finished in the Melanie Stevens murder trial, which involved the tragic and brutal death earlier this year of a transsexual woman on the northbound carriageway of the M23 near Worth, outside Gatwick Airport, a crime which has profoundly shocked local people. Billy James Anstey and Alfie John Smith, of Belvedere in Kent, were each sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of twenty-five years, while two youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were detained in a young offenders’ institution at Her Majesty’s pleasure”

I went to switch off the horrible thing, but Charlie put her hand to my arm and stopped me.

“Please, Nana”

The reporter continued.

“This case involved the death of a former Royal Marine Commando and Falklands War veteran, previously known as Mike. Ms Stevens had been advised that she was to be given gender reassignment surgery in a few weeks’ time, and had gone out to celebrate, where she encountered the group of men and youths, who were in the Crawley area delivering a vanload of illicit alcohol. In the words of the presiding judge, this was a depraved and inhuman attack that involved the tactics of hyenas”

The camera cut to scenes of a dance floor set up on grass outside a church, where a folk band was hammering out some tune I half-recognised.

“Ms Steven’s funeral was organised by local well-wishers, and when it became a focus for community horror, we reported on the event for BBC Surrey…”

Kim was shaking her head as the piece finished.

“We need to let Sparky know, Deb. Might have been a mate of his, Needs to know”

I was in shock, though, from the last part of the news item.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll, we can do a tea run or something. Yeah”

“Are you all right, Nana?”

“What? Oh. None of you spot that, in the news?”

The reporter was speaking to the vicar whose church it appeared to be, and getting some extremely thinly veiled nastiness from the man, and then the camera cut to another figure, tall, ginger, in a bloody dress.

“Stephanie Jones was one of the organisers of the funeral and associated musical event. Ms Jones, could you sum up what this event has involved for the community?”

Kim’s head turned to stare with me.

“Oh my fucking god!”