was now physically shaking but she didn’t answer him.
I’d no idea what was happening or what Mum was supposed to have done, but a feeling of trepidation rushed through my body. An eerie atmosphere swathed me, one I’d never felt before, cocooned in my perfect idyll.
Rooted to the spot, I waited anxiously to see what would happen next.
As Grandie’s voice continued to boom I felt scared, my heart hammering against my chest. I’d never heard Grandie shout before, and I’d never heard him and Mum argue. I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it one little bit.
‘Everything I’ve done for you, and this is how you repay me.’ Grandie’s face was flushed.
Mum hung her head once more, unable to look him in the eye.
‘I thought I’d brought you up better than this. How could you betray me like this? Have you no shame?’ He snorted with disgust. ‘Get out of my sight, I never want to see you again.’ His face was thunderous, his eyes dark.
Those words jolted Mum.
I held my breath, not daring to move.
‘W-w-what do you mean?’ Mum stuttered, her cool façade now slipping and tears beginning to stream down her face.
‘Exactly that, get out of my sight,’ his voice boomed again, causing her to spring to her feet.
‘Are you serious?’ This time her eyebrows shot up and she dared to hold his gaze.
‘Deadly serious.’
The words hung in the air.
‘Right then, in that case I’ll go and you’ll be sorry,’ she spat, storming towards the door. ‘I’ll go where you can’t find me, and I’ll take Alice. You’ll never see her again, if that’s how you feel.’
‘You are not taking Alice,’ thundered Grandie.
‘I will and I am. I’m her mother, you can’t stop me,’ she shouted through her frustrated tears.
Her words penetrated my heart. Feeling shocked, my eyes misted with tears.
‘How can you do this to me? You know how much I love that girl. If you walk out that door with Alice we’re finished … forever.’ He moved towards the table and thumped his hand down, sending a cup and saucer crashing to the ground.
Mum was about to fling open the door and I was suddenly terrified of being caught standing on the other side. She couldn’t discover me listening to their conversation. For a split second, Mum hovered with her hand on the door handle and gave a dismissive shrug. ‘If that’s what you want …’
Sensing my knees were about to crumble, I quickly crouched down at the side of the grandfather clock and held my breath. Her voice trailed off as she flounced past me and disappeared up the stairs. She didn’t spot me, much to my relief.
Forcing myself to stand up, I stole a quick look into the living room before racing back through the kitchen and thrusting my feet back inside my boots. I ran and ran over the fields until I flung my hands around Billy’s neck, who nuzzled my pockets looking for carrots.
I thought back to Grandie who had been slumped down in his chair. He’d raked his hand through his hair before doing something I’d never seen him do before: he cried.
I’d no idea what he and Mum were arguing about but just twenty-four hours later I was strapped into the back of a taxi, tightly hugging my teddy bear. Of course, I’d asked where we were going but Mum wasn’t forthcoming with any answers. ‘Stop asking questions Alice, you’ll see when we get there,’ was all she offered me.
Mum’s best friend, Connie, had clutched on to her arms at the bottom of the steps to the farmhouse. ‘I don’t understand why you’re leaving. Where are you going? What’s happened?’ The barrage of questions tripped off her tongue, but Mum never answered any of them. In a trance-like state Mum muttered something then swiftly pressed a kiss on to Connie’s cheek before hugging her and clambering into the passenger seat of the taxi. She never even gave as much as a fleeting glance backwards.
I had no idea where we were going or why. All I knew was I had this wretched, nauseous pain in the pit of my stomach. Feeling scared, I snuggled my teddy bear and blinked back the tears. As the taxi pulled away from Honeysuckle Farm, I looked up and took a last glance towards the farmhouse. There was Grandie, standing in the bedroom window. He placed a hand on the pane of glass in front of him and I did the same. His tearful, saddened eyes never left mine but as the taxi reached the ornate black iron gates at the end of the drive he got smaller and smaller, before he finally disappeared out of sight, and the pain twisted in my heart.
Little did I know that this would be last time I saw Grandie for thirteen years.
New York City, thirteen years later …
Hearing a knock on the door, I knew immediately it would be Molly, you could set your watch by her. Molly Gray had been my best friend for the last three years. She was a proper city girl, born and bred in New York and living in a second-floor apartment near the corner of 57th Street and 9th Avenue on the west side of town. I, on the other hand, had arrived thirteen years ago as a terrified and bewildered child, and I had always felt I struggled to fit in. I was now living in a dingy flat in a less salubrious area of Manhattan, a place full of unfamiliar sounds and smells and where everything and everyone were constantly on the move. It was a million miles away from the country village upbringing I’d had, and often, I’d long to hear the familiar sounds of a cockerel or the bleat of a lamb. Occasionally I’d dream that I could freeze the constant motion and walk the streets silently, at my own pace.
Every Sunday morning, come rain or shine, Molly would power her legs around Central Park for a good hour or so before grabbing a coffee and a catch-up at mine when she’d finished.
‘The door’s open,’ I shouted, ‘I’m in the kitchen.’
Molly soon appeared in the doorway, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks aglow.
‘Morning,’ she panted, switching off the latest gadget that was measuring her performance and heart rate. ‘Not a bad time,’ she muttered to herself.
Her slender body was poured into the tightest, most flamboyant running gear you’d ever set eyes on and an abundance of rust-coloured hair was escaping her pony-tail as she hooked it behind her ears.
‘This was sticking out of your mail box,’ she said, placing the flyer down on the table in front of me before slumping on to the chair. ‘That’s right up your street,’ she said, sneakily pinching a piece of buttered toast from my plate then grinning at me.
Auditions for Wicked
The Majestic Theatre
Broadway, New York City
‘What, are you saying I’m a witch?’ I smiled up at her, hugging my third mug of coffee of the morning.
‘A
