there was still one house to see.
She thought about the emotions that her time in Judith’s bungalow had engendered in her. She had never liked bungalows, but this one was large, airy, tasteful, comfortable, she had privacy, it was perfect. Under the circumstances, after that letter the night before, the perfection had been unbearable. Judith had everything. A villa in Portugal. A flat in London. No man, but then she didn’t want a man. She played golf. She played tennis. She played bridge. She visited lovely restaurants. Sally couldn’t keep up, didn’t play golf, didn’t play tennis, didn’t play bridge, didn’t play life, wasn’t a fun person. Even lovely restaurants palled when you could go every night. In the evenings, after dinner (exquisite) they had been able to watch any film they wanted. To be able to watch any film you wanted, and to want to watch none of them, that was hard to deal with. To have survived six weeks of anguish alone in her home in Potherthwaite, followed by four days of tension in a tiny flat in Barnet, and then to have all the air and all the space you wanted in a superb bungalow in beautiful Totnes, and still to feel claustrophobic, that was difficult to bear.
On the fifth morning, she had desperately needed to go out. Judith was playing something called duplicate, which was a form of bridge apparently, and she’d had to go because her partner could be awkward, she’d had a trauma. Her tortoise had died, and she’d been attached to it. Sally had commented that this must have meant that she had to go around very slowly. The joke had not been a success. But the reason Judith had given had not fooled Sally. Judith had gone because she wanted to, as she had done everything in her life, including retiring with a huge pay-off from a successful distribution company at exactly the time that suited her best.
Sally’d had the house to herself, all that space, and she had felt trapped. She could walk through the conservatory on to the patio, stare at a utopia of conservatories and patios, feel the fresh, unpolluted West Country air on her face, but to her it wasn’t the air, the open air, it was Judith’s air, the enclosed air, the air within the boundaries so carefully drawn up in the documents of sale.
She had walked out, shut the door, not given a thought to keys, had walked through the trim streets, and past the perfect residences towards the river. The River Dart was a rebuke to the River Pother. The quay was an elegant two fingers to the Potherthwaite Quays.
She had taken a boat trip, on impulse. Down the elegant Dart to historic Dartmouth. Beautiful, searingly beautiful, a permanent, living satire on every yard of the Rackstraw and Sladfield Canal.
She had disembarked at Dartmouth, one among trippers, indistinguishable on the outside from the trippers, but not thinking the thoughts of trippers. Not thinking about food either. She had walked through Dartmouth, picturesque Dartmouth, as if it wasn’t there. On on on. Away away away. Destination – none. She had kept thinking that she would stop, turn round, wander back, relish the sunshine. But she was in a place beyond relish, and she must walk, stride, walk energetically from nowhere to nowhere else. She thought of her sister’s lean, taut, tight, sexless body, in the vanguard at fifty-eight in half-marathons, longest drive of all the women in the golf club, away away away. After quite a while, already she was a few miles from Dartmouth. She considered turning round and thought, ‘No. Let her search for me. Let her worry about me. Let her know what anxiety is.’
And so she had come to her cliff edge, far from Totnes. She had been sitting for a long time now, almost nodded off once or twice, to her amazement. Unnoticed by her, afternoon had turned into evening.
She suddenly realized how cold she was. She would need to move around. She stood up, and found herself walking back to the edge. The memory of those ridiculous visits to houses she didn’t want to buy swept over her. Disgust swept over her. She was weak, weak, weak.
She’d show them all that she wasn’t weak. She’d show them how strong she was. She began to stride to the edge, resolute, almost exalted, nearer and nearer.
And then a rather extraordinary coincidence occurred. Except that it might not have been a coincidence, and in that case it wouldn’t have been extraordinary at all. Sally saw a small yacht, beating up the Channel towards Torbay.
She wondered. Could it be? Why not?
She stopped hurriedly. She was only about two feet from the edge. Two feet. Twenty-four inches. The realization of how close she’d been to death sent an electric shock through her.
Would she have wanted to stop if she had not seen the boat? Would she have been able to stop if she had not seen the boat? She didn’t know. And she never would know, that was what was so disturbing. In days to come she would relive the moment, and – it was unnerving – she still wouldn’t be certain that this time she would stop.
She went back to her Droppings Free Zone. She sat down. Her heart began to slow. She took the letter out of her pocket, opened it, pulled at the sheets of paper to get the worst of the creases out.
She read it.
Dear dear Sally …
You don’t necessarily increase the power of your words by repeating them, but at this moment in her emotional life she was grateful for that word – ‘dear’ – and for its repetition.
I know you gave me this address for emergencies, and this is’nt an emergency, but we take each other for granted, and then when you are’nt there we miss you. I am missing you so much. Potherthwaite is missing you. I am also dreadfully worried that you will be so tempted by the southern zeffirs …
She smiled at Marigold’s mistake. She did. She actually smiled. It wasn’t much of a smile, but still, it was a smile. There was something about Marigold.
… that you won’t come back. Please let me know that you will come back …
Could she believe any of this?
Anyway, you said that you were coming back next Tuesday, and I wondered if when you get back we could have lunch at the Weavers’ one Thursday, when all the oldie’s gather for their Pensioner’s Offer’s and we can feel like youngsters again.
What did a few apostrophes matter compared to a warm heart, but had Marigold really got a warm heart? Could she still believe of anybody that they had a warm heart? Could she believe it of herself?
I wondered if you’d mind if we invited Olive and Arnold to join us. Its a funny thing, and people will talk, but I don’t think there’s anything in it, but I may be wrong, but I don’t think so, well I suppose I wouldn’t, would I, but Harry and Jill have gone off together all the way to Fowlmouth in Cornwall to collect his boat, which is a yawl, whatever that is, and sail it back north somewhere so he can use it. He keeps it at somewhere called Emworth or something in Dorset or somewhere, but last back end he got stuck with a bad gale going the wrong way as they do, and no time to bring it back, so its been at Fowlmouth all winter, which has cost a packet, so he’s not keen on paying out to bring it back. Jill’s game for anything, and is very strong, I’ve seen her in the shower’s at the tennis club and I’d put her in the second row if she did rugby she’ll be great with the close-hawling or whatever it is. I think its just convenience and saving money, and no funny stuff, but you know what people are.
I hope you don’t mind, but I know you won’t, you aren’t like that, but I called on Ellie, I hope you don’t think I’m butting in on your parade but I was very moved by what you said about seeing her. She talked of your visits and how they cheer her up.
Laugh of the week. Someone stole a big old illustrated Bible from the church and broke into Sophie Partingtons’ in Canal
