Amelia not surprisingly looked utterly befuddled.
“Right,” said Kate, clapping her hands. “Let’s get started. We’ve a lot to get through.” She began to run through her long list.
“We’ve obviously got the venue and the caterers sorted for lots of food and booze.
“We decided on also having extra big bowls of dolly mixtures and Maltesers on all the tables for everyone to snack on, as well as pickled onion Monster Munch.” She looked over at Jack. “You have all that under control?”
Jack nodded, “All bought and in our kitchen. I might have overdone it, though.”
“Not possible,” Kate replied shortly, and continued. “We are all going to deck the hall in pink streamers and with giant balloons spelling out Freya’s name and her age, of course. Patsy, tell me that’s all done?”
“Affirmative. I have the helium and I will blow them up on the day.”
“Great,” Kate said, checking it off her list. “Evie sourced that candy floss machine and, of course, we’ve got the bouncy castle.”
“Did The Minions tableware arrive?” said Delima worriedly. “I know you ordered it, Kate, but it will be a disaster if it doesn’t get here in time.”
“Don’t worry, it’s all here safely and we’ve also got a six and a half foot tall Minion costume that your Jack will wear when he brings in the cake.”
Delima and Jack nodded as though this was the most normal thing in the world.
Amelia had sat quietly at first, clearly growing more and more confused. Eventually, she burst out, “I’m sorry everyone, but thisisa party for an eighty-year-old woman you are talking about?”
They all looked at her.
“Yes,” they chorused. Kate added “And your point is?”
Amelia looked flummoxed. “I mean, it just seems a little … silly and childish. Would she not prefer something more classy, like, I don’t know, an afternoon tea or a sitdown meal or something?”
Kate patiently explained on everyone’s behalf, “Amelia, just think of this as being a party for a hyperactive toddler and you will get the drift. We are throwing everything at this event. Freya adores Minions. So Minions she will have.”
Delima added: “I caught her teaching Hari how to say, banana, in the style of a Minion. You know it’s going to be his first word. Not ‘mama’ or ‘dada’, but ‘ba-na-na’ ”.
Patsy said to Amelia: “Not sure you haveThe Vicar of Dibleyin the US of A, but if you’ve seen it, just think of Alice’s wedding when she had Teletubbies as bridesmaids and multiply that by a million and that’s kind of what we are going for.”
“I’m just not sure it’s very Freya,” began Amelia, and then she caught the disapproving gazes, and said hastily: “But you know her far better than me, of course.”
Delima nodded curtly and went on, “So Jack will be bringing in the cake? And are we all absolutely sure it will be big enough?”
“It’s going to be gigantic,” said Kate. She added, “As we all agreed, it will be decorated with the faces of Take That around the bottom layer and then with figurines of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds on the very top as Wolverine and Deadpool.”
“Just make sure that it’s all of Take That,” said Edwyn seriously. “We don’t want a repeat of her seventieth birthday when Jason Orange was left out.”
Everyone paused and lowered their eyes remembering Freya’s disappointment. They had vowed never to make that mistake again.
Kate said, “Big thanks to Patsy for getting Whisky Kiss sorted for the ceilidh. They will be on until midnight and then we have special permission to have a disco until 3am.”
“Won’t Freya be exhausted by then?” Amelia asked. Evie clenched her jaw and inwardly rolled her eyes – everything Amelia said just proved she didn’t know the first thing about Freya.
“Are you kidding me?” said Jack. She’s always the last to leave any party and she will wear us all out. Just make sure young Rory plays plenty of songs by The Clash and The Spice Girls and we’ll be fine.”
“Freya has eclectic taste in music,” said Patsy dryly. Kate nodded. “She certainly has, and all of us want this night to be just perfect.”
Delima added, “Every one of us here is grateful to Freya. She made me feel so welcome when I first came here from Singapore. She made a point of coming to visit me often, and I remember pouring my heart out to her. I felt so homesick and lonely but she asked me to become one of her Selkies and that’s when I met all of you.”
She beamed at them and went on, “Do you know my mother in Singapore video calls her once a week just for a chat? Freya phoned to reassure her I was settling in, but now they are on WhatsApp talking for hours.”
Kate said, “She was the first one I told when I was pregnant with Louise. Even before Edwyn. She was so kind to me when I wasn’t sure he really wanted to marry me and encouraged me to be patient because she knew for a fact Edwyn would eventually propose. I’m sure she gave him a kick up the arse, even though they both deny it.”
