“Dinner in twenty!” Patricia called as we left through the back gate, and I gave her a thumbs-up through the open window.
We walked up towards Amy’s Uncle John’s land where the cows were, but I suddenly understood why she and Ethel hadn’t made it there earlier; Ethel was so slow that we barely made it up the hill halfway to Jack’s before needing to turn around again. I was sure the walking was good for her, but I could tell with every step she took how badly her back was hurting. I thought I might need to get her using her walker more at this rate.
Jack, Morgan, and Pablo caught up with us a couple hundred metres from the house and walked the rest of the way with us. Amy helped Ethel steady herself so she could bend down to pet Pablo, and I felt a surge of affection for how well she looked after her. She was so attentive to what Ethel needed, and I noticed that she was correcting her posture the way we’d been taught by the physiotherapist.
“Whatcha looking at?” Jack asked, nudging me in the side, and I looked up to see him and Morgan staring at me, dopey grins on their faces.
“Shut up,” I muttered, then motioned for all of us to keep moving. The last thing I needed was Patricia having a go at me for the risotto going cold.
Maybe I was in a sentimental mood, because I couldn’t take my eyes off Amy all through lunch, even when she was ribbing me about the quality of the salad. I insisted she should take it up with her dad, who jokingly warned me not to be insolent. Even Ethel joined in, holding up a rather large chunk of cucumber to Alan, saying “What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
Just as we were finishing our food– which had been delicious as always, unevenly chopped veg notwithstanding– Alan cleared his throat and looked at Patricia, who took his hand on top of the table.
“We have an announcement,” Alan said matter-of-factly.
“What’s going on?” Amy asked. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
This elicited an eye roll from Patricia and a guffaw from Alan.
“No, Amelia Celeste, I am not pregnant.”
Amy sat back, thoroughly chastised. She hated having her full name used, and I took a mental note of that for later.
“Ooh, I know,” Morgan said. “I’ve been here before. They’re selling the house to go travelling.” Morgan’s own mum had bowed out of regular society to live in a van in the US a few years back.
“Warmer,” Patricia said encouragingly, and Morgan’s eyes went wide.
“I was joking!”
“Yeah, where am I supposed to live?” Amy asked, and despite what I’d said to Amy in the confines of my bed, I glared at Jack when he looked straight at me. Ethel seemed to be sharing a brain cell with him, though, and she had far less of a filter.
“Well, you already spend enough time with us,” she said, “so as soon as Phil finishes that big project, we can clear out his craft room for you.”
Everybody else at the table cracked up at the idea that Amy would move into my craft room, whilst Morgan and I exchanged a panicked look that Ethel had nearly given up the game on Amy’s dress.
“Calm down,” Alan said, holding up his free hand. “We’re not moving. You’re all so dramatic.”
“Get on with it then,” Ethel said. “I’m not getting any younger.”
“Right,” Alan said, nodding at Patricia to take over.
“Your father and I have been thinking,” she said, “we’d like to go on holiday. All of us, as a family.”
“Sick!” Jack said, up for anything as always. “Where to?”
“We were thinking a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords.”
Jack and Morgan exchanged an excited look. “I’m definitely up for that,” Morgan said.
“Yeah, amazing,” Amy said. “When?”
“Well, that depends,” Patricia said. “The trip would be about a week and a half, maybe two weeks, but when we go depends on what works for everyone involved.”
Then everyone turned to look at me, the only person who hadn’t responded. Well, besides Ethel, but she was looking at me, too.Thanks a lot, Nan.
I coughed lightly into my napkin. “Well, that’s really kind,” Isaid, “but I don’t think that’s feasible for me. I couldn’t be away from Ethel for that long.”
“Oh!” Patricia said, bringing her hands up in front of her. “I’m so sorry that wasn’t clear. Of course Ethel’s invited too. That was part of the reason why we thought a cruise might be a good fit, because it’s so accessible. We can even get one out of a UK port.”
