Don’t kill it!she’d screeched with an emotional teenage sentiment that hadn’t really left her, as he lunged towards the tiny furry creature who seemed to be cowering, all wide-eyed and cute. No doubt due to her diversionary shout, he had missed the target and whacked the wood, hence the dent.
I’m not going to kill it, but I’d rather it didn’t move in with its fifty siblings!They’d both laughed at another absurd tale that, like so many other memories, became part of the fabric of this flat, this building ... all lost for ever if it were to be razed to the ground.
‘The only way to resolve this issue is to talk about it, Mrs –Miss –Miss Cooper! Miss!’
‘No, the only way to resolve this issue, Mr Vaughan, is for you to leave me alone! I am not moving, and I am not selling!’ she fired. ‘Or you could write me another of those threatening letters. I have so many I might wallpaper my kitchen with them!’ She smiled at the thought and wondered if she had any wallpaper paste, liking the visual as a way to protest.
‘So, you’ve read them?’ His tone suggested this was a win.
‘Some of them,’ she admitted, unwilling to confess that she had found most of them down the back of the unit in the hallway, gathering dust where they must have toppled.
‘You seem like a nice lady. I am only doing my job, but I would like to say that this development is going ahead. We have gone through all the correct legal channels and notified you accordingly. The fact that you have not responded within the time frames allowed for response is not really our fault. Your obstinacy at this stage in proceedings is only making things harder for everyone.’
‘I disagree. I think my obstinacy at this stage in proceedings is making things decidedly better for me. If I wasn’t obstinate, I’d be preparing to go like Mr Chaplin, Mrs Veerswamy, the lovely Polish couple on the ground floor, and Miss Newman and her son.’ She stared at the stick Apollo had given her for safekeeping and briefly imagined poking young Mr Vaughan through the letterbox with it. ‘I don’t want to be whisked off to a bloody newbuild in the suburbs. I don’t want to leave my home! My obstinacy is the only reason I’mstill here after all these years and why I will remain here. I’m not going anywhere!’
‘So you’ve said, but the thing is, you can go wherever you want to. No one’s suggesting a newbuild in the suburbs. We will honour the market value of your property, which I can tell you is coming in at a very attractive price, well over a million.’ It was, she knew, a lot of money, but it wouldn’t buy her this flat anywhere else, because there was no other flat like this one and certainly not with the view, her memories, her childhood footprints on the floor, her dad’s scent in this hallway, her history in its walls. ‘You could even buy a one-bedder inThe Fortescue!’
She wasn’t sure if he spoke in jest, but her anger boiled just the same.
‘I don’t care about market value. This is my home, it’s always been my home, this is where I want to live! I have no intention of selling! And if I ever did, it would be because I had decided the time was right, and not because some upstart developers with a shiny brochure were harassing me and trying to force my hand!’
‘We’re not harassing you, Mrs Cooper. We just want to talk. Mr Portland himself has said he’d be happy to come and see you, if you would prefer that?’
‘Sweet Lord above! I don’t want to talk to anyone about it! Don’t you ever get bored of going around in circles, Mr Vaughan?’
‘Actually, I do. Yes.’ He sounded resigned, tired, fed up. It was hard to tell which. ‘I have a bad back and having to walk up and down your stairs and bend to holler through this letterbox is doing me no favours at all.’
Lilly smiled. It was funny, human and too bloody bad!
‘How did you hurt your back?’ She was nosy, curious. He was only young, early thirties if she had to guess.
‘I got roped in to play cricket in Greenwich Park last year, fielding. My lack of prowess on the sporting field was nomatch for my overconfidence. Someone lobbed a ball and I overreached, skidded on wet grass and landed in a heap. I was in agony, and when I looked up my teammates were crowded around me, screaming at me for dropping the ball. I felt like a right chump. I never played again.’
‘There’s a lesson there, I suppose: don’t drop the ball.’ She smiled.
‘Good advice.’ She heard the echo of amusement in his tone.
‘Doesn’t sound like cricket is your thing.’
‘No, I prefer football. Watching it, that is, not playing.’
‘Who do you support?’
‘Millwall.’ She noted the man’s silence, as if waiting for her response. ‘You not a Millwall fan?’
‘No. Not a football fan at all,’ she admitted, thinking of Derek Manners ...You heard about Lineker?
‘Look, Miss Cooper ...’ Hurrah! He’d got it right, this momentary joy tempered by the fact that they had very quickly, it seemed, got to the ‘look’ stage, suggesting he might be running out of options and patience.Look ...we need you to comply.Look ...everyone is getting a little sick and tired of your shenanigans.Look ...you’re only going to make it harder for yourself in the long run. Well, everyone could sod off! ‘I want this to be as straightforward as possible for you,’ he continued. ‘Once the compulsory purchase notice is issued, things change, and sometimes they change quite quickly.’
‘Change how?’ The idea of having no legal say and being forced to sell made her feel sick.
‘I’m probably telling you more than I should, but we have a project plan that is policed by a kind of traffic-light system. All aspects of the build are either green for go, amber for in train, or red, which indicates a problem. You are red, Miss Cooper. You are one of the only reds and, right now, the project managers,developers, builders, investors, relevant government bodies and local authorities that have okayed the multimillion-pound project are all keen to make the problem go away.’ It was odd to be thought of as a problem, although she rather liked the idea of being a thorn in their side. ‘This means they will throw money and resources at it, at you. On top of the market value of your property, you are entitled to other compensations to allow for the upheaval, the disruption, the cost of moving—’
‘Yet again, Mr Vaughan, it is not about money!’
‘But itcanbe about money!’ he countered, to her surprise. ‘It can be if that amount is so life-changing or it allows you to start over in a perfect place without financial worry.’
‘I have the perfect place where I live without financial worry!’
