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Ace was happy to listen to Edie prattle on, her head all over the place but making plans was better than just thinking, thinking, thinking. Then a question pinged into his head. ‘I wonder what Dad needs to see Gus’s lawyer about or why he wants a family meeting tomorrow?’
‘No idea.’ Edie then lowered her voice. ‘It might be about Lance or something to do with who will manage NorthStar. I saw Oliver giving moody-boy evils earlier. I think he knows Lance is after a job… he’s got no chance, has he? I can’t see him doing a day’s work, can you?’
She nudged Ace, then looked around, not wanting to be overheard. ‘Hey, what if they want him to work his way up… send him out for the sandwiches and make him the brew-boy. Can you imagine?’
This made him giggle, the idea of Lance actually doing some work, with real people. Oh God no, not the nervous giggles… go away… go away.
Too late, and once he started, Edie joined in, and by the time Jenny appeared to say that Gus had arrived they had tears and for a second, she thought they were sad ones.
‘Hey guys, less of this. Now push up and make room, let me give you both a hug. Poor babies. And you know that Gus wouldn’t want to see you like this, and he’s here, I can feel him. His love is all around us.’
God, his mum could be so corny, and probably had no idea she’d recited the words of a cringey song, or maybe thought she was being profound, but it made his giggles worse, until he was barely able to breath – but at least he was laughing and after the past two weeks, he thought he’d forgotten how to do it.
The guests had all gone and just the family remained, gathered around a table in the courtyard making the most of an Indian summer afternoon, the sky about to turn from pale blue to peachy pink. There was a chill in the air, but the firepit was warming them up. Everyone was waiting until dusk when they were going to go back up to the burial site to have a vigil of their own.
The earlier ceremony had been less traumatic than Ace had expected. His mum had done a brilliant job, with the help of Nanou and Edie, festooning the stones with trailing garlands of white flowers and placing jars filled with candles around the circle. There were already plenty of solar lights, so hopefully it would look how his mum had always imagined it, a twinkling, peaceful and beautiful place to rest.
His dad was in a reflective mood. ‘It was nice seeing the lads again. And Gus’s niece was a sweet kid, and her husband seemed a decent bloke, so I reckon they’ll look after Anne. I said I’d go and see her when I’m next over, pay my respects. She used to fancy me you know, back in the day.’
The jeers and eye-rolls were interrupted by Edie. ‘I think the ceremony was very dignified. That lady was lovely, the words she said. You did Gus proud.’
‘And it wasn’t morbid, like I thought it would be, thanks to Mum’s unorthodox and visionary slant on getting buried.’ Ace raised his glass to Jenny who responded in kind.
‘I’m just grateful the old get didn’t insist I sang a song.’ Joe took a drag on his cigarette while everyone smiled. ‘Seriously, he used to wind me up, saying he wanted me to sing ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’!’
Edie raised an eyebrow. ‘And I bet I know what you said.’
‘Yeah, fuck off!’ Joe chuckled. ‘This is nice, us, sitting here, talking about our Gus. Just the good bits. My old mam used to say that after the funeral, the wake is a time to remember, celebrate, laugh, and then move on and she was right.’
Ace agreed, and also wondered what his dad meant by ‘just the good bits’. Pushing that aside, he focused on the fact that the difficult part was over and tried not to worry about what followed – learning to live without someone you loved.
