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Harry knew all about it. He nodded again and waited.
She went on: ‘The truth is, I never felt so alone in my whole life. I felt like I’d been set adrift. I felt like I had no one to hold on to. You know?’
He did.
‘So, when I found her name, I didn’t think twice about it. It wasn’t courageous at all. It was more a case of a drowning woman waving for help.’
‘And she answered.’
‘She did. I can still hardly believe it. She was the brave one.’
‘Maybe bravery is hereditary.’
They sat without speaking, Edith lost in her own reverie, and Harry letting her be, until Jenny returned.
‘So, the thing I still don’t get’ – Jenny pulled in her chair and carried on the conversation as if she had never left – ‘is why she wanted to meet you in a graveyard, of all places.’
‘I really don’t know. She must have been a great fan of Piaf, though. She said she named me. She asked my mom to call me Edith.’
‘Maybe it was the song.’ Harry was drunk enough to sing, ‘“Non, je ne regrette rien”—’ He stopped singing. ‘Sorry, that’s all I know.’
Jenny picked up her phone and googled the lyrics. Harry signalled the waiter and ordered another round of drinks.
Edith made a show of refusing. ‘I don’t know when I ever drank this much.’
‘No regrets, Edith.’ He raised his glass to her.
‘We all have regrets. If we don’t, we haven’t lived hard enough.’ She raised her own in return.
Harry couldn’t remember when he’d last felt so .?.?. He was lost for the right word. Accepted, maybe. Or connected. His leg still hurt, and his back was aching, but he didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t want to be left alone with his thoughts anymore. He didn’t want to think about Caroline’s loss of trust in him, and he didn’t want to think about Nancy’s .?.?. what? What was it she felt towards him? Disdain? Contempt? Not even that, he thought. He didn’t want to think about delivering his movie to the ravenous critics. It was pointless now, given Nancy’sdisregard– that was the word. Could anything be worse?
Harry wanted to stay here, in the half-light, with people who didn’t judge him. Or, if they did, they didn’t find him wanting. However bad he was, they found him good enough.
‘Oh my gosh,’ said Jenny. ‘That’s so beautiful.’ Her make-up was at peril again from the tears brimming in her eyes.
‘What?’ said Harry and Edith together.
‘The lyrics. It’s all, you know, no regrets, none at all – it’s all about putting away the good and the bad, no regrets .?.?. it goes on like that for the whole song.’
‘Yep. That’s the one,’ said Harry.
‘And then you get to the very last line and it’s .?.?.’
‘It’s what?’ said Edith.
‘It’s how her life and all her happiness .?.?.’ Jenny was weeping properly now and had to pause to wipe her nose in a Ritz monogrammed napkin.
‘Go on,’ said Harry and Edith together.
‘Today .?.?.’
‘Yes .?.?.’
‘Begins with you.’
Edith sucked in a breath.
‘Wow,’ said Jenny.
