Half the World Away - [6]

It is early December and most of the children have gone home. I’m printing out song sheets, just two waifs and strays with me: James Porringer, whose mother relies on the bus to get here and is often late when the service is delayed, and Courtney Collier, who can’t remember who is picking her up today, Dad, Mum or Nana. I suspect one of them has forgotten too. Courtney has gone very quiet, and looks close to tears, so I ask her and James to count out some song sheets into piles of thirty.

I like the feel of the place outside hours: it’s not spooky, like some old buildings can be, but has a warm, slightly worn, homely feel to it. As though it’s soaked up the affection and energy of all the generations of children it has seen come and go.

I’m sending another batch to the printer when my phone beeps: email. It’s from Lori.

From:

[email protected]

Date:

6 December 2013 23:08

To:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Subject:

New Plans

Hi, I’ve had an awesome offer to go to China with Dawn. She’s really nice and she’s been once before so she can show me the ropes. The plan is to go on to Hong Kong from here, have Xmas and New Year there and get our visas then get to Chengdu sometime in January (it’s near where they have the pandas). It’s a really big city, but supposed to be laid-back compared to Beijing. We’ll have a month there. It means I won’t get back until Feb so tell Finn and Isaac I will bring them special late presents then.

I’m a bit low on money so Dad is there any way you can send me some via Western Union? I need to buy plane tickets soon. We’ve found some for £700 – Dawn says that’s cheap because it’s three flights altogether (includes my return from China). Tomorrow would be good. Thanks soooo much!!!

Suze had to go back to Oz her dad is very ill so she can’t go with Dawn as they planned. Dawn did journalism at home and she’s hoping to make documentaries in the longer term. I told her she should do some pieces for my blog.

Lxxx

I feel a clutch of disappointment that Lori won’t be here for Christmas, that it’ll be another month after that. And then a flare of irritation: everything was arranged, agreed – why couldn’t she just stick to that? Impulsive. The words ‘like her father’ hover in my mind. Maybe Tom won’t send her the money. As soon as I think it, I feel ashamed. If Tom can’t or won’t then we’ll find it, increase our overdraft if need be.

There’s the noise of someone arriving: James’s mum, red-faced and breathless. ‘Sorry,’ she calls to me.

‘Don’t worry,’ I say. ‘He’s been helping me.’

James goes pink and his mum smiles, kisses his head and bundles him off.

Then the office phone rings and it’s Courtney’s grandmother full of apologies and promising to be there in five minutes.

The first chance I get to call Tom is after tea. We haven’t spoken since the day we took Lori to the airport.

‘It’s all a bit last-minute,’ I say to him. ‘Anyway, can you transfer the money?’

‘Sure, there’s a place up the road does it nowadays,’ he says. ‘Have you been reading her blog?’

‘Yes. You heard anything else about this Dawn?’

‘Only what she said in the email.’

I wonder if Dawn is more than just a friend but don’t particularly want to speculate with Tom. Lori’s impulsiveness sometimes extends to relationships. She falls hard and fast and can get hurt. The worst was a girlfriend she had at school. Saskia went on to a different sixth form and broke up with Lori soon after. Lori messed up that school year and had to repeat it. There were a couple of relationships at uni but they seemed fairly casual. As if she was protecting herself from anything too deep.

‘Be strange not seeing her at Christmas,’ I say.

Tom grunts.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Nothing fixed yet,’ he says. ‘Got a couple of offers.’

Of course he has. He’s never short of friends, or invitations. I don’t know if he’s seeing anyone new – Lori used to keep me up to date and the last I heard, in July, he’d broken up with his latest girlfriend. I don’t know if Tom will ever settle down. He has lived with a few women since we were together but never for very long. I don’t know whether that’s something he hankers after or not. We’re just not that close any more.

CHAPTER SIX

We Skype Lori on Christmas Day. Isaac is exhausted – he’s been up since four, desperate for his big presents. I sent him back to bed but he didn’t sleep. We’ve had our ritual opening and the boys clutch their gifts to show Lori. Finn has a mini-scooter and Isaac another Lego kit, City Coast Guard Patrol.

‘Hi, guys.’ She waves. She looks relaxed: she has a turquoise vest on and cargos, her hair is shorter – the pink has gone – and she’s sitting on a single bed. I can see the metal bars of the headboard.

The lag between speaking and hearing adds to the chaos of four people trying to talk to one.

Lori makes a fuss of the boys, responding with appropriate excitement to their presents. Isaac wants to list all of his, including the trinkets in his stocking, but Finn keeps butting in. Eventually Isaac loses it, shouts and shoves his brother off his chair.