A Spot Of Bother

132

Jean was standing in the hallway listening to a young man who worked for Ray. Mostly, though, she was letting her eyes drift across the growing crowd of people. Because, to be honest, he was one of those men who expected you to shut up and nod and make an appreciative noise every now and then.

And it was good letting her eyes drift across the growing crowd. She felt responsible enough to take some credit for the fact that they all seemed to be enjoying themselves (Judy was laughing; Kenneth was sober). But not so responsible that she had to imagine all possible disasters and avert them.

And there was Jamie heading toward the kitchen in a very nice dark blue suit and a white shirt (the cut on his cheek made him seem rather manly).

She could see David talking to Katie’s best woman and looking a little defensive. She felt as if she were watching him from a long way away.

“Five years ago,” said the man who worked with Ray, “your television signal came through the air and your phone signal came through the ground. Five years from now your TV signal’s going to come through the ground and your phone signal’s going to come through the air.”

She made her excuses and slipped into the garden.

As she did so she saw a young man coming through the side gate carrying a dark green holdall. Suede jacket, flowery shirt. He seemed vaguely familiar.

She was wondering whether he might be a friend of Katie and Ray’s when he dropped the bag and someone was hugging him and they were spinning round together and everyone was watching and she realized that it was Jamie, which meant that the man must be Tony, and they were kissing each other, in front of everyone, with their mouths open.

Her first thought was that she had to stop people seeing, by throwing something over them, like a tablecloth for example, or by shouting something loudly. But everyone had seen by now (Brian’s jaw was, quite literally, hanging open) and nothing short of machine-gun fire was going to distract people’s attention.

Time slowed down. The only things moving in the garden were Jamie and Tony and the ash falling off Ed’s cigarette.

She had to do something. And she had to do it now.

She walked up to Jamie and Tony. They pulled apart and Tony looked at her. She felt the day teeter, like a car on the edge of a cliff.

“You must be Tony,” she said.

“I am,” said Tony, very deliberately keeping one arm around Jamie’s waist. “You must be Jamie’s mother.”

“I am.”

He held out his free hand. “It’s good to meet you.”

“It’s good to meet you, too.” She reached out to hug him, to show him that she really meant it, and to show everyone else that he should be made welcome. And Tony finally let go of Jamie and put his arms around her and hugged her.

He was a lot taller than he appeared from a distance so it probably looked rather comical. But she could sense the atmosphere in the garden warming and softening.

She was only planning to do it for a few seconds, but she had to keep her face pressed into Tony’s shirt for quite a long time because she was crying, which caught her completely by surprise, and while she wanted everyone to know that she was welcoming Tony into her family, she didn’t really want them to see her weeping helplessly in the arms of someone she’d met ten seconds ago.

Then she heard Katie shrieking delightedly, “Tony. Fucking hell. You came,” which did distract people’s attention.