'Oh,' she said, politely, and sipped her tea. A car engine sounded outside: Dawn got up and left the room. Lights swung over the closed curtains of the living room. My heart started misbehaving again, thumping madly. Great; I was going to have a heart attack just sitting here. That should make for interesting legal complications if anybody contested the Will.
I heard the outside door open. I stood up, smoothed back my hair. Footsteps. Then, 'Hello, honey...'
'Mum...
'Mmwah' (the pronounced noise of a quick kiss). 'Look, can you put that lasagne in the microwave? I said I'd help decorate the hall; I've got to... What is it? What? Through... ?'
I cleared my throat. Jean came through the door into the room, looking puzzled, and a little concerned. I smiled, gave an awkward sort of wave with both hands, jerking them out from my body once, then back again. 'Hello... Jean.'
'Daniel...' She put her scarf and bag down on a chair, came up to me. 'Hello.' She laughed, hugged me. I hugged her back, smelling the perfume of her dark coat and her short, still wildly curly brown hair; a few tiny threads of silver in it now. She drew back, still holding my arms. Her face was a little fuller than I remembered, but it seemed to have matured, rather than aged. 'What are you doing here?'
Dawn sidled in through the door, looking bashful.
'I was nearby... I thought I'd drop in...' I said, and felt a quiet moment of despair, that the first thing I'd said to her was a lie.
She laughed, shaking her head, brought a handkerchief out of one jumper cuff, put it to her nose. 'Sorry.' She sneezed. 'I've a cold.' She looked up, eyes bright, shook her head again and said, 'Oh, this is good; it's so good to see you again. How are you? What have you been doing? Have you eaten yet? I've got to dash out... or you could...' She turned round to look at Dawn, leaning her back against the far wall, looking and not looking at 'Has Dawn...?'
'Dawn's given me some tea,' I said. 'I... I heard you say something about...'
'The hall.' Jean turned back to me. 'We're putting up the decorations tonight, for the dance tomorrow. Why don't you come along?' She patted me in the ribs with the back of her hand. 'You're just the height to reach up into the corners.' Before I could reply, she turned to Dawn. 'You want to come, love?
Dawn shook her head, smiling shyly, and looked down.
'Homework,' she said. 'My turn to go to Alison's.'
So we dropped Dawn at another house and headed towards the local community hall, in the village, in Jean's car. 'I thought you must have a car. You're not travelling by train, are you?'
'Um ... yes, yes, I am.'
'What, just you? I thought you'd have managers and minders and groupies and hangers-on and...'
'No, just me.'
'Well, it's great to see you again. Are you going to stay? We've got a spare room.
'Umm ... well, I thought I might. I did ask them to book me a room at the hotel.'
'What?' She sounded slightly shocked, almost insulted and thoroughly amused, all at the one time. 'Oh, we can't have that. If you don't stay with us people'll think we don't wash the sheets or something.'
'Well, I thought people might...'
But then we were there, and the car was parked. The sunset was really over, but a thunderously deep stain of red still lay across the furthest limit of the western sky. I looked out to it for a moment. Skye was somewhere out there, more felt than seen.
'Bonny place, isn't it?'
'Aye, it is that.' I looked at her. 'What brought you out here?'
'Friends,' she said, 'I know people here. What brought you?'
'Oh... I wanted to see you.' She was silent for a moment. 'Very good,' she said, and I could almost smell her nodding more than I could see her. 'Good. Right; come on in to the body of the kirk.'
We walked towards the village hall. 'Hope people don't mind me showing up...' I said.
'Why should they?' she said.
'I don't know. I worry about just... turning up.'
'Thank God you have. I'm a terrible blether, Daniel. I told people I knew you and I think they've been waiting for you to appear for about a year now. I was getting ready to explain that I only knew this famous rock star fairly well.' She squeezed my arm briefly as we went up the steps into the hall. 'And don't worry about staying with us; I've been trying to cultivate a reputation as a wicked woman and you're the first real chance I've had.'
I didn't get a chance to catch her expression as she said this, or say anything else, because then we were in the hall, bright with lights and full of people standing on tables and chairs, and full of tables and chairs anyway, and people were trailing coloured streamers and long unconcertinaed lengths of glittering decorations and pinning up puffballs of Santa Clauses and snowmen and twirling pointed stars, and there was a wee boy on a trike who was pedalling furiously round the place, in the open spaces of the wooden floor, tearing past people and ducking under tables and skidding round chairs, and people were laughing and shouting and throwing packets of drawing pins and reels of sticky tape about and music was playing.
I was introduced to a variety of people whose names I instantly forgot, and told where to hold up decorations. I did as I was told and then couldn't find anything else to do, as all the high decorations were put up, and so I just stood, I suppose, looking a little confused, in the midst of all this work and effort and hilarity and the wee boy whizzing round on his bike.
'Here; sit down out the way, Daniel,' Jean said, pointing me at a chair. 'You look confused.'
'It's funny; I come out here to the wilds and the wilderness, and I'm surrounded with all these people.' I laughed.
'Not put off, I hope?' She stood, arms crossed, looking down at me; indulgent, amused... and I don't know what else.
I rested one arm on a table by my side. 'No; not put off.'
'Can we tempt you to stay over Christmas... maybe even Hogmanay?' Her voice was a little lower, a little more measured than it had been.
I looked up at her. 'Oh... yes. Of course; Christmas... New Year...'I nodded.'Yes.That would be...if you don't...'
'We'd love to have you. How long can you stay?' I shook my head. 'Well... I don't know. I'll... Look, just ... I mean... as soon as... I mean I might...' I couldn't even think what it was I wanted to say, let alone start trying to say it. 'Oh,' I said, leaning back on the table, temporarily exhausted by the effort of it all. 'Kick me out when you want.'
'Daniel,' she said, smiling very seriously and shaking her head, 'I wouldn't kick you out of anything.' Then she went back to help with the decorations.
I leant my elbow on the table again, and felt it tip. I looked down at one of the legs. I patted my pockets, looking for a wedge.
I found a piece of plastic, cracked it in half and slid it underneath the leg, steadying it.
It was only after I'd sat up again and done a double-take and looked down that I realised what I'd used was my platinum Amex card... I swear .
I look up again, laughing quietly to myself. The wean on the trike races past.
They've tied great long lengths of different coloured paper streamers to the back of the wee boy's bicycle. He's still speeding round and round the hall, past people and between sets of chairs, head down and pedalling as hard as he can, but now he's got a long, swirling train of colour streaming after him.
On the tape machine somebody is playing the Northumbrian Pipes, and in the midst of that simple, tootling, jigging music, I'm sitting back, rubbing my bristly chin and feeling happy again, and wondering if it'll last, and watching the bairn on the trike, the streamers flowing behind him like a rainbow wake, whizzing round and round and round.