Metanoia - Chapter 31
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31
The next morning, they were sitting in bed drinking tea.
‘Let’s go and see the children’ Danny said, a propos of nothing at all.
‘That’s a lovely idea. Yes, let’s. When?’
‘Now?’
‘But we haven’t warned the children, we can’t just turn up, unannounced . . .’
‘I don’t see why not. After all, if they can’t put us up, there’s plenty of others we can ask for a bed for a night or two. And I’m sure they’ll have us to supper, at least,’ Danny laughed. They had only been in sporadic touch with Cambridge since they’d come back to the village. Although there was an embryonic cellular network, its coverage wasn’t great, and they tended not to use it. The radio was a good way of contacting people urgently, or getting through brief messages, but it wasn’t really appropriate to jam up a channel with a family gossip. Sally had written regular emails to Daisy and Rachel, giving them their news and reporting on progress, but had never mentioned the possibility of a visit. But then she thought, why not? It would be nice to see them all, and it would be a nice break for them both, to get away from the house and the seemingly endless to-do lists for the building and the garden.
‘All right then’ said Sally ‘let’s do it.’
‘OK, I’ll take the spring cycle over to Earl’s Colne and bring the flutter back here. If you can meet me up at the airfield with an overnight bag . . . I should be back in an hour, hour and a half tops. We can have lunch in Cambridge.’
‘Shall I tell them we’re coming?’
‘No, let’s just surprise them - it’ll be fun.’ Danny got out of bed and went into the bathroom for a quick wash and a shave. By the time he came back, Sally was up and dressed and starting to pack.
‘Do you want some breakfast before you go?’
‘No, I’m fine thanks. I’ll grab a coffee at the airfield.’
‘All right. I’ll make some sandwiches for us to have on the way.’ Sally turned and gave him a long slow kiss. Danny started to feel like getting back into bed again. He hugged her back, grabbed his haversack and went downstairs to collect what he would need for the flight. Most of the gear was kept in the flutter, but he had an electronic navigator that he kept in the house, partly because it was valuable, but mainly so it was fully charged.
It was a perfect spring day. The road to Earl’s Colne was a bit rough in places, but on the whole perfectly rideable with the spring cycle. The hedgerows were filled with hawthorn blossom and early cow parsley, the ditches with perfect primroses clumped on the sunny banks. Birdsong filled the air, and he heard his first cuckoo as he climbed up the ridge on the south side of the Colne valley.
It took him and Geoff, the mechanic, instructor and general factotum for the airfield, less than ten minutes to get the flutter out of the hangar and ready to fly. He gave Geoff his flight plan, and told him they expected to be back in a couple of days. He would radio when they were ready to return and let Geoff know their ETA.
Sally was waiting with their bag beside the old ruined hangar when he landed, and they took off straight away. Once they reached their cruising height, Danny handed over control to Sally. They had had several flights together since returning to the village, exploring the countryside around them, and Sally’s confidence had grown considerably since her first flight to the north. She had already made one or two take offs and landings. Danny had suggested she might take formal lessons with Geoff, but she had put him off. She was quite happy to fly with him, and confident that, in an emergency, she’d be able to cope, at least to get the flutter back on the ground without crashing it. That was good enough for her.
When they had landed and parked the flutter, Sally tried to call The Elms, but there was no reply. They took a horse cab into the centre of town. Danny called up Fred, his old friend from his first days at Cambridge, and they arranged to meet for lunch at a pub down by the river.
They had a pleasant lunch with Fred and his wife Sarah, exchanging news and catching up on the gossip from the university and the town. Fred was still teaching and lecturing part time, and Sarah was on the Town and Pale Councils. When they said goodbye, Danny made Fred promise that they would come and stay in the village for a few days. Fred had a pilot friend who could bring them down, and Danny could fly them back.
They walked south through the town towards the Trumpington Road, and turned into their old familiar gate and driveway. The house was hidden from the gate by tall laurel hedges and mature chestnuts. As they turned the corner, they were both shocked by how closed up and dead it seemed. Shutters closed on the ground floor windows, and curtains drawn upstairs. There was no sign or sound of life.
They walked up to the front door. Danny tried the handle and the door opened. Inside the hallway was gloomy, and the house felt as if it been left empty for some days. Everything was neat and tidy, the kitchen clean and clear.
‘Oh Danny, we should have told them we were coming’ Sally almost wailed. ‘Where can they all be?’
‘I’ll try Rachel’s department at the University’ said Danny, pulling out his phone.
The phone rang, and then a woman answered. Danny asked if she knew where Rachel Stearman was. The woman checked Danny’s identity, it turned out they knew each other vaguely, and then asked Danny to stay on the line for a minute. She came back after a short delay, and said Rachel was in a tutorial, but should be free in half an hour or so. She asked Danny for his number and said she would make sure Rachel got a message to call him when she came out of her tutorial. Danny thanked her and hung up the call.
‘Do you think something’s wrong?’
‘I’m sure not’, Danny said reassuringly. ‘We’ll find out soon enough what’s happening. Let’s have a cup of tea, and find ourselves a bedroom.’
Half an hour later, they were sitting in the kitchen when Danny’s phone rang.
‘Hi Dad’ said Rachel cheerily ‘where are you?’
‘We’re here, at home, in Cambridge, we just arrived.’
‘You should have told us you were coming. I’ve got some news, so it’s really nice to be able to give it to you in person. How long are you staying?’
‘We thought a couple of days. But tell us about the house - it looks like no one’s living here any more. And do you know where Daisy and Joe are?’
‘Whoa Dad, too many questions!’ Rachel laughed down the line. ‘Look, let’s all have supper together at the house tonight. I’ll get hold of Joe and Daisy. There should be plenty to eat in the freezer and I’ll bring some fresh veggies and milk and stuff, and we can have a really good natter, it seems like ages since you left.’
‘OK, what time?’ Danny asked.
‘Well, I finish here soon, I’ll have to get back to Tom’s parents to pick up some things, so I should be able to get to the house by six or so. Can’t speak for Joe or Daisy.’
‘Great’ said Danny ‘see you then’ and hung up the phone.
Rachel was as good as her word, and turned up with two heavy bags of shopping just after six. She flung her arms around Sally, and then burst into tears.
‘Rachel, Rachel, what’s the matter?’ Sally murmured soothingly.
‘Oh, it’s nothing Mum, I’m fine, nothing bad anyway, I’m just feeling terribly emotional at the moment, everything sets me off. That’s why I wanted to see you so much. Let’s sit down’ and Rachel walked past Sally and into the kitchen with her bags. Danny came in from the garden and gave her a hug.
‘Joe and Daisy should be here soon. I just want to tell you my news before they get here. I’m having a baby’ Rachel said, beaming and crying at the same time.
‘Oh Rachel, that’s lovely news’ said Sally, reaching towards her. ‘How long have you known? When is it due?’
‘I’ve suspected for a few weeks, after I missed my last period, and I just felt different, somehow. I told Tom . . .’
‘How did he take it?’ asked Danny. ‘Is he pleased?’
‘More like shocked, at first. I mean we hadn’t been planning on it or trying, just the reverse, and he’s so involved in his work, and away such a lot, so it didn’t feel like great timing to him . . . but he’s fine about it now, really pleased.’
‘So when?’ asked Sally.
‘November, I think, I’m about two months’ gone.’
‘So what’s the plan?’ asked Danny.
‘Well, that’s why I’m glad to have you two for myself for a bit. Tom is away an awful lot, I usually only get to see him at weekends, and sometimes only for a day, or not at all. And that’s going to go on for a while, the power project is huge, and going well, but it really has become Tom’s baby, and there’s a lot of pressure on him to stay with it until it’s finished. That’s why the house is the way it is, Joe and Daisy are hardly ever here, so I’ve been rattling around this place on my own, so I’ve started spending most of my time with Tom’s family . . . but really, what I’d like to do is come and stay with you, and have my baby in the village, with you two . . .’
‘Well, of course you can do that, we’d love to have you’ said Danny and Sally, more or less in unison. ‘But what about Tom? He’s working up near the Wash isn’t he? Won’t it be much more difficult for him to come back to the village?’ Danny continued.
‘Well Tom has talked to his boss. He’s nearly got his full flutter license’ - Danny looked at Rachel in surprise - ‘your fault Dad, you inspired him to give it a go. Anyway, his boss was really understanding when Tom talked to him - talked about rescheduling his work, so he gets time off in chunks of a few days, and helping him to buy a flutter, or getting the project to provide him with one when he needs it. So he could get down to the village in less time than it takes him to come back here. And I think he’d feel a lot happier knowing you two are looking after me, than just leaving me on my own here. I mean, I’m very fond of his family, especially his mum, but he knows that’s not the same. And I think he’s quite excited about commuting by air to the village. He’s never lived outside Cambridge, and I think he’d like to try living in a smaller place . . . and so would I.’ Rachel finished, with a laugh.
‘You seem to have it all worked out’ Sally said, smiling. ‘What’ll we do with the house?’ She turned to look at Danny.
‘Tom and Rachel will need somewhere to live if they come back after the baby’s born. And Joe and Daisy presumably want a home they can call their own . . . I don’t know how serious they are about their current partners . . .’ Danny tailed off, suddenly realising he wasn’t even sure he could confidently name either of them, or whether they were even the same bright young things he remembered from Tom and Rachel’s wedding. ‘We don’t need to rush into that, if Joe and Daisy aren’t bothered, we can always offer it to the Council on a year’s lease, or something, and see where we all stand after the baby’s arrived. And your mum and I haven’t finally decided what we’ll do, we might want to come back ourselves . . .’ Sally gasped, audibly. It felt to her that they had decided, although they had never actually talked directly about it, there had been just too many things on their daily to do lists to look up and seriously consider the future. She looked questioningly at Danny.
‘I’m sorry Sally’ Danny continued ‘I just felt that we hadn’t talked about it, or made any sort of formal shall we stick at it or not decision - I didn’t want to close a door before you’d said what you wanted to do.’
‘But what do you want to do?’ Sally almost wailed.
‘You know, I honestly haven’t thought about it. I haven’t had time, and none of the things I’m doing have any long term implications; y’know, sorting the house out and so on. In a way your gardening projects are much more long term than my building stuff. I have sort of put all that on hold, until I talk to the University - they’ll want some sort of commitment from me fairly soon . . . ’til then there doesn’t seem much point worrying about it.’
‘But what do you feel about it, about staying in the village I mean?’ asked Sally.
‘Honestly, I still feel the same way - I want to stay on. I want to die there.’ Danny laughed. ‘Sorry, that’s not meant to sound morbid, I mean, I want us to spend the rest of our lives there.’
‘Good’ said Sally, with an air of drawing a meeting to a close, ‘let’s get some supper organised. Any idea’ she turned to Rachel ‘when we might see Joe and Daisy?’
‘Soon, I think. They were both really pleased to hear you’ve come to visit.’
‘Are they bringing anyone else along?’ Sally asked.
‘No, we all just wanted a nice just family evening. I hope that’s OK?’
‘That’s what we’d like too’ Sally agreed. ‘Let’s see what there is to eat.’ So saying, she got up from the table and went into the larder. Danny stood up and went round the table and pulled Rachel to her feet and hugged her. ‘Congratulations, you clever thing, I’m so pleased for the three of you.’ He smiled into her mother’s sea gray eyes.
‘Oh dad, thank you, but don’t say three, just yet . . . it’s too soon to count chickens, and I’m a bit superstitious.’
‘I know, you’re right. Will you tell Joe and Daisy tonight?’
‘Yes, of course. I wanted to tell them anyway, but I wanted to tell you and mum first. I’m so pleased you’re actually here, and I’ve been able to talk to you face to face, it’s so much better than a mail, or a phone call, it’s made me so happy.’ Rachel’s eyes sparkled with tears, as she squeezed her father back, tightly.
Soon after, Joe and Daisy arrived together at the front door. Danny and Sally and Rachel were sitting round the kitchen table with glasses of wine. Rachel wasted no time in telling them her news. Joe stood, open mouthed, seemingly in shock, and then burst out laughing and hugged Rachel warmly, but said nothing. Daisy was even more overwhelmed than Sally had been, and began laughing and crying almost simultaneously. She and Rachel had always been close, especially so since Frank had been killed.
They talked about Rachel’s plan to come back to the village, and what to do about the house. Neither Joe or Daisy seemed particularly concerned, but both seemed keen to hold on to the house, at least for a while. They didn’t want it to be leased back to the Council for a year, and clearly both felt they needed somewhere to call their own, to retreat to if their partners or their families became difficult or unreliable. In fact they both said they would like to spend more time at home; with Rachel away, there was plenty of room for them and their partners, and neither of them felt completely comfortable living effectively as semi-permanent house guests with their partners’ families.
They talked about timing. Rachel would be all finished up at the university within a month or so. She thought Tom would have his flutter license and a deal sorted out with his boss by then, so they pencilled in mid summer as a date for her move to the village. Apart from her clothes and a few personal items, neither she nor Tom had much that needed moving, so they agreed that Danny or Tom would fly her down, when the time came.
Danny asked Rachel how she felt about her degree. She said she had a been a bit distracted by the pregnancy, that somehow the degree didn’t seem terribly important any more, but that actually most of her work had been submitted and marked. She had two examinations to sit, in a month’s time, and plenty of time to revise and prepare for those. Her draft thesis had already been given to her supervisor for her feedback, but unless it was awful, she only had to tidy it up and complete her footnotes and references. She seemed confident that she had done all she needed to do, and had given her best. If the university weren’t happy with the results, she wasn’t sure that there was much she could do at this stage to change that. And she smiled, saying ‘I’m happy with it all, I’ve put my best into it; it’s really only the thesis that might let me down, but I’ve said what I wanted to: if they don’t like it, I’ll be disappointed, but that’s life.’
‘Have you got a spare copy?’ Danny asked. ‘I’d like to read it, if you don’t mind?’
‘No, of course, I’d like you to. I’ve got it on a brick - can you use that?’
‘I’m sure I can. Or I can get someone at the university labs to transfer it for me. How long until you get it back from your supervisor?’
‘At least two or three weeks - she’s not very organised, and a bit stressed; she has three young children to look after. But she has promised to get it back to me by the end of May, so you have plenty of time to read it before I have to start preparing the final copy. And it would be nice to have your feedback . . . as long as you don’t expect me to rewrite it.’ Rachel laughed, a little nervously.
Danny and Sally left the next morning. Everyone had stayed the night, so they all had breakfast together and said their goodbyes. Joe and Daisy both promised to come and see them soon, perhaps hitching a ride with Tom when he came down to see Rachel.
The flight home was uneventful - a beautiful spring day, blue sky, fluffy cumulus bubbling up in the warmth of late morning, until they got in sight of the coast when the on shore breeze cleared all the clouds away. For the first time, Sally did the whole flight on her own, and navigated them confidently back to the village airfield. They tethered the flutter as securely as they could and went straight home, keen to get started on preparing the house and garden for Rachel’s arrival.