Page 49 of The Last Train Home
December 2006
‘Happy Christmas,’ I say as my mum opens the front door.
‘Happy Christmas, darling,’ she trills. I suspect she’s already had a few Buck’s Fizzes and it’s only 11.30 a.m.
‘Sorry we’re late,’ Sean calls over my shoulder.
‘You two are always late, I’m used to it,’ my mum says cheerily. ‘Anyone for a Buck’s Fizz? I’m on my third!’
I knew it.
Sean gives me a knowing look that asks, ‘Is your mum drunk?’ as we dive in from the cold. I ignore the look. We’d tossed a coin to decide whose parents we’d spend Christmas Day with, and I won. We’re with his family tomorrow for Boxing Day. I haven’t seen my parents in ages and I feel so bad for having left it this long. I live in London and so do they – well, technically on the outskirts – but I’ve hardly seen them since I moved out. Weekends are so precious. I read somewhere that you only get 4,000 Saturdays in your lifetime. If it’s true, then that is a sobering thought. I should spend more of them with my mum and dad.
I’ve already broken to my parents the concept of moving to Singapore. My mum cried. My dad put on a brave face and, sitting around the dinner table, popping champagne corks, pulling crackers and wearing silly wafer-thin party hats, we talk about the kind of jobs that Sean’s applied for, and my parents, being discreet, don’t ask about the salary. Sean tells them anyway, because he’s proud (and so he should be), and I watch their varying reactions. My dad looks aghast and my mum smiles wildly and gives me a satisfied look. She’s always jokingly wanted me to end up with someone who’d keep me ‘in the lifestyle to which you wish to become accustomed’, which she laughs at every time she mentions it.
I give her a silent ‘Don’t say it’ look.
There are many things I should probably have given my parents a briefing on not mentioning in front of Sean. One of them is Tom. It did not evenoccurto me that my dad would talk about Tom. Why would he? They only met once, but because of Tom’s brief but important stint as my rescuer and the fact that he and I became friends, my dad asks after him every now and again, despite the fact that I hardly ever mention him. Perhaps it’s because I make a point of hardly ever mentioning Tom that their curiosity is piqued.
They ask after all my friends that they know and eventually land on Tom, and I glance immediately at Sean. But he’s three glasses of champagne in and, if he’s noticed, he doesn’t even blink.
‘I think he’s fine, Dad,’ I say. ‘He’s got a baby now.’
‘Has he?’ my mum chimes in. ‘Boy or girl?’
‘Boy. I think he’ll be …’ I calculate, ‘five months old by now.’
‘What’s he like? What’s his name? Do you have a picture?’
‘I do. He emailed me a picture. He’s called Teddy.’
Sean looks at me across the table. I know what he’s thinking. I said I wouldn’t see Tom, and I haven’t. But the messaging clearly upsets him too. I continue, far too casually, ‘He did this group email thing and bundled me in. Let me find it.’
I go off to find my new phone. I’ve succumbed to one that’s got email and internet on it. I’ve finally given up my beloved Nokia. I really miss playing Snake. While I’m rifling in my bag in the hall, I hear my dad tell Sean how lovely Tom is. I wonder what Sean’s thinking about that.
‘He’s getting married next year,’ I tell my parents as I re-enter the room, but I direct the comment at Sean.
‘How do you know?’ Sean asks. ‘Group email?’ he enquires in a tone that I’m not sure I’m reading correctly.
‘He messaged me. We’re invited,’ I say.
‘Are we? When is it?’ he asks.
‘September.’
‘We’ll be in Singapore then,’ he says.
‘But we’ll come home for a wedding, won’t we?’
He pauses. ‘Maybe. Flights are thousands.’
‘No they’re not,’ I say.
‘It’s still really expensive.’
My parents’ heads are going back and forth watching us descend into this exchange. ‘Let’s discuss it later,’ I suggest.
‘OK,’ Sean says. And then carries on regardless. ‘You can fly home if you want to. I don’t mind. But I’m not flying home for Tom’s wedding. I doubt I’ll get the time off so soon, either. We’re not really friends any more.’
