Page 84 of To Hell With It
‘Don’t surprise him?’
‘Don’t meet him.’
‘What are you going on about? Why not?’
‘I saw Mr Dutson today. He was fixing my break lights,’ Una said.
‘At last,’ I sighed sarcastically, ignoring it, although I knew in my gut that something was wrong.
‘He told me that Jack didn’t pay his bill when he left.’
‘Right, OK, and? I’m sure he’ll square up with him now he’s home. I know Mr Dutson is still in the dark ages, but Jack can transfer the money over you know.’ I felt guilty talking about Mr Dutson like that, given he was always so kind to me.
‘Pearl,’ Una lowered her voice, ‘he said thatsomeone elsephoned and paid for it over the phone.’
‘Right, there you go then,’ I said irritated.
‘A girl called Emily.’
‘Oh, don’t worry,’ I felt my shoulders drop at the realisation that Una must have got her wires crossed and that there was nothing to worry about after all. ‘Emily is Jack’s sister.’ I reassured her. ‘I thought I told you that?’
There was a short silence but it was long enough to tell me that my first instincts were right. You know that split second when you know that something really bad is about to happen and it kind of stuns you like you’ve been shot, then you catch your breath and gasp for air before your heart beats like it’s on speed? (I’ve never taken speed, by the way, but that’s what I imagined it would be like). Well, it was like that.
Then—
‘He’s engaged, Pearl. To Emily,’ Una said and a second later, the bullet hit.
‘He’s … engaged to his sister?’
‘No, Pearl, Emily isn’t his sister, she’s his fiancée.’
There was more than a beat. There was a drum.
‘Pearl, are you OK?’
‘It can’t be true,’ I whispered.
‘It is.’
‘But Emily is his sister, she’s three years younger than him, she lives with him.’
‘He lied to you, Pearl. He lives with his fiancée, Emily.’
‘Oh my God.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘I’m wearing my mustard dress.’
‘I’m so bloody angry at him.’
‘Do you think Mr Dutson might have got it wrong? You know his hearing isn’t that great?’ I desperately tried to hold on to something that I knew didn’t exist anymore. Like when someone’s dumping you and you know it’s coming, you know that things will never be the same again, that you will never be with them again, that they don’t want you, ever again. That moment between denial and acceptance? I was inthatmoment.
‘No,’ Una said softly. ‘I don’t think that.’
‘But he might have, he’s old now, he never hears me half the time,’ I clung on.
‘Pearl, he said that she told him they are getting married next year.’
