‘Have a lovely evening,’ she says as she walks Dorothy to the door. ‘See you on Thursday. And say hello to Ruth for me.’
‘Thank you!’ A kiss goodbye, then Dorothy is gone.
The telephone rings and Grace Maud hears Cecilia answer it.
‘It’s Tom!’ she calls.
‘Hello, love,’ she says as she picks up the phone, watching as Birdy scampers around the garden before disappearing from sight.
She listens to Tom telling her about the progress of the new house, and about the fact that his daughters have decided to move home to the farm but he doesn’t really want them there, so he’s coming into town to look for a place for them to live.
The sun holds its hard, yellow light well into the late afternoon, and Grace Maud hears Cecilia opening and closing the linen cupboard, and Birdy’s paws on the lino in the laundry.
A car goes by on the street and the teenage boy next door has started his trumpet practice, and Tom is now telling her that Luca wants to go to TAFE to study something related to agriculture and wants to talk to her about staying with her for a while.
The sounds of life. The sounds ofherlife.
She feels her heart beating in her chest. The same heart that once beat, seventy-six years ago, right next to that of the girl who looked exactly like her. They were together, now they are apart, and while Grace Maud will never quite recover she knows that it’s no longer her destiny to mourn forever.
She has too much to do. Too many people to hold in her heart.
She is still alive. She is still here. All is well.
