‘Come and see me tomorrow,’ Gran instructed Lily and she looked at her son. ‘You can stay at home. I’ll let you know if I need anything.’
And then Gran was wheeled away with a wave of her birdlike arm at them both.
29
Nick and Denise were sitting opposite each other in the hospital café, surrounded by the indoor plants and serenaded by the noise of trays crashing and messages over the PA system, as Lily and Peter approached them. Nick was speaking with intensity, half leaning over the table, and Denise looked to be almost snarling with her fingers securely wrapped around a takeaway cup of coffee, while Nick had an unopened bottle of water in front of him.
As they were getting closer, Lily managed to catch the last few words of Nick’s sentence.
While he was speaking, his tone was soft but authoritative. ‘…consider what Lily wants,’ he said.
Oh no, this isn’t good,she thought as she rushed up to the table.
‘Hello, Gran’s up to the heart ward, to have some tests,’ she said trying to add some cheer to her voice.
‘Oh good, you’re here.’ The tone of her mother’s voice was abrupt. ‘Perhaps you can explain to Nick why your grandmother can’t possibly go back to that cottage and why you are teaching in a school and doing a silly amateur drama show.’
Lily saw Nick react to her mother’s words but thankfully he said nothing.
Peter grabbed the chair next to his wife, and Lily slid into the seat next to Nick. ‘Mum, I don’t think we should have this conversation here. None of that is as important as Gran right now.’
‘Then where will we have it?’ Denise asked. ‘I’ve been trying to call you for the past ten days. If Gran hadn’t told me you were busy, I would have filed a missing person’s report.’
Nick shifted his attention to Lily, his face displaying a mixture of compassion and exasperation. ‘I can leave if you want. This feels like a family matter.’
‘Yes that’s probably for the best,’ said Denise.
But Lily grabbed his hand. ‘No, Nick is my friend and he is supporting me.’
Denise rolled her eyes. ‘Supporting you? He hardly knows you.’
Anger caused Lily’s cheeks to flush, and she felt her voice rise. ‘He knows me better than you do right now. He knows what I want and he encourages me to live my life the way I want to live it.’
‘And what you want is to throw away years of training and hard work to play teacher in some village school?’ Denise’s voice was filled with contempt.
‘Denise,’ Peter said. ‘Now is not the time.’
But Denise put her hand up. ‘You have an extraordinary talent, Lily. Why are you not honouring it?’
‘I am honouring it, Mum. I love teaching. I’ve always wanted to teach, but you told me to go to performing college, you told me not to waste my time teaching, and yet, I knew I wanted it all along.’
‘You have never said as much to me,’ she said looking at her husband. ‘Has she?’
Peter sort of mumbled and Lily shook her head at them both.
‘Dad, when are you going to stand up to her?’ She turned her attention to Denise. ‘I know you think you know what’s best for me but I’m nearly thirty and I don’t want what you wanted for me. I don’t think I ever did but I was too afraid to say so. Stop bullying me and stop henpecking Dad. It’s exhausting to be around you.’
Denise’s face crumpled, and she started to cry.
Lily put her hand on her mother’s, across the table. ‘Mum, you just don’t listen to me, and I know you love the theatre and all it entails but I want a different role in it. I’ve only been teaching for a short while but I can’t wait to get to work. I like having a weekly pay in my account. I like watching children see what they’re capable of.’
Lily noticed her father give a little smile and for a moment she was back at Pippin Cottage.
She was eight years old, and kneeling next to her grandmother in the garden. The air was filled with the aroma of freshly turned soil as they carefully distributed carrot seeds from a packet into the ground. Even though Gran’s hands were wrinkled, they were so strong back then, and they guided Lily’s smaller hands as they patted earth over the seeds.
‘Carrots don’t like to be moved, so we have to plant the seeds where they will stay. They don’t do well if you move them; they die from the shock.’
Lily felt sad for the little carrots who might die and she shook her head. ‘Oh we don’t want them to die,’ she said and looked up at her. ‘Gran, how do you know so much about carrots, and cooking and… well, everything?’
