So, mentally wrapping his father’s red cashmere scarf around his neck, he launched into the version everyone knew, and the appreciative audience lapped it up without interruption. Laughing at the funny anecdotes, clutching their hearts when he told the story of the night his father had proposed to his mother and hanging on his every word about when Roger finally won his Oscar.
There were questions – none he hadn’t answered before about a zillion times – and then it was all over and he was being ushered to a table where the BAFTA and Oscar had been placed and was given a plate of Meryl’s scones with Edna’s strawberry jam and locally sourced clotted cream.
Of course, there were also pictures, phones coming out everywhere to snap a memento of the day and then Doris haranguing everyone to pose both individually and as a group with him for the quarterly newsletter which apparently came out next week. Oliver had a moment of worry that they might find their way on to social media but it wasn’t like the paps didn’t know he was in Cornwall.
He’d just become a boring recluse. Attending a WI meeting would only confirm it.
People asked politely if they could touch and hold the Oscar for their photos and he nodded amiably. Paige was right, the awards were far less intimidating taken down from on high. And if he was going to break his father’s strict no-touching rule, he might as well do it with a bang.
‘C’mon, Paige – your turn,’ Doris bossed as she interrupted a conversation Paige was having nearby with someone he thought was called Caroline.
She turned, a ham and cheese sandwich triangle in her hand and he almost laughed out loud. ‘You are seriously the worst vegan ever.’
Shrugging, she said, ‘Let’s just call me… vegan curious.’
‘Or maybe, a carnivore with occasional vegan tendencies?’
Her mouth twitched a little but she didn’t get a chance for a comeback as Doris got them back on track. ‘Over here Paige. A photo with Oliver and Oscar.’
‘Oh no.’ Paige shook her head, her alien-like bobbles unmoving on her head. Anybody else would have looked ridiculous but Paige just looked like… well, Paige. The one that had landed on his doorstep in a windswept frizz of red curls and ridiculous T-shirt slogans like the one she was wearing today beneath her heavy ex-army surplus duffle.
In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
‘I don’t do pictures.’
Doris scoffed. ‘Nonsense. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have had this marvellous morning that is going to be talked about for the next decade. Far more exciting than anything Pippa could have offered. Youmust.’
Oliver watched as Paige plastered on a smile but there was a slight wariness to her expression. Clearly, she wasn’t comfortable with the idea. Which made him wonder if it was a camera-shy thing or ahimthing.
‘Seriously, I take a hideous picture. Even my baby photos are awful. I’m the most unphotogenic person you’ll ever meet. Just mention my name if you want to put something in the magazine.’
Doris looked like she was about to push some more and Oliver watched as a flash of what looked like…anxiety?flared in Paige’s hazel eyes before the shutters came down.
‘Dorry,’ he said, diverting the older woman who preened a little at his use of her pet name. ‘I was surprised to see the rainbow flag. I hope you don’t mind me saying but I wouldn’t have thought the WI was a bastion of progressive ideology.’
Diverted, Doris gave a chuckle. ‘We do have a conservative reputation that’s for sure, but a few years ago Caroline and Nell – she couldn’t make it today – were both widowed within a few weeks of each other. They’d been good friends for years and then, a year later they were lezzers.’
Oliver choked on his sip of tea at the word choice. He couldn’t decide if he was weirded out more by a word he was pretty sure was very unPC coming from a non-lesbian person or the fact that it had come out of the mouth of an octogenarian who was wearing a string of pearls around her neck.
The pearls, she’d told him, were in honour of Oscar.
Doris ploughed on through Oliver’s coughing fit while Paige patted him on the back. ‘And they were moving in together.’
Caroline, obviously hearing her name, joined them, nodding and beaming. ‘Yep, lesbians,’ she said as if she was still couldn’t quite believe it herself. ‘Took us both by surprise. But it did explain why I was always fascinated with boobs.’
More than a little fascinated with boobs himself, Oliver could understand.
‘They were nervous coming out to us,’ Doris recounted. ‘Thought we might kick them out of the group. Utter nonsense.’ She tutted, clearly still affronted by the notion. ‘Caro and Nell are as much a part of our group as anyone else. So, unbeknownst to them we held several secret craft night sessions and patchworked the rainbow flag from scraps of fabric from our own clothes so they knew they would always be welcome.’
‘It was such a relief,’ Caroline chimed in, smiling at Doris, her eyes all misty.
‘Love is love.’ Doris grinned.
Oliver, now recovered, raised his tea cup. ‘Amen.’
The other three did the same and he caught Paige’s eye as they all tapped them together with a mutedclink.She was eyeing him with an expression he couldn’t quite decipher. Like she was trying to puzzle him out? Maybe passing judgement?
Whatever it was, it was intense for a beat or two then she seemed to snap out of it and smiled at him, a genuine smile and he felt like he’d passed some kind of test he hadn’t known he’d been sitting.
