‘Understood. Righty-o, I’ll leave you to your topsy-turvy toast.’
‘Your mum won’t mind me staying here without you?’
‘Of course not. I’ll let her know I’m leaving. See you tonight, Mally.’
Jo came back in a couple of moments later and settled into her chair, exhaling with relief as she sat down.
‘Ooh, that’s better. How’re you doing, love?’
‘I’m okay. All done. Thanks so much for letting me look through these.’
‘I hope you don’t mind that I kept them all – I guess it might seem a bit morbid keeping every last clipping, but it was just my way of coping with it back then, you know?’
‘There’s nothing to apologise for, Jo – Tom told me you enjoy collecting things.’
Jo gestured around the room. ‘You probably could’ve figured that out for yourself!’
I pulled my coat on as we approached the front door, relieved that I could leave my hood down: this was the first time the rain had let up all week.
‘Mally, sweetheart, there’s just one thing I wanted to let you know about before you head off… Tom said you’re staying next to The Star?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Okay, so I’m not assuming which way you’re going to walk or anything like that, but given the most direct route between here and there I thought you should know that, well, love, your old house on Oldville Close has recently gone on the market.’
23 Oldville Close, Scarnbrook. Home. For a moment I couldn’t believe the ‘new’ owners would be selling it so soon after they’d bought it from us. But then I realised it’d been two bloody decades – more than enough time for them to have made it their own, maybe even had a kid or two who’d be all grown up by now.
‘Oh. Gosh.’
‘I hope you don’t mind me telling you, it’s just that my good friend Jenny lives round the corner and she happened to tell me about the “for sale” sign last week. I just thought I should mention it if you did happen to wander that way.’
In truth, I hadn’t thought about which way I was going to walk. But she was right – the obvious way would take me right past the end of my old cul-de-sac.
I puffed out my cheeks. ‘Thanks, Jo. For everything, I mean. You and Tom have been so,sokind to me this week.’
Kindness that I hadn’t really seen – or maybe even sought out – for many years.
‘Oh, Mally love, you deserve so much kindness. I hope you know that. You were always the giver. I think it’s about time you took a little back.’
I nodded, more tears escaping.
‘Thanks for saying that. Do you mind if I take this?’ I held up the lone newspaper clipping I’d only just noticed I was still clutching, dabbing my eyes with a sleeve-shrouded fingertip.
‘Oh of course not. You can have them all if you like.’
‘No, just this one.’
It was the one that featured the photo of Josh. As I said goodbye to Jo, I opened my backpack and tucked the clipping into an inner pocket that had its own zip. It was a satisfyingly perfect fit. It was as if I was meant to have it.
Chapter 19
?Old family home
The sun was still nowhere to be seen, but the lack of rain andrelative stillness of the air felt almost balmy after at least a week ofrelentless downpours and hair-whipping winds.
I strolled steadily in the vague direction of my old secondary school, noting one of the closed-down pubs on my way. It’d been converted into what looked like perfectly serviceable flats, though I couldn’t detect any green space or parking, which explained why the nearby kerbs were yet again crammed with pavement-mounted cars. I wondered if it was another development by Christian Woods, and made a mental note to look it up when I got back.
The school itself was almost unrecognisable. Gone were the 1960s concrete cubes, and in their place were angular glass structures, not a flat roof in sight.
