Don’t, Roe. This is not a normal reaction. Stop this, just breathe.
It had been years since she’d hurt herself and she was proud of that. Seeing her parents was always a trigger.
‘I’m coming in, Roe.’ Eddie opened the door and gathered her to his chest. She relaxed into the familiar ease she always felt in Eddie’s arms. Her breathing slowed and that claustrophobic tunnel she’d been lost in just moments earlier widened out. The bleak flavour of her life dissipated and she felt better. Safer.
‘I’m so sorry.’ He was gazing straight out over her head. ‘I really thought it would be better to get the baby thing said. I thought they might even be normal about it.’
She pressed her face into his warmth. ‘Let’s go down to your folks. The poor things have to parent us both.’
‘OK, gang, big news tonight. I know you are all buzzing over the announcement ofEurovision: Voices of Glorythat I posted on the Insta page. As you know, I hinted at some news that’ll even top that and I am finally able to tell you.’
Róisín paced on the stage hung with red-velvet curtains in front of them, eyes shining as the hundred or so choir members held their breath. What was coming? The Life and Soullers had done some cool stuff in their time. They’d sung with Hugh Jackman when he was playing Dublin three years before, but judging by the look on Róisín’s face this could potentially be even bigger.
‘OK, so first off, obviously as you know, I am musical director ofVoices of Glory.’ She paused for applause before delivering her next revelation. ‘And as musical director, I have been in talks with RTÉ who have signed on to produce … are you guys actually ready for this?’ Róisín, a born performer, was clearly revelling in eking out every last bit of tension and excitement.
A chant went up from the choir: ‘Spill! Spill! Spill!’
‘RTÉ are producing a reality show to go with the musical!’
All-out shrieks and gasps swept the assembled choir.
‘Oh my fucking gee,’ Danny cried.
‘That is deadly!’ Mags clapped.
‘The TV show will be calledGlee Me.’ Róisín was clearly buzzed. ‘They’ll be following the whole thing from auditions through rehearsals to opening night. The ups and downs and the sweat and tears that it takes to get a huge show like this into production. It is going to be epic.’
Róisín grinned and turned to motion to someone just off stage, apparently hiding in the wings. The next moment, a man with a huge camera hoisted up on his shoulder emerged and the choir burst once more into whoops and applause.
‘Everyone, this is Gavin, and he’s just one of the crew working onGlee Me. Now, anyone who doesn’t want to take part in the show or the musical can speak to me separately. Gavin is going to do a little shooting of our rehearsal tonight just to get a few shots – anyone who doesn’t want to appear on camera can sit further back.’ Róisín turned to Gavin. ‘Just include the first three rows – that OK?’
He nodded but absolutely no one made a move to get out of shot. These were musical-theatre people after all.
‘So annoying,’ Danny muttered. ‘Denise is down there front and centre and I’m stuck back here.’
‘Relax, there’ll be loads of opportunity to whore yourself out to the TV crew.’ Roe grinned. The giddiness was catching, though she did feel a pang at once again sitting on the sidelines.
‘The support ofGlee Meis going to be huge forEurovision: Voices of Glory. As we all know, only too bloody well, the pandemic decimated the performing arts. Depending on how things stand in a couple of months’ time, we may be performingVoices of Gloryto a drastically reduced in-person audience. This is whereGlee Mewill help us enormously. TV audiences will be invested in the show. PlusVoices of Glorywill also be available to stream on the RTÉ Player after the first, hopefully sold-out, run. And there’s even scope to bring this show on tour – we’re hoping that some of the big Eurovision countries will be interested in staging it. In short, this is big.Huge!Way bigger than anything we’ve attempted before.’
Roe looked at Mags and Danny cheering and clapping beside her and, not for the first time, wished she had their guts.
Look at you, Roe. How will you take care of a baby when you clearly can’t even take care of yourself … She was always a great one for starting things and never finishing them …
Maybe it wasn’t guts she lacked, but someone that believed in her.
7
‘WELCOME TO THE MONTERAY MIXER! I HOPE YOU all have been settling into your new town, and hopefully some of you have had a chance to get acquainted already.’ Esme, the Monteray social director, was in her forties, as sleek and shiny as the brand new polished-concrete kitchen of cathedral-like proportions that they all stood in. ‘Monteray Valley offers unprecedented luxury living for a long and happy life.’
Lindy shuddered involuntarily at the word ‘unprecedented’. It was still too soon for anything to be described as being ‘unprecedented’. Even though life had moved on significantly since the early days of lockdowns and uncertainty, Lindy suspected the word ‘unprecedented’ would always be shudder-inducing for people of a certain age: people like her, the ones with the vulnerable parents and needy young kids, who had just about weathered the lockdowns with sanity and marriages intact. Well. Technically intact, at least. She cringed at the memory of their last attempt at intimacy.
‘A “long and happy life” sounds like an obituary,’ a statuesque redhaired woman to her right was whispering to someone who looked to be her mother – equally tall, equally red-haired. ‘An obituary for my freedom. RIP the sesh life.’
‘No one made you marry him,’ the mother retorted.
‘Yeah, well, I was thinking moreNapaValley thanDeathValley,’ the daughter hissed back and they laughed quietly.
My new neighbours. Intriguing.
