you picked their flowers, they encouraged you to look after them. You don’t have fake people, do you? Mannequins at a party to ‘pretend’ you have more friends than you really do. Olive stifled a big guffaw.
Clare appeared and handed Olive a cup of tea. ‘Oh, Olive, you don’t normally come to this!’
‘No, last time I came, she let a Labrador drool all over me and all over my cream cakes, but well, thought I’d… try something again. Whilst I still can. Pet therapy today, tomorrow it’s Paris.’ She winked at Maddie. ‘Hoping our Maddie here will take a leaf out of my book.’
She caught Maddie frowning at her, then re-forming her expression.
‘Well, that’s just great, Olive. Tea?’
‘Olive?’ Maddie leant over. ‘You know the consultant is only trying to help?’
‘Now! Hello, everyone.’ The woman in the gilet was still yanking on the two leads. ‘I’ve got Laurel and Hardy here, two very boisterous cocker spaniels! If you’d like to pet them, put your hand up!’
‘Pah! Is he really trying to help?’ said Olive as she watched Beryl bend over to try to pat one of the dogs, whilst it eagerly licked her face. He was a reddy-chestnut colour with beautiful, melting brown eyes. ‘Yes! Me!’ shouted Olive as the dog was brought over to her. She stroked his soft, silky coat as he panted away next to her. Then he barked a little. ‘Shhhh!’ Olive smiled and tickled him under his chin. She turned to Maddie. ‘What would he know? Wet behind the ears that doctor. How would he know what it was like to forget the names of everyday things? Yesterday, I had to call Clare to ask where the brushy thing was.’
‘You mean your hairbrush?’
‘Down, Hardy!’ screamed the woman, as Hardy had clambered up onto the sofa next to Olive and was licking her hand.
‘No. Good boy!’ She patted Hardy’s head. ‘My toothbrush. See? It’s not easy. I know what I mean, but my brain loses the words. But I will not be stuck with everyone else who’s just as forgetful as me – can you imagine? I couldn’t think of anything worse. All of us losing our minds together. All of us unable to speak because we don’t know the words! It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.’ She suddenly felt this weight land on her, pressing on her chest, a feeling of despondency that no springy spaniel was ever going to be able to lift.
‘But it’s for your safety, Olive.’ Maddie wouldn’t give up. ‘Clare told me that two days ago she came in and you had the toaster on, but there was no bread in it,’ she continued. ‘Nobody wants you to hurt yourself.’
‘Pah! It’s just a toaster, not a chainsaw! And do you think for one minute that if I let everyone take care of me, and if everyone does everything for me, that I’ll get better? No. I will just become more dependent. For goodness’ sake, Maddie—’ she sighed ‘—I’m finding that I get stuck on the “Giant Crossword” nights – and I don’t want that. I will fight it all the way – and I want the battle to be on my own terms. As long as I can remember my name and yours, my love, I’m perfectly fine.’ With that, she squeezed Maddie’s hand just as Hardy snaked around Beryl’s feet, rose up and helped himself to her Victoria sponge from the plate on her knee.
9
Maddie
Maddie wiped her feet on the front doormat and scrabbled in her bag for her key. Even though it was hot, a wind was picking up and some gloomy grey clouds were hanging low over the trees. Olive was in a strange mood; that was for sure. It was the last day of July, a week after choir practice had ended. The summer stretched endlessly ahead of her. No school. No routine. Endless summer days of – what? She stopped searching for her key all of a sudden, lost in the thought of how she was meant to fill her days as a distant roll of thunder rumbled in the sky.
As she was walking towards the kitchen, Taffie bounded up to her and started yapping. She was sure she’d left him in the back room earlier. She could hear another roll of thunder, heralding a downpour later. She glanced out the kitchen window, looked up to a sky covered in bruised blue clouds.
Taffie barked again. ‘What is it, Taffie?’ He was acting a bit