“The choreography is fantastic, Jem,” Sibyl whispered as we watched. The girls, it seemed, were having a blast and they looked great.
“What?” Annie shouted, sitting beside her. “What’s happening now?”
“They’re dancing and singing, Annie,” Sibyl raised her voice so Annie could hear her.
Kyle and Tina, Sibyl, Jemma and a couple of the other volunteers had a rota to go once a week to tidy Annie’s house, fill her fridge and spend some time with her. That afternoon was Jemma’s afternoon but it was also Talent Show practice. Annie decided to wait it out, far better sitting in the Hall with kids rushing around and music blaring than sit at home in virtual silence and complete blindness.
“Wearing poodle skirts!” Annie shouted and Sibyl smiled.
“Black ones, with white poodles that have pink bows,” Jemma yelled.
“I used to have one of those,” Annie informed them of something that might, or might not (as Annie told tales) be true and neither Sibyl nor Jem responded.
“Chang, chang, changity chang cha bop…” the girls sang as Annie, Jemma and Sibyl lapsed into silence and Sibyl lapsed into reflection.
Colin’s three day trip turned into a five day trip. He’d called and told her he wouldn’t be home until, at least, Friday.
Today.
She found she missed him, even though she knew that was wrong so she tried not to think about it… and failed.
The good thing was that he couldn’t claim back this time and she desperately needed it to get her head straight.
Her time with him had been good, sometimes (she hated to admit it, but it was true) wonderful, and always she’d forget who she was to him.
Then he’d do something unintentional to remind her.
Mostly, he would order her about which, she thought, considering the frequency he did it, could be a part of his nature but she wasn’t in the place to test it.
For instance, once, after a long day in her Summer House Girlie Laboratory, she had put her hair up to get its heavy weight off her scalp. She’d forgotten it was up when she walked into the front room from the kitchen after he’d used his key to enter the front door. Mallory was all over him but the minute he turned his attention to her, his eyes shifted to her hair. He didn’t say a word but she lifted her hands up to tear the clip out immediately.
It was times like those, although infrequent, but always painful, she knew exactly what she was.
“How is your new young man?” Annie shouted, taking Sibyl out of her thoughts and she saw Jemma’s eyes shift to her.
No one knew about the arrangement but she had told Jemma, Kyle and Tina about Colin. She had to, in case he called her away or she couldn’t get to work for some reason. Jemma knew something was wrong but, in pure Jem Style, she didn’t push it. If Sibyl wanted to tell her then Sibyl would choose the time.
But of course, news this meaty ran like wildfire through The Community Centre and all of its patrons were agog. Not once in over a year had Sibyl had a boyfriend.
“He’s been away,” Sibyl shouted back.
“When’re we going to meet the lad?” Annie yelled.
The idea of Colin being addressed as a “lad” made Sibyl burst out laughing. The idea of him confronting all the oldies at the Pensioner’s Club nearly made her double up with laughter. He’d scare the pants off them; they’d have to have a row of ambulances available to whisk the oldies directly to hospital, all of them suffering from a rash of strokes and heart attacks.
After she stopped laughing, she yelled back, “He’s a very busy man, Annie. I don’t know.”
“Miss Sibyl, your phone’s ringing,” Ben, one of the boys who was practising a somewhat alarming rendition of a rap song (although neither she, nor Jemma, really understood the words so they couldn’t judge) in her office, stood by her and held out her mobile phone.
She saw who it was on the display, quickly got up and, as she flipped it open, ran into the Day Centre without looking back and, once there, slid the doors closed behind her.
“Hello?” she greeted.
“Sibyl,” Colin returned tersely.
It was Colin and, with that one word, she knew he was angry.
“Colin.”