The Wishing Well by Anna Jacobs

Author:Anna Jacobs [Jacobs, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Women's Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2005-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Two days later Deb was nearly back to normal again after the jetlag. She’d woken in the middle of each night, lying in the darkness unable to recognise where she was, then realising she was at Pop’s and snuggling down again.

It felt strange to be living here, but he was so easy to be with that it’d gone better than she’d expected. Gran seemed to be in a world of her own most of the time, though on a couple of occasions, Deb had seen her look across the room and smile in the old way, once at Pop, once at her. But each time the smile had soon faded. She listened to Pop shower and dress his wife each morning, watching him coaxing her to eat, because Gran didn’t seem interested in food any more.

It nearly broke her heart because it was all too obvious that she’d come too late to spend time with the real Gran. She’d cried a couple of times about that, but hadn’t let on to Pop, who had enough troubles to bear.

“She’s slipping away from us so fast,” Pop said once in a low voice. “Last month she still talked to me, now she doesn’t say much at all. I should have told our Laura about her sooner.”

“You weren’t to know.” After a few minutes, he took Gran out into the yard, where she immediately began walking round. He glanced out of the window and began to clear up the kitchen. When Deb went to help him, he gave her one of his gentle smiles. No one smiled like her Pop.

“Eh, it’s lovely to see your fresh young face around the house. You and Angie really cheer me up. We’ll go out this afternoon, shall we, just you and me? The carer is coming and I usually go down to the park or - I know, we could drive out to Hollingworth Lake. Would you like that? Good, so would I.”

He made it so easy for her to fit in, Deb thought wonderingly. He had no expectations but that they’d enjoy one another’s company, so they did. She couldn’t remember anyone as easy to be with - except for Ryan. And found herself noticing similarities between her brother and Pop. Ryan had grown up a lot since he left university. He seemed to have left her behind somehow and had said she was being childish a couple of times. She’d not believed him then, but now, well, it made you think seeing Gran like that.

“You can ring your mother later,” Pop said. “It’s wrong of me to monopolise you like this, only I thought with the carer being here today it’d be a good chance to catch up with one another.”

The only time they disagreed was over meals. He was very disapproving of how little she ate.

“But I’ll get fat if I eat too much, Pop. Like mum!”

He looked at her sternly. “I don’t ever want to hear you saying things like that about your mother.

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