The House We Called Home by Jenny Oliver

Author:Jenny Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018-06-13T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Moira was at Mitch’s yoga class in the village hall. She usually enjoyed it very much but today it was too hot. Stuffy even with the windows open. The label on her new leggings itched. She glanced at the clock which made her lose her balance mid-Warrior Pose. Mitch appeared by her side. ‘It’s because you lost your breathing, Moira. The focus comes from the breath,’ he said, elongating the word breath and raising his hand in the air to emphasise the point.

She blew out her bloody breath, rolled her shoulders, and tried to get back into position, surreptitiously glancing round the room to see if anyone in the class had watched her fall. They hadn’t, they were all now bent double, left elbows pressing on the inside of their left knees, staring up at the ceiling, while Mitch wandered round the room calling out more about ‘breath’ and carefully adjusting various arms and shoulders.

Moira followed suit, staring contorted up at the cracks in the ceiling. Mitch had said that yoga would help her let go of some of her anger. He said that she carried it all in her upper body, tight like a ball of fire. She had told Mitch that she wasn’t angry. He had smiled and told her to use her breath to connect with her heart.

Moira didn’t go in for things about hearts and love being all you needed and more often than not let her mind wander to what she needed from the supermarket when they were doing all that kerfuffle.

But today she didn’t seem to be able to get into any mood whatsoever – not even zoned out enough to think of her shopping list. She kept thinking of how everyone stepped forward after they’d unblocked the septic tank and claimed responsibility for Graham’s disappearance. And then the girls sitting round her at the table telling her she couldn’t leave. Stella this morning saying that she wanted it all back to normal – as if their family was a jigsaw puzzle to be slotted back together if only they could find the missing piece. No one saying – maybe it was him. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe the lost piece of the puzzle had been vacuumed up and thank God for that!

And so when, at the end of the class, Mitch made them shut their eyes, cross their arms and place their hands around their backs to give themselves a good hug – ‘Let yourself know that you think you’re OK’ – Moira burst into tears. She couldn’t think of the last time anyone had hugged her. She had hugged – she had hugged Amy when she’d wept over Bobby and she had hugged little Rosie hello – but it had been years since she had been given a good squeeze just for being herself.

She wiped her eyes on her Sainsbury’s Tu yoga wear – just like Sweaty Betty but half the price – and said, ‘Goodness me, I don’t know what came over me,’ as Mitch smiled encouragingly, then she nipped off to the loo all embarrassed.

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