A Quiet Contagion by Jane Jesmond

Author:Jane Jesmond [Jesmond, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-18T10:27:30+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six: Phiney Wistman

19 June 2017

Six days after the reunion

Once the ambulance had taken Philip’s body away, we drove Jonathan back to the cottage through the night. We were all drenched and shivering and, although Mat turned the heater up to full, it had made little difference by the time we arrived at the cottage. A few cars were parked outside. Jonathan’s friends, called by him during the long wait for the ambulance, peered through the windows and came out of the door to envelop him and take him inside.

‘We should go,’ I said to Mat. ‘We’re in the way.’

‘Yes.’

‘And we can’t ask him any more questions. At least, I couldn’t.’

‘You think I would?’

‘It’s what journalists do, isn’t it?’

‘Some might, but not me.’ He wrapped his arms around himself and looked cross. ‘You go in and get Mrs Patterson, so I can avoid the temptation to interrogate him. I’ve got some dry clothes in the car.’ He stomped off into the dark.

Dora and another elderly lady were sitting on the sofa, surrounded by people who were either weeping or hugging or doing both. Dora shot uneasy glances round the room. I caught her eye and she came over, knocking a pile of books to the ground as she passed. The other lady followed.

‘We’re leaving,’ I said.

‘Good. Where did I put my bag?’

‘I’ll get it,’ the other lady said. ‘I think you left it in the kitchen when we were making tea.’

‘Thanks, Edwina,’ Dora said. We watched Edwina thread her way back through Jonathan’s friends with considerably more grace than Dora would have. ‘She’s their next-door neighbour. She came over to see what was going on and stayed to keep me company. She’s a widow.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Like me.’

‘Should we try and say goodbye, do you think?’

Dora looked again at the people. ‘No. I don’t think he’ll notice. I’ll ask Edwina to explain.’

Outside, it was dark and cold. The mist and cloud had cleared apart from a faint haze that veiled the pinpricks of starlight. I shivered in my damp clothes and my feet were numb under their muddy coating.

Dora thanked Edwina and we got into the car and drove down the hill onto the main road round the lake. Mat stopped the car in a little layby.

‘Why have we stopped?’ I asked.

‘To decide where we’re going,’ Mat said.

‘I need something to eat,’ Dora said.

‘You’ll be lucky. At this time of night.’

Mat thought for a minute. ‘Motorway services is our best chance. I guess we’re going to be heading south eventually. Yes?’

But the thought of deciding where we were going after we’d eaten was too much for both Dora and me.

‘Let’s do that,’ I said.

None of us spoke after that, not even when we levered ourselves out of the car at the services, stiff with cold and shock and also hungry. I spent a long time huddled under the hand dryer in the Ladies’, trying to remove a layer of damp and chill and wondering if I had the nerve to wash my feet in a basin.

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