Pianos and Flowers by Alexander McCall Smith

Author:Alexander McCall Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn

Duty

CLAIRE AND DOTTY WERE TWINS, SEPARATED IN THEIR entry into the world by no more than a couple of minutes. The fact that Claire was older than Dotty by those few brief moments determined the shape of both of their lives. When we look in retrospect at the saliences of our lives, we realise, sometimes with astonishment, that this is how they are shaped: a single event; a chance word of advice; an apparently minor decision by another – any of these may dictate what happens to us and what we ourselves do. In the face of this subjection to chance, the role played by free will and what we see as our own choice may seem a small one.

Their parents, Harold and Liza, were pleased with the arrival of twins. Their mother had experienced a difficult pregnancy and the doctor had warned that another could threaten her life. “You have been given two healthy daughters, Mrs Clarke,” he said. “Leave it at that.” Harold held Liza’s hand and kissed it in gratitude. He could not believe his good fortune, which seemed to him to be unreal, undeserved. “You’ve given me two girls,” he said. “I have you and two lovely girls; that is enough.”

A few months later, after a sudden decline in her health, Liza was admitted to hospital in acute pain. An operation was performed, but without success, as Liza died four days later of septicaemia. Harold was left to care for the girls. He was a grocer in Glasgow, who had his own shop and all the cares that that brought. His sister, Peggy, who was a theatre nurse in Manchester, gave up her job to return to Glasgow. She kept house for him and took on responsibility for the twins.

Peggy never questioned the stroke of fate that dictated that she would be destined to look after her brother and his two daughters. In those days, many people, particularly women, shouldered such duties without complaint. Unmarried daughters often stayed at home to look after parents, seeming to accept that this might mean they would have no chance of making their own home with somebody else. The idea that all of us should have the chance of freedom and a life of our own choosing had not yet taken hold and it did not occur to Peggy, even if she did sometimes reflect on what might have been had Liza not died.

There were few disagreements between Harold and Peggy. “One thing I’d like to make clear, Harold,” Peggy said shortly after her return to Glasgow. “I run the house, and that means that what I say goes. Do you understand that, Harold? Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

He was still grieving for Liza and was in no state to argue. And even if he had been, he would not have been inclined to do so. It suited him perfectly that his sister should make these decisions, as he had always yielded that role to Liza. Peggy would simply continue what had gone before.

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