The Memory of You by Samantha Tonge

Author:Samantha Tonge [Tonge, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

20

Fairy lights lit up the dim bar in Deansgate, one of Alex’s favourites. Or was it? These days she was used to the calmer atmosphere of the Wrong Order Café, with gentle jazz in the background broken only by customers’ laughs and Captain Beaky’s pronouncements. Due to the humid weather, it had been a busy Saturday and more than once she’d had to charge out to the supermarket on Market Street to buy bags of ice cubes for Jade’s frappés. After the meals at his, Alex felt she owed Tom dinner and invited him out. Blow the expense, the two of them might be about to write a best-seller, and she couldn’t wait to tell him what she’d found out thanks to the animated series Jade had mentioned. She’d resisted the temptation to go back to her own glass tower flat and pick up a glamorous outfit. Seeing her desk and the old four walls again, which had begun to feel like a prison, might have killed her renewed enthusiasm.

R’n’B songs played and people drank colourful cocktails in bodycon dresses and muscle-fit T-shirts. Alex had simply slipped into a pair of linen trousers with an elastic waist, and a loose white blouse. Her hair was still scraped back into a ponytail but she’d powdered her face, surprised by the relief at not feeling obliged to get dressed up. It was only Tom. He was meeting her there at seven, after driving to the care home to give a box of birthday chocolates to one particular carer who treated Norm like family. Alex had popped into the big Boots at the end of Market Street and asked the chemist about cream for her itchy feet. Her visit there took longer than expected as she ended up in an aisle full of menopause products, with supplements for joints, and skin and nails, with special shampoos and intimate gels. Perhaps it was time to register with an NHS doctor and find out more.

More about the next stage of her life. More about getting older.

Mum believed in facing your fears, like telling Dad she was leaving. No one had expected his tears, but by that time Mum had no sympathy left, not when it came to him. The dikkop waterbird had partly inspired her. It laid its eggs next to the nests of the Nile crocodiles, to protect its offspring from other predators. The two species cohabited, the bird sometimes protecting the crocodiles’ eggs as well, with its wings. So even though her mum was scared of life ahead, like the dikkop bird, she bravely embraced the necessary challenges.

Alex took out her phone, brought up her contacts and tapped on Hope’s name. She selected the camera option, held the phone in the air, took a selfie and sent it.

I borrowed your shirt, it’s nice and baggy, all of mine are too clingy for this weather. Same with the trousers. I bet today Manchester is hotter than the Far East.

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