Page 64 of One Moment in Time
Her latest Meryl Streep performance lasted until she watched Eileen’s back go ahead in front of her into the chapel. That’s when something inside her broke as she realised that for the last twenty-four hours there had been no acting. For the first time in years, she’d just enjoyed herself, had a great time, made the most of it. Yet now, once again, she was back in the land of making other people believe she was happy.
And she had absolutely no choice.
She wasn’t going to hurt her daughters, or embarrass Colin, or make a scene. Obedient, middle-of-the-road, make-nice Brenda was back and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘This is fantastic, isn’t it?’ Colin prompted, although she could hear the uncertainty in his words. Poor Colin. He’d done his best. ‘I mean, look at those roses. From a distance they look like the real thing.’
She could run. She could hitch up the skirt of her mother’s dress and just bloody run. If Ada was here, that was exactly what she’d be telling her to do. Her mother had a fondness for Colin because he was a good man, but only once, when the girls were small, had she hinted that Brenda didn’t need to be anywhere she didn’t want to be. They’d been at her mum’s kitchen table, having a cup of tea while Colin played with the girls in the garden. ‘He’s a lovely lad, that one,’ Ada had said, immediately putting Brenda on alert because if her wonderfully warm but achingly blunt mum was giving out a random compliment, there was probably about to be a ‘but’ at the end of the sentence. She wasn’t wrong. ‘But…’ Ada had gone on, ‘I’m not sure he sets yer knickers alight, ma love. And that’s important in a marriage. I mean, yer dad still…’
Brenda had blurted, ‘Don’t finish that sentence, Mum, I beg you.’
‘Fine. But I’m just saying… You need to be happy and… what’s that word they’re all using now? I heard Oprah say it on the telly.Fulfilled. Aye, that’s it. You need to be fulfilled too and if yer not, then you know I’ll support you in whatever choices you make, m’love. You and the girls will always have a home here.’
Of course, Brenda had immediately snapped into contented wife mode and insisted she was perfectly happy exactly where she was. Her mother never raised it again.
‘Brenda?’ Colin was staring at her now and she couldn’t respond. Her throat was closed. Her brain screaming inside. ‘Brenda… shall I get the girls?’ He was panicking, she could hear it and the mention of the girls was enough to jump-start her words.
‘I don’t know if I can do this, Colin.’
The sadness that swept right across his face told her that he knew exactly what she was talking about.
‘But I thought things were so much better… the last couple of days…’
She nodded, words run out. They had been better. Last night, after the Celine concert, they’d even had a fumble under the sheets, and he hadn’t got up afterwards to put his pyjamas back on.
‘They were, but not…’ She couldn’t finish the sentence, but she could see that he knew what she was about to say. Not enough. This. This wasn’t enough.
‘Mum, Elvis is waiting!’ That was Zara, her amazing Zara, who’d popped her head back out of the door and who was gesturing them inside, her frown a sure-fire indication that she was worried something would go wrong. Brenda couldn’t be the one to make that happen. Not now. Not here. Not after all the love that had been put into arranging this.
Big girl pants on. Deep breath. She’d been acting since the day she left this place the last time and she could do it for another day for her daughters.
‘Coming, love,’ she assured her, with a beaming grin, before holding her arms up for Colin. ‘Shall we?’
He frowned. ‘But…’
‘Colin, our girls are waiting for us. Time to go.’
The frown disappeared and he understood. She saw it. He pulled his shoulders back, cleared his throat, and took her arm and together, they walked inside, to the profound, emotional, classical sounds of Elvis Presley belting out ‘It’s Now Or Never’.
Inside, Brenda cast a glance around the room. In the front row to the right, Zara, Millie, and an officer of the law. To the left, Eileen, Aiden, and a very handsome man whose smile indicated that he was happy to be here. He must be Aiden’s unexpected visitor, the one Eileen had mentioned earlier.
Brenda took a few more steps to the front of the aisle.
Last time, their witnesses had been two cleaners who’d been kind enough to stop vacuuming and stand for the two strangers who’d wandered in in the middle of the night. They weren’t here, but the rest of the cast were ready for action.
Straight ahead, Elvis. And Brenda had a sneaking suspicious mind that it was the same one as before, because he was in his eighties if he was a day, and his zimmer was parked over beside the Chapelettes, who’d clearly stopped into work on their way back from collecting their pensions at the post office.
Out of nowhere, Brenda felt herself begin to laugh. And laugh. Everything was exactly the same. Time hadn’t moved on, and as Elvis got started, she heard that the script hadn’t either. Not one bit of it. As Elvis got to work, she wasn’t sure if she was right here or right back there…
Elvis threw his arms out to the side, making the tassels that dangled from his white leather jacket quiver. The Love Me Tender Elvis Chapel of Las Vegas was his white-walled, plastic-flower-draped stage, and the people standing in front of him were his audience.
‘Do you, Brenda,’ he sang, still in a slightly less impressive voice than the man who had actually been Elvis Aaron Presley, ‘…take this man, Colin…’ That set off a flurry of tambourines from the three pink-clad backing singers the advertising billboard called the Chapelettes, standing to the left of Elvis. ‘To be your hunka hunka burning love and husband until your last day on earth?”
‘I do,’ Brenda whispered, tears falling. Once again, her response set the tambourines off again, and exclamations of ‘Praise be,’ from the Chapelettes.
‘And do you, Colin, take this woman, Brenda, to be your wife and promise to love her tender until the day you die?’
Colin stared into her eyes, and Brenda could see so many things there. Love. Fear. Uncertainty.
