Page 40 of A Secret Cornish Wish
‘Mandy should be arriving tomorrow from London; she’s not bringing anyone, either.’
‘How is Mandy? Is she still working in the city?’
‘Yes, I think she’s doing quite well at her company.’
‘I didn’t expect anything less. Mandy was never one to mess about when she had something she wanted to do.’
‘Er . . . ’ Claire thinks. ‘Eddie is arriving Friday; heisbringing someone.’
‘Ooh, who?’
‘New boyfriend, apparently. He met him in a bar in Newcastle.’
‘He’s still working with the theatre company, then?’
‘I think so. He was pretty gutted when he didn’t get into drama school, though.’
‘Yeah, he was really down for a while. I was quite worried about him when we spoke on the phone. But he seems happy now. I think he gets to move around quite a lot when they’re touring and stuff. Sounds fun seeing lots of different places.’
‘Yeah.’ Claire doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm. ‘If you like that sort of thing.’
‘What about Suzy?’
‘She’s going to try to get here – she has a gig on Friday night in Bath, but she’s going to drive down straight afterwards.’
‘I still can’t believe that Suzy, out of all of us, is the one who ended up on stage,’ I say, thinking about how Suzy changed after the night of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. ‘She was the one who wouldn’t perform at that dance and made the costumes instead.’
‘I know, she really blossomed after that girl encouraged her up on the stage to sing. What was her name again?’
‘Marnie,’ I say, annoyed I have to think about her once more. She didn’t even come to our school in the end; we only ever saw her that evening. But in the course of one night, she not only ruined mine and Rob’s blossoming relationship, but she changed Suzy’s life for ever.
‘That’s it – Marnie. Yeah, she really had an impact on Suzy by getting her to sing that night. We never found out what she said to her, but thank goodness she did. Suzy was a changed person after that.’
‘She sure was.’
It was a complete surprise that evening, back in 1989, when Suzy suddenly appeared on the stage to sing, first with Marnie, and then afterwards on her own. We already knew Suzy’s voice was amazing, but to suddenly hear her perform in front of everyone that night was incredible, and that first performance at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance not only completely changed the direction her life took over the course of the next few years, but gave her so much belief in herself too. Whereas before Suzy only shared her views with us, afterwards she became much more confident in sharing them with others too.
I have no idea what Marnie said to her that night to get her up on the stage, or even how she knew about Suzy’s voice, but she did Suzy a huge favour, one that was still paying dividends now.
‘You know, she nearly got onStars in Their Eyes?’ Claire says.
‘Did she? I didn’t know that.’
‘Yeah, she auditioned to be Sade, I think, but they went with someone else in the end.’
‘Imagine one of us mermaids on television. That would have been amazing.’
‘You’d have thought it would have been Eddie if it was going to be anyone.’
‘Yes, Eddie was always the theatrical one.’
‘I still am, darling!’ A familiar voice behind me makes me turn around.
‘Eddie!’ I say as he approaches our table. ‘Claire said you were coming Friday.’
‘I was.’ Eddie gives first me, then Claire, a hug. ‘But Joe and I broke up, so I couldn’t wait to get away for a few days.’
‘Oh, Eddie, I’m sorry,’ I tell him.
