Page 90 of Coming Home to Wishington Bay
‘I know. I just thought you might like it.’
‘Gabe? Do not let this one go!’ His mum wagged her finger at him before turning back to the parcel in front of her, thereby missing the smile he gave and the shadow that passed across his features as he looked back down at his plate.
Dinner passed in an easy, relaxed manner and once again I thought how lucky Gabe was to have these two people in his life.
‘How’s it going down there, sorting out your grandma’s house?’ Martha asked, as four delicious puddings arrived.
‘OK, thanks.’
‘Gabe tells us you spent a lot of your childhood there. It must hold a lot of memories for you?’
‘It does,’ I said, poking at my sorbet with the tubular, chocolate-filled wafer. ‘My brother and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I …’ I stopped, realising that this was the first time I’d spoken about my childhood to anyone for a very long time. ‘My mum passed away when I was four, and my dad never really got over it.’
‘Oh love,’ Martha said, taking my hand and folding hers around it. ‘Gabe did say that you’d lost your parents but I had no idea you’d been so little.’
Gigi had never found it easy to speak about the loss of her only child. She’d never stopped us from asking her about Mum though and I realised now how hard this must have been for her. But she’d wanted Ned and I to know her as well as we could. Ned, of course being older, had more memories but he’d always shared those with me, doing his best to make them mine as well as his.
‘No. I … Gabe probably knows I don’t really talk about it. I think he probably thought it wasn’t his place to say anything too much.’
‘Was it an accident?’ Martha asked.
‘Mum?’ Gabe’s warning was soft, but I stopped him, my hand over his as it rested on the tablecloth.
‘No, it’s all right,’ I said, turning to him, giving him the smallest of nods. For some reason, it really was.
He returned the gesture, turning his hand so that mine now rested within his, the slightest pressure on it momentarily reminding me that he was there if I needed him.
‘I didn’t mean to pry,’ Martha said, her hand reaching out to touch my other arm. ‘I just thought that she must have been very young.’
‘She was. But no, it wasn’t an accident. She had leukaemia.’
‘Oh …’
‘I know. Like Kayla.’
Martha’s eyes filled and I felt my own do the same. ‘Oh, Martha, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’
She dabbed at her eyes with the napkin and patted my arm. ‘Oh no, you didn’t, love. I’m all right. So, she was sick a long time?’
‘Yes, for quite a while. I don’t really remember too much. Although Gigi once told me that my first words were “Mummy poorly.”’
‘Oh, you poor little thing. You must miss her?’
‘I suppose I do. My dad did the best he could and he loved us a lot, in his own way, but I think the light in his life died along with Mum. He was never really the same after that. Again, I don’t really remember but Ned said he noticed the change. So we spent a lot of time with Gigi and Grandpa, wandering around the village, hours and hours on the beach building sandcastles, swimming in the sea and long, long blustery walks in the winter. I remember those. I love Wishington Bay in the summer, but there’s something about it in the off-season too. It doesn’t lose its pull. I’m sure Gabe knows what I mean.’
‘Yep, I do,’ he agreed, my hand still within his as he ate his pudding with the other.
Finishing the rest of our desserts, Martha and I chatted over a range of subjects, and I realised that this was what I had missed. I’d had everything that Gigi could give me, and she’d done her best to be a mother to me but she was my grandmother, and she had lost a child. Nothing could change that and, although I obviously would have loved to have known my mum, and not had my family go through the pain that it did, I’d never felt sorry for myself. I never felt like I’d missed out on anything. Perhaps, until now.
‘Seriously, my boy,’ Martha said, reaching up to hug her son as we stood outside their hotel later, saying goodbye. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you. You should have put a ring on this one’s finger months ago!’
‘Mum,’ Gabe said, calmly, which was good because my heart rate had just shot up. ‘Things have changed since you and Dad got married. No one’s in such a rush now.’
‘I beg your pardon? I wasn’t in a rush. I mean, not for that reason,’ she said, making a quick pregnant bump motion over her tummy. ‘Of course, it’s all different now but it was still a bit frowned on back then, especially in the town I lived in. Little bit behind the times.’
‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ Gabe said, shaking his head and looking to his dad for support.
‘Sorry, son. I’m with your mum. This one’s a cracker. And if you don’t do something about it, someone else might.’
