Page 144 of Where Do We Go From Here?
‘Look, if you really want to be alone, then I’ll leave you to it,’ Wendy tells her. ‘But if you want to bend someone’s ear, I’m here. I just shed a few tears myself.’
At this news, Prue lifts her gaze from her drink to look Wendy in the eye for the first time. She sniffs and swipes at the corner of one eye. ‘You did?’ she asks.
Wendy nods. ‘Yep.’
‘Why? What do you have to cry about?’
Wendy laughs lightly at this. ‘Oh, not much really. Especially compared with other people’s worries, I suppose.’
‘No, go on,’ Prue insists, still sounding vaguely spiky, but perhaps softening. ‘Maybe it’ll make me feel better about my own mess.’
‘OK, well, I… um… realised recently that I’m what people tend to call an alcoholic,’ Wendy says. ‘And I’m discovering that a wedding party without alcohol can be seriously hard work.’
‘Oh, poor you,’ Prue says, and Wendy’s unsure if she’s being genuine.
‘It doesn’t sound so bad when you, you know… just say it,’ Wendy says. ‘But I have been feeling sorry for myself, all the same. Even though this is a lovely do.’
‘Yes,’ Prue says. ‘Still, the youngsters are having fun. That’s the main thing.’
‘You’re right, they are. So what about you and your… what did you call it? Your mess? What’s that all about?’
‘Oh, it’s just Mike…’
‘The Parkinson’s,’ Wendy says. ‘That can’t be easy.’
‘No,’ Prue says. ‘No, it’s a horrible disease.’
‘I had an uncle, as it happens,’ Wendy says. ‘So I do know a little about what goes on…’
‘Yes, everyone does seem to know someone,’ Prue says.
‘I wasn’t suggesting…’ Wendy says. ‘Obviously, when it’s your husband, that’s going to be far tougher.’
‘I wasn’t getting at you,’ Prue says. ‘I just sound like that sometimes. Forgive me. But yes, it really does seem to be frightfully common. And yet they still haven’t given us a pill.’
‘A cure, you mean?’
‘Yes. I mean, he’s on the L-dopa, obviously. But once that wears off… well, he just stops, really.’
‘And where is he now?’ Wendy asks, rather pointlessly looking around the empty pub garden.
‘Oh, we had to sneak him out and send him home. He just, you know, froze. Please don’t tell Amanda or Todd, though. He’d hate to think he spoiled their big day.’
‘No, of course. I wouldn’t. So that’s all got to be quite tough on you.’
‘Yes,’ Prue says. ‘“Tough” doesn’t really capture it.’
‘Can I?’ Wendy says, reaching for her bag. ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’
‘No, of course not,’ Prue says. ‘Not if I can have one.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know you smoked.’
‘From time to time,’ Prue answers, taking one from theproffered pack. ‘Especially since I read about the whole Parkinson’s thing.’
‘The Parkinson’s thing?’
‘Yes. Apparently smokers get it less.’
