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Scott and Mark had been sitting at the bar in Blackjacks for over twenty minutes, mostly silently. It was obvious neither of them wanted to be the first to acknowledge what lay behind the day’s events. The pub lunch with Nan had gone surprisingly well, the trip out with her boys had bucked her up and she had seemed as sharp as ever. When they took her home, Mark kept her talking while Scott gathered up the remains of the jewellery box in a bag-for-life. He promised her he would take it to a professional jeweller to see what could be done. She appeared happy with that, though Scott was nervous about getting her hopes up.
When Mark said he had to head off to work, Scott decided to tag along. Evan was still in Brighton and he didn’t feel like being alone right now. He sent a text telling Evan to meet him at Blackjacks and his husband replied with a series of emojis: confused face, happy face, a few cocktail glasses, green pukey face, followed by a final happy face wearing sunglasses. Scott did not speak emoji, but got the gist. He was certainly unable to work out the series of symbols to express: “I’m getting drunk as my Nan melted her jewellery and probably has Alzheimer’s”, so he texted back a simple “thumbs up”.
‘Fill ‘em up, Nuala,’ Mark instructed his bar manager. He turned to his brother. ‘So, what do you think? Is she losing it or what?’
Scott rubbed his eyes with his fists, hoping that would prevent the tears he could feel building from emerging. ‘I’m not sure. It’s too early to say for certain. She is nearly eighty, I suppose it’s possible she could be getting...’
Mark waited a second for Scott to continue, but nothing further came. ‘Go on, say it. She’s lost her marbles. What the bleedin’ hell are we meant to do about that.’
‘I wish Mum and Dad were here.’ Scott’s memories of his parents grew less substantial with each passing year, but he still recalled the feeling of security that they had given him. He had only understood this fully when they were gone, and that bond disappeared along with them.
‘Yeah, me too. Like you said, we’ll have to keep a closer eye on the old girl from now on.’
Nuala appeared with the drinks, a large red wine for Scott and a bottle of Belgian beer for Mark. ‘I didn’t mean to earwig, lads, but is your Nan poorly?’
Scott nodded. ‘She’s been forgetting things and getting muddled about days. It’s not like her.’
‘How long has this been going on?’
Mark shrugged. ‘We’ve only just clocked it.’
‘But it appears to have been going on a bit,’ Scott said. ‘It’s hard to say exactly.’
A look of empathy crossed Nuala’s face. ‘My old gran was the same, we put it down to getting older at first. In the end it got a bit more serious. We found her in the local corner shop in just her bra and knickers, I don’t think Mr Patel has ever recovered.’
The men cracked a smile.
‘What did you do?’ Scott asked.
‘We took her to the GP, and he did some tests. Unfortunately, it did turn out to be the first stages of dementia. On the upside if you catch it early on, they can slow it down a bit. If I were you two, I’d get her to the doctor and let him take a look. It’s better to know these things, you know.’
Mark looked at his brother. ‘What do you think?’
Scott felt the tears arrive. ‘I think I better make an appointment.’
*****
Evan was buzzing. He’d had a very productive day with Derek and it really felt like they were on the verge of an exciting opportunity. Evan had been impressive, if he did say so himself. He’d PR’ed the hell out of the opportunity: he sorted the schedule for the various interview requests, drafted a press statement, established Krystle’s social media presence (Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter for now, YouTube channel to follow) and designed and ordered some simple merchandise items (T-shirts, mugs and posters) all with a photo of Krystle in her beehive and the catchphrase “Keep Your Wig On!”. The day had gone so well that Evan had come to a momentous decision. The only thing left to do was convince his husband that he was right - or at least not totally insane.
It was after 9pm when Evan finally arrived at Blackjacks. Scott and Mark were at the bar, he put an arm around each of them. ‘Hello, Harper brothers, fancy seeing you here.’
‘Hey, mate,’ Mark said, putting an arm around Evan’s waist. ‘Good to see ya. Heard you had a good time on your honeymoon.’
‘The best, didn’t want to leave. You keeping well?’
Mark squeezed Evan towards him. ‘Up and down.’
‘Sorry to hear that.’ Evan looked more closely and could see that Mark was drunk. ‘Aren’t you on duty tonight?’
Mark gave a lopsided shrug. ‘Nuala can manage. I wanted to hang out with my bruv.’ As if on cue Nuala appeared and took Evan’s order.
‘Don’t suppose you’ve heard anything from Mel?’ Evan asked Mark.
Mark shook his head. ‘Nada. Scott said she was MIA.’
Evan turned to Scott and was surprised to see that he too looked like he’d had more than the recommended daily allowance. ‘Is everything alright, honey?’ No response.
Nuala returned with the drinks. ‘Can you give me hand for a minute, Mark?’
‘Here,’ Mark said to Evan. ‘Take my stool.’
Evan took the vacated seat and took Scott’s hand. ‘What’s wrong?’
Scott rocked gently from side-to-side. ‘Nothing. How did it go today? Did you have fun?’
Evan’s barely contained enthusiasm burst out and he recounted to Scott everything that he had achieved that day. Scott’s eyebrows slowly raised in what Evan took as appreciation of a job well done. ‘There’s so much to do I’ve decided to take some time off to make sure it all gets done properly.’
Scott’s eyebrows fell back to earth. ‘What do you mean? Time off work?’
‘Yep. This is a great opportunity. This thing with Krystle might really take off, but it needs professional handling and time is of the essence. This is what I do, what I’m meant to do.’
‘But what about work? Won’t they mind?’
‘I’m sure they won’t,’ Evan lied. ‘It’s only a few days.’
‘Sounds good.’
Mark returned and pulled up another stool. ‘Has he told you? Suppose we better talk about who she’s gonna live with. I’d have her, but I only have the one bedroom. And she’d hate to be stuck in that flat all day. Much better if she came to live with you.’
‘What? Who’s coming to live with us?’ Evan asked.
‘Thanks, Mark,’ Scott said.
‘Sorry, mate. Saw you guys nattering away, assumed you’d told him about Nan.’
Evan felt his heart lurch. ‘Is she alright? Has something happened?’
Scott took his husband’s hand. ‘No, she’s fine. Well, no, she’s not. We don’t know really.’
Evan turned to Mark. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I think Scott should—’
‘Tell me,’ Evan snapped, ‘one of you. Now.’
Scott started to sob. ‘Nan melted her gold. She got the days wrong for Sainsbury’s. Frankie said she forgot about going to Brighton.’
This was not helping at all. Evan turned to Mark, ‘In English?’
‘We think Nan has dementia,’ Mark said.
‘Oh.’ A slew of questions skidded into Evan’s head and he was slightly ashamed that most were about how this would impact him. He got off his stool and put his arms around Scott, letting him cry into his shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, honey. It will all be OK.’