EVIE COULDN’T MAKE HEAD NOR TAIL OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING to Rosie’s app. One minute she’d been on top of the world, parading the buttons and widgets on the phone, and then she blinked and the whole thing had shut down and the guards had been called in. The guards! Evie had had a few brushes with the guards in the past, a few misunderstandings and one understanding around race fixing, which she’d just thankfully never managed to get into any real trouble about. She knew if the guards meant business you were in trouble, especially in Dublin. In Ballyhay, it was easier to bend the rules if you needed to, sometimes, but Dublin was for the hardliners. She didn’t like it one bit that Rosie seemed to be getting mixed up in something illegal. Although the girls had insisted that it wasn’t Rosie at all, it was that fella she’d been doing a line with, Simon something or other. It didn’t matter as far as Evie was concerned, the guards could tar you all with the same brush. Rosie could be guilty by association, and that would be enough if they wanted to press charges. You wouldn’t be well, with all the toing and froing.
Thankfully, Molly’s friend, Anna, was there surrounded by paperwork in the kitchen. She was a solicitor, a very well-dressed one in a nice, silky blue shirt with a high neck, very smart. You felt you could breathe easy around her. Evie had only caught the end of her conversation with Rosie, but she had sounded very thorough indeed, talking about EU law and fraud. Rosie was in good hands, but Lord bless us and save us, it was a lot to take in. Evie was on her third cup of tea of the morning, sitting quietly at the end of the kitchen table, watching the scene unfold around her. She’d been expecting trouble, she had known something was coming down the line, the cards had told her after all, but never had she thought it would involve the guards. Those tarot cards were just not descriptive enough, they were terribly frustrating.
Rosie looked like she hadn’t slept a wink. She was wearing a black t-shirt, her hair scraped back off her pale, tired face, stooped over a computer at the kitchen table, pointing things out to Anna who was furiously scribbling notes onto a pad. The table was strewn with pages and photographs. Evie had no idea what was going on at all. She would love to help but didn’t know where to start. Anything with computers was beyond her. She picked up and put down some of the pages in front of her, trying to scan them for information. She was a matchmaker after all, maybe she could help with that part of it, although it did seem very different to what she did in her snug. The page in front of her looked a little like a passport page, a picture of a young handsome man, bright smile and underneath a list of information about him: likes Mexican food, five foot ten, keen cyclist. But it was his eyes that Evie focused on, the sadness that flickered at the corners. There was a trace of history; he may look young but he had lived a long life already and experienced grief and loss. She placed her hand over the picture and closed her eyes, breathing slowly, waiting to see if anything came to her. He deserved happiness, she could feel that, he needed it. She opened her eyes and looked at the disarray on the table, pages and pages of text, and some photographs, some that looked the same as the one in her hand.
‘Rosie, love, sorry to interrupt, what’s this?’ She waved the young man’s page at her.
‘Profiles, Gran.’ She looked down to the table. ‘Sorry, I should clean them up. I thought if I printed them off I might get a better understanding of what to do. I don’t know, it really hasn’t helped.’ She rubbed her weary eyes. ‘They’re all the early subscribers to DeLuvGuru, like my friend Catriona, the people who really want to find love, you know, the genuine searchers.’ She sniffed a little, and dropped her head forward to her chest in despair. ‘I just have to figure this out in some way.’
‘You will, darling, you will. Go easy on yourself now.’ Evie shushed her, hating to see her this way, so twisted and upset. Her anger was palpable just below her grief, but it was directed at herself and not, it seemed, at that Simon character. Hanging would be too good for him, Evie had thought multiple times. She drained her teacup and started to tidy up the pages in front of her, maybe she could help order things a little. So many people looking for love, so many smiling, optimistic faces beaming up at her. She could understand why Rosie wanted to help them. Her hand fell across another young man’s picture, she held it down and peered into his eyes. He was as light as a feather, this man would flit on the wind, he shrugged it all off, clicked his heels and danced through the day. He was carefree and beautiful. She could feel it, an invisible cord was pulling that page towards the previous man’s picture. She placed a hand on each photograph, closed her eyes and felt the draw, a hot flash whizzed up one arm, shot across her chest and down to her other hand. She opened her eyes with clear certainty—they were a match.
‘Gran, I thought I’d bring the boys down to the playground at the end of the road, if you wanted to come with us? It’s only a short walk and it’s a lovely day,’ Molly interrupted, bending down and speaking quietly to her. Molly’s face was pinched and washed-out.
‘Yes, yes, I’d love that. It’ll clear my head.’ Evie rose to her feet. Her hands still firmly pressed on the pages.
Molly looked concerned. ‘Do you still have that headache?’
‘Not at all, I can do with the exercise is what I mean.’ She lied. Her head had been throbbing hard and fast all morning, but her limbs were moving, which was better than the previous morning, and so she would use what she could, while she could.
Molly brightened. ‘Wait until you see Rory on the climbing frame, he’s part-chimp. I’ll get their coats on.’
Evie put the two pages on top of each other and slid them onto Rosie’s keyboard. She started to speak, ‘Sorry to interrupt again, but these two young men are matched. I don’t know if that’s any help to you.’
Rosie looked up confused and then swung her attention back to the pages. ‘Really, Gran? Are you … ? Can you even do that with pictures?’
‘Well, I just did, yes. They’re definitely a match.’ Evie nodded her head with absolute certainty.
‘How did that happen?’ Rosie sounded very unsure and more than a little sceptical.
‘Sometimes The Knowing works in strange ways, when two people have to find each other, the universe will make it happen.’
Rosie was silent, dumbfounded.
‘I’m going for a walk now.’ And with that Evie walked into the hallway to find her black cashmere coat with the good leather trim.
It was a beautiful, sunny morning. They strolled past the rows of houses with neatly clipped front gardens and freshly painted doors.
‘It is a nice neighbourhood, isn’t it?’ Evie breathed in the fresh air, already feeling lighter and brighter.
‘Good schools, too. Yes, it’s great.’ Molly paused. ‘It comes at a price. The mortgage repayments are horrendous and let’s not forget my favourite neighbour.’
‘Oh yes, although I thought your mother-in-law was very pleasant at your lovely dinner the other evening, even though things went a bit off at the end.’ She squeezed Molly’s arm supportively. ‘Which house is hers?’
‘It’s behind us. You won’t see a blade of grass out of place there. If a leaf accidentally dropped onto the lawn she’d have a heart attack.’ Molly looped her granny’s arm and pushed the stroller with her other hand. ‘Ah, she’s fine, I shouldn’t go on.’
‘You’re two sides of a coin, the two of you.’
‘Maybe.’
‘She can’t make head nor tail of you. She doesn’t see being a mam the way you do.’
Molly looked at her perplexed.
‘Angela’s more my generation, the way she thinks: you know, the children should be fed and watered and thrown out to pasture. She values work and not in the home.’
Molly sighed. ‘You could be onto something. She says she wants to help, and then I ask her, and she’s always busy and I feel like I’m asking this massive favour, every time.’
‘Maybe don’t ask her for a while.’
‘Sometimes I need help, though.’
‘So, you pay the price.’
Molly grumbled.
‘You can’t have it every way, Molly.’ Evie knew she sounded stern. ‘You borrowed money from her and now you’re taking her for free babysitting. Isn’t it possible that she feels a bit used?’
‘But we’re family?’
‘And maybe you’re taking advantage of that.’
‘Am I?’
Evie cocked an eyebrow at her.
‘But she can be so nasty.’ Molly was getting fired up.
‘Focus on the good things. She loves her grandsons and she’s been very generous to you. But that has come at a price.’
‘We can’t pay her back.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to work something out. Remember, you’re not entitled to a free babysitter.’ Evie patted her granddaughter’s arm. She was enjoying this little stroll, feeling the sun on her face, walking along the street with the warmth of Molly’s arm on hers, hearing the chatter of her great-grandsons, one shouting at the parked cars as they passed them, the other plucking leaves from bushes in wonder and awe. The sheer pleasure in being alive for these little moments. How lucky she was.
‘I forget you have all the heebie-jeebies, Gran. Could you see all that stuff? Was it signposted?’ Molly sounded excited.
‘Nothing like that, love. I had a little chat with Angela and I could just tell.’ Evie wondered if now was the right time. Well, she’d have to take it as she didn’t know how much time she’d have left, so she couldn’t miss the opportunity. ‘Like you, darling. I can see that things aren’t right between you and Dommo. I know it’s not my place to say anything, but I think too often in this family we don’t speak our minds enough, we go round in circles with our chat and it’s not helpful.’
‘Is it that obvious?’ Evie felt Molly’s body stiffen.
‘You know I always tell my couples to talk to each other. To be honest with themselves and with one another.’
‘We don’t even see each other to talk. We’re … I don’t know … lost to each other.’ Molly sounded terribly sad.
‘You’re a good match. A great match, in fact. You have sparks and smiles in your hearts for each other. So, they’ve dimmed a little—that’s alright.’
‘I know, I know, Granny and her matchmaking. Please, don’t worry about us. We don’t need to visit you in the snug just yet. We’ll figure something out,’ Molly spoke into the air, trying to bring the conversation to an end.
Evie stopped dead in her tracks. She placed her two hands on Molly’s shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. ‘Molly, listen to me, you have everything you need in that man, in this family. This is love. This is it. If you’ve lost it, find it. And don’t go looking in other places.’
Molly raised her eyebrows.
‘You know who I mean. That male sleep nanny you’ve been making eyes at. He’s bad news. You have it all. Don’t you go losing it.’ Evie hoped she didn’t sound preachy, like some priest from the pulpit, but Molly needed to hear her this. She couldn’t throw away her marriage.
‘Charlie! Gran, I would never.’ She frowned, and then with a wry smile said, ‘I can look, can’t I?’
‘We can all look. He’s a very handsome man. Like Omar Sharif in Dr Zhivago without the moustache.’
Molly sighed heavily, her eyes fell to the ground. ‘I think Dommo might be looking around, too, you know. I think there could be someone at his work.’
‘Nonsense. He adores you. I can see it plain as day.’ Evie had wondered that as well, he had seemed so disconnected to the family unit—not that she’d say a word of that to Molly. But it was true, Dommo was distant.
‘I hope you’re right. I’m not sure anymore. I just—’ Molly blinked back tears ‘—I married my best friend, Gran, I really did, but I don’t know where he’s gone. I don’t know where we’ve gone.’
‘Find it. Find him.’ Evie leaned in for a hug. ‘The hard work only starts when you say I do. All the time before that is the easy part.’
‘Can you put some heebie-jeebie spell on us for our marriage to work?’ Molly laughed to hide the sob in her voice.
‘It doesn’t work like that, you goose. Make your own magic and it will work. It was working for a long time before this.’
‘I know and then the kids came, and they are our sunshine, but it’s just been hard, you know?’
‘Of course it’s hard. I remember what it’s like to have small children. I had your mother and her brother running rings around me for years. Life can be hard.’ Evie could sense that Molly was standing on a precipice ready to jump, and Evie wanted to make sure it wasn’t into the arms of another man.
She linked her arm with Molly’s again and gave it a squeeze as they turned into the playground. Together they watched with delight as Rory sped off to the climbing frame. Little moments, Evie reminded herself. Breathe in the little moments and try not to think about the black crows circling.