Kitty changed quickly, pulling on her good camel-coloured trousers, a white top, and her new red cardigan. Checking her hair, she put on a little make-up. She was knackered tired after minding her little grandson Danny all day, but going out to meet Rob, Tessa, Lucy and the rest of ‘the class’ was probably just what she needed.
Clodagh had been delayed at work so Kitty had given two-year-old Danny some of the egg, sausage and chips they were having for his tea before he was collected.
‘Bye, Nana,’ he called, getting into the car.
‘Bye, pet!’
‘Are you not going out to your cookery class tonight?’ Larry had asked, disappointed, when he surveyed the fried egg, sausage and chips on his plate. He was getting used to the fancy fare she cooked on a Tuesday night, and the past few weeks had waited to eat until she came home from her cookery class. They had enjoyed some delicious meals: lamb, beef, fish, tarts, pies and cakes. The last few weeks Larry had even opened a bottle of wine as they sat in the kitchen, and complimented her on the food and chatted just like the old days when they had first got married.
When they were younger she remembered she used to cook all kinds of things! Larry’s stomach would be rumbling with hunger for all the lovely dishes she’d serve up. Back then, she had tested out recipes from the big cookbook she got for a wedding present, and from magazines. Then, of course, the kids had come along, and it was all about what they wanted: burgers and chips, spaghetti, lasagne, stew, roast chicken, fish fingers and bloody mince. Plain food. She had just gone along with it, the only treat being the big Sunday roast with all the trimmings that she still cooked.
‘There’s no class on today,’ she had explained. ‘Alice’s youngest boy was in a car accident and is in a coma. We’ve all been praying for him. It’s awful for poor Alice and her family. Sean’s a nice boy, I met him a few times, so tonight we’re all still meeting up and going to the pub in Monkstown for a drink instead of having our class.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that! I hope the young lad gets better.’
‘So do we all! Anyway, I’d better get going. We’re just going to have a drink or two.’
‘Listen, Kitty, do you want me to drive you? That way you can have all the vodka you want and not worry about drink-driving.’
‘Are you sure?’ she had asked, gobsmacked. Despite all her pleading, Larry had point-blank refused to come to the party a few weeks ago, and yet now here he was offering to bring her!
‘Yes, and I’ll come back and get you when you’re finished. Just give me about fifteen minutes’ warning.’
The others were all sitting near the back of the pub and Lucy, whose mum, Nina, was a friend of Alice’s, was able to update them on Sean’s progress.
‘At least he’s stable and the doctors are pleased with him,’ said Kitty, who didn’t know what Larry and herself would have done if any of their brood had been badly injured like that.
Rob had gone up to the bar and got the order in for everyone.
Gemma and Paul were still delighted at the success of their party, and couldn’t believe how many people had turned up.
‘Maybe we’ll have a barbecue later in the summer!’
‘Count us in,’ called Leah and Rachel.
Lucy had got a ‘Get Well’ card for Sean, and a ‘Thinking of You’ one for Alice, and they all signed them, also putting in some money to buy some flowers for Alice.
‘I’ll buy some really nice ones and drop them around when she’s home,’ promised Lucy.
‘Everything OK, Kerrie?’ Kitty asked. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something up with that young one. She could always tell with her own girls, and something about Kerrie’s strained face and tense, thin body told her that all was not well with the young bride-to-be. ‘How are the wedding plans coming?’ she asked gently.
‘We’re still on track for September in France,’ Kerrie said. ‘There’s just a few of us flying over, but it will be lovely. Who wants a big wedding these days? The restaurant we are using has a Michelin star, and the food there is just wonderful. They’re doing a very special menu for us.’
Kitty thought of her own girls’ weddings, the big family parties they’d been, and felt sorry for the poor little thing. Food and menus were the last things people remembered about weddings, but she couldn’t very well tell Kerrie that.
Sometimes at home she got out the DVD of Clodagh’s wedding, or Niamh’s and Shane’s, and put them on in the machine, and just sat down and cried and laughed for the hour or so at the special days that were there. There was her dad on film, Lord be good to him, waving as he went into the church the day of Clodagh’s wedding, chatting to everyone, messing and playing to the camera. He’d died about six months later of bowel cancer. There was Auntie Rose and her cousin Gerald, all gone now, but still there for them all to see in their finery on film. Clodagh was all-out pregnant with Danny at Niamh’s wedding, squashed into her bridesmaid dress. Danny always laughed when Kitty told him that he’d been in Mammy’s tummy at Auntie Niamh’s wedding. She even noticed how well Sheila had looked then, in that gorgeous fuchsia-pink outfit. Sheila and herself doing a little dance and drinking champagne … Sheila well and healthy and happy then, only months before they found the lump that was killing her now.
‘We want our wedding to be perfect, simple and a bit sophisticated and low-key, the kind of event that Matt and I prefer,’ confided Kerrie. ‘We’re not into crowds or fuss or any of that kind of thing! So that’s why we’ve chosen to have it in France, with just a few people there.’
‘Every bride must have the kind of wedding they want! It’s yours and Matt’s day after all,’ encouraged Kitty. ‘Anyway, I’m sure that you and your mum and sisters must be having a lovely time organizing it all, just as I had with my girls.’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘And we’ll all be dying to see the photographs!’ joked Kitty as she ordered another glass of vodka and orange and joined in the chat with Rachel and the rest of them.
‘It was so embarrassing!’ laughed Rachel. ‘There’s me going to a cookery school and asking all Pete’s family over for dinner to celebrate his mam and dad’s anniversary, and going to show off and do that lovely stuffed fillet of pork Alice taught us, and the gratin potatoes. I followed everything step by step exactly. There I was, the table set, candles and everything ready, and Pete topping everyone up with champagne, when I realized that there was something missing. You know in Alice’s you always get that lovely smell when we’re all cooking? I suddenly realized that there was not a whiff of a cooking smell! Nothing! I was mortified. Everyone starving and waiting to eat, and I had forgotten to put on the stupid oven!’
‘What did you do?’ Lucy laughed.
‘What could I do? Put the oven on pronto … but it took ages. Pete’s mam and dad and everyone got so tipsy! The food turned out great, but Pete’s dad was absolutely bunched, and fell asleep at the table and snored his head off!’
Everyone began to swap stories of dishes they had tried, and what a success they had been!
Kitty hadn’t realized the time, and was about to text Larry to come and collect her when she spotted him coming through the bar. She couldn’t believe it!
Larry had put on his new wine jumper, the one that Shane had given him for Christmas.
‘Over here!’ Kitty called to her husband.
She introduced him to everyone, and Emmet made space for him to sit down.
‘Will you have one for the road?’ Larry asked her, going up to buy her a vodka and getting himself a red lemonade and ice. Kitty couldn’t believe that Larry was making such an effort! Had Sky TV broken? Had every sports event in the world been cancelled? She watched in disbelief as Larry chatted away, real friendly, and told everyone just how much he missed his regular Tuesday-night dish!
‘I have to give it to my Kitty, she’s a fine cook!’