‘Go on, Pandora, it’s addressed to you. You open it.’
‘I can’t. I daren’t. You open it, Juno.’
‘Me?’
‘You’re a doctor, go on.’
‘What’s being a doctor got anything to do with it? Lexia, go on, you open it. I mean, at the end of the day, we got through to the finals because you were so superb as Mary Magdalene.’
‘That’s rubbish. We got through to the finals because Pan was so brilliant at directing us there. Anyway, I can’t open it, I’m the youngest. You open it, Ari, you’re the eldest.’
‘Me? I was just in the chorus. Nothing to do with me that we got through. Are you sure it’s what we think it is?’
‘Well, it does say in stonking great letters on the back of the envelope: The Really Useful Group. I mean, I don’t think it’s your gas bill, Pandora, even though, you know, gas is really useful for cooking… and you know… for washing your hair. Nothing worse than trying to get up a lather when the water’s cold…’
‘It’s just that, once we open it we’ll know, won’t we? By sitting here, staring at this envelope, we can still believe we’ve won.’
‘But we might have.’
‘And even if we haven’t, we’ll have come second. I mean, that’s pretty good, Pan. No, it’s not, it’s absolutely fantastic.’
‘OK, put the kettle on.’
‘You’re joking, get the champagne out.’
‘Champagne only if we’ve won. Coffee and cake if we’re second…’
‘Not Mum’s. Anything but Mum’s…’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, give it here, Pandora…’
Pandora, Juno and Lexia Sutherland joined hands across Pandora’s kitchen table, eyes shut tight, pulses racing as Ariadne carefully slit the sealed envelope, took out the single sheet of paper and quickly scanned what was written there.
‘OK, sisters of mine, you can go for Mum’s turmeric and beetroot cake… but… you’ll be well within your rights to crack open the champagne!’
‘Did we win, Ari? Have we won? Did we do it?’ Pandora jumped up from the table, knocking her chair to the floor as she did so.
‘You won, Pandora, it was your competition, your hard work.’
‘I think,’ Lexia said, smiling while brushing away a single tear as she moved to the fridge to retrieve the bottle of champagne she’d put there earlier, ‘we’ve all won. We’re all winners, don’t you agree?’