Maddie doesn’t know what to do with this information. Who should she tell? If she tells her dad, what will he do? Will he find a way of ducking it? Carry on not telling the truth, not explaining?
Noah is the one who needs to know. If she tells him, though, what will happen? She could tell her mom, but what then? The air between her parents is as good as ice. They say things like ‘Please pass the butter’ and ‘Don’t forget to call the dentist’, but that’s about it. So how could she possibly tell them that a woman phoned yesterday afternoon and asked to speak to her dad and said his mother – Dad’s mother? – was asking for him and would he be able to get there during the week to see her because she (Dad’s mother!) had been very agitated and seeing him always calmed her down.
When Maddie had answered the phone and heard a voice talking about her dad and his mother, she’d stumbled and stuttered and said yes, yes, she’d pass on the message, adding sorry, sorry, because the woman sounded so stern, like Dad had behaved really badly in class and only Maddie was there to apologise.
Her dad, who always said he had no parents, that his parents were dead. Her dad, whose id number Noah wanted her to try and access, so that he had a starting point for filling in his family tree – the side with no names, no family stories, no ancestry.
But that wasn’t all. As one relative sprang up on her dad’s side of the tree, another branch sprouted. The stern voice at the end of the phone had asked if Mr Groome could please come to see his mother again, and then added, ‘Her daughter says she’ll be here, as usual.’
‘Her daughter?’ Maddie had said. The old lady’s daughter … Dad has a sister?
‘Yes,’ said the voice. ‘Mrs Davenport. She’ll be here tomorrow, so if Mr Groome can make it too, that would be most satisfactory. Now be sure to pass on the message, dear.’
‘I will,’ said Maddie.
So, yes. Two new relatives. Not new buds settling gently into place, but – wham! – solid, fully grown branches, leaving Maddie standing in the office, phone in her hand, wondering what to do, and who to tell.
She’s confused, and then she’s angry. Incredibly angry. All those years of feeling sorry for her dad because he had no one. All the times Noah asked for his help, for details for his family tree. Noah’s frustration at not being able to complete his project. And her father, knowing what that is like for Noah. Like a tooth with a cavity that’s become infected, which your tongue can’t stop worrying at until you get to dentist and he cleans it out, fixes it up. That’s what their father has done. Left Noah with a jagged, aching hole.
Who else might be waiting, peering out from behind the leaves? In Maddie’s mind, her father starts to grow roots in the soil, branches above his head. And, above him and next to him a mother and sister she can tell Noah about.
Maddie and Noah have a second grandmother. They have another aunt. The problem now is working out how to meet them. Maddie knows that they will though, and soon. Noah will think of something, she tells herself.
She stares at the phone, at the digits glowing on the screen. And then she realises … the answer is, quite literally, staring her in the face: The number of the place where Dad’s supposed to be going … to visit his mother.
Maddie quickly types it into her phone and, before she loses courage, calls the new contact.
‘Silver Oaks Retirement Village.’
It’s a different voice. Maddie must be through to reception.
‘May I speak to Mrs Groome, please?’ She uses her father’s surname, and as she does so realises that it’s probably wrong, but today the gods are smiling on her. She’s back on track in seconds.
‘I’m sorry,’ she says, laughing. ‘So sorry. I keep forgetting. I mean Mr Groome’s mother of course. I’m her niece, just out from England.’
‘You mean Mrs Felix? She’s in frail care, dear. I’m afraid she isn’t really up to taking calls.’
‘Oh.’ Maddie is disappointed. ‘Would I be able to visit her?’
‘But of course you can. As long as you check in at reception. I’m sure Mrs Felix will be delighted to have more visitors. Frail care visiting hours are every day, from 2.30 to 4.’
‘More visitors?’ Maddie keeps her voice light, interested, niece-like.
‘Yes, well, her son, Mr Groome, he visits regularly and his sister too, Mrs Harriet Davenport. Perhaps you could come with them?’
‘Yes, yes. Thank you. That’s a very good idea,’ Maddie hangs up quickly. Silver Oaks. She scribbles down the name of the retirement village where her grandmother, Mrs Felix, is in frail care, where her father and her aunt, a Mrs Harriet Davenport, visit their mother.