It was her mother who made the call, struggling not to cry. ‘He’s been round again, Andrew,’ she said, ‘and he’s made a right mess of her this time. She’s terrified he’s going to come back.’
She didn’t have to tell me who it was she was talking about. Her daughter was a current hot property in a soap opera, much loved by the tabloids that hounded her constantly for stories about her private life, which was why the publisher had been willing to buy her autobiography. Her biggest problem was an ex-boyfriend who liked to foster an image of himself as a gangster and all-round hard-man. The couple had a child together and she had gone on to have another with her current boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend didn’t like the idea of his child being brought up by another man and had taken to coming round and threatening her. The threats sometimes became reality. Once or twice the tabloids had commented on black eyes that she had not managed to cover up in front of their photographers, but this time it sounded like he had gone further.
‘I don’t know how to ask this,’ her mum went on, ‘but she needs somewhere safe to go for a few days. She can’t come to me because he knows where I live. Could she and the kids come and stay with you for a few days while she works out what to do?’
‘Sure,’ I heard myself say.
My wife took the news pretty well. Our biggest worry was how our children would react to seeing their first badly beaten woman, but that didn’t seem like a good enough reason to turn away someone who appeared at that moment to have no one else to turn to. What her mum had forgotten to mention was that the current boyfriend would also be coming, as would their hyperactive dog. Our children adjusted very quickly to the new family in our midst, enjoying looking after younger children, but our Labrador had something close to a nervous breakdown at having her home space so boisterously invaded.
After a few days of countryside peace and calm our heroine was refreshed and ready to return to the fray, bravely facing down the lenses of the paparazzi and the threats of the ex-boyfriend. Our children returned to their normal, safe, predictable routines with a lot to think about and the Labrador was able to sleep with both eyes shut once more. I’m not sure which family benefited the most from the experience.