Maddie was still keyed up when she arrived home. She did a few rounds of her breathing exercise before pouring herself a large glass of wine. Not that she needed it. Or so she convinced herself. Just in celebration. She sipped it then pushed it to the centre of the kitchen table. She’d finish it when Wayne came home. Celebrating with him was much more fun than when alone. She hadn’t given a thought about dinner.
Jade arrived and headed upstairs as usual. Still no Wayne. Late the one time she really wanted him home. Maybe ring for a curry meal?
“Jade,” she called up the stairwell. “If I order curry, what do you want?”
“Korma, as usual,” came the faint reply. Yes. Jade’s usual. Wayne’s was Tandoori and hers Chicken Kali Mirch. No reason she couldn’t order now.
As it happened, the curries arrived before Wayne did. She wrapped a towel around the bag of curries and rice to keep it all as hot as possible.
Where was the man? She took another sip of the wine. About half left.
Finally she heard the door open.
“Ready to eat?” she called out.
“Sorry I’m late,” he mumbled. “Last minute practice.”
She really did not want to hear about his day. Not when she had so much to tell him. She launched into it as she gave each meal a two-minute blast in the microwave. She called Jade, poured a glass of wine for Wayne and finally sat herself down. Her story of her day was up to when she and David Player left to collect coffees for the three of them.
But it was not lost on her that Jade seemed more interested than Wayne. “And that supervisor could see the improvement in the Service Officer’s reports?”
“She certainly did. I was quite amazed she’d contacted them right in the middle of my interview.”
Jade pushed her plate away. “Great meal, Mum. Shouldn’t say that when you ordered it in, but they really do curries like they should be.”
“Mine is a close second?”
Jade gave her mother a small smile. “It’s history study tonight. I’ve invented a new way of studying. Record the important points from your notes then ask a question about it. Leave a space to think of a reply. Then record the reply. Then the next day and each day afterwards, I listen to the tape, fill in the blanks and then my own voice says whether it’s right or not. Simple.”
“Doesn’t sound simple, but it does sound like a good idea,” Maddie said, pleased their conversation was ordinary with no excess emotion. “Quite creative, really, Jade. Repetition is always the key to getting facts into the brain.”
“That’s what I thought,” Jade said, dumping her plate and utensils into the sink. “So if you hear me talking to myself, don’t call Mental Health.”
Maddie saw Wayne’s eyes on their daughter as she was explaining her new inventive way of studying. But he didn’t smile when she made the quip about Mental Health. What was going on with him?
“Earth to Wayne,” she said, snapping her fingers.
His eyes wandered to hers with a frown. “What’s with you?”
“Get with it, Wayne, please. I’m in the middle of a crisis at work. Aren’t you interested?”
He shook his head and bent over his curry. He spooned up another mouthful then pushed the half uneaten plate away. “Sorry. Didn’t sleep so well last night.” At that, he got up from the table and headed into the living room. The television went on. She followed him in.
“Wayne, remember how Donald and Sharon had their weekend in New York?”
He flicked his eyes at her. “Donald and Sharon?”
“The Dymocks. When we had Freya for the weekend.”
“Oh. Yes, of course.”
“Sharon thought it good for their relationship. I do too. I thought we could do the same. Not New York, of course, but take advantage of their thinking they owe us one. And with them leaving soon, we can take advantage. Jade could stay over with Freya.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Caroline, at work? You remember her. We went to her wedding. One of them.”
He nodded. They’d been invited to Caroline’s second wedding. Wayne had met her then. She’d eloped, if people in their fifties can elope, for her third wedding.
“Caroline has a cottage in the country. Away from everything. Maybe we could take a few days….”
“Hey, hold on,” Wayne said. “I can’t take time off at a weekend. That’s the only time I can depend on everybody turning up. You know that.”
“Not a weekend necessarily,” Maddie said. “I’m off work. We can take a couple of days anytime. Just imagine. A little cottage in a small village surrounded by countryside. Ambling through fields and woods. A cosy fire in the grate. Nothing to do but walk and read and talk about anything. It sounds like luxury to me. And it would be just you and me.”
He touched his ludicrous haircut.
That did it. Things crashed around her. That damned haircut. The contacts. Being late when Wayne was always on time for dinner. A dinner cooked for him, served to him and the kitchen cleaned up afterwards while he luxuriated in front of the telly.
She rang Caroline. “I’m going to cancel our coffee date. Need to. Wayne doesn’t want a holiday away.” She wasn’t sure she was making sense.
“Let’s have a girl’s weekend instead,” Caroline suggested. “Drive up on Friday. Just the two of us.”
“Sounds like heaven,” Maddie said. And so it was arranged.
Maddie turned back to the kitchen. She took a deep breath. Let it out. Again. She looked around the kitchen with dirty dishes everywhere, her last bit of wine still in the glass. Wayne’s abandoned dinner.
Tears pushed at her lids.