The Accidental Guest (8 page)

*

It had been a strange sort of goodbye. How do you part from someone who has been thrown into your life and entrenched themselves into it so quickly and completely that you can barely believe they hadn’t always been there, someone you hardly know and yet know in a way nobody else ever could, someone you don’t know anything about but already feel you know all you would ever need to?

There had been an awkward moment, where Hannah wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to kiss or hug or show any kind of affection at all. So as the paramedics looked on with barely disguised looks of amusement, Hannah settled for a very formal handshake and a stiff wave at the door. Then the ambulance was gone, and so was Tom. Perhaps for good, but Hannah couldn’t let herself dwell on that possibility.

Gina led her back inside. ‘Shall we get that dinner on now?’

‘It’ll taste disgusting,’ Jess said. ‘It’s been cooked about five million times.’

‘I think that might be a slight exaggeration…’ Gina cocked an eyebrow at her daughter. ‘But it can’t be helped. What were we supposed to do? None of today could be helped.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Hannah said. ‘This is not exactly the Christmas Day we’d planned, is it?’

‘Well,’ Gina replied brightly, ‘one day we’ll look back on it and laugh. And it’s not a complete wash out. We still have the rest of Aunt Dot’s presents to open, and I don’t know about you, but nothing says Christmas to me quite like a milkmaid figurine with only one bucket on her yoke.’

‘Or a half-full tube of dried up hand cream,’ Jess chipped in.

‘You got one of those?’ Hannah asked, ‘And you didn’t even share with us?’

‘That was last year,’ Jess laughed, ‘and it was too good to share so I gazed at it in secret in the dead of night when nobody else was there.’

Hannah couldn’t help but giggle. Despite all that had happened, she could already feel her spirits lifting. If anyone could salvage the rest of the day and turn it into a proper Christmas celebration, Gina and Jess could.

In the kitchen she stared at the chaos. It looked as though Jamie Oliver had been in and thrown a tantrum.

‘To be honest, I don’t feel like reheating all this now,’ Hannah said.

‘If I’m honest, I don’t really feel like eating it either,’ Gina agreed. ‘Sorry…’

‘Don’t be,’ Hannah said. ‘I feel exactly the same. It doesn’t feel like Christmas dinner with all the trimmings time now. Do you know what I think?’

Gina raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

‘I think,’ Hannah continued, ‘that we should have our Boxing day dinner tonight and then settle down to watch telly.’

‘Turkey and oven chips?’ Jess grinned.

‘Just so.’

‘And then we can have Christmas dinner on Boxing Day.’ Gina clapped her hands together. ‘It’s kinda topsy turvy. I like it!’

‘Right then…’ Hannah began to clear a space to work, transferring the food they weren’t eating into pots to store overnight while Gina rooted in the freezer for a bag of oven chips. ‘Peas too?’ she called as she held the bag up for Hannah to see.

‘Let’s leave the healthy stuff for tomorrow,’ Hannah replied. ‘Tonight I want to eat chips and ketchup and maybe even a pickled gherkin.’

‘Sounds good to me.’ Gina shoved the peas back into a drawer and shut the freezer. After popping a tray of chips into the oven, while Hannah and Jess finished up cleaning the surfaces, Gina flicked the CD player on once again and began to bop around the kitchen. ‘Time to get pissed,’ she laughed as Hannah gave her head a wry shake.

Hannah reached for their slightly battle-scarred turkey to begin carving off some more. ‘I think I’ve had enough with those two brandies you forced down me earlier.’

‘They were medicinal,’ Gina said. ‘These will be purely recreational.’

‘Can I have one now?’ Jess asked.

‘You can have a snowball.’

‘Ugh! Can’t I have something a bit less disco?’ Jess pouted.

Hannah burst out laughing. ‘You certainly inherited your mother’s way with words!’

‘Can I though?’ Jess insisted.

Hannah looked at Gina. ‘I don’t mind if you don’t.’

‘Only one,’ Gina warned Jess. ‘A light beer or something.’

Jess grinned broadly. Hannah knew why she wasn’t causing more of a fuss. It wouldn’t be long before Gina was plastered and then she wouldn’t notice Jess craftily refilling her ‘one’ glass of beer a few times. But it was Christmas, an odd one, but Christmas nonetheless, and Hannah figured Jess was as entitled to let her hair down as they were. And she was pretty sure that both she and Gina had been sneaking shots from their father’s drinks cabinet before they were eighteen too, though Gina was a lot more sensible where her own offspring was concerned. It was just another aspect of being a mother that Hannah had resigned herself to never experiencing.

Hannah fixed more brandy, this time mixed with a generous measure of lemonade to make them last a while, and Jess headed out to help herself to a bottle of Belgian beer from the stock Hannah kept in the outhouse down the garden. She came back into the kitchen some moments later kicking snow from her boots. The day was already turning to dusk, and a blast of cold air roared in through the open back door.

‘It’s stopped snowing,’ Jess announced.

‘Bloody typical,’ Gina said. ‘We could have done with that a few hours ago when we were waiting for an ambulance to get through. I bet it’ll be melted tomorrow.’

‘I don’t think so…’ Hannah’s gaze went to the darkening skies outside the window. ‘It feels like it might freeze over rather than melt.’

‘Then the roads will be lovely and slippery to cause more havoc for Boxing Day.’

‘That’s not good.’

‘I suppose it just means we’ll have to sit around snuggled in our PJs all day and watch films with all those chocolates we’ve bought each other,’ Gina said cheerfully.

‘Sounds good to me.’ Hannah sipped her drink. ‘I wonder if Tom will have been reunited with his family by then.’

‘I expect so.’ Gina shot a glance at Jess, who returned it with a little shrug.

‘Still…’ Hannah continued, ‘I wonder if he’s ok.’

*

Much later, when they had full bellies and were sitting together on the sofa like cats huddled in a barn, Hannah passed a tray of chocolates to Gina.

‘I know it’s hard to believe, but I think I have to give in.’ Gina pushed the box away. ‘I’ve eaten more chocolate today than I have the rest of the year put together.’

‘It’s Christmas; you have to do that,’ Hannah said. She reached for the remote control as the end credits of the festive edition of
Coronation Street
began to roll.

‘I told you someone was going to die,’ Jess said, stifling a yawn. ‘Someone always dies at Christmas.’ She reached across and plucked a coffee cream from the box on Hannah’s lap.

‘Nothing says peace and goodwill to all men quite like a lethal punch up,’ Hannah said.

Gina rolled her eyes. ‘Gold star to Jess for guessing the utterly guessable.’

Hannah popped the box onto the floor and stretched. ‘Another drink before we set up the movie?’

‘Tea,’ Gina said. ‘I hate to admit defeat on the booze too, but I could go for a lovely cup of tea.’

Hannah uncurled herself from the corner of the sofa and padded through to the kitchen. It was there that her gaze fell upon the clothes she had hung out to dry on the radiator: Jason’s clothes, which had now, indelibly in her mind, become Tom’s clothes, or whoever he really was. Tom had got back into his own before he left. She wandered over and put her nose to the sweater. It smelt different; no longer the fading scent of her ex, but someone new. She inhaled again, and the smell was so comforting she was half tempted to pull the now dry sweater over her head and wear it for the rest of the evening. But then she imagined the look on Gina’s face and checked herself.
Idiot
. What the hell was the matter with her today?

Gina appeared at the doorway and Hannah shoved the sweater back onto the radiator, feeling like a toddler caught with a freshly painted wall and a tub of crayons.

‘Want some help?’ Gina glanced at the sweater, and then back at Hannah. ‘With the tea, I mean.’

Hannah waited a moment for the reprimand but none came. ‘I can manage,’ she said.

‘You know he’s probably married…’ Gina added, going over to take a closer look at the sweater herself. ‘Although I can understand why you’re interested.’

‘I’m not interested, just concerned.’

‘He is extremely attractive,’ Gina continued, ignoring Hannah’s denial. ‘I can’t blame you for hoping he’s not married.’ She shot Hannah a sly grin. ‘And he clearly fancied you too.’

‘No he didn’t,’ Hannah gave an awkward laugh. ‘He was just being a gentleman.’

‘More to you than Jess or me.’

‘It’s my house; that’s probably why. You have to be polite to your host, don’t you?’

‘Does that go for me and Jess then?’

‘No, you’re not guests, you’re family. So feel free to insult me as much as you like… oh wait… you already do…’

‘It’s no less than you deserve,’ Gina giggled.

No sooner had the laughter died down than there was a faint knocking from the front of the house. Hannah looked at Gina in alarm. ‘Was that the front door?’ she whispered. Quite why she was whispering she couldn’t say. But given the day they’d had, Hannah figured they’d already had their fair share of strangers dropping from the sky.

Jess came into the kitchen. ‘Someone just knocked. Want me to go and get it?’

‘No… I…’ Hannah began.

‘I’ll go,’ Gina cut in.

Hannah reached for her arm to stop her. ‘I’d better go; it is my house after all. It’s probably just George anyway. Perhaps he forgot something, or he wants to get his car now that it’s stopped snowing.’

‘I hope not. He can’t possibly take it tonight,’ Gina said doubtfully.

Hannah’s heart was thudding in her chest as she made her way through the house, Gina and Jess following. Why? Was it because, in some dark, deluded corner of her mind she thought it might be Tom, like in one of those romantic films where she’d open the door and he’d be standing there, proudly handsome and yet vulnerable, and he would tell her that he couldn’t stop thinking about her and how he might die if she didn’t marry him immediately? She’d begin to argue, and he’d hush her with a passionate kiss before sweeping her into his arms and carrying her off into the night while Gina and Jess whooped and clapped and cried tears of joy.
Don’t be ridiculous
, she told herself. It would be George, good old George, nice and safe. Things like that didn’t happen in real life – at least, not to people like her. But there was a strange sense of déjà vu as Jess reached for the soapstone elephant and, just like before, waited, ready to attack at the first sign of trouble. Hannah opened the door, her heart beating so fiercely she was certain everyone in the room must be able to hear it. Never had she been so nervous about answering a knock before and though she knew how utterly ridiculous it was, there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop it.

And then the rush of adrenaline subsided and was replaced by a tidal wave of disappointment as she saw not Tom, not even George, but the snow-haired paramedic from earlier that day standing on the doorstep. He raised an eyebrow as he clocked all three women standing at the door looking as though they were expecting a medieval siege to begin.

‘Sorry if I disturbed you.’ He gave them an apologetic smile. ‘Only I wondered if you’d found a watch. I’ve lost mine, and I wouldn’t fuss ordinarily, but the missus gave it to me for our silver and she’ll skin me alive if I don’t find it. I was wondering if I’d left it here.’

Hannah shook her head. ‘We haven’t found anything. But if you want to step in for a moment we can have a proper look around to make sure it’s not lying somewhere unnoticed.’

‘That would be great, thank you.’ He followed Hannah in.

Jess closed the front door after him, before sliding the elephant figure back onto the sideboard as surreptitiously as she could.

‘I’ve been retracing my steps ever since my shift finished,’ he said.

‘Isn’t your wife wondering where you are?’ Gina asked.

‘I told her we’d had some tricky patients today and the paperwork was taking a bit longer.’

‘And she believed you?’

‘Probably not,’ he sighed.

‘Let’s just hope she doesn’t think you’re having an affair and you’ve gone to give your mistress her Christmas present,’ Gina said, the tone in her voice implying that she knew more than a little about that particular scenario.

The paramedic seemed to pale in front of their eyes. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’

Hannah stared very deliberately at her sister then turned to the paramedic. ‘I’m sure not everyone is as suspicious as that.’

‘Sure,’ Gina agreed, ‘only when they have good cause to be.’

As he waited they went through the kitchen and sitting room, scouring for a glint of metal that would turn out to be the man’s watch. It was just another Christmas mercy mission on top of a list that kept getting longer and longer. But after twenty minutes they had to conclude that it wasn’t there.

‘I’m sorry,’ Hannah said. ‘Do you have anywhere else to look?’

‘There was one more call after yours but I can’t go back there now because the police are still in attendance doing forensics and taking statements…’ he shrugged. ‘If it is there, maybe someone will pick it up and figure out it’s not part of the evidence. In a way I hope it’s not there, though; I’m not sure I’d want it back if it was.’

Hannah couldn’t imagine what sort of incident it could have been and she didn’t want to know. If it made him feel that way it must have been traumatic. It seemed that not everyone was about peace and goodwill on Christmas Day, and perhaps the annual carnage that was the staple of the festive soap schedule wasn’t a million miles from the truth after all. She suddenly had the deepest respect for this man who must encounter all sorts of harrowing events in his day-to-day life and yet still managed to stay cheerful and good-natured.

‘Can I get you a drink?’ she asked.

‘Thank you, that’s kind, but I really should head home.’

‘What will you tell your wife about your watch?’