CHAPTER 76
Annie had been apologetic.

“Sorry to mess you around, Di, but we just haven’t got the room for both of you. Steph’s place isn’t that far away from us, honest”

“Are you apologising, girl? What the hell for?”

“Well, I sort of said I’d put you up, aye? And now I’m turfing you out. It doesn’t feel right”

“Annie, who is it that’s going to be putting her up for so many weeks?”

“Well, we’ve got the room for her, it’s just---”

“Oh, do shut up! And thank Steph for us both, she’s going above and beyond, isn’t it, and for someone she doesn’t even know. I mean, she hardly knows me, friend of a friend is all I am”

The friend in question was rather hushed when she spoke again, after a short silence.

“Well, that’s the way things are with us. Too much nastiness in our lives to want to see any more of it. Now, remember the garage near the church?”

“Yes”

“I’ll meet you there. I can grab a bus out, once I have an idea of timing, OK? Guide you to the house”

“I do have a sat-nave, Annie”

“Aye, but then I don’t get to point out all the curry houses and pubs to avoid. This girl: housebroken?”

For some reason, she was laughing as she said that, so I had to wait until she had finished.

“Absolutely, but she can be a little prickly. A bit defensive”

“God, I still do that. I was nodding at the phone, Di. Keep telling myself it doesn’t work, aye? Then I catch myself doing it again. Getting old, I am. Anyway, got trade coming in. see you in a fortnight”

Two weeks or so later, after an incredibly emotional farewell from the House, Charlie and I were crossing the Severn, her eyes everywhere as she took in the huge sweep of the Bristol Channel, while I tried not to think of boats dragging unpleasant things up with their anchor.

“First time in England, love?”

“No. Dad took us all to Bath once, when I was only little. Hardly remember it now, so I suppose this is sort of my first time abroad”

That set her laughing, if a little hesitantly.

“What’s tickled you, Charlie?”

“Just that word, Di--- ‘abroad’. That’s what I’ll be when I come back, a broad, a proper one. A real one…”

She started to tail off, but her resilience fought back, as always.

“These people, Di? What are they like?”

“Um, an old friend of mine and her husband and their son. That’s where you’ll be most of the time, but they haven’t got enough room to look after us both unless one of us sleeps on a sofa. A friend of Annie’s has a bigger house, and there’s just her and her man there, so they’ve offered”

“Di?”

“Yeah?”

“I know about Annie. Who she is, I mean. You two OK about, you know, stuff? You fancying her and that?”

“Where did you get that bit?”

“Not stupid, am I? So many girls like me together, we spot all the news about us, people like us, I mean. Not hard to work out, and that Candice dropped a couple of hints when she was pissed. So not a problem?”

I shook my head.

“Want the truth? Would have been the biggest mistake of my life, wouldn’t it? Anyway, you’ll see when we get there. Bit of a boring slog the next bit, so I will need a loo break and something to keep me going. We’ve got some services coming up in about twenty miles, so it’ll be coffee and cake and loo before the last bit”

“Di?”

“Yes?”

“These other people? The ones we’ll be staying with? Do they understand?”

“Most definitely, girl!”

There was so much we had in common, but a gulf remained I could never hope to close. What had been done to me had been because I was a woman, while so much of what had happened to Charlie, Tiff and Deb had been because that was not how they had been perceived. I had no doubts in my own mind, of course, for if anyone could possibly see them as anything other than women, they were either perverse or being deliberately hateful.

That clearly didn’t help her self-confidence, and all I could hope was that while my own sense of worthlessness had been wiped away by my two men, whatever the surgeons could do for Charlie might work in a similar way. Once more, I was counting my blessings, realising how easy a life I had actually had.

The services at Membury were nothing special, but I got to walk around for a while, easing the strain on my back and legs. Once coffee and cake were disposed of, in both senses, we were back on the M4, making surprisingly good time to Reading, where I took the shortcut past Sandhurst Annie had advised. Onto the M25 then, which did bring some delays around the A3 junction, but finally, we were swinging round the complicated loop onto the M23. I noticed my friend sit up as she saw the first signs for Brighton and her future life.

“Got the road atlas, woman?”

“Got maps up on my phone, woman! Don’t you trust the sat nav?”

“Charlie, if you had seen the sort of situations some drivers get into following sat navs, yeah?”

That brought a laugh.

“Yeah, point well made! See that one in Tenby? Where they wanted to go and see that monastery thing?”

Of course I had, but let her tell it, DC Sutton. Let her talk her nerves out.

“No?”

“Hire car, isn’t it? So they plug in the place, set off to drive to it, ‘Straight on to your destination’, so they do as it says, and of course it’s on an island, but they STILL drive straight across the beach and into the bloody sea!”

I chuckled, and she pointed.

“Next exit, turn right on the roundabout. Follow the planes, just not too closely!”

“Ring Annie for us, then”

Round the various right turns I remembered, until I spotted the church spire and the Texaco garage. In, park up, and a bus was there in ten minutes, my other friend effusive with the hugs for both of us.

“Annie, Charlie. Where to now?”

“Back to the roundabout and right. How are you off for fuel? Supermarket on the way to Steph’s if you need some”

“Fine at the moment, but point it out for later, yeah? What’s the plan? And how are you getting home? Need a lift?”

“Na. Eric dropped a bike off at their place for me. He’ll ride out later. Plan is a quiet night, which reminds me. Could you pull into the supermarket anyway? They do a build-your-own pizza there, so we need to get some for later, and, well… Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you mind if we left Di to do the pizzas? I think we need to look at another bit of the shop. There are things you are going to need after they sort you out. Not something Di really needs to hear, aye?”

Bless you, Annie Price. Johnson.

She was all business at the pizza counter, apart from explaining to a slightly puzzled Charlie that there was no point getting a 10” pizza when, for only a fraction more, we could have a 14”, which was almost exactly twice the size. Four immense pizzas ordered, and a basic geometry lesson delivered, she handed me the trolley.

“Get some nice stuff, Di, and can I really suggest some frozz yog?”

“Sorry?”

“Frozen yoghurt. Bit of a favourite in our family. Oh, and probably… Ten bottles of ale. Mix and match it. New woman shopping to do; catch you by the checkouts opposite the barber in twenty”

Charlie looked subdued when they returned, and I gathered Annie had done some serious sharing of her experiences, but under the younger woman’s silence there was just a hint of excitement. I didn’t need to know what they had discussed, just that someone who knew the score was looking after a frightened girl. Blessings counted once more.

Back out of the car park, left, along a winding country lane as Annie made a quick call, and finally into a gravel drive between two large detached houses. Not too shabby for a civil servant was my thinking, and Annie clearly read my mind.

“Don’t assume, Di. She inherited it from her parents. And there she is! Charlie, can you get the frozz yog into the fridge? Steph will point you”

More hugs, and a real smile of welcome to me from the redhead. Car unloaded, our bags dumped in bedrooms, and finally, finally, a decent cup of real coffee and a comfortable armchair in the conservatory, where I was amused to see a whole collection of stringed instruments and music stands. We sipped in silence, till Steph broke it.

“How was the drive, Di? I always find it a real drag after Caerdydd”

“Not too bad, actually. Few holdups on the M25, but nothing major. Had my in-car entertainment, didn’t I?”

Charlie looked up at that, her smile tentative.

“Steph?”

“Yes? Oh. Yes. Yes, me too. Annie given you the talk already?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, not tonight, OK? No worries till the day, and not even then. We have friends due later, we can haz pizza and BEER, and I have some photos of Diane I can sell you for fun and profit through blackmail. That sound OK?”

Annie’s jaw had dropped, but she recovered.

“Hell, Steph! You channelling Ginny now? Is it something to do with red hair?”

The taller woman giggled, and Annie sighed.

“Ginny is a friend of mine, a very good one. She’s on her way up with her wife and daughter, so you’ll meet her later. They live in Brighton, so they’ll be on hand if you need someone in a hurry. Eric and our boy will be over in a bit, so we’ll be a bit of a crowd. Steph, next door?”

“Yup. Naomi’s doing Stuff for us”

I was getting lost. What happened to my quiet evening in after a long drive?

In the end, it was superb. The ‘Stuff’ promised from ‘next door’ turned out to be a tasty collection of finger food, Ginny, the other red-haired lunatic I remembered from Christmas had brought both a collection of salads and utter insanity on confirmation we had the frozen yoghurt, and Geoff produced both nicely dry white wine and bottles of what I could only consider ‘girly drinks’ for Charlie.

It was a lovely evening, right up until Steph brought out the photos and videos from North Wales and Christmas, the miserable sod.