The family upstairs pages5/13/2023 ![]() David’s sat down with us and worked it all out.’ My mother used to spend thirty pound a week on fresh flowers alone. If we can live on thirty pounds a week we’ll be OK for at least a couple of years.’ There’s still a couple of savings accounts. ‘And I’m only telling you because I trust you. ‘You have to promise, promise, promise,’ she said, ‘not to talk to anyone else about this. So many things had changed so slowly over such a long period of time that it was hard sometimes to spot the joins. I noticed she wasn’t wearing any eye make-up and wondered when that had stopped. She held my hand in hers and she stared hard at me. And then she pulled me gently by the arm into her bedroom and sat me on her bed. ![]() I knew what the gesture meant, and it was something I’d long suspected, but this was the first time I’d had it confirmed to me. ![]() She rubbed her fingertips together, and I looked at her with alarm. My mother’s gaze panned slowly to the left, as though remembering a dream, and she said, ‘Oh yes. ![]() ‘Remember? That old man who came in the white van to collect our laundry, and he was so tiny you used to worry that he wouldn’t be able to carry it all?’ I wondered if she was trying to be like the other women, in the same way that I was trying to be like Phin. ![]() Now it was past her shoulder blades and parted in the middle. Birdie wore her hair long, and so did Sally. She had not, as far as I was aware, had it cut in the two years since the other people had moved in with us. ![]()
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