pulled the footrest over to the couch and sat opposite the girls.
‘OK, I’m not going to drag this one out. I opened the envelope for July today and this is what it said.’ She rooted in her bag for the small card, which had been attached to the brochure that she’d shown to the girl at the travel agent and handed it to them. It read:
Have a good Holly day!
PS. I love you …
‘Is that it?’ Denise wrinkled up her nose, unimpressed. Sharon nudged her in the ribs. ‘Ow!’
‘Well, Holly, I think it’s a lovely note,’ Sharon lied. ‘It’s so thoughtful and it’s … a lovely play on words.’
Holly had to giggle. She knew Sharon was lying because she always flared her nostrils when she wasn’t telling the truth. ‘No, you fool!’ she said, hitting Sharon over the head with a cushion.
Sharon began to laugh. ‘Oh good, because I was beginning to worry there for a second.’
‘Sharon, you are always so supportive you make me sick sometimes!’ Holly grinned. ‘Now this is what else was inside.’ She handed them the crumpled page that was torn from the brochure.
She watched with amusement as the girls tried to figure out Gerry’s writing and Denise finally held her hand up to her mouth. ‘Oh my God!’ she gasped, sitting forward on her seat.
‘What what what?’ Sharon demanded, and leaned forward with excitement. ‘Did Gerry buy you a holiday?’
‘No.’ Holly shook her head seriously.
‘Oh.’ Sharon and Denise both sat back in their seats with disappointment.
Holly allowed an uncomfortable silence to lapse between them until she spoke again.
‘Girls,’ she said with a smile beginning to spread across her face, ‘he bought us a holiday!’
The girls opened a bottle of wine and squealed with excitement.
‘Oh, this is incredible,’ Denise said after the news had sunk in. ‘Gerry’s such a sweetie.’
Holly nodded, feeling proud of her husband, who had once again managed to surprise them all.
‘So you went down to see this Barbara person?’ Sharon asked.
‘Yes, and she was the sweetest girl,’ Holly smiled. ‘She sat with me for ages telling me about the conversation they had that day. He went in at the end of November.’
‘November?’ Sharon looked thoughtful. ‘That was after the second operation.’
Holly nodded. ‘The girl said he was pretty weak when he went in.’
‘Isn’t it funny that none of us had any idea at all?’ Sharon said.
They all nodded silently.
‘Well, it looks like we’re all off to Lanzarote!’ Denise cheered, and she held her glass up. ‘To Gerry!’
‘To Gerry!’ Holly and Sharon joined in.
‘Are you sure Tom and John won’t mind?’ Holly asked, suddenly aware that the girls had partners to think of.
‘Of course John won’t mind!’ Sharon laughed. ‘He’ll probably be delighted to be rid of me for a week!’
‘Yeah, and me and Tom can go away for a week another time, which actually suits me fine,’ agreed Denise, ‘because that way we’re not stuck together for two weeks on our first holiday together!’ she laughed.
‘Sure, you two practically live together anyway!’ Sharon laughed, nudging her.
Denise gave a quick smile but didn’t answer and the two of them dropped the subject. That annoyed Holly because they were always doing that. She wanted to hear how her friends were getting on in their relationships but nobody seemed to tell her any of the juicy gossip any more out of fear of hurting her. People seemed to be afraid to tell her about how happy they were or about the good news in their lives. Then again they also refused to moan about the bad things. So instead of being informed of what was really going on in her friends’ lives she was stuck with this mediocre chitchat about … nothing really, and it was starting to bother her. She couldn’t be shielded from other people’s happiness for ever – what good would that do her?
‘I have to say that leprechaun really is doing a great job on your garden, Holly,’ Denise cut into her thoughts as she looked out the window.
Holly blushed. ‘Oh, I know. I’m sorry for being a bitch earlier, Denise,’ she apologised. ‘I suppose I should really go next door and thank him properly.’
After Denise and Sharon had headed off home Holly grabbed a bottle of wine from the stash under the stairs and carried it next door to her neighbour. She rang the bell and waited.
‘Hi, Holly,’ Derek said, opening the door, ‘come in, come in.’
Holly looked past him and into the kitchen, and saw the family sitting around the table eating dinner. She backed away from the door slightly.
‘No, I won’t disturb you. I just came by to give you this,’ she handed him the bottle of wine, ‘as a token of my thanks.’
‘Well, Holly, this is really thoughtful of you,’ he said, reading the label. Then he looked up with a confused expression on his face. ‘But thanks for what, if you don’t mind me asking?’
‘For tidying up my garden,’ she said, blushing. ‘I’m sure the entire estate was cursing me for ruining the appearance of the street,’ she laughed.
‘Holly, your garden certainly isn’t a worry to anyone – we all understand – but I haven’t been tidying it for you, I’m sorry to say.’
‘Oh.’ Holly cleared her throat, feeling very embarrassed. ‘I thought you had been.’
‘No, no …’
‘Well, you wouldn’t by any chance know who has been?’
‘I have no idea,’ he said, puzzled. ‘I thought it was you, to be honest,’ he laughed. ‘How odd.’
Holly wasn’t quite sure what to say next.
‘So perhaps you would like to take this back,’ he said awkwardly, thrusting the wine bottle towards her.
‘Oh no, that’s OK,’ she laughed again, ‘you can keep that as thanks for … not being neighbours from hell. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to dinner.’ She ran off down the driveway with her face burning with embarrassment. What kind of fool wouldn’t know who was tidying her own garden?
She knocked on a few more doors around the estate and to her embarrassment nobody seemed to know what she was talking about. Everyone seemed to have jobs and lives and, remarkably enough, they didn’t spend their days monitoring her garden. She returned to her house even more confused. As she walked in the door the phone was ringing and she ran to answer it.
‘Hello?’ she panted.
‘What were you doing, running a marathon?’
‘No I was chasing leprechauns,’ Holly explained.
‘Oh, cool.’
The oddest thing was that Ciara didn’t even question her.
‘It’s my birthday in two weeks.’
Holly had completely forgotten. ‘Yeah, I know,’ she said matter-of-factly.
‘Well, Mum and Dad want us all to go out for a family dinner …’
Holly groaned loudly.
‘Exactly.’ And she screamed away from the phone, ‘Dad, Holly said the same thing as me.’
Holly giggled