Love Me Till Wednesday (Sapphire Stars #1)

21

21

‘Are you absolutely sure you want this t-shirt? It’s got moth holes in it.’ Lisa asked Sam, holding one of the offending holes close to the webcam.

‘Mum! It adds to the lived-in feel,’ he complained.

‘But you didn’t bother taking it with you?’

‘I couldn’t fit everything in my backpack. You told me to travel light, remember? How much more of this is there to do? I’m supposed to be going out this evening.’

‘I scheduled our Zoom call so it didn’t clash with your social life,’ Lisa said. She looked up at the bank of clocks on the kitchen wall showing different times around the world. Greg had originally put them up there for decoration, but with Sam on his grand tour of the Far East and Australasia, they had a practical use now. The Sydney clock showed 6.20 pm. Why was Sam complaining? He usually went out on the town much later than that when he was at home.

Sam looked annoyed. ‘Can’t we do this another time? I’m not in the mood now.’

Lisa sighed. This was proving to be so much harder than it needed to be. She’d thought the floordrobe in Sam’s room would be the easiest mess to tackle first. ‘I’ve got more exciting things to do, too, but your bedroom needs sorting out this weekend.’ Lisa watched him turn off the mic and talk to someone on the other side of his laptop. ‘I won’t have room to store all your stuff in my new place, and we’ve got to be out of here by the end of August.’

Sam took himself off mute. ‘What new place?’

‘Didn’t you read my text? Dad wants his share of the house back, so I’ve had to sell up.’

Sam looked shocked. ‘But I like the house we’ve got!’

‘You tell your father, then. Though I can’t see him being persuaded by someone who’s only spent three weeks at home in the last two years.’

‘But I’m planning on coming back.’

‘I’ll get a flat with enough space so you can still have your own bedroom. It might not be as palatial as the one you’ve got here, but you’ll have somewhere to sleep and dump your stuff.’

Sam leaned back in his chair. ‘I suppose Dad’s new place does look like a shit hole.’

‘So I gather from your sister. Now, are you going to engage with this process or not?’

‘Can’t you put it in storage until I get back?’

‘And when will that be?’

‘I’m not sure. I’ve got a few irons in the fire, you know. I’ll keep you posted.’

He sounded just like Greg. Always hard to pin down to anything.

‘Looks like I’ll have to put it in storage then.’

‘Can I go now?’ Sam had already pushed his chair back from the table in preparation for making his escape.

‘It’s been lovely talking to you. Thank you for sparing me so much of your precious time.’

‘Anytime, Mum,’ Sam replied, ignoring her sarcasm. ‘I’ll call you soon. ’

Lisa caught a brief glimpse of Sam waving before he disappeared off the screen altogether. That was probably the last she’d hear from him for a couple of months.

Lisa heard the front door open as she closed the laptop.

‘Mum, are you home?’

Jim. At least he’d responded to the call to come and get his stuff.

‘I’m in the kitchen,’ she shouted.

‘Nanny, nanny, nanny,’ her granddaughter Sophie yelled as she charged down the steps towards her.

‘Slow down, sweetheart. You might slip on the floor.’

‘I have my trainers on. I am perfectly fine.’ Sophie replied in her most grown-up voice.

‘Thanks for coming over. I wasn’t expecting to see you today,’ Lisa said to Jim as he followed his daughter into the kitchen.

‘You said it needed doing,’ Jim said, pinching a satsuma from the fruit bowl on the island and starting to peel it.

‘It’s just you normally take Sophie to ballet on a Saturday morning.’

‘I haven’t got ballet today. Miss Diamond is on holiday. What’s all this mess?’ Sophie pointed to the pile of Sam’s clothes on the work surface.

‘It’s your uncle Sam’s. I’m having a clearout.’

‘You’re not moving yet, are you?’ Jim asked.

‘The buyer’s a developer, and he wants me out ASAP.’

‘Elise texted me to say you were upset about it. I think she was hoping I might be able to help out financially, but all my money’s tied up in the business.’

‘I know. I’m not expecting a handout. I’d be fine about moving if the future owner wasn’t proposing to ruin it. But at least I got a good price out of him. Anyway, there’s still some of your stuff in the loft. ’

‘Why aren’t all your things at our house, Daddy?’ Sophie asked.

‘Because there wasn’t enough room for it in the first flat Mummy and I lived in. And I never got around to moving it when we bought a bigger place.’ He turned to Lisa. ‘Can I check it out because I’ve forgotten what’s up there?’

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Can I come?’ Sophie asked.

‘No, darling. It’s too dangerous. You might fall down the ladder. You stay with Nanny.’

Sophie turned to Lisa and gave her her most appealing look. ‘Can we make biscuits? Pleeease.’

Lisa smiled. How could she refuse? ‘I guess so.’ She scooped up the pile of Sam’s clothes from the work surface and shoved them back in a bin liner. So much for getting started on the decluttering while Pete was out visiting a friend. At this rate, she’d need to hire the Albert Hall to hold it all.

‘Those biscuits smell good,’ Jim said when he returned to the kitchen half an hour later.

‘They’re not ready yet, Daddy,’ Sophie said.

‘They still smell good.’

The timer started to ring. Lisa turned it off.

‘Can Daddy have some?’ Sophie asked as Lisa removed the tray of dinosaur shaped biscuits from the oven.

Lisa put on her serious face. ‘You know the rules here. You have to be good before you can have a biscuit.’

Jim laughed. ‘I think I’ve been very good, mother dearest. There are three big boxes in the hall that I can take off your hands. And there’s some more I can pick up later when Soph’s not in the car.’ His expression became serious. ‘And I found this behind one of them.’ He handed her a dusty old photo album.

Lisa took it from him and brushed the dust off with her hand. It had her handwriting on the cover. “Sapphire Stars 1991 first successful year”. It implied a certain optimism that there might be more successful years to follow. Got that wrong, didn’t you ? ‘I haven’t seen this for years. I’d forgotten all about it.’

Jim tapped his fingers on the work surface. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.’

‘Have you looked inside?’ Lisa asked him.

He shook his head. ‘I didn’t think it was my place to.’ He’d probably guessed whose photo might be in there.

Sophie hadn’t picked up on the atmosphere. ‘Let’s see,’ she said, climbing on the stool next to Lisa. ‘What is it?’

‘A book of old photos of me and my friends when I was a lot younger, before your daddy was born.’

‘Is Nandad in there too?’ Sophie asked.

It still felt odd hearing Sophie use her babyish version of “granddad” to refer to Greg now he’d walked out. As far as she was aware, Sophie hadn’t seen Greg for months. ‘No. I met Nandad after Daddy was born.’

Sophie looked puzzled. ‘So who is Daddy’s daddy then?’

‘Someone I used to know a long time ago.’ Lisa said. She looked at Jim. ‘Are you sure you want to look at this now?’

‘Yeah. Why not,’ he said, but he sounded apprehensive. She’d told him all about Nick as soon as he was old enough to understand. But he’d never seen a photo of him before. If he’d asked, she would have dug one out or Googled him, but Jim had always seemed completely uninterested whenever she’d mentioned him, wanting to change the subject or making an excuse to leave the room. She figured that was normal when he was in primary school but it had carried on into his teenage years and adulthood too. Perhaps she should have insisted on talking about Nick, but the time had never seemed right. Not that now felt right either with Sophie around. She put the album on the work surface and gently opened the cover.

The first page was easy. It was devoted to one picture: the Sapphire Stars promo shot for their first album. Sophie peered closely at the photo.

‘That’s me,’ Lisa said, pointing to the young woman with bright red hair in the centre of the group.

‘I love your hair. It’s like Ariel’s. Can we watch The Little Mermaid when we get home, Daddy?’

‘We’ll see,’ Jim said.

‘And who’s that?’ Sophie asked, pointing to the tall, thin, dark-haired man on the left of Lisa.

‘That’s Pete, who used to play the keyboards.’

‘And the man with curly hair?’

‘That’s Ed, our guitarist, and that’s Tez, our drummer, and this one is Jonny. He played bass guitar.’

‘Like Daddy does?’

‘Yes,’ Jim said. ‘Jonny taught me.’

Poor Jonny. Lisa quickly turned the page.

The next few pages were filled with casual snaps of them all hanging around their battered old van, some from a rehearsal, and behind-the-scenes photos from their first gig in Paris, accompanied by a newspaper clipping of a five-star review of the same gig. Sophie wasn’t as interested in those. This felt so weird. It was like she was looking at someone else’s life.

Lisa turned to the next page and stopped.

‘He looks like Daddy!’ Sophie said, pointing to a portrait of a young man with blond hair, cheekily smiling out at them. Lisa remembered taking the photo and what they ended up doing afterwards. Nick was dressed in his usual outfit of jeans, a battered old t-shirt and a black leather jacket .

Lisa looked up at Jim. He was transfixed by the image.

‘Do you want to look through this on your own later?’ she asked.

‘Yeah. That might be better.’ Jim leaned over and quickly shut the album.

‘But I want to see more!’ Sophie protested.

‘You can, darling, but not now. We need to get home to Mummy and Grace,’ Jim said, lifting his daughter off the stool. ‘We can look at it after Sunday dinner.’

Lisa nodded. ‘Whenever suits you,’ she said as he headed out of the kitchen.