April Fool
By Janet Baldey
Josie
snatched the ‘phone away, the high wailing cry still ringing in her ears. Somebody’s
strangling a cat, she thought. Then she realized. Of course, that would be
Ken playing one of his childish tricks on her. Any minute now a ghoulish voice
would gibber and cackle down the line. She opened her mouth to give him a piece
of her mind but then stopped. The wail was beginning to coalesce into sobs and
Josie frowned. She was puzzled, she knew now it wasn’t Ken, he wasn’t that good
an actor.
‘Josieeee’.
With a jolt, she realised who it was. Lorraine, her friend
since they were at school together.
‘Lorraine? What’s wrong?’
‘Oh
Josie, Matt’s gone, he says he isn’t coming back. He left me a letter, he…...’ The rest of her sentence was drowned in
hiccups.
Josie
was dumbstruck. Lorraine and Matt? The perfect couple? The
couple who had everything?
At
last, she found her voice.
‘Calm
down, love. I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding. I’ll be right over. You can
tell me all about it and then we’ll have lunch and hit the shops. You know a spot of retail therapy always
cheers you up’.
An
hour later, Josie arrived at the luxury riverside penthouse she had always
envied. Inside, the normally chic and
well groomed, Lorraine
was a sodden heap of misery sprawled on a sofa.
Sans slap, her eyes were red and swollen and her face was puffy and
streaked with tears.
Lorraine was
pathetically pleased to see her old friend.
Dabbing at her eyes with a hankie already streaked with mascara, she
grasped Josie’s hand and drew her down to sit beside her. Her voice hitched
with tears as she spoke.
‘Yesterday,
as soon as I came in through the door, I knew something was wrong. The flat felt cold and empty and it was so
quiet. I went into the bedroom and all his clothes were gone. He’s taken everything, Josie. His record
collection, his books. He left me a
note’.
She
handed over a crumpled piece of paper. It was quite brief.
Lorraine,
I’m sorry to have to write a note like
this, but we both know our marriage is going nowhere. I have met someone else
and am giving up my job and going away to find happiness. Will write when I am settled.
Matt
Josie
stared at Lorraine.
She had no idea how to deal with this.
What could she say? Mouthing platitudes
that she knew were woefully inadequate, she tried to comfort her friend but Lorraine’s sobs grew
louder. After a while, Josie decided it was time to take positive action.
‘Go
and wash your face’ she said firmly. ‘We’ll go shopping for a new outfit. That’ll make you feel better and then we’ll
have lunch at Marco’s. We’ll really pig
out.’
Whilst
Lorraine was
in the bathroom, Josie looked around. She’d always admired this room, with its
powder blue carpet and white leather settees. She crossed over to the picture window and
looked down at the river sparkling on its way to the sea.
Boxy tramp steamers punched the
tide, accompanied by a cloud of gulls. But the efficient double glazing
quenched all sound and suddenly Lucy felt claustrophobic. It was like living in
a Perspex cube. She thought
affectionately of her own tiny house, with its cramped rooms and no view to
speak of. She also felt a rush of guilt
about
Ken. He had been working so much
overtime recently and she knew it was only because she had wanted what Lorraine had. The moment he got home this evening she would
tell him that nothing mattered, as long as they were together.
The rest of the day was not a success. Lorraine
drooped around the shops, listlessly fingering clothes that she was obviously
not interested in. Over lunch her mood
changed and she launched into a vitriolic litany of all Matt’s faults and
failings, stabbing at her food as if it were tender pieces of his anatomy. Josie
had shrunk further and further into her chair as she realised that people
sitting at tables nearby were falling silent.
The
day that had started badly went rapidly downhill. On her way home at last, Josie got stuck in a
traffic jam. She looked at her watch and tapped her fingers against the
steering wheel. Come on, get a move on. At
this rate Ken will be home before I am.
At least, I’ve got steak in the freezer, that won’t take long to cook. She glowered at the ribbon of red
tail-lights gleaming on the wet road. Inch by painful inch the car crept
forwards. Josie puffed out her cheeks and looked around.
Suddenly,
she gasped and trod down hard on the brake pedal. She recognised the car parked in the driveway
of the house she was passing. Same make,
same model, same registration number – it was Ken’s car. A cold hand squeezed her heart. What was it
doing there? It
was way off his route home. She felt a
stab of panic, he had been late home so many times recently. He had told her he was
working overtime but maybe he wasn’t. Maybe had another woman, like Matt. She shook her head in disbelief at the idea,
Ken wasn’t like that. But then, that was
probably what Lorraine
had thought about Matt. Suddenly, it all
made perfect sense, the late nights, Ken’s tiredness, everything. The rat!
She glared at the neat semi-detached sitting smugly at the roadside,
her anger rising. Well, he
can forget supper. He’s got some explaining
to do. The car behind her hooted
impatiently, the jam had cleared. Viciously,
she let in the clutch and the car bounded forwards.
Sure
enough, when she walked into the sitting room, the answerphone light was
flashing. She pressed a button and heard
her husband’s soft Irish brogue fill the room.
‘Sorry,
love. Will be a bit late home tonight. Tell you why later’.
You bet you will. She flung herself down in the
armchair, she felt drained. She switched
on the TV and with unseeing eyes, stared at the kaleidoscopic images that
flickered across the screen. What a fool she’d been. She’d swallowed all his
lies. She’d even found a logical explanation for the red hair she’d spotted
glinting on his suit. She looked across at Mitzi, their red setter, stretched
out on the rug. Tears trembled on her lashes and she reached for a box of
tissues.
It was
8.30 before he got home. He started
speaking even before he entered the room.
‘Sorry, I’m late
love. Poor old John. His car broke down
and he was in such a panic. He’s got some urgent calls to make first thing in
the morning so I lent him mine and came home on the bus. First one didn’t turn up and the second was
late. Public transport! What a shambles’.
He
walked into the room and saw her sitting there amongst a drift of balled-up
tissues.
‘What’s
the matter? Got a cold?’ He aimed a kiss somewhere in the direction of
her head.
‘Is
supper ready? I’m starving’.
She sat staring
at him. Of course, she remembered now. That was John’s house. Ken had pointed it out to her once. What an idiot she was and what a nasty,
suspicious mind she had.
Full of remorse,
she sprang up and gave him a long lingering kiss before rushing to the kitchen
where she frantically started thawing steaks with a hairdryer.
Puzzled, Ken stared at the door. Then, he poured himself a drink and sat down,
relief flooding through him. Well, that went okay. Thought the old ‘working
late at the office’ excuse was wearing a bit thin. He smiled to himself. It
had been his lucky day. John’s car breaking down – what a perfect excuse. He’d
looked across the room and saw Julia looking at him and knew she would jump at
the chance of giving him a lift. Via her place first of course. He stretched
voluptuously and rustled open his newspaper. It was then he noticed the date, April
Fool’s day, he thought and grinned.
Copyright Janet Baldey