Changing Places (11 page)

The Kenny home was straight across the road and when Anna pulled up outside she sat for a few moments staring at her old home. The new owners hadn’t changed much on the face of it and she
could almost believe that if she went up the path and rang the doorbell, her dad would answer and wrap her in his arms in one of his bear hugs.

Sighing, Anna picked up her clipboard and climbed out of the car. As she walked up the driveway the door opened and Clive Kenny stood waiting for her. ‘Hi, Anna, how’s it
going?’

Anna held out her hand. ‘Hi, Clive, good to see you again,’ she lied.

She and Rachel had always kept well out of the way of Clive and his brother Rory. The brothers had delighted in tormenting and bullying the girls and then there had been the episode with the
bike. It had been Anna’s tenth birthday and to her delight, her parents had bought her a beautiful bike, painted mint green and with a pretty white basket on the back. Anna and Rachel had
sped up and down the cul de sac all day, Anna kindly letting her little sister take turns. The Kenny brothers waited until Anna’s parents had gone out to the shops to fetch the birthday cake
before pushing Anna off the bike and then racing it in and out of the thorny bushes at the end of the road, scraping all the lovely new paint. In tears, Anna had begged them to stop but it was only
when her dad’s car turned back into the road that Clive had shoved the bike at her and run back across the street. ‘Don’t tell or it’ll go missing tomorrow and you’ll
never see it again,’ he’d threatened and so Anna and Rachel had dried their tears, cleaned up the bike and told no one.

‘It’s been a long time, Anna,’ Clive was saying now, leading her through to the kitchen. ‘Of course I don’t get home as much these days.’

Anna nodded. Bridie had often raged about how the Kenny boys had left their aging father to his own devices after their mother had died. ‘I was surprised to hear that your dad wanted to
sell up. I thought he loved this house.’

Clive looked sorrowful. ‘Yes, well I’m afraid he’s not able to manage on his own any more. He’s in St Joseph’s at the moment.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was sick.’

‘He’s having some problems with his legs – doesn’t get about too well,’ Clive told her. ‘We can’t possibly let him go on living here on his
own.’

‘I understand.’ Anna tried not to show her astonishment at his sensitivity.

‘And the Blossom Hill Retirement Home is really very comfortable. He’ll only have to share his room with two other old lads – the company will do him good.’

Anna’s mouth settled into a grim line. Blossom Hill had a reputation for being a badly run tip that was full to overflowing because it was the least expensive residential care home on the
north side of Dublin. The Kenny brothers, it seemed, hadn’t changed.

‘Let’s get started then.’ As she went through the old-fashioned rooms, filled with the memorabilia of forty years of family life, Anna wondered how Clive and Rory could so
easily pluck their father from his home and toss him into an anonymous institution. He’d be heartbroken, she was sure of it. He had been very upset when her parents had moved out, and had
told her then that the only way he’d leave Riverside Court was in a box. It seemed, however, that Mr Kenny was destined to spend his last days playing bingo in the afternoons and wondering
what was for tea.

Clive wrinkled his nose at the dusty, cluttered rooms. ‘I told Dad he should get rid of some of this stuff, but of course he wouldn’t listen. You know, my mother’s clothes are
still up in the wardrobe! Rory and I are going to have some job clearing the place out.’

‘It must be hard to let go,’ Anna murmured.

‘Yes, well, life goes on.’ Clive smiled broadly. ‘So, how much do you think we’ll get for the old place?’

‘Asshole,’ Anna muttered later as she sat at her desk munching an apple.

‘What’s that, dear?’ Val looked over her specs.

Anna told her about her neighbour’s plight and his hard-hearted sons.

‘I’m afraid it’s all too common, dear,’ Val said sorrowfully. ‘Some children can’t wait to lock up their parents.’

‘I could understand it if they’d been horrible, but Mr and Mrs Kenny were lovely. In fact, it’s hard to know how they managed to produce two such terrible children. They made
Rachel’s and my life miserable. We never played out the front unless we knew they weren’t around.’

‘The little gurriers! Did you not get your dad to sort them out?’

Anna shrugged. ‘It would never have occurred to us. They were the days before bullying was talked about so we just kept quiet and got on with it.’

‘I was bullied when I was young,’ Val said suddenly. ‘By my sister.’

Anna’s eyes widened. ‘Edna?’

Val nodded. ‘I was eleven and there was this beautiful blue hair-band in the window of our local drapery that I wanted so badly. Mother said it was too expensive and that if I wanted it,
I’d have to save up for it. Well, I knew that by the time I had enough money the hair-band would probably be gone. So,’ Val put a self-conscious hand to her greying bob, ‘I took
the money from my father’s jacket pocket. I’m no thief,’ she hastily assured Anna. ‘I’ve never done anything like that before or since.’

‘Of course not.’

‘Anyway, Edna saw me and she said that unless I did whatever she asked for a month and gave her the hair-band whenever she wanted, she’d tell our mother.’

‘What a bitch!’ Anna exploded before she could stop herself.

Val gave a sad smile. ‘Ah, sure, she was young and children can be cruel. She doesn’t even remember it now.’

‘But you do.’

‘Every problem is always a huge crisis to a child. I’m sure I exaggerated it all in my head.’

Judging by the way Edna still treated her younger sister, Anna doubted it. Maybe Rachel wasn’t that bad after all.

‘Anyway, what about the house?’

Anna looked blank.

‘The Kenny place,’ Val reminded her. ‘Is it in good condition?’

‘It could do with a new kitchen, bathroom suite and I’d say it needs rewiring, but the rooms are a wonderful size and it has an enormous garden that’s not
overlooked.’

‘So we should have no trouble selling it.’

‘No. Poor Mr Kenny. Do you think he even knows what Clive is up to?’

‘Probably not, dear, but you’re not going to be the one to tell him.’

‘You can’t tell him, Anna,’ Liam told her later after she’d retold the whole sorry saga. ‘It’s none of your business.’

Anna sighed. ‘I know, but I just feel so sorry for the poor man.’

‘You’re such a softie, you know that? I know it’s hard, love, but this is business and Mark would kill you if you got involved.’

‘You’re right.’

Liam folded her in his arms. ‘Come on, sweetheart, I’m sure Mr Kenny will be well looked after. The nursing home might not be the best but I’m sure the staff are fine. In fact,
I think my mother knows one of the nurses. Speaking of Mum, we’d better get a move on. She said dinner would be ready at seven.’

Anna obediently went to fetch her shoes and bag and tried to work up some enthusiasm for the night ahead. It wasn’t easy as her mother-in-law didn’t like her and she didn’t try
very hard to hide the fact.

Josie Harrison was a lonely and dissatisfied woman who had never really forgiven Anna for coming from a council estate. She made no secret of the fact that she believed her son could have done
much better for himself and that Anna had fallen on her feet the day she met him. It hadn’t been so bad when her husband, Arthur, had been alive. He and Anna had liked each other from the
start and Arthur had made sure his wife behaved herself, at least when he was around. Shortly after Anna and Liam had married, however, Arthur had suffered a massive heart attack and died the next
day. Liam had been devastated but Josie had been inconsolable. She clung to her son for support and Anna knew that she had pressured Liam to move back into the family home. Thankfully, Liam had
resisted and Anna didn’t have to get involved. He assured his mother that he would be there for her and she would always be welcome in his home, but that he and Anna had their own life
too.

Anna knew that it would be a completely different story if, God forbid, Bridie was in the same situation. Anna would move her mother in without hesitation. In fact, she and Rachel would probably
come to blows over who she should live with. But then Bridie was a very different woman to Josie. She believed in the old adage, live and let live. Josie, on the other hand, had an acid tongue and
was a terrible gossip. Anna did her best to ignore any jibes or insults – after all, Josie was Liam’s mother and he loved her – but it wasn’t always easy. Limiting her
exposure to Josie seemed the best course of action; she could deal with the woman in small doses.

Dinner once a week in Josie’s wasn’t too much of a sacrifice as whatever her other faults, Josie was a great cook. She took every opportunity to force food into her son as she
believed Anna completely neglected him. When she first found out that Anna refused point blank to cook red meat, she nearly had a fit.

‘How can he possibly do a hard day’s work without some proper food inside him? He must be anaemic – in fact, I’d swear on it! Look at the colour of him.’

Anna had obediently studied her husband, who was positively glowing with health, and told Josie that if he fancied some meat, he could always cook it himself.

Josie wasn’t impressed. She had very old-fashioned ideas about a lot of things and she didn’t keep them to herself. Anna would try and suppress a grin when, over their weekly
dinners, her mother-in-law would hold forth on some of the things she didn’t agree with. Married women working (they shouldn’t), jeans (only sluts wore them), and the evils of make-up
(I never needed any when I was young).

‘If your mother had her way, I’d be barefoot and chained to the kitchen sink,’ she’d joked with Liam after the last dinner.

‘Now there’s a thought,’ he’d laughed. ‘You know, she’ll be scandalized if you keep working when we have a baby.’

‘Ah, it’ll give her something new to moan about. Anyway, she’ll forgive me everything once I’ve finally produced her first grandchild.’

‘True,’ Liam agreed. ‘I can just imagine her face when we tell her.’

‘We’re not going to tell her we’re trying, are we?’

‘God, no, she’d expect a weekly report on our progress – way too weird!’

Tonight, Anna was pleasantly surprised to smell the delicious aroma of roast chicken when they arrived at the old house in Glasnevin. Josie rarely cooked white meat, taking
every opportunity to give her son the red meat that his wife denied him.

‘I didn’t like the look of the beef,’ Josie said grudgingly, ‘and the lamb looked more like mutton.’

‘It smells great, Mum.’ Liam bent to kiss her cheek.

‘Well, I’ve done a nice piece of ham to go with it, love. Chicken on its own is no dinner for a man.’ She shot her daughter-in-law a look.

Anna thought of the spaghetti hoops that Liam had eaten in front of the television last night and suppressed a giggle. Josie had no concept of how they lived. It was a rare occasion when Liam
and Anna sat down to a home-cooked meal. Liam would have left her long ago if it wasn’t for the takeaways and TV dinners!

Of course, she would probably have to learn to cook once a baby came along. She remembered watching Rachel cooking potloads of vegetables, puréeing them and painstakingly transferring
them into tiny pots to be frozen. ‘Why don’t you just use the jars?’ Anna had asked. Even she knew of the vast selection of baby food now available.

Rachel had shot her a look of pure horror. ‘Don’t you know how much salt and sugar are in those things?’

Anna didn’t, and had almost nodded off as her sister instructed her on the evils of processed food. Anna thought she was overreacting. After all, it was probably what most kids were
brought up on and they’d survived.

But Rachel had very rigid ideas on stuff like this. She’d spent most of her pregnancy researching car seats to make sure that Alex had the safest and most comfortable model. She could talk
for hours on the pros and cons of soothers and knew everything there was to know about lactose intolerance. How could Anna go wrong? Rachel would soon tell her when she went astray. Oh, there was a
thought to put you off having kids!

‘Finish the meat, love,’ Josie was saying. ‘There’s no one for it. And have some more potatoes.’

‘This is gorgeous, Mum.’

Josie gave her daughter-in-law a triumphant look. ‘It’s wonderful to cook for someone who appreciates it. Your dad, God rest him, loved my cooking. He had no interest in going to
fancy restaurants. He said, “Why would I go out to eat when I eat like a king at home?”’

‘But he loved his fish and chips, didn’t he?’ Anna couldn’t help herself. ‘He always said that chipper up at the corner was fantastic.’

Josie sniffed. ‘He only ever had that for supper occasionally.’

‘That chipper makes the best burgers in Dublin,’ Liam told his wife.

His mother looked aghast. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve eaten their burgers, Liam! My God, sure you could get BSE or God knows what from them.’

Liam laughed. ‘Well, I’ve been eating them since I was about fourteen and I’m not dead yet.’

‘I don’t think Mum looked well tonight, Anna, what do you think?’ Liam said, putting his hand on her knee when they were in the car on their way home.

‘She’s fine,’ Anna assured him. ‘She was probably just tired after all that cooking. She must have started at daybreak, the spread she put up.’

‘True,’ Liam laughed. ‘You know, at her age she should be taking it easy. Maybe we should start having her round to our place for dinner instead.’

‘And feed her what, exactly?’ Anna enquired. ‘Fish fingers and pizza?’

‘It can’t be that difficult to do meat and two veg. I’m sure we could manage it between us.’

Anna raised an eyebrow. ‘You think?’

‘It was nice of you to meet me,’ Rachel said to Jill. ‘You must be so busy.’

Jill laughed. ‘We’re all entitled to a lunch break, Rache. And now we can have lunch together every time you come in to see your obstetrician. It will be fun.’