Lola's Secret (26 page)

“Brilliant,” Luke said. “She’s the coolest old lady I’ve ever met.”

“Me too,” Emily said.

“I’m not sure about her clothes, though,” Luke said.

“I love her clothes!” Emily said, turning toward him, outraged. “Lola without her clothes would be, well, not just without clothes, but not Lola, if you know what I mean.” She was now bright red.

Luke laughed. “I’m teasing you. Her clothes are really cool. She’s a whizz on the computer too. Much better than any of the other ladies.”

“She could beat some of the winemakers hands down as well, with her palate,” Emily said. “She’s my number-one tester for any of my new drinks.”

“I love those drinks you do. I’ve got a great palate too,” Luke said. “Can I be your number-two tester?”

“Sure,” Emily said. If it was possible to turn an even brighter red, she managed it.

Luke parked right in front of the charity shop. Their car was the only one on the street. “She mustn’t be here,” he said. “I guess she’s at the cemetery after all.”

Emily had gone around the corner to look up the side street. The car was there. “That’s it, isn’t it? That green one?”

It was, Luke agreed. “She’ll have her feet up in the back room, watching old musicals on YouTube, you wait and see,” he said, as they approached the charity shop. He tried the door. It was locked.

They both knocked. “Lola?” Emily called. “Are you in there?”

They tried to peer in, but all the thank you notices made it impossible to see more than a few shadowy outlines.

Luke knocked again. “Lola? Are you there?”

“Didn’t Margaret give you her keys?”

It was Luke’s turn to go red. He opened the door and let Emily go in first. She fanned her face. “It’s like a sauna in here.”

“It’s like a sauna everywhere,” Luke said. “Lola?”

No answer.

“Don’t say we’ve just missed her,” Emily said. “Could she have gone out the back door?”

They reached the curtain separating the shop from the computer area. Luke pulled it back. Lola wasn’t there. Nothing was there, except a bare table and one chair.

“Bloody hell,” he said. “Where’s the computer gone?”

Emily stopped short behind him, just as shocked. “No one took it home for Christmas? For safekeeping?”

Luke shook his head. “We’ve always left it here. Every weekend. It was as safe here as anywhere else, we always thought. Right on the main street.”

“Maybe Lola’s borrowed it?” Emily said. “That could be why she’s here?”

“She wouldn’t know how to unplug it all. And where is she?” He called her name again, going out into the shop, looking behind the racks, the counter, in the changing room. “Nothing else is taken. Just the computer stuff.” He called her name again. No answer.

Emily was checking under the table, as if she would find all the equipment there. “Who would steal from a charity shop? At Christmas?”

Luke came back out into the shop, his phone to his ear. “Mum, we’re at the shop. Lola’s not here and nor is the computer, the printer, none of it … Stolen. I’ll call the police in a sec, yep. No, the front door was locked, nothing forced. The back door’s locked again too.” He tried to open it. It was shut fast. “I’ll check the gate. They must have got in that way.”

He asked Emily to hold the phone while he fumbled with the bunch of keys Margaret had given him. After three false tries, he found one that fitted into the back door lock. It turned but the door didn’t open. “Something’s wrong with it,” he said.

“Something’s wrong with the back door,” Emily reported to Patricia. “Hold on. Luke’s going to give it a kick.”

It took him three heavy kicks to loosen it. On the fourth kick, there was a crashing sound as the door flung open, smashing against the wall outside. The heat streamed in. Emily dropped the phone as she and Luke saw the same thing at once.

Lola huddled in a corner of the yard, her face and body covered by a silver scarf.

As they rushed to her side, she lifted it up and gave them a weak smile.

“Luke and Emily. I’m so glad to see you both.”

B
ETWEEN THEM
, they helped Lola to Luke’s car. She insisted she was fine, just hot and thirsty. The scarf had saved her, she kept saying. But she could barely stand, they could both see that. She was talking too quickly, not making complete sense, telling them about Ellen and photographs and two men and the computer being taken, how sorry she was, how she could have tried to stop them, but there were two of them, so she’d hidden, and her bag was gone, her phone—they took her camera too, she thought … She suddenly broke off and gazed at them both. “How did you know I was here? How did you find me?”

“It was Luke,” Emily said. “He rang everyone.”

“But why? How?”

“Later, Lola,” Luke said, with a glance at Emily. “I’ll explain it all later.”

“Don’t worry, Lola,” Emily said. “We’re here now. We’ll take care of you.”

“Emily’s right, Lola,” Luke said. “You’re safe now.” His voice was calm, but his expression was as concerned as Emily’s. “Heatstroke?” he mouthed to her.

“I think so,” Emily mouthed back.

Despite Lola’s protests, Luke told her gently and firmly that they were taking her to the hospital.

Emily knew the sister in charge of the emergency room. While Luke helped Lola with her admission details, Emily filled her in on what had happened.

“Nearly three hours out in that heat? At eighty-four? She’s lucky she’s alive.”

“She’ll be fine, won’t she?”

They glanced over, in time to see Luke and the admissions clerk laugh at something Lola said. She’d rallied since they’d brought her into the cool of the hospital. “It’s some kind of miracle, but yes, I think she will be. How on earth did you know she was there?”

Emily told her all she knew. “Luke got a call. An old friend of Lola’s was looking for her. When she didn’t answer her phone we all went searching.”

“She’s a lucky lady. That old friend might have saved her life.”

T
HE RECEPTION AREA
in the hospital was soon crowded with Lola’s friends. They divided the phone calls between them. Margaret rang Bett, Kay rang Jim, Patricia rang Carrie.

Margaret went into Lola’s room to share the news. All of her family were on their way back home.

Lola wasn’t happy. “No. I’m fine. I’m fine. Please, tell them to stay where they are. They need a holiday.”

“I said that’s what you’d say. But they insisted.”

“And I insist even more insistently that they don’t come back. Please, Margaret, call them again.”

“You’re not supposed to use mobile phones in a hospital.”

Lola gave her a glare. Margaret passed over her phone.

Lola spoke to Jim first.

He was adamant. “It doesn’t matter what you say, Lola. We’re on our way back already.”

“No. Jim, please, don’t. I’m better off here than I was even in the motel. People everywhere, even if some of them are dressed as nurses and doctors. I’m fine. I really am fine.”

“We’re only two hours away. We’ll see for ourselves and then if we really think you’re fine, we’ll go away again.”

“But you won’t. You’ll get in a fuss. And Geraldine will be cross.”

“Geraldine won’t be cross. We’ll see you tonight.”

Bett had already started packing up the car. “Oh, sure, Lola. As if we can carry on with our holiday and forget you’re in hospital.”

“I’ll be out of here within an hour. Your parents are already on their way. If you come back too, I won’t talk to you. I mean it, Bett. I’m fine. Nothing bad happened.”

“It could have.”

“It didn’t. Darling, please, be practical about it. I’m surrounded by friends. If anything does happen to me over the next few days, which it won’t, I’m in the best possible company. Everywhere I look there is someone staring back at me as if they’re willing me to drop dead.”

Around her bed, Margaret, Kay, Joan, and Patricia all looked at their feet.

Lola winked at them and kept talking. “You’d only have to join a queue to come and gaze at me in a worried way, Bett. I’m fine, darling. F. I. N. E. Old, but fine. See you in three days’ time, as we arranged, okay?”

Carrie was more matter-of-fact. “Lola, Dad says you sound pretty good, all things considered, and he and Mum are on their way back already. Do you want us there as well?”

“No, darling. I really don’t.”

“Thank God for that. That car trip here was a nightmare. I’d hate to turn around and do it again already.”

“That’s my girl,” Lola said. “See you next week.”

After a series of tests and examinations, Lola was pronounced well enough to go home that night, once the doctor gave her a final check. He was due to call to her room before six
P
.
M
. There was a discussion that almost turned into an argument about where she should go after that—to Margaret’s, Kay’s, Joan’s, or Patricia’s. Lola put a stop to it herself.

“I’m going to my home. The motel. You can all please visit me tomorrow but I will be very happy in my own room tonight. Jim and Geraldine will be there too, remember.”

“But won’t you be scared in your room on your own?” Kay asked. “After what happened?”

Lola was refusing to dwell on what had happened, or what might have happened. She was fine. She was safe. She was well. She was also already too conscious of spoiling all her friends’ Christmas Day celebrations. “It takes more than that to scare me. Please, all of you, off you go home. My friends Luke and Emily will take me home, won’t you, dears?” Two nods. “Tomorrow I’d adore some company, so I insist you all come and have a game of cards or bridge or a large glass of gin with me. Tonight, however, I will go back to my own room, lock my door, hop into bed and sleep, perchance to dream. That’s a quote from
Hamlet
, by the way. I’m demonstrating my mental agility with the spontaneous quoting of Shakespeare.”

She finally convinced her friends to leave. Only Luke and Emily remained in her room. Was this the moment she’d been waiting for? she wondered. She’d already noticed the two of them talking and laughing with each other that afternoon. Every cloud—in this case, their rescue mission—had a silver lining indeed. Perhaps, just perhaps, she didn’t need to say anything more. Perhaps, if it was meant to be between them, it would unfold in its own good time.

But it wouldn’t hurt to give it a little nudge along, would it? “Emily, dear, would you please go and ask the nurse if it will be okay for me to have a gin tonight? They’re insisting I rehydrate. I just want to be sure that means all liquids, not just water.”

Once Emily was out of earshot, Lola fixed Luke in her sights. “Luke, there’s a lot to ask you, but just for now, just quickly, while we have a moment alone together—”

“Lola, please, I need to tell you something first. While we’re on our own—”

She held up her hand. “I’m the one who nearly died today. My turn first. I’ll be quick, we haven’t got long.”

“Lola, I mean it. I need to tell you something important, it’s about A—”

“Luke, please, listen to me. I just have one simple question. How do you feel about Emily?”

Up came his blush. “She’s lovely. I’ve always really liked her. She’s so easy to talk to. But Lola—”

“As a friend or as something more? Please excuse my bluntness. She’ll be back any second.”

The blush deepened. “I don’t think she’d be interested in me. I’ve wanted to ask her out for ages but I haven’t in case she said no.”

Lola timed it perfectly. Over Luke’s shoulder, she could see Emily coming along the corridor toward her room. “Emily say no if you were to ask her out? Emily? Turn you down?” she spoke a little more loudly with each word. “I don’t think that will happen. Emily thinks you’re the bees’ knees. Don’t you, Emily?”

Both Luke and Emily were now a blazing, burning bright red. Lola shut her eyes. “Now, I’m just going to lie here and have a little rest to myself before the doctor comes. So how about you both go out into the garden or take a little stroll into town and hopefully by the time you come back to collect me at six you’ll have had the chance to talk about all sorts of things, including where you might go on your first date.”

L
UKE AND
E
MILY
had just stepped outside the front door of the hospital when his phone rang. He took it out, didn’t recognize the number, but answered it.

“Luke? This is Alex. Lola’s friend. I’m sorry to bother you again, but were you able to contact Lola?”

“Alex!” Excusing himself and moving out of Emily’s earshot, he hurriedly told him everything that had happened that day. “We have you to thank. If you hadn’t been trying to ring her—”

Alex interrupted, his tone urgent. “Was she hurt? Did they do anything to her?”

“She’s fine,” Luke said. “Really, she is. She’s incredible.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“Of course. Of
course
.” He explained to Emily that he’d be right back.

In her room, Lola was still lying on the bed, her eyes shut.

Luke spoke softly. “Lola?”

She kept her eyes closed. “Yes, darling.”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but I’ve got someone on the phone who wants to talk to you.”

“Who is it, pet?”

“It’s Alex.”

Lola’s eyes opened wide.

L
OLA HAD JUST SETTLED
into her motel room when she heard a car drive up. Moments later, her son was at the door. He walked in, and gave her one of the biggest hugs he’d given her in years. Geraldine followed him in. She didn’t hug Lola, but she touched her hand gently, before offering to go and make them all tea. Lola gratefully accepted.

“That’s the last time I leave you alone for Christmas,” Jim said, pulling up a chair to his mother’s bedside. “Not just for Christmas. For any day.”

“Don’t be silly, Jim. Did you find a new guesthouse?”

“Lola, forget the guesthouse. What were you thinking going down there like that? Can’t you see how dangerous that situation was? What might have happened?”

“I could have been attacked, do you mean? Could have died out in that yard? Yes, Jim. As you and Geraldine could have died if you’d had a car accident rushing back to see me. As Bett might die if she’s eaten by a shark during her beach holiday. Or Carrie might die if she, I don’t know, has an allergic reaction to her face cream.”

“Lola—”

“Jim, my little Jim, I didn’t die. You don’t need to scold me like a child. I am fine. Truly. I moved around the yard with the shade. I called for help as often as I could. I had my scarf to protect me. Yes, granted, I was getting very thirsty and that mop bucket wasn’t at all comfortable to sit on, but I felt sure I’d be rescued eventually. And I wasn’t scared. I had someone to talk to and keep me company—”

“To talk to? I thought no one could hear you?”

“I talked to Anna the entire time. I told her that it was up to her to send someone to find me, and would she please make it snappy, that I was damned if I was going to end my days in some shabby yard at the back of a shop. I told her I’d much rather go out with a gin in my hand and a song in my heart.”

“And did Anna talk back?”

Lola smiled. “You think I’m delirious, don’t you? No, darling, she didn’t. I do both parts when I talk to Anna. Which I do often. I’ve done it since she died. It gives me great comfort. It would give me even greater comfort if she spoke her own lines sometimes, but perhaps I’d be more shocked than delighted if she did. I’m not sure I believe in ghosts. I’m not even sure if I believe in heaven. But I do believe she is somewhere, and she is happy, and for the sake of not knowing a better word for it, then I’ll call it heaven for now.”

Jim wasn’t in the mood for a theological discussion. “All I can say is thank goodness for Luke and Emily. How on earth did they know you were there? Why did they go looking for you in the first place?”

Lola hesitated, then decided to tell him the truth. Her conversation with Alex still felt like her own special secret, but Jim needed to know the facts. Quickly and concisely, she explained all that had happened to lead Luke and Emily to her today. Jim listened intently.

“You don’t remember Alex, do you?” she said afterward. “I wondered if you would, but you were only a little boy at the time. He was a very dear friend of mine, Jim. After your father died”—she was still amazed at how easily she had kept up that lie, and how little it mattered that it had been a lie all those years—“Alex was the only man I ever really loved. If he hadn’t had to go back to Italy”—she paused—“well, who knows what might have happened.”

“And are you going to see him again? Meet up with him? After all these years?”

Lola laughed. “You sound very protective, darling. Worried in case he is after my vast, sorry, my nonexistent fortune?”

“No. Worried in case he’s not good enough for my mother.”

“I’ll wait and see. He and I need to have a few more conversations first. If the time is right, and if it also feels right, I’ll fly him in and parade him in front of you for your inspection and approval. Or fly all of you over to Melbourne to inspect him in his natural habitat.”

“I got a fright today, Lola. When I first got the phone call from Kay.”

“They had me on death’s door and all of that?” At Jim’s nod, Lola smiled. “They did seem a bit excitable. Too much sherry in their Christmas trifles, I suspect. But I’m a long way from death’s door yet, Jim, I hope. And you too, I hope even more. So let’s cheer ourselves up, fill our days with wine and song, and oh, yes, start thinking about a special event coming up. In—let me just check my calendar—about six days’ time.”

“A special event?”

“I suppose special guest might be a more accurate word to use. We’ll prepare room nine, I think. Or perhaps seven. That gets beautiful morning light, doesn’t it? No rush about deciding yet, though. You and Geraldine have to go back and finish your driving holiday first, after all. And find a new place to live. As do I. We are in for a busy end-of-year, aren’t we?”

“Lola, what are you talking about now? Special guest? I thought you said Alex wouldn’t be coming yet.”

“He’s not. It’s far too soon for him and me. Darling, weren’t you listening to a word I said? This is a really, really special guest. A twelve-year-old one from a far and distant land, coming to celebrate the start of a new year with us all.” She smiled as it dawned on him. “Yes, Jim. Ellen.”

She told him everything that had been going on with Ellen and Glenn in Hong Kong. Afterward, Jim insisted on canceling his holiday. How could he leave Lola alone again, not knowing what she might get up to next?

Lola insisted he go. They compromised. He and Geraldine would stay that night and if Lola was still in fine enough form the next morning, then they would continue their break. He was worried that her apparent good humor was all the adrenaline rushing through her veins. That as soon as she stopped, as soon as it all sank in, she would collapse.

“You really don’t have any faith in the restorative effects of a well-mixed gin and tonic, do you, Jim?” she said, as he prepared it for her.

“Lola, you don’t have to joke with me. I know it must have been a frightening day.”

“It was, yes, but now the fright has passed. Thank you, darling, for rushing to my rescue, even if the rescue had already been done. I will sleep easy knowing you’re here tonight. But not tomorrow night. I want you out of my sight by then.”

She waited until he had gone before she lay down and once again closed her eyes. She didn’t even take a sip of her drink. It took only a minute before the tears she’d been holding back all day started to well up and make their way down her face.

She turned up the music on her radio to cover the sound of her sobbing. Her tears ran unchecked. What a terrible, terrible day that had been. She’d never been so frightened in her life. From the moment she’d heard the two men start to break in, until Luke and Emily appeared, she’d truly believed her time had come. She wasn’t ready to die. She had so much she still wanted to do, so much to think about, so much to tell her son, her granddaughters, her great-grandchildren. If the worst had happened, if the two men had found her, attacked her … She started to shake again at the thought. She had an active imagination at the best of times, but in recent years she’d read too many reports of elderly women being bashed, or worse, assaulted in different ways …
Stop it, Lola!
It hadn’t happened. Through some miracle or luck, they hadn’t found her. And through some miracle or luck, a chain of events had unfolded and Luke and Emily had rescued her from the yard before she’d suffered anything more serious than a bad thirst and an uncomfortable behind from sitting perched on a mop bucket for too long.

It had almost felt like being at her own funeral, having everyone rush to her side like that, their concern, their phone calls, all of them telling her how awful they’d have felt if anything had happened to her, how much they cared about her. Tomorrow that might make her feel good. Tonight it just made her want to cry even more.

And then, on top of everything, to have spoken to Alex.

Nothing about the circumstances had been ideal. But just to hear his voice! It was as if the years had turned back, as if she was that young woman in Brighton and he was the young man, ringing as he so often had, to invite her to meet him for coffee, for a meal, for a few hours away together. He still had a trace of the Italian accent amid the perfect English. His voice sounded older, but of course, he was older.

They had spoken for only five minutes. She could recall every word, but right now, she didn’t want to think over each sentence, investigate them for more meaning. He’d said two words, several times, that had meant the most to her.
I’m sorry.

It was as if he had been waiting all those years to say them. The words she’d wanted to hear when she first got his letter telling her that he couldn’t come back.

I’m sorry.

She hadn’t expected their first conversation to go straight to the heart of their friendship. But she was glad of it. She matched his honesty with a question of her own.

“Were you happy with her, Alex?”

“I was, Lola. We had a good life. Two beautiful daughters.”

“Tell me about them.” She didn’t want to hear about his good life with his wife, not yet.

He told her about Rosie and Lucia. About his grandchildren. About the decision to move back to Australia ten years earlier, after his wife’s death.

To anyone else, she would have expressed sympathy. Now, she stayed silent.

He spoke again. “And you, Lola? Have you been happy?”

Did he mean had she remarried? Had more children? They knew nothing about each other, she realized. It was too soon to share everything. Not the right time, either. She kept her answer simple and truthful. “Most of the time, yes, very. Sometimes, no.”

“The perfect life, then?”

She’d smiled into the phone. “Yes, I think so.” She heard another voice then, someone calling him.
Papa
. It was Christmas Day, after all. A family day. “You should go, Alex.”

“Can I ring you again?”

She thought about it for several long seconds. Was it foolish to make a connection with him again, after so many years? What would they have to say to each other after any initial exchange of news? Would every conversation be filled with regret for their separate lives? Perhaps. But there was only one way to find out.

“Of course,” she’d said.

He’d asked if he could call at six thirty the following night. Old Alex wasn’t so different from young Alex, so courteous, so precise with his arrangements.

“I’ll look forward to it,” she’d said.

The last of her tears slowed now at the thought of him. She wasn’t being silly. She knew they wouldn’t be able to turn back time. She knew they wouldn’t be able to recapture their lost years. But that afternoon, when she had been at her most scared, she’d made a promise to herself. It had been an hour into her ordeal, outside under the hot sun, trying to stay calm, to remain positive, to have hope. She’d turned to Anna.

“I’m in a bit of a fix, Anna.”

It’s not an ideal situation, Lola, no.

“Am I going to get out of here?”

Of course you are. And when you do, you have to make sure to seize every moment you can, enjoy every second you’re given, and regret nothing. Promise me, Lola.

“I promise, Anna.”

She knew it hadn’t been Anna reaching out to her from the grave. She’d been talking to herself. But she would still do as she’d said. Not dwell on sad times. Keep looking forward. Grab every experience she could, while there was still time and while she still had her wits about her. She’d keep that promise, if it was the last thing she did.