The Way We Were
shrugged. ‘I don’t remember her at all. You can’t miss what you don’t recall. I think it was worse for Eddie. He was nine so he did remember. He went a bit mental when he was a teenager – mitching off school and shop-lifting and a bit of drugs, but Dad sorted him out. Dad’s great. Raising five boys and a girl on your own with very little money isn’t easy, but he did a good job.’
    ‘He must be very proud of you,’ Ben said.
    ‘To be honest, he thinks it’s mad that I’ve had to study for so long and still earn so little. I keep telling him that one day I’ll be loaded. He’s proud of all of us for keeping on the straight and narrow. We’ve all turned out grand. I’m nothing special.’
    ‘John Lester rates you and he’s a tough judge.’
    ‘I enjoy it. I think growing up in a bad area actually helps. I don’t get stressed easily and pressure doesn’t bother me. When you grow up dodging drug-dealers and gangsters, surgery doesn’t seem so daunting.’
    Ben clung to the door handle as Declan swerved to avoid a woman on a donkey. They were going up into the mountains now and the road was a lot rougher. The car jerked about as Declan tried to avoid rocks and potholes.
    ‘What about you? Where did you grow up?’ Declan asked.
    ‘London. My life has been very boring compared to yours. I’m an only child, went to a local school and then on to King’s College to study medicine.’
    ‘So you never really left London?’ Declan asked.
    ‘No, I didn’t. I’d planned to go to America to do a couple of years there, but then I met Alice, married her and had children.’
    ‘What have you got?’
    ‘Two girls.’
    ‘What age?’
    ‘Jools turned sixteen today and Holly is eleven.’
    ‘Teenage years!’
    Ben chuckled. ‘To be honest, Jools has been like a teenager since she was about eight.’
    ‘Girls seem like a world of trouble. I hope I have boys – I know what to do with boys – but girls … They just wreck your head.’
    Ben smiled. ‘True, but they’re also absolutely wonderful.’
    ‘I can see you’re smitten.’
    ‘I take it you’re not married yet.’
    ‘No. I’m keeping it casual for the moment. I need to focus on work. I did have one serious girlfriend, but when she introduced me to her parents it didn’t go too well. I wasn’t quite … What shall we say? Son-in-law material. They were very posh and they kept talking about point-to-points. I thought they were on about trains and that they were train-spotters or something, so I told them how me and my brother Jason used to stand on the end of the platform and moon at the carriages as the trains pulled out.’
    Ben imagined the faces of the ‘posh’ parents when they heard that story. ‘I take it that didn’t endear you to them.’ He grinned at Declan.
    Declan whooped. ‘You can say that again. My leg was black and blue from Gwen kicking me under the table to shut me up. I knew after that weekend it was over. I’d never fit in. Pity, she was a lovely girl, but as my dad always said, there are plenty more fish in the sea. Mind you, he never got together with anyone after my mother left. Always said he was too busy working and raising us. I’d like him to meet someone. It’d be nice for him now we’ve all left home. The
good thing is that all my brothers and Carol live near him and there are loads of grandkids, so he’s hardly ever alone.’
    ‘My mother died nineteen years ago. My father met someone else just a few years ago.’
    ‘Do you like her?’ Declan asked.
    Ben thought about it. Did he like Helen? She was pleasant but cold. Ben’s mother had been warm, loving, and had doted on him. She’d wanted more children, but Ben’s birth had been complicated and she’d ended up having a hysterectomy.
    Ben remembered how his mother’s eyes had lit up when he walked into a room. Sometimes as a teenager it had been a little claustrophobic and he had felt smothered, but he’d known she couldn’t help it. She had

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