Free Queen Mum by Kate Long Page A

enough, so we agreed I’d go outside, I’m trying to cut down
anyway. But then he picked up this book I’d brought, ’cause I knew Juno didn’t work so I thought I’d be sitting around a fair while, and he sort of sneered at it.’
    I thought of Sunday lunches we’d had together at the pub, Manny sharing out the paper, separating the supplements and passing them round. ‘Which are you most in need of,’ he
always said to Tom, ‘Style or Culture?’ Great joke.
    I shrugged. ‘I’m sure he didn’t mean to. He sometimes looks stern even when he’s happy.’
    ‘Whatever. He came in later with another book and said – ’ she put on a posh voice – ‘“Have you ever read Emily Lincoln? She writes the most amazing
characters, and they’re from your part of the world.”’
    ‘He recommends her to everyone. He met her on an arts course once, that’s all.’
    ‘Oh.’ Kim licked the edge of her hand where the cheese had caught it. ‘I see. Anyway, Tuesday he goes, “Let’s watch a video,” and he showed me this
black-and-white film about – I couldn’t tell you what it was about, to be honest. There was a cow on a bed at one point. Bloody weird.’
    I smiled. ‘I know the one you mean. It’s part of a surrealist collection he has. He’s got a thing about them at the moment.’
    ‘Then we went to the theatre, that was Thursday, and saw this play about a woman who was kept in a box because her dad had been a bear. That was the plot. I clapped at the end but I
can’t say I got what was going on. So, all in all – ’ she leaned across the table to me and lowered her voice, which was a pointless exercise with microphones everywhere –
‘I’m feeling thick.’
    I wondered what would happen if I went, ‘Yes, you probably are.’ I said; ‘You shouldn’t feel that way. It’s just that Manny has this tremendous interest in the arts
because of his job. It makes us all feel inadequate from time to time.’
    She beamed. ‘You’re a love. He’s all right, I’m having a nice time. But, I tell you what, do you know what I said to him when we came out of the theatre? I said,
“This isn’t Educating Rita , you know.” I was laughing but I sort of meant it. I think he’s under the impression I spend all my time watching Coronation
Street .’
    ‘I’m sure he’s not,’ I said.
    While I filled a washing-up bowl, Kim went to the back door for a cigarette.
    ‘So, tell us about your friend,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘How do you think she’ll be coping round at mine?’
    Where to start. ‘I was hoping you’d be able to give me an idea about that, actually.’
    Kim raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
    ‘Well, you know she doesn’t work. But she’s not idle. As you’ll have found out this week. She does a stack for charity—’
    ‘I know, I’ve been in the hospice shop all morning. I’ve had ironing up to my eyeballs, like I don’t get enough with Lee and the lads.’
    ‘—and she gives a lot of time to the girls. She likes home-making, gardening, cooking. She’s fairly tidy and organized. She’s a very kind person and she’s, oh,
bristling with energy, all the time. She’s a terrific organizer. Say, if you wanted to throw a party, Juno would have the ideas and the drive to make it go with a swing. Last year she did a
Mexican one with a piñata hanging from the beech and we all had to take turns—’
    ‘I prefer my parties spontaneous; you know, everyone piling back after the pub. I can’t be doing with too much planning.’
    ‘Juno’s spontaneous too.’ I knew how stupid I sounded. I tried a different tack. ‘So, what changes have you made this week?’
    ‘Oh!’ she laughed. ‘Nothing specific. You spend a few days just sussing out how everything normally works, do you get me? Like, the way Juno’s got them all in a rota with
the washing-up and meals, fantastic. So I haven’t mucked about too much with that. But they’ve a funny set-up with the TV, I