Free Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

Hall’s.”
    “And the baby?” Josie said. “You had no idea this Stella was expecting your child?”
    “None in the wide world, Ma,” Noel said. And there was something so bleak and honest in his tone that everyone believed him.
    “But the drink thing, Noel … are you sure that it’s bad enough for you to be going to the AA?”
    “It is, Da, believe me.”
    “I never noticed you drunk. Not once. And I’m well used to dealing with drunk people up at the hotel,” his father said, shaking his head.
    “That’s because you’re normal, Da. You don’t expect people to come back from work half-cut, having spent two hours in Casey’s.”
    “That man has a lot to answer for.” Charles shook his head with disapproval for Old Man Casey.
    “He didn’t exactly open my mouth and force it down,” Noel said.
    Emily spoke for the first time.
    “So we are up to speed on Noel’s plans now. It’s going to be up to us to give him all the support we can.”
    “You
knew
all this?” Josie Lynch was shocked and not best pleased.
    “I only knew because I can recognize a drunk at fifty feet. I’ve had a lifetime of knowing when people are drunk. We don’t talkabout him much, I know, but my father was one very unhappy man and he was miles from home with no one to help him or advise him when he had made one wrong decision that wrecked his life.”
    “What decision was that?” Charles asked.
    This evening was full of shocks.
    Since Emily’s arrival there had been no mention of the late Martin Lynch’s drinking.
    “The decision to leave Ireland. He regretted it every day of his life.”
    “But that can’t be right. He lost total interest in us. He never came home.” Charles was astonished.
    “He never came home, that’s true, but he never lost interest. He probed it as if it were a sore tooth. All he
could
have done if only he had stayed here. All of it fantasy, of course, but still, if he’d had someone to talk to …” Her voice trailed away.
    “Your mother?” Josie asked tentatively.
    “No joy there, I’m afraid. She never understood what a hold drink had on him. She just told him to stay away from it, as if it were a simple thing to do.”
    “Could you not talk to him? You’re great at talking to people,” Charles said admiringly.
    “No, I couldn’t. You see, my father didn’t have the basic decency that Noel here has. He could not accept that in the end it was all up to him. He wasn’t half the man Noel is.”
    Josie, who had in the last half hour been facing the whole range of disgrace, mortal sin and shame, found some small comfort in this praise.
    “You think that Noel will be able to do all this?” she asked Emily pitifully, as if Noel were not even there.
    “It’s up to us to help him, Josie,” Emily said as calmly as if they were discussing the menu for tomorrow’s supper.
    And even to Noel it didn’t seem quite as impossible as it had when he had begun his explanation.
    ·   ·   ·
    “Stella, I’m Emily, Noel’s cousin. Noel’s gone to get you some cigarettes. I came a little early in case there’s anything I should know before the social worker comes.”
    Stella looked at the businesslike woman with the frizzy hair and the smart raincoat. Americans always dressed properly for the Irish weather. Irish people themselves were constantly being drenched with rain.
    “I’m pleased to meet you, Emily. Noel says you are a rock of sense.”
    “I don’t know that I am.” Emily seemed doubtful. “I came over on a whim to learn about my late father’s background. Now I seem to be up to my neck in organizing a statue for some saint who has been dead for centuries. Hardly a rock of sense …”
    “You’re very good to take all this on as well.” Stella looked down somewhat ruefully at the bump in her stomach.
    “You have enough problems to think about,” Emily said, her voice warm and sympathetic.
    “Well, this social worker is a bit of a madam. You know, interested in