Finishing Touches (20 page)

‘Ah don’t worry about it, Aileen!’ Laura advised. ‘Your mother’s being totally unreasonable. It’s not as if you were cutting her out of your life, for
God’s sake!’

‘I know! I know!’ sighed Aileen. ‘It’s just the way she goes on, it’s enough to wilt you.’

‘She’ll come round, you’ll see!’ Cassie comforted her. ‘Tell her you’ll have her to stay for the weekend and she can go shopping. That will cheer her
up!’

Aileen brightened up immediately. ‘Oh I never thought of that!’

They finished lunch, Aileen fed her meter and they went down Henry Street to look for a pair of jeans for her. She was thrilled with the lovely pair of Wranglers she got, but her good spirits
disappeared when she arrived out to her car to find that she had been given a ticket for illegal parking. ‘For crying out loud,’ she shrieked. ‘What the hell did he give me a
ticket for? There’s still ten minutes on the meter. Someone’s going to suffer for this.’ She glared around her, looking for the offending traffic warden.

‘The car in front has one as well and he’s got half an hour on his meter,’ Cassie said, puzzled.

‘As a matter of fact,’ Laura said calmly, ‘no-one is allowed to park here at all right now. It happens to be a clearway.’

‘Who said that?’ demanded Aileen pugnaciously.

Laura pointed to the sign further down. ‘That says it!’

‘Why didn’t you tell me when we were parking?’ snapped the furious Aileen.

‘Because I didn’t notice it,’ retorted Laura, angry herself. ‘And besides, I didn’t think we’d be so long.’

‘Huh! Some lawyer you’ll make if you can’t notice what’s staring you straight in the face,’ Aileen scowled, totally unreasonable.

‘Well, if
you’re
so perfect, and after all you
were
the driver, why didn’t
you
notice it? You shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of a
car!’ The friends glared at each other.

‘Oh for God’s sake!’ interjected Cassie. ‘I’ll pay the fine if it’s going to be such a big deal! Are you going to stand here and fight for the rest of the
afternoon?’

‘Don’t
you
start!’ snapped Laura.

Cassie began to get angry. ‘Listen here, Laura, it’s OK for you. You’re a lady of leisure swanning around the place. I had to take a half-day off work and I don’t intend
to spend it standing arguing outside Conways Pub!’

‘I am not a lady of leisure either, Cassie Jordan,’ Laura exclaimed indignantly. And you have a nerve to say so!’

‘Well, you get much longer holidays than I do. You’re on holidays now!’ Cassie declared huffily.

‘I might get long holidays, Cassie, but I’ll have you know I worked my butt off in America doing waitressing jobs. Surely it’s not too much to have a fortnight off before
facing back to the slog in college?’ Laura was starting to feel very sorry for herself.

Aileen started to giggle. ‘And we were going to live happily ever after together in a flat. A flat, I might point out, we haven’t even got yet.’

‘Listen to her!’ Laura said to Cassie.

‘You started it,’ Cassie said crossly to the instigator of the row.

‘I humbly apologize,’ Aileen murmured demurely, looking as though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

Laura threw her eyes up to heaven. ‘It’s a wonder to me, Aileen O’Shaughnessy, how you’ve survived on this planet for so long without somebody succumbing to the urge to
murder you.’

‘Sorry!’ Aileen excused herself. ‘It was the shock of the ticket, especially after being so careful to feed the blasted meter. They should have a big notice on them! I think
you’ll make a fantastic lawyer. Even better than Perry Mason!’

‘Liar!’ laughed Laura. ‘I didn’t intend to demean your prowess as a driver. You know I’m totally in awe of your skill behind the wheel.’

‘No need to be sarcastic,’ grinned Aileen. ‘Cassie, are you coming or are you staying?’

‘I must be mad wanting to share a flat with you pair,’ said Cassie, good humour restored. That was the nice thing about the girls, she reflected, as they drove around by the Rotunda.
Any tiff they ever had was speedily resolved, grudges weren’t held and if you had anything to say you could get it off your chest, secure in the knowledge that the friendship wouldn’t
suffer. That was the mark of real friends and Cassie knew she would find no truer friends than Laura and Aileen if she were to search for the rest of her life.

The first flat they looked at in Rathmines was a disaster. The landlord, a scruffy little man, showed them upstairs. The three of them looked at each other in dismay. The wallpaper, of a dirty
grey pattern, was peeling in parts. The bedrooms had a terrible smell and the bathroom was grotty.

‘Thanks very much,’ Laura said politely, ‘but it’s not exactly what we’re looking for.’

‘Crikey, did you see those curtains?’ Cassie said in disgust. ‘They must never have been washed and I’d say they’re there since the year dot!’

‘And he had the cheek to call it an apartment! Some people are terrible chancers!’ Laura sniffed. ‘Drive on, Macduff,’ she ordered their chauffeur, who had been rendered
speechless by the landlord’s nerve.

They viewed eight flats in various conditions, most of them not much better than the first, and were beginning to get disheartened as they drove along Beechwood Avenue in Ranelagh to see the
last one on their list.

‘Large modernized ground-floor flat, suit three/four. Girls only,’ Cassie read out as Aileen drew to a halt outside a two-storey redbrick terraced house. ‘It looks well kept
from the outside anyway. That’s usually a good indication,’ she observed, as they climbed out of the Mini.

‘Windows and curtains are clean. I wonder is it too big for us. It said to suit four,’ Laura said glumly. She was beginning to lose hope at this stage.

‘Look, if it’s anyway decent and we can manage the rent, I think we should take it. And it said three
or
four; it just means we’ll have more room,’ Cassie said
firmly. It was obvious that unless they were prepared to pay a king’s ransom they weren’t going to get anything spectacular.

‘Quick!’ hissed Aileen. ‘Here’s another car-load of women. Ring the doorbell so we get first refusal.’

It was the best they had seen. And most importantly, it was clean. There were two double bedrooms with plenty of wardrobe space, a small but functional bathroom, a kitchen which had a table and
four chairs, cooker, fridge and an old twin-tub washing-machine, which was an unexpected bonus. The sitting-room had a comfortable sofa, two armchairs and a bookcase. A big bowl of roses stood in
the open fireplace. With the afternoon sun streaming in through the window, it looked very nice.

‘We could do a lot with it,’ Cassie whispered as they inspected all the rooms once more.

‘And the ground-floor flat gets the back garden so we’d be able to lie out in the summer,’ Laura pointed out.

‘I think it’s beautiful!’ Aileen whispered excitedly, as the opposition came into the room they were standing in.

‘It’s not bad. I think we should take it,’ a tanned slim girl from the other group said to her two companions. Cassie, Laura and Aileen slipped discreetly out of the room.

‘It’s make your mind up time, girls. I think we should go for it!’ Laura said.

‘Me too. Definitely!’ agreed Cassie happily.

‘Yippee!’ laughed Aileen, as they went in search of the landlord.

They moved in that weekend! Such excitement! Aileen’s Mini, laden from top to bottom, made three journeys from Port Mahon on Saturday. Nora, utterly taken aback by the
speed of events, could only ‘tut-tut’ her way around the house, saying she hoped Cassie wasn’t making a big mistake.

Angela O’Shaughnessy developed a migraine and took to the bed.

‘If we don’t go now, we’ll never go,’ Aileen said grimly as she helped Cassie carry out some of her books and tapes under Nora’s disapproving eye. They were almost
ready to leave.

‘Have you even got a saucepan?’ Nora growled.

‘Oh!’ exclaimed Cassie. ‘I never thought of that.’

Her mother disappeared back into the house. ‘Wait there!’ she ordered. Twenty minutes later she arrived out to the car with John and Martin carrying a cardboard box between them.
‘There’s a few pots and pans and plates and cups there and I’ve three blankets and a few old sheets inside if you want them.’

‘Oh Mam!’ Cassie flung her arms around her mother’s neck. ‘Thanks a million. You’re the best in the world!’

‘Go on with you. You might ring me to let me know you’ve arrived safely. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life!’ She indicated Aileen’s Mini, which had more
bulging black sacks in it than a refuse truck.

‘I will, Mam, and I’ll come home on Tuesday night to stay and tell you all about it,’ Cassie promised.

John reappeared, carrying his old hurley. ‘Here, take this in case you ever need it at night,’ he said gruffly. Her brother was taller than she was. John had turned into a fine young
man.

‘Thanks, Johnny,’ Cassie smiled at him. ‘You’ll be coming up to stay with me now and again, won’t you?’

‘Sure thing,’ he agreed.

‘And you too, Martin,’ Cassie did not forget her younger brother, who was trying to fit the cardboard box in on top of the black sacks.

‘Yep!’ he said.

Barbara stood in the doorway with a cross face. She utterly resented Cassie’s leaving home. She was
so
envious of her older sister. How she longed to be taking off to Dublin to
live in a flat and lead a sophisticated life, instead of being stuck at home, studying for the Leaving Cert and being left to do all the housework. Barbara felt truly sorry for herself.

‘See you on Tuesday, Barbara,’ Cassie said.

‘Yeah,’ responded her sister sulkily.

‘I wish you weren’t going, Cassie. I’ll be very lonely for you,’ Irene confided. Cassie hugged her young sister.

‘I’ll be home on Tuesday night, Irene, and I’ll come home some weekends and you and Mam will be able to come and visit me now and again. Won’t that be lovely? We’ll
be able to go into Dublin and look around all the shops and have a meal together and we’ll have a great time.’

‘That will be brill!’ Her younger sister cheered up immediately.

Cassie looked at her mother standing forlornly in the middle of the drive. She felt a sharp twinge of guilt. Maybe she was being terribly selfish. ‘I’ll see you Tuesday,
Mam.’

‘All right, then.’ Nora met her daughter’s eyes and took two steps towards her. ‘Mind yourself, pet,’ she said, giving her a fierce hug.

Cassie struggled to keep the wobble out of her voice. ‘I will. I love you. Thanks for everything!’

‘Right! Off we go!’ Aileen exclaimed cheerfully, seeing what was happening. Ushering her friend into the car, she scorched down the drive before Cassie knew where she was.

‘Best way to do it,’ she said gently. ‘No point in getting maudlin.’

‘I feel a real bitch,’ Cassie said, the tears coming into her eyes. All she could think of was the lonely look on her mother’s face when she hugged her goodbye.

‘I know!’ sighed Aileen. ‘I do too and it isn’t fair! For Chrissakes it’s not as if we’re going to Australia and we’ll never see them again. We’re
only going to Ranelagh, for crying out loud.’

‘I know,’ Cassie sniffed, ‘but we’re leaving home all the same. I suppose it’s bound to upset them.’

‘I swear to God,’ vowed Aileen grimly as she swerved to avoid a pothole and ended up driving into a bigger one that caused the car to rattle loudly, ‘if I ever have a daughter
I’ll never say one word to her if she wants to go and get a flat. In fact I’ll help her look for one.’

‘Me too,’ agreed Cassie.

‘What the hell’s the matter with you two?’ Laura enquired when she saw the two long faces that presented themselves to her an hour and a half later. She had brought her stuff
over on the first trip and had been left behind to make room and more importantly to start unpacking.

‘Just a touch of the guilts!’ Aileen confessed.

‘Shag the guilts,’ Laura swore succinctly. ‘Come on, let’s have a cup of tea to cheer ourselves up. I’ve the kettle on for the last twenty minutes. I bought us a
packet of chocolate biscuits to keep us going and then we’ll start doing your unpacking. I’ve done loads already!’

It was quite late by the time they were finished unpacking all their bits and pieces. Although the place was already clean, they scrubbed and washed the kitchen and bathroom. Cassie and Aileen
decided that because Laura was studying and would need some peace and quiet, she should have a bedroom to herself.

‘I wonder would the landlord allow us to paint the rooms ourselves,’ Cassie mused as she hung up the last of her clothes in her half of the wardrobe. The oatmeal walls of the bedroom
were very drab and just crying out for a lick of new paint. Already Cassie was planning colour schemes.

‘It’s a real adventure, isn’t it?’ Aileen said enthusiastically as she arranged her collection of black cats on her half of the dressing-table. ‘Imagine being able
to do exactly what we want when we want. Oh bliss! I’m going to lie in tomorrow until noon.’

‘Me too,’ said Cassie.

Cassie had forgotten it was Sunday. When she woke up in a strange bed, with Aileen across the room from her, she didn’t know where she was for a minute. Then
comprehension dawned. This was her new flat. This was the first day of the beginning of her new life. It was a beautiful September morning. The sun would be shining on a sparkling turquoise sea in
Port Mahon, she thought, with the tiniest hint of nostalgia. The thought was quickly banished as she hopped out of bed, taking care not to wake the sleeping beauty in the other bed. Aileen snored
gently in a little symphony that Cassie was going to have to learn to live with. Quietly she slipped into the bathroom. There was no sound from Laura’s room; she too was obviously fast
asleep. Cassie had found it hard to get to sleep the night before. Her thoughts kept returning to Nora and the look on her face as Cassie had said goodbye to her. How could some people cut their
ties so easily? Cassie envied them. But she was too entangled in her bonds of guilt.

How did one get rid of one’s guilt? Why did she have these feelings? Barbara would never be troubled by such things, nor Irene; she was so used to worrying about herself exclusively. John
would be like her. He too would feel a responsibility towards their mother. Maybe it was because she was the eldest. Aileen was like her, but then look at Laura. She managed very well to make her
choices about her life and not feel badly about it. Well, Cassie was going to do the same. Today was a beautiful day and she was going to enjoy it.