The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells (22 page)

Norah looks at red paper napkins and the red paper plates and the big, red fox cake on its stand. Adam's brought in a footstool and an armchair from the lounge and an old crate from the garage. They're all sitting at different heights around the table.

‘Everyone smile!' Adam says, standing at the head of the table.

They all lean in.

A family portrait. Under different circumstances, Norah might have laughed.

‘Fay, you're not in the shot.'

Fay crouches next to Willa. Willa throws her arm around her.

A flash. And everyone breathes out.

Ella sits next to Sai, her shoulders slumped; she hasn't said a word to Norah since she came in. Adam looks at Sai's arm draped across Ella's shoulders. Fay, her rosebud apron tied tightly over her stomach, keeps finding reasons to get up and walk around the kitchen. There's a fork missing, or a paper cup or the dishwasher bleeps and needs to be turned off. Six years of living with perfect Fay – she'd have thought it would have driven Adam crazy.
Fussing Fay
, they used to joke
.
But it's what he's fallen in love with, isn't it?

Willa sits on the other side of Ella. She glances over at Norah and scrunches up her freckly nose as though she's trying to work something out.

Norah sits on the footstool like a child. She's promised herself that today, after Willa's party, she'll tell them.

The doorbell rings.

Willa claps her hands and wriggles in her seat.

Adam frowns at her. ‘Willa?'

‘I thought they should be invited.'

Fay goes into the hall.

A moment later Norah hears a series of high-pitched yaps and then Rose and Lily Pegg sweep into the kitchen. They're wearing identical purple chiffon dresses, the same ones they wore to church every Sunday when Norah lived in Holdingwell. And they've brought their three Chihuahuas with them; they have purple bows tied to their collars.

Rose claps her hands together. ‘The two Mrs Wells, both in the same room – astonishing!'

Norah stares at her, stunned. Willa scratched her scar.

Louis gets up and thumps his tail.

‘So nice of you to include us,' says Rose as she kisses Willa on the top of her copper bob. ‘We loved your note with the picture of the fox blowing out the candles on a cake. You're a good artist.'

‘I wanted you to be here,' says Willa. ‘You're family!'

Ella offers her chair to Rose. Adam does the same for Lily. Louis guides the Chihuahuas under the table; his tail thumps so hard with excitement that the plates rattle.

The doorbell rings again.

‘What on earth?' Adam exclaims.

Willa beams and runs to the door.

A moment later Mr Mann, Willa's teacher, stands in the kitchen – with another man, who's carrying a massive parcel. He puts it down on the floor.

‘We don't usually accept invitations from pupils,' Mr Mann says, ‘but we thought we'd make an exception for Willa.'

Like they always made exceptions for me, thinks Norah. She'll have to warn Willa about that.

Willa walks over to the parcel.

‘Can I open this one now, Mummy?'

Fay nods. She'd have imposed rules, thinks Norah: presents after the cake. But she looks too tired to insist on anything.

Willa yanks at the bow but it's tied too tight.

Adam gets a knife and slices it open for her.

She kneels down and tears at the shiny pink paper until she reveals a big white plastic doll's house. Willa frowns. She'd have preferred a den for her foxes, thinks Norah.

Willa blinks, then looks up at Mr Mann and his husband and smiles. ‘Thank you.'

‘Just don't tell anyone at school,' says Mr Mann. ‘I'm not meant to give presents either.' He leans over and points through a small window. ‘There's a family in there – with a dog.'

Willa leans in. ‘The dog looks like Louis!'

But not two mothers, thinks Norah.

A trumpet tune drifts in from outside. Ella's Twitter followers, that's what Adam said. The men and women who, more likely than not, the Miss Peggs had invited here, messaging them through their Twitter account, just like they'd contacted Norah.

The Twitter followers had kept Ella hoping for Norah's return. Except now that Norah's back Ella hates her. That much is clear from her behaviour – and from her tweets.

What will they do when Norah steps out of the house? Mob her? Yell at her for being the worst mother in the world? But one of them's holding a
Forgiveness Heals!
banner.

Was it possible that they might forgive her?

Willa leans over her fox cake. The candles light up her face and her red hair. She takes such a deep breath that her chest and her tummy expand over the table. She fills her cheeks until they're bulging, and then she blows until all seven candles are out and the air is full of smoke.

Norah did come back once. Six years ago today.

She'd stood on Willoughby Street, like those Twitter followers, looking into this kitchen.

It had taken three days to get here from Shuna, the small Scottish island where she was staying with Nat. A ferry, a bus, a train – all of them slow. She didn't sleep, she just thought of this day a year ago, lying semi-conscious in the ambulance, watching Ella cradle Willa in her arms.

She'd wanted to see that they were okay and to work out how she felt, whether she could imagine herself among them, whether Adam had grown up enough to be a dad. And whether she'd grown up too, because it hadn't just been Adam, had it? She'd failed the girls as well.

Someone had tied balloons to the front door. The kitchen glowed. Adam and Ella and Willa sat around the table. Adam's Beach Boys CD spilled out through the open window. Louis ran between them, his tail thumping the backs of their chairs. And Fay – they must have invited her out of habit. Ever since they'd had Ella and asked Fay to be her godmother, she'd tagged along to their family celebrations.
The spinster fairy godmother
, Norah used to joke.

She'd sensed a change in them.

Adam sat a little straighter in his chair, more alert. He got up and kissed the top of Ella's head and went to pick up some matches on the side; he lit the candle on the cake.

Ella switched off the stereo, disappeared from the kitchen and came back carrying her toy trumpet. The notes of ‘Happy Birthday' replaced the Beach Boys.

Fay started singing.

Louis barked and looked out at Norah through the kitchen window.

Willa raised her head, but her back was turned to Norah, so Norah hadn't seen the raw scar under her left eye.

If she'd seen it, would she have gone in? Would she have been able to walk away again?

As Louis ran over to the window, Norah had stepped back.

What is it, Louis?
She'd heard Ella call.

Come back here, Louis!
Adam yelled.
Good dog, come away from the window.

No, there wasn't room for her.

Go,
she'd whispered to Louis.
Go back to them.

He'd cocked his head to one side, let out another bark and then walked back to his family.

 

‘Why don't you take another photo, Daddy?' Willa picks up Adam's camera. ‘Now that everyone's here.'

Adam rubs his forehead, gets up slowly and takes the camera.

‘Come on, we all have to fit in,' says Willa, using her small hands to show how she wants everyone to bunch up around the table. She grabs Louis so that he's sitting next to her at the front. ‘Mummy, tell us if we're all sitting right.'

Fay smiles at her weakly and nods. ‘It's fine, Willa.' And then she goes to stand at the back.

Adam takes a quick picture and puts the camera back down.

Willa frowns at him, perturbed by his half-heartedness. If Adam's photographic style hadn't changed from those early London days, Willa would have been used to him spending hours getting the angle and the light just right. It used to drive Norah crazy, mainly because she wished he'd be as meticulous about the other things in his life, like being a father.

As everyone shifts back into position, Willa asks:

‘Shall I tell you what I wished for?'

Rose Pegg shakes her head. Her double chin wobbles. ‘If you tell us your wishes, they won't come true. It's the law.'

‘She's right,' adds Lily Pegg.

Fay squeezes Willa's hand. ‘Better keep it secret, darling.'

Birthday cakes and tooth fairies and wishes – classic Fay.

‘But I want to, Mummy,' Willa says.

Norah wonders when Fay got used to this little girl calling her Mummy. And when she allowed herself to believe it was true.

Before anyone can stop her, Willa blurts out:

‘I wish for everyone to start liking each other and getting on. I wish for Ella and Mummy to become friends and for Ella to stop being angry at Auntie Norah and to love her again, like she did when Auntie Norah lived here, and I wish for Daddy and Louis to stop being cross at Mrs Fox and, above all, I wish that we all get to stay here together – Mummy and Daddy and Ella and Louis and Sai and Auntie Norah —'

‘She's not Auntie Norah,' says Ella.

‘But she brought a trumpet with her.' And then Willa reaches up and points at Norah's head. ‘And she's got red hair, like us. And she said she was Auntie Norah. Sort of.'

‘And she's not staying,' says Ella.

‘The Old Mrs Wells isn't staying?' asks Rose Pegg.

When they'd used their Twitter account to send a message to Norah, to encourage her to come home, they'd said that everything would be okay. That the girls would forgive her.

‘Why's she not staying?' asks Willa. ‘I think she's nice.'

‘Because she's got her own family to go back to,' says Ella.

‘Oh!' says Lily Pegg and covers her mouth with her hand.

And then the table falls silent.

Mr Mann and his husband look down at their plates.

Rose Pegg's eyes go as round as marbles.

Adam starts swaying where he's standing.

Fay looks at Willa.

Norah sinks back into her chair.

And Ella pulls a photograph out of her pocket and thumps it down on the table.

Everyone leans in.

Nat's smiling face peers up at them. Norah's chest tightens. She hasn't allowed herself to miss him, but seeing him like this, with his straggly blond hair and his sideways grin, makes her long to take him in her arms.

Please can I come with you?
he'd begged her.

‘Maybe we should leave,' Mr Mann says, but everyone ignores him.

Norah looks away. She hadn't wanted them to find out like this; there were other things she had to explain first. Like why she came back.

‘You see,' says Ella. ‘She's got a family. She hasn't got a clue how to be a mum, but she's gone and had another kid. She's probably got a whole bunch of them hidden away —'

‘Maybe they can come and live here too,' says Willa. She turns to Norah. ‘You could ask them to come round – my cake's big enough to feed lots of people.' She glances down at the candles she's just blown out.

Ella scrapes back her chair. ‘I'm going upstairs.'

Sai gets up too and follows her out.

Fay turns to Adam. ‘Go and talk to her.'

He nods and heads to the door, but Norah gets up and reaches for his arm. ‘I'll go, Adam. I'm the one who needs to explain.'

This isn't like the party at the end of
Fantastic Mr Fox
. No one's dancing or singing or laughing or eating. Mr Mann said he had to go and do some work for school, even though it's a bank holiday tomorrow, and Miss Rose and Miss Lily Pegg said the Chihuahuas needed to get home because they were tired, which was also an excuse because the Chihuahuas are never tired – they're always jumping and yapping and running around in circles. Willa had never seen them sleepy, not once.

No, this wasn't how Willa had imagined her birthday.

As Ella and Sai and Auntie Norah go through the kitchen door, Willa hears Mrs Fox cry out from the garden.

Willa pats Louis's head.
Did you hear her?

Louis stares up at her as if to say
Yes
,
of course I heard Mrs Fox. I always hear her.
Although Louis doesn't like Mrs Fox, at least he believes that she exists – which is more than can be said for most people.

Willa's been itching to go out and check again but Mummy went to so much trouble with the cake and everything that she thought she should wait a bit. Though now that Ella's stormed out, and Sai and Auntie Norah have followed her, Willa wonders whether that means it's the end of the party – in which case, maybe she could sneak out and have a look.

At the end of the table, Mummy and Daddy whisper things. Mummy stares down at the photograph.

‘Who do you think he is?' Daddy asks Mummy.

Mummy's skin is usually rosy in the winter and really tanned in the summer, but right now it's pale, paler than Ella and Auntie Norah's, and her eyes are squinty like when she's had a long shift at the hospital.

Willa picks up the photograph from the table and stares at the little boy. He makes her think of someone, but she's not sure who.

Daddy clutches his hair as if it might let the stress out through his head.

Willa's been desperate to ask Mummy why the Miss Peggs keep calling Auntie Norah the Old Mrs Wells. Maybe she is Mummy's sister and she's her older sister, but Wells is Daddy's name and Mummy and Daddy aren't married. Weird.

Louis puts his paws on the table and stares at the cake. Willa waits for Mummy to tell him off but she's so busy looking at the photograph that she doesn't notice.

‘No Louis —' Willa says, tapping his paws.

Louis makes his eyes go sad and droopy.

Mummy goes over to fuss with things in the sink.

‘Okay, just a little piece.' Willa cuts off a bit of the red tail because it makes her think of when Foxy Fox had his tail shot off by those horrible farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. She places the bit of cake in her palm and holds it out to Louis, who swallows it in one big gulp, leaving slobber in her hand. Mummy's tried really hard to teach Louis table manners but he prefers to eat things in his own way.

Daddy goes over to Mummy. ‘Are you okay?' he asks.

Mummy clutches her stomach. Then she puts her hand in front of her mouth and runs out into the hallway.

‘Fay!' Daddy goes after her.

Willa hears Mummy opening the door to the downstairs loo and being sick, and then telling Daddy to go away. Mummy's been sick quite a few times in the last week. Maybe she picked up a bug at the hospital.

She looks around the table at the empty seats and at the party poppers no one's popped. No, this definitely wasn't like the feast in
Fantastic Mr Fox
.

She doesn't understand why everyone got so upset about her sharing her wish. How is anyone meant to know what she wished for unless she tells them? And it's a good wish too, about them all staying as one big family, even if that means including people who aren't proper family, like Sai and Auntie Norah and the little boy on the photo, because he's Auntie Norah's son, which means he should be with them too.

Willa looks at her birthday cake.
Maybe we should take some cake to the people outside
, she says to Louis.

She cuts three slices of cake and wraps them in red napkins. Then, when she thinks Louis isn't looking, she wraps a fourth one for Mrs Fox. She'll need some energy if she's just given birth.

Come on Louis, let's check the coast is clear.
 

Louis gets onto his feet and walks to the door.

Willa stands in the hallway listening to Mummy and Daddy talking in the loo.

‘You should see a doctor,' Daddy says. Which is a bit odd because Mummy's a surgeon, so she should know what's wrong with her.

Willa walks up the stairs to the first landing and hears Ella yelling:

‘Leave me alone! You're not my mum.' Which is what she said the other day too – and it still doesn't make any sense.

And then Sai says, ‘Give her a chance, Ella.' Willa definitely likes Sai.

Ella yells back, ‘Stay out of this.' Which Willa doesn't think is very fair because Sai loves Ella and he was only trying to help.

The next thing Willa hears is Ella slamming her door. And that makes Daddy come out of the loo.

‘I'd better go and check on things,' Daddy says to Mummy through the loo door. Mummy must be really sick if she has to stay in there for so long.

Mummy doesn't answer Daddy. And, a moment later, she makes being-sick noises again.

As Willa watches Daddy clomping up the stairs, she feels like calling after him and telling him that she doesn't think him going up to check on things is such a good idea; when Ella's in a mood, it's best to leave her alone for a bit or you just make it worse. But then when Daddy's on a mission he doesn't like other people to interfere, so Willa stays quiet. Even though she said it out loud, she hopes that her wish does come true and that everyone manages to get on for a change.

 

Two more people have joined the group outside. A little boy with squinty eyes and a woman in a wheelchair with a poodle on her lap. Louis goes up to sniff the poodle but he doesn't look impressed. Maybe it's because Louis has got a bit of poodle in him, so he can't fancy something that looks like himself. When he notices that Rose and Lily Pegg have come out with their Chihuahuas he thumps his tail and bounds over and starts slobbering.
Don't embarrass yourself, Louis
, Willa says. But it's a bit too late.

The people outside are wearing blue ribbons on their clothes; blue is Ella's favourite colour. She has a blue ribbon on her Twitter banner.

Willa goes up to the little boy. ‘Why are you here?'

The little boy squints harder. ‘I'm here for Ella. I've been following her campaign.'

‘Her school project?'

The boy furrows his brow and squints harder.

‘You mean her campaign?'

‘What campaign?'

‘To find her mum.'

There it was again. This stuff about Ella having a mum who wasn't Fay. Willa rubs her scar. Maybe Ella was adopted when she was a baby, like the babies Mr Mann and Mr Mann want to adopt. Maybe Ella's red hair and freckles are a fluke. Maybe she isn't related to any of them – not to Daddy or Mummy or even Auntie Norah. Willa's class learnt about people who got adopted and how, when they get older, they want to find their real mummies and daddies.

‘We're here to support Ella,' says the little boy.

Willa's head hurts. There's been too much to take in today. ‘I've got something to do,' she says, handing the little boy the pieces of cake. ‘Will you hand these out to the others? I'll ask Mummy if you can come in.'

‘Mummy?'

‘Yes, Mummy. She's called Fay.'

He narrows his eyes again but he nods.

On the way in, Willa asks Louis about what the boy meant about Ella looking for her mum but he's not listening.
Too busy thinking about the Chihuahuas, aren't you
? Willa whispers into his floppy brown ears.

On the way past the stairs, Louis looks up towards Ella's room. Willa can tell that he doesn't know whether he should go outside with her to look for Mrs Fox or whether he should make sure that Ella is okay. Along with Willa, Louis is the only one Ella doesn't mind having around when she's upset. Ella's known Louis her whole life, which sometimes makes Willa jealous because she'll never be able to catch up and know Louis for as long because Ella will always be older, but at other times, like now, she doesn't really mind because she knows that Ella needs him.

It's okay, Louis. You can join me later.
She gives him a push up the stairs.

 

The sun casts a warm haze over the garden. Willa loves that her birthday is in the spring, when everything's coming back to life.

‘Mrs Fox…' Willa whispers as she walks to the end of the garden. ‘Mrs Fox…'

She glances back at the house to make sure that no one is watching from any of the windows, and then she goes over to the gooseberry bush, gets down on her knees, closes her eyes and listens. She hears it all. Worms deep in the ground, turning the dark soil. Centipedes crawling under damp rocks. A butterfly pressing its new wings against the walls of its chrysalis. Buds unfurling on the trees. Blades of grass reaching up to the sun. And just beyond the hedge that leads into the next-door neighbour's garden, the sound of paws padding the earth.

Willa opens her eyes. Right in front of her, a ball of fire against the sun, stands Mrs Fox. She stares into Willa's eyes, and though it's hard to tell with a fox, she looks like she's smiling. As Mrs Fox lowers herself under the gooseberry bush her saggy tummy sweeps the ground. Willa lets out a breath. She hasn't given birth to her cubs yet; she's waited for Willa.

Willa unwraps the piece of birthday cake, places it in the palm of her hand and holds it out to Mrs Fox. Just as Mrs Fox stretches out her muzzle to sniff at the cake, Willa feels a big shove from behind, and then a bark.

She spins round.

‘Louis!'

He nudges her again and barks and barks, baring his teeth as though some mean and dangerous beast has taken hold of him.

‘Louis! Stop it!'

And then she turns back round to the bush and Mrs Fox has disappeared.

Louis keeps looking through the hole under the gooseberry bush, his ears stiff, his eyes set. A low growl rumbles from his throat.

Willa pushes Louis out of the way. ‘You silly dog,' she says. ‘You silly,
silly
dog.' She gets up and walks back down the garden. ‘You've spoilt my birthday, Louis,' she shouts over her shoulder. ‘You've spoilt everything.'

Louis lies down where he is, lowers his head and sets his eyes on the place where Mrs Fox disappeared.

‘She's not coming back, you know. You scared her off.'

Willa kicks at a clod of earth and walks to the lounge doors. Then she hears a clatter from the front of the house. It can't be the recycling people or the dustbin men because it's Sunday. And they aren't expecting any more visitors – there are enough of those in the house already. Maybe it's someone who's come to support Ella's campaign. Her heart beats faster. Or maybe Mrs Fox went round to the front.

Willa pokes her head around the side of the house. All the people who came to see Ella have gone home, except the man with the rainbow jumper, who's sitting on the kerb, playing his trumpet. Willa feels sorry that the boy with the squinty eyes didn't stick around. She liked him.

Willa looks around for Mrs Fox, but she's nowhere to be seen. Then she notices a man and a boy walking along the pavement. They stop in front of the rusty gate of Number 77 Willoughby Street. Blossom falls around them and catches in their hair. The little boy lifts his face to the tree and laughs. Then he looks back to the house and mumbles something in a language that Willa doesn't understand.

The man nods, takes the little boy's hand, kisses it and they walk past the pile of tiles that make Daddy cross whenever he sees them because it means the roof still isn't fixed, and climb up the front steps.

As the man reaches up for the doorbell, the boy turns round.

Willa steps out from where she's been hiding at the side of the house.

The boy looks straight at Willa, just as Mrs Fox did a few minutes ago. And that's when Willa recognises him: he's the little boy from the photo. The blond boy with the wonky grin – and now he's grinning at Willa like he knows who she is and has been waiting to meet her.