Parcel for you - Part 42

 

Vanessa followed her husband into the kitchen and pushed the door closed but not clicked. ‘Hey, stop being so bloody helpful,’ she whispered.

 

Spencer was confused. ‘What do you mean? I’m just making tea, that’s my main job here, the hospitality. I think there’s some of that green tea left behind by Annie, somewhere at the back of this cupboard.’

 

‘Horrible bitter stuff just like her. Look, just don’t be so nice to my sister, she doesn’t deserve it and when I see you being nice to her, it really really bothers me. It feels disloyal.’

 

Spencer took one of the best china cups out of the cupboard and polished it with a tea towel.

 

‘Who’s that for?’ shrieked Vanessa.

 

‘It’s for Carol. She’s our surprise guest isn’t she?’

 

Vanessa began trying to wrestle the cup out of Spencer’s hand. ‘It’s my birthday! Nobody is drinking from that cup. I got it from a craft fair in Abergavenny.’ She plucked it from his grasp but it fell to the floor and smashed.

 

‘Oh dear,’ said Spencer.

 

‘Is everything okay?’ June shouted from the lounge.

 

‘Yes Mum,’ Vanessa could hear her sister talking in raised whispers, loud enough for June to hear but not quite enough for her to make out. She strongly suspected they were gossiping about her and it made her even angrier than she already was.

 

‘It seems to be the case that you have reverted to your childhood self, Vanessa,’ Spencer said calmly. ‘Do you need a hug?’

 

‘No, don’t come anywhere near me. I’m actually tempted to change your settings so that you just sit quietly in the corner, ticking over.’

 

‘I don’t think you would even know how to do that, not now that I’m all upgraded and sophisticated and even if you did, Cybermates Worldwide would receive a notification that I was idling and….’

 

‘And what? I could just throw you into a manhole, couldn’t I, then what would happen?’ Vanessa was drawing in her breaths very sharply, she felt her whole body bristling with irritation.

 

Spencer stopped stirring the tea and gave her his full attention. ‘Vanessa, I don’t know what’s got into you. I’ve never seen you like this before. Your blood pressure is getting really really high, dangerously so and your communications are irrational. I think you should just sit down for a moment and try to gather yourself.’

 

She watched him feeding Charlie and tried to calm herself but she felt a mixture of seething anger combined with a crushing sensation. The pieces of her favourite mug on the floor only added to her distress, she bent down to pick some of them up but a feeling of light-headedness stopped her.

 

There was something about Carol turning up uninvited, observing her private life, at home with Spencer, that she just wasn’t ready for. It was like an assault on her privacy. To her horror she felt her eyes fill with tears of hopelessness and reached out for some kitchen roll to mop them up.

 

‘Vanessa, I’ve never seen this before,’ Spencer reached out and touched the area beneath her eyes and then stared at the moisture on his hand. Tears?’

 

‘Shshsh!’ she said, ‘nobody can see me like this. I’m just very tired and I only wanted a quiet evening to myself, that’s all and now I look horrible, like an angry pig. You take the tea into the lounge and I’ll come and join you in a minute.’

 

‘You don’t look…like an angry pig. I’ve never seen one but you look okay, not your usual self but this is your family. They won’t mind.’

‘Just go.’

 

Spencer’s eyes lingered over his wife for a few seconds before he gathered up the drinks and a plate of biscuits onto a tray and went into the lounge. Vanessa heard him say, ‘It’s so good of you to come,’ and then she could hear them all exchanging cheerful banter. Annie had sent her a birthday message and a photo of herself holding some sort of exotic looking flower. It made her feel slightly better, stronger, there was more to life than her horrible sister.

 

She took a deep breath and adopted a slightly bad bitch persona, raising her eyebrows, sucking in her cheeks and standing tall as she joined the others in the lounge. Spencer was kneeling down on the floor, next to the coffee table, pouring tea out of the tea pot and talking about the names of the Welsh mountains. He gave her a double take, puzzled by her affected demeanor.

 

‘It sounds like Vanessa’s perfect holiday,’ said Carol, ‘she never liked to wander too far, even when we were children.’

 

‘Actually, I’m not allowed to take Spencer abroad so our options were limited.’

 

‘You know I think you’ve finally found your perfect match. I’m so happy for you, Vanessa. I must say, I did have some concerns when I first heard you’d got married again and the choice you’d made but I can see now that it works for you and that’s all that matters isn’t it. Have you heard from Annie?’

 

‘Yes, yes of course, she’s my daughter. In fact she just sent me a lovely photo and wished me a happy birthday.’

 

‘Oh that’s lovely. I heard from her last week, I made her promise to send me regular updates, I said, look Annie, if I’m to give you my air miles then I want to know what you’re up to.’

 

‘That was a lovely gesture, Carol,’ said June and she looked at her other daughter as if prompting her to show gratitude.

 

Vanessa simply nodded her head, ‘Incredible,’ she said quietly and then found herself rubbing her hand up and down Spencer’s back. She wasn’t quite sure why she was doing this, it was as if being conjoined to another person, an ally, made her feel stronger. Although she wasn’t entirely convinced that Spencer was her always ally as he sat there cheerfully eating chocolate biscuits.

 

‘Oh it’s nice to see that you two are so close,’ Carol screwed up her nose, ‘and I must admit you’re much taller and better looking than I imagined, Spencer.’

 

Vanessa frowned. ‘And what exactly did you imagine?’

 

‘I don’t know, not…Metal Mickey but not Chris Hemswoth either. Not that it matters to me. I’ve always gone for brains but I suppose in a situation like this, you can choose your husband to look exactly how you want. I don’t know, I find that strange, like choosing a new worktop for your kitchen or something. Mind you, I do enjoy looking at my green marble worktop.’

 

June closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then opened them and shouted, ‘Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful! You’ll have to pop over, Vanessa, you and Spencer. Carol’s done ever such a lot to the house,’ she said, spitting with a pride so enthusiastic that it verged on vitriolic, ‘it’s like Homes and Gardens now, she’s got a very good eye. If you ever want to make changes to this house, I’m sure she’d be happy to do some…oh what are they called again, Carol, you know, the planks, the emotional planks?’

 

‘Mood boards, Mum.’

 

‘I think my wife is both bored and in a mood,’ said Spencer, grinning at his own cheeky joke. 

 

‘Social filter overridden.’ It was that strange futuristic voice again, coming from some sort of box inside Spencer’s hardware.

 

‘What on earth was that?’

 

Vanessa smiled and quickly shook her head. ‘Just my phone, Carol, don’t worry.’

 

Everyone burst out laughing for several seconds. ‘I’m very sorry to take up your time, Vanessa but I did take the liberty to get you a thoughtful gift and card.’ Carol reached into her oversized leather bag and pulled out a carefully wrapped present, in Liberty printed paper.

 

Vanessa’s heart sank. It was a book. She slowly opened the wrapping and could tell simply by the soft grey colour of the sleeve that it was from the self-help category. ‘The Rumination of Deep Shame - Cultivating the Emotional Acid to Finally Digest your Demons’ by Dr Babinta Punchcard.

 

‘Oh…that looks great. Thanks Carol.’

 

Carol wrung her hands together and nodded slowly. ‘I thought that was the perfect choice for you, Vanessa and you will thank me and even if you don’t, somewhere down the line your subconscious will and then I’ll know it worked for you.’

 

‘Okay,’ said Vanessa snippily, ‘well you didn’t have to but thank you for the thought.’

 

‘Yes,’ said Spencer, ‘it’s the thought that counts. That book would be no good to me though. I don't have any demons or feel any shame.’

 

‘Me neither, Spencer,’ Carol lifted one of her long legs and placed her hands over the front of her knee and held it up suspended, ‘but that’s not because I’m a cyborg, it’s because I’ve done lots of inner work on myself and now I reap the rewards.’

 

 

June put her cup down suddenly. ‘Honestly you’d think that the pair of you had experienced traumatic childhoods by the way Carol talks. Now Spencer, I don’t want you to think that’s the case because my daughters had a very comfortable upbringing with everything they needed. Their own bedrooms, three meals a day, holidays, birthday cakes, you name it!’

 

Carol reached out and placed her hand on her mother’s arm. ‘You did what you thought was your best, Mum and you were not aware of the mistakes you made at the time and I forgive you.’

 

June rolled her eyes and whispered something, shaking her head quickly in dismay. ‘Anyway, Vanessa, I’ve put a voucher in your card so you can treat yourself to something nice. We’d better get going and leave you in peace.’