The Other Half

by Dana Edwards

Genres: Family Life; Siblings; Humorous gen fiction

Synopsis

This is a tale of modern family life with all its joshings and jealousies, told with humour and compassion.



Catrin is just a normal Cardiff teenager looking forward to going to university when a shocking revelation rocks her world. Before she dies, Granny Lewis reveals that Catrin ‘is not blood’. This sets off a chain reaction, causing friction within the family, and forcing them all to re-assess their relationships.



While the story revolves around the Lewis family’s home in Victoria Park, a comfortable area of Cardiff, the narrative also moves to Welsh-speaking West Wales and to the Rhondda Valley. Through these trips we glimpse three very different Welsh lifestyles.



The novel, while concentrating on Catrin’s quest to find out who she actually is, cannot but touch on very contemporary moral dilemmas – whether it is ever right to conceal truth, nature versus nurture, and boundaries within relationships.

Release date: March 6, 2014

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 200

Sample

Chapter One

‘Catrin, I …’

Catrin leaned over Granny Lewis, who looked so small in the big white bed. Turned on her side and curled up like a little animal, her breathing was so soft that Catrin several times during the morning had put her hand on her gran’s back to check she was still breathing. Now, hearing the soft, raspy voice momentarily startled her.

‘Yes Granny, what can I get you? Will you take a little sip of water?’ No answer. Her gran had again slipped back into the deep sleep that had enveloped her for most of the past week. Minutes passed and Catrin was once more engrossed in the chaotic world of Katie Price’s autobiography when another whisper shook her. She leaned in close and gently stroked her grandmother’s thin hand.

‘Ben? Is Ben home?’

‘No, Gran, Dad’s still in Pontypridd at the surgery. Mum’s here, shall I get her?’

The old lady’s eyes opened just a little but did not seem to focus on Catrin. ‘Your dad works too hard – good doctor.’ The watery eyes closed but the thin lips opened as if Granny Lewis was struggling to say something else.

‘Would you like a drink, Granny?’ Catrin got up to reach for the water on the other side of the bed but her grandmother placed her hand on Catrin’s arm and indicated she wanted her to sit down. Catrin sat and waited.

The old woman’s eyes flickered slightly. ‘You’re a good girl and, and …’ Catrin held her breath as her grandmother fought to form the words, ‘so like me – as if – you were –my own blood.’ Her gran’s eyes closed again. Catrin sat completely still, staring at her grandmother’s pale, expressionless face, waiting for her to say more. Nothing came and the slight gurgle in the back of her grandmother’s throat indicated she was once more asleep.

Catrin was stunned. ‘So like me,’ that part made sense. Catrin was blonde and her grandmother always claimed that she had been a strawberry blonde; at one metre seventy, or five feet seven inches, they were both tall for Welsh women; and, just like her father and brother, she had inherited Granny Lewis’s long nose, the feature Catrin disliked most about her own appearance. But why would her gran say ‘as if you were my own blood?’ Catrin felt panic rise inside her, as if a trapdoor had suddenly been opened and she was falling, falling out of control. Willing herself to think straight she struggled to make sense of her grandmother’s strange words. She pulled the blankets gently over the old woman’s cold hands and got up.

She stood at the window looking out at the front garden clothed in November grey. A blackbird scuttled up and down the flower bed, scattering the fallen leaves in every direction as it foraged for the last of the windfalls from the big apple tree. Concentrate, she told herself, work it out; there has to be a perfectly obvious explanation. But her mind felt foggy, heavy. She silently repeated the words. ‘As if you were my own blood.’ She put emphasis on different words to see if it changed the meaning. It didn’t.

Catrin could hear her heart beating loudly in the silence. She breathed deeply, willing herself to keep calm, and waited, desperate for her grandmother to say something else, something that would explain what she meant. Yes, that’s what Catrin would do. She’d concentrate on her breathing until her gran woke up again and could explain what she had said. In: one, two, three, out: one, two, three. In: one, two …

She heard the big grandfather clock in the hall strike eleven. In the darkened room, its heavy curtains stealing the paltry November light, Catrin felt time was at a standstill. Outside cars passed with monotonous regularity, the whooshing of tyres on the wet road reminding her that city life was carrying on as normal. For a moment she was taken aback by the realisation. And then she thought of all the days that she’d gone about her business – walking to school, exercising the dog, doing the shopping – and on every one of those days there would have been someone looking out of the window, feeling as she felt now, their world turned upside down by some personal crisis. And she’d walked by totally unaware.

She sat down at her grandmother’s bedside and picked up the book she had abandoned on the floor. Distraction, that’s what she needed, she thought, as she felt another wave of panic threaten to overwhelm her. Katie Price’s words now swam meaninglessly in front of her eyes, making her feel sick. She put the book down on the dark oak bedside cabinet, the cabinet which, along with the rest of the furniture in the room, her grandmother had insisted on bringing with her when she’d moved in with them some three years previously, following a stroke that had left her unable to care for herself. Despite Catrin’s father’s gloomy predictions Granny Lewis had made a good recovery and within months was again able to walk Lucky, the last in a long line of spaniels on which she doted, and irritate Catrin’s mother. Her gran was quite capable of recovering this time too, Catrin consoled herself. A lorry thundered by and the bay window shuddered. The clock struck half eleven. Catrin coughed, hoping this would be enough to wake her gran and prompt her to say more. No reaction. She got up and straightened the bedclothes, mopped her gran’s brow, put a little water on her parched lips. Eventually her grandmother moved very slightly.

‘Cariad.’

Catrin leaned in close, her face almost touching her grandmother’s, eager to hear every word as clearly as possible. She felt the warmth of her grandmother’s shallow breath brush her cheek.

‘I’d like – to see – Lucky.’

‘Of course, Granny, I’ll get him.’

Catrin rushed downstairs and into the kitchen where her mother was cleaning the cooker. ‘Granny wants to see Lucky,’ she blurted out as she picked up the old King Charles spaniel from his basket.by the Aga. Stroking him, she put him down and he trotted after her. Her mother wiped her hands on her apron and quickly followed them upstairs. The dog whimpered as he saw his mistress and tried in vain to climb on to the old metal bed. Catrin lifted him up and instinctively her gran held her hand out. Lucky licked it and then settled, without any fuss, tucking himself into the old woman’s side, laying his head gently on her arm. And then she slipped away.

There was a knock on Catrin’s bedroom door and the handle turned. Instinctively Catrin held her breath.

‘Catrin? Catrin? I know you’re upset love but please unlock the door.’ Her mother sounded anxious. There was a pause and her mother said more quietly, ‘It’s natural to be upset about Gran love, we’re all upset, please just open the door.’

Catrin did not reply and after a few seconds she heard her mother’s steps retreat along the landing. She was lying on her bed looking up at the aurora borealis she had painted on the ceiling – or her ‘psychedelic nightmare’ as her brother called it. Sometimes its deep blue base with bursts of emerald green, yellow, and red energised her; sometimes it made her feel relaxed. But now she wasn’t sure how she felt. On second thoughts she knew she felt angry. Angry with Granny Lewis for not explaining what she meant, angry with her for leaving it so late to say something so astounding. And guilty… Guilty for being angry with someone who had just died. Guilty too, because what was filling her head right now was how to make sense of her gran’s words, rather than sadness at her passing. Gran must have known what she was saying; she certainly wasn’t suffering from dementia. It was the cancer that had taken her and up until last week she had been herself, effectively ruling the roost from her bed. Catrin loved her, of course she did, she was her gran. But Granny Lewis hadn’t been the type to have long intimate conversations with, or big hugs, as she was accustomed to with her other granny; Granny Lewis was a doer rather than a talker. ‘Brisk and brusque’ was the way her father described his mother.

Catrin cuddled the two teddies she’d had since she was a little girl and who still shared her bed. Absent-mindedly she stroked Little Ted’s bald head. Downstairs the front doorbell sounded a few times and the telephone seemed to be ringing continuously. Earlier she’d gone to the bathroom and had lingered for a while on the landing, wanting company, not wanting to be upstairs with Granny Lewis’s body in the next room, but yet not wanting to face her family. She’d heard snippets of a one- sided conversation – her dad saying, ‘yes, yes, very quickly in the end … we knew she was ill but … yes, just this last week really; thank you … so kind … I’ll let you know … yes, she was a character.’ And she’d heard his big voice threaten to crack and felt a surge of love for him.

Catrin wasn’t sure how long she’d lain there but now the light was fading so it must be about 4.30 p.m. She’d repeated Gran’s words over and over in her head – she had literally thought of nothing else for hours. In an attempt to stop her mind going round and round in circles, she took a clean sheet of A4 and her favourite pen from her desk, writing the title in large capital letters, convinced that would bring clarity to the process.

‘NOT BLOOD’ – POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS:

1 Granny was confused?

No. I don’t think so. Everything else she said made sense.

2 I misheard what Gran said?

No. She said it slowly, clearly. The room was quiet. I could not have misheard.

3 I was asleep and dreaming?

No. I remember reading about Katie Price’s horse immediately before Gran said those words.



Catrin sat staring at the number four. If none of the above was likely what other explanation could there be? ‘Not blood.’ She turned the words slowly around in her mind. She tried to distance herself from the meaning. She considered what she would have understood from the words if she’d heard them in a television soap. Not related, surely that was the meaning. ‘So like me … as if … you were my own blood.’ How could she not be related to her grandmother? The white page challenged her to plaster it with explanation but her pen now rested on it forlornly, mocking the over-confident heading.

As she began writing again she knew the explanation she was about to offer would have to be dismissed but for completeness she wrote it anyway.

4 ‘Not blood’ because I am adopted?

No, I’ve seen photos of mum pregnant with me and Mum, Dad and Tom holding me in hospital.

So, there had to be a number five. She struggled to concentrate. Why was it so difficult? Hadn’t her teachers always said how logical her arguments were, how clear her reasoning? And now those skills were so needed, they seemed to have deserted her. Perhaps a diagram would help.



5 Granny L > Dad > Me

She felt the bile rise in her throat. She scribbled furiously as if getting it all down quickly would lessen its significance.



Dad is not my father?

She crossed it out. Just seeing the suggestion in black and white made it seem more real. Her mind was racing. If Ben was not her father then who was? In soapland an illicit fling would be the obvious explanation.



Mum had an affair? were the next words she wrote.‘Impossible’ was Catrin’s first reaction. Her mum and dad really loved each other. For goodness sake, they embarrassingly still held hands when they walked down the street, hardly ever rowed and still laughed at each other’s jokes.

Perhaps, of course, their relationship hadn’t been as perfect eighteen years ago. Tom would have been five years old and she knew her father had worked very long hours as the junior partner in the surgery; perhaps her mother had been lonely and … She let the thought go, did not want to visualise any likely scenarios. Instead she concentrated on the abstract. If that was the explanation and her mother had had an affair perhaps it had made their marriage stronger. Catrin had never actually believed that any affair made relationships stronger as so many erring celebrities claimed, but perhaps this really was true of her parents. Perhaps they had really worked at their marriage. Certainly she could never remember any serious problems between them but, perhaps, by the time she was old enough to be aware of any tensions they were back on an even keel.

So instead of ‘Impossible’, she wrote ‘Possible’.

Catrin looked again at the list. If what her grandmother had said was true she could think of no other explanation. And if it was true, did her father know she was not his? Or had Gran found out somehow and kept it from him? Surely he didn’t know. He looked so happy in those photographs taken with her as a newborn, holding her safely in his arms. She felt sick.

‘Catz, I’ve brought you a sandwich – open the door, Catrin love, please?’ Her dad sounded exhausted.

Catrin got up slowly and turned the key. Her father was standing there in his old Aran cardigan holding a tray with a mug of tea and a round of sandwiches. He took one look at her, placed the tray on the floor and put his big arms around her. She smelled pipe smoke and felt herself smiling into his cardigan. At the first sign of trouble or stress he took himself off to his shed where, although he had officially given up smoking many years ago, he kept his emergency pipe and a packet of Golden Virginia tobacco hidden in an old cracked plant pot on the top shelf. Hiding it was unnecessary as his little smoking habit was well known to all the family but for some reason they all maintained the pretence that he had given up.

‘The doctor’s been love and the undertaker’s here now – he’s taking Gran to the chapel of rest. Why don’t you come down and have your sandwich with Tom in the kitchen?’ Catrin relaxed, reassured by the familiar embrace, and nodded into the scratchy Aran. She gently pulled away, picked up the tray and followed him downstairs. He joined her mother who was talking in hushed tones to two black-suited men in the living room.

Tom was sitting at the table with a large plate of sandwiches and the newspaper open in front of him as Catrin came into the kitchen. He looked up and said gently, ‘You OK, sis?’

‘Mm,’ Catrin mumbled, taking a sip from her mug of tea. ‘Oh, yuck, sugar.’

‘Good for shock,’ Tom said through a mouthful of something with mayonnaise, his gaze already back on the sandwich.

Catrin stared at him. Stocky and auburn-haired, everyone said he took after their father, and he did, but he had their mother’s bright blue eyes. Catrin had those eyes too and people said she looked like her mum, although taller and blonde to Jane’s dark. Come to think of it, had anyone, ever, said she resembled her dad in any way?

Aware that she was studying him intently Tom mistook her interest for criticism. ‘Don’t look like that, sis, you know food is my way of coping with stress.’

Catrin sighed dramatically. ‘Tom, food is your way of coping with everything.’

‘Good point well made, sis,’ Tom licked his forefinger and made an air-sign to indicate she had indeed scored a point.

They sat in companionable silence, Catrin taking a few surreptitious glances at her brother as he studied the sports pages. Confident, secure Tom, who knew exactly who he was. She caught sight of her reflection in the back door. The bevelled glass had distorted her face. How appropriate she thought bitterly; she wasn’t what she seemed to be. The front doorbell rang and, seeing that Tom had just crammed another sandwich into his mouth, Catrin got up to answer it. On the doorstep stood a young man hidden behind a bouquet of white roses.

‘Looks like you’ve got an admirer – either that or someone has done something mega-bad and has to apologise big-time like,’ he quipped.

‘Thanks.’ She took the roses and closed the door sharply but not before she registered the startled look on the deliverer’s face. Dumping the flowers on the kitchen worktop she went back to her tea.

‘Yuck, this is gross,’ Catrin made a face and got up again to make a fresh brew.

‘Pretty flowers, who are they from?’ Tom asked.

Catrin shrugged and passed the little white card to her brother.

‘“From Vera and Bertie Jones, No. 42, with deepest sympathy”. Wow, they were quick off the mark; must have got straight on to Interflora as soon as they heard the news. Impressive.’

She sat down again and sipped at the scalding tea. Somehow it didn’t feel right to turn on the radio or to read the newspaper or a magazine or really to chat about everyday things. She thought they should talk about Granny but the only thing she could think to say was, ‘I don’t think Granny likes white roses’.

‘Liked,’ Tom corrected.

He turned another page but Catrin could see he wasn’t really reading.

‘She had very definite ideas about what she liked and didn’t like,’ Tom said after a while.

Catrin nodded. ‘She really liked you,’ Tom added. ‘You were definitely her favourite.’

Catrin did not argue and said instead. ‘And I really liked her.’ Her chin began to wobble, a sure sign that she was close to tears. Tom went back to his newspaper.

Eventually there was movement in the hall, followed by subdued conversation and then silence as the voices disappeared up the stairs. Minutes passed and Catrin could hear her heart pounding loudly; she wondered if Tom could hear it too. And then there were feet on the stairs again, heavier this time and slower. She heard the agonising squeak of a trolley and instinctively both she and Tom looked towards the hall. Tom got up and hovered and Catrin picked up Lucky from his basket and went to sit with him in the armchair by the Aga, burying her head in his thick coat. She felt the draught as the front door was opened and then listened to the sound of the trolley being forced along the gravel path. Granny Lewis being difficult right to the end, Catrin thought grimly.

After a few minutes Jane and Ben came into the kitchen.

‘Lovely flowers.’ Her mum held the bouquet to her nose.

‘From the Joneses, number 42,’ Tom replied.

‘I’ll put them in water in a minute; they’ll look nice in that Portmeirion vase I’ve got. We won’t have enough vases though I’m sure; so many people send flowers now don’t they? Perhaps we can borrow some; what do you think, Ben?’

‘I’ll make us all a fresh pot of tea and then we’ll need to talk about what kind of funeral Granny would have liked,’ her dad said firmly.’ Catrin pushed back her chair and made for the door.

‘Catrin, we really need your help with this.’

‘Whatever Dad, I don’t care, you choose; it’ll make no difference.’ She let the kitchen door slam carelessly behind her.

Jane opened and closed three kitchen cupboard doors before she managed to find the vase she was looking for. She filled it from the cold water tap and trimmed the stems as her mother-in-law had taught her to do, so that the roses could drink thirstily. Handling the prickly roses was a damn sight easier than handling a teenage daughter she thought. No, she was being unfair. Catrin was normally so easy-going and she and Ben had not had to put up with any serious teenage angst from her.

‘Catrin’s taken it really hard – I feel guilty now that I let her be there at the end. I should have seen it coming, Gran asking to see Lucky, she knew …’ Jane trailed off.

‘Come on love, don’t start blaming yourself; Catrin’s eighteen now, she’s an adult, you can’t protect her from life – or death – for ever,’ Ben said, putting the teapot on the table.

‘I can understand upset but she seems more angry somehow,’ Jane replied, feeling totally drained.

‘You know I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve had to break bad news to over the years and you never know how someone’s going to react – those you least expect to hold it together are usually the strong ones. Initially anyway.’ Ben gave Jane’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.

‘Oh Dad, I wouldn’t do your job for all the world – ill people, dead people, upset people. Hardly a bundle of laughs is it?’

‘It’s not all doom and gloom Tom; we see the other end too. Births are great – I just wish we were still called to attend home deliveries. When I started in practice I’d get to see half a dozen births a year – now it’s all done by the midwives.’

‘More blood and gore and screaming if the ones on the telly are anything to go by.’ Tom screwed up his nose. ‘And anyway Catrin’s just angry at Gran – it’s abandonment issues and stuff.’

‘Oh Tom, I think you read too many of Catrin’s magazines.’

‘And watch too much morning television,’ Ben added jokingly. Jane snatched away the salt her husband was about to add to the milk in his mug. As he started to pour the tea the doorbell rang again and the first of the visitors arrived. Ben was to make five pots of tea that evening as a succession of neighbours came to pay their respects. 

Chapter Two

More sympathisers arrived to offer their condolences at 9.10 the following morning. Seven more called during the day and there were four deliveries of flowers, three pies, one casserole, and five cakes. The family quickly fell into their respective roles – Jane sat in the living room and spoke to the visitors, Tom made the sandwiches (and consumed a good many of them), Catrin busied herself with making tea and washing up endless cups, and Ben disappeared for long periods to his garden shed.

‘Family conference,’ Jane called up the stairs when the last of the day’s callers had left and they were settling down to a warmed casserole at 10 p.m. Catrin slid into the kitchen and sat opposite Ben. Momentarily Jane wondered why Catrin had not sat opposite her as she usually did, but seeing the look on her daughter’s face decided not to comment.

‘Dad and I think that Saturday would be the best day for the funeral – so people don’t have to take a day off work – you both OK with that?’

‘Let’s just check we’re not in for a tornado that day,’ Tom said, tapping the keys on his phone to Google a weather site.

‘Tom – we’re not organising a picnic; it’s Gran’s funeral,’ Jane said, her voice rising in exasperation.

‘OK – Saturday it is, assuming that’s OK with the undertaker and everyone else involved,’ Ben said quietly, reaching out to rest his hand on Jane’s arm. ‘Now we’ve got to decide whether it should be a burial or cremation – Gran didn’t tell either of you what she wanted by any chance?’

Catrin and Tom both shook their heads.

‘Well I think burial,’ Tom volunteered. ‘After all, she always buried her beloved dogs so that’s a good clue I think. Mind, I don’t know if it’s possible to cremate dogs, is it?’

‘I think burial too,’ said his father, ‘in Llangrannog – with Dad. And I think the service should be in the chapel in Llangrannog too; that’s where Mum was baptised and married.’

The other three nodded.

‘The good news is BBC Weather says no tornadoes are forecast for Saturday; the bad news is there’s 90 per cent chance of rain,’ Tom said frowning.

‘I wish she’d said what she wanted though … I wish I’d asked her,’ Ben said quietly.

‘People don’t, do they. I mean, say what kind of funeral they want. Not unless they feel very strongly about it. I guess she just assumed she would have the same kind of funeral as your father,’ Jane said putting her arm around him.

‘I thought she might have put something in her will so I phoned the solicitors – the ones she used when she sold her house,’ Ben stalled.

‘And?’ Jane prompted.

‘She hasn’t made a will with them.’ Ben said flatly. ‘And I can’t imagine she’d have gone to any other firm; she was so full of praise for Thomas and Sons, and she knows – knew – a couple of the partners through chapel. “Trustworthy,” I remember, that’s how she described them.’

‘Oh that’s just typical; she never did go out of her way to make things easy did she? Jane blurted out and then stopped suddenly. ‘Oh Ben, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean –’

Ben smiled at her. ‘I know love, I know exactly what you mean, but the solicitor says it will be straightforward; everything will automatically come to me. To us.’

Nobody said anything for a while. Lucky snored gently in his basket.

‘Well I think it’s a jolly good thing she didn’t plan her funeral,’ Tom ventured eventually, ‘you know what she was like, all practical, no-nonsense – she’d have us singing “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag” or something like that.’

Ben smiled and nodded.

 Catrin had been silent throughout supper, pushing the casserole around her plate. Ben now turned to her, ‘Catrin, you read beautifully; would you read in the service? It would mean so much to her and to me … read something in Welsh, love, Gran would like that.’ Tom rolled his eyes dramatically and Jane kicked him gently under the table. She noticed that her husband’s big brown eyes were filled with tears and she smiled gratefully at Catrin as she leaned over to kiss her father’s damp cheek.



The day of the funeral was dank and grey. Ben drove his family westwards along the M4, very aware of the subdued silence. Such restraint was not normal for them but of course today was not a normal day. Now they were skirting Port Talbot, the rain lashing mercilessly against the car’s windows, the windscreen wipers struggling to cope with the downpour. Cardiff was half an hour behind them and Llangrannog still two hours away.

‘Dad, can you open the window a bit? I’m feeling sick.’

‘Catz, it’s pouring – we’ll get soaked.’ Ben opened his window anyway and the sulphur-like smell belching from the steelworks filled the car.

‘It would have helped if you’d eaten some breakfast, Catrin,’ Jane remarked.

‘Close the window, Dad, that foul smell is enough to make everyone sick,’ Tom moaned.

‘Why on earth do people have to live in such conditions in the 21st century? It can’t be good for their mental or emotional health,’ Ben muttered as he closed the window and shut out the stench.

He was thinking how this journey had changed over the years. He’d been born and brought up in Cardiff where both his parents were teachers. But they were from Cardiganshire, or Ceredigion as it was now, and Ben had travelled this route with them every summer to spend the holidays at his grandparents’ home in Llangrannog. He’d loved those long summer holidays: six weeks of what had seemed like endless sun-filled days spent on the beach, messing about in the rock pools and racing the waves. He remembered the excitement of arriving home from school on the last day of the summer term and jumping into the car which his mother had loaded the previous night. His father had checked the oil and the windscreen wash and then driven to the local garage to check the tyre pressure and fill up with petrol. The car of course had changed over the years: the Hillman Imp became a Ford Cortina and ultimately a Ford Capri, but the ritual was always the same. Every year they stopped at Cross Hands for fish and chips and for Ben that really marked the start of the holiday. He remembered just how good those chips would taste on the way westwards. On the way back no one ever had an appetite.

And for those six weeks his parents were very different from the way they were at home in Cardiff. They laughed more, they played with him, and they spoke to each other in Welsh. Everyone around them spoke Welsh too, the family and the neighbours, and by the end of the holiday Ben himself could understand quite a lot. But back in Cardiff he heard the language only in chapel on a Sunday and although he could still sing hymns in Welsh he’d never been able to hold a conversation in the language. Wryly he smiled to himself. As a grown-up a lot of things had irritated him about his mother but the main thing was her insistence he be brought up to speak English only. He remembered once, as an adult, asking her why she had chosen not to share her first language with him. She’d shrugged and said dismissively, ‘English is the language you need to get on in the world.’ He’d tried to argue that learning Welsh would not have harmed his English. He’d enjoyed telling her there was proof she was wrong, that scientific research had shown that people who were fluent in two languages had a higher IQ. But in her customary manner she had pursed her lips, the familiar closed look had come over her face and he’d known there was no point pursuing the matter. She had, however, eventually realised that he was right, though naturally she’d never admitted this; but she had encouraged both Tom and Catrin to learn Welsh and had even helped with their Welsh homework. She’d had to, he thought resentfully, as she was the only one in the family who could. Realising he was thinking such negative things about his mother, and this on the day of her funeral, he blushed, shifted in his seat and determined to think only good things of her for the rest of the day.

‘Dad, don’t you know it’s against the law to drive at under 30 mph?’ Tom quipped from the back seat. Ben realising he’d been sitting behind a slow-moving lorry for quite a while, moved down a gear, checked his mirror and indicated.

Catrin too was thinking of the times she’d made this journey with her grandmother. For a week every August, until she was eleven, grandmo