The Obsession of Judith Cleary, page 8
part #1 of Deadhearts Series
“Yes,” Judith said putting her hand on her hip. “What of it?”
“Let her work on hearts and not on heads. You were put on tablets for a reason, and if you really think that you’re ready to come off them, then go back to your psychiatrist and talk to him about it, okay?”
“All right,” Judith sighed. “I will if it’ll keep you happy.”
“And you too, I just want you to be happy, all right?”
Judith nodded.
"Good," Ann said and took the milk from the fridge.
“Why not invite your friend over one night? You talk about her so much I feel like I know her.”
“Lara?”
“Well unless Thomas has had a sex change, yeah of course I’m talking about Lara. Oh yeah, which reminds me, the phone rang when you buzzed your lover out—”
“Oh God, don’t call him that, if we’re going to be sleazy call him my friend with benefits.”
“Okay, whatever you’re comfortable with. Anyway, like I was saying the phone rang and when I went to pick it up the line went dead.”
The spotlight closest to the exterior wall gave a slight buzzing noise before falling on to the tiles.
“Jesus!” Judith said, jumping from the fright.
Ann turned around with her hand on her heart and looked from the floor to the missing space where the spotlight had been. “How the hell did that happen? The glass screen is after coming off too.”
“Whoever changed it last didn’t do a very good job. Was it Eugene?”
“No,” Ann narrowed her eyes, “it wasn’t.”
“Well then, maybe we do have a ghost after all?” Judith asked, raising a brow. When Ann didn’t answer, Judith took the dustpan and brush from the utility room and got to work. When she had swept up all of the shards, she disposed of them in newspaper and threw the bundle in the bin. “See, I have my uses around the house.”
“That you do,” Ann said, and checked on the potatoes with a steak knife.
“What were you saying about the phone, before we were so rudely interrupted?”
“Oh yeah, the line went dead when I picked it up, so my guess is that it was Lara ringing you. She’s about the only one other than Eugene who uses that line, maybe give her a ring back and see if it was. And if it was, invite her around while you are at it.”
“All right I will do, but don’t expect much, she’s always working.” Judith crossed the room, a glint from the floor caught the light from the remaining spotlights and drew her attention downward. “There’s always one piece of glass that the dustpan can’t get.” She bent down, picked up the shard and pricked her finger. Blood seeped out from the wound, spilling on to the floor.
“Oh Jude,” Ann said and ushered Judith over to the sink. She twisted the faucet on and the water gushed out of the spout. “That looks deep,” she pulled the finger from under the water and inspected it.
“It’s nothing, just a little scratch.” Judith pulled her hand from Ann’s grasp and wrapped the wound in kitchen paper.
“If that’s a scratch then I’m a natural blonde,” Ann turned off the faucet and disappeared into the utility room, returning with a first aid bag. She removed the kitchen paper and spread a layer of disinfectant ointment, before sealing it with a plaster. “I think you’ll live, but it’s deeper than it looks.”
“Well, you know how the song goes?”
“Don’t,” Ann said, then cursed as she saw her potatoes boiling over and turning to mush.
“The first cut is the deepest,” Judith said and left, leaving Ann sighing in the kitchen.
Chapter 9
Judith had been stocking shelves in the sports department when a raspy voice said: “Would you have a book on balls, dear?”
Judith turned around, with a golfing book in hand. “Pardon me?” she said, to find Lara standing before her in a red mac, black jeans and a black beret covering her hair.
“Balls dear?” Lara smiled, her veneer looking ultra-white.
“Lara, you sounded like an eighty-year-old chain-smoker.”
“Really, well I used to smoke in my twenties. Now tell me, where have you been? You are just impossible to get through to. I’ve tried calling your house phone several times and it keeps ringing out. And I’ve knocked on your door and there’s no one at home. I was wondering if you’d moved out, only I saw that car of yours parked out the front.”
“Oh sorry, I didn’t hear anything. I probably had the music on or something”
“Or something is right. I’ve seen a certain tall, handsome man leaving your house a few weeks ago, was he the distraction?” Lara said, raising both of her eyebrows.
Judith laughed. “I think there’s something wrong with the house phone too, Ann said the line went dead, and when I tried to ring you back the number you gave me went flat.”
“That’s strange,” Lara said, rubbing her dimpled chin with her finger and thumb. “Perhaps it’s happening all over the estate, I’ll ask Marjory next door about it. Anyway, I didn’t come in here to chat about phones, when is your lunch? Although this place is so dead, they could just shut up shop and no one would care.”
“Yeah, it’s the summer festival, apparently it’s always like this when it’s on, but it’ll pick up later when the street sellers pack up for the day and people are sick of sitting outside drinking muck from paper cups.”
“I can’t stand those festivals, anyway. Craoi adores them, summer, autumn, Christmas and valentines. What’s it called, Red Hearts City of Lights?”
“I haven’t got a clue, I used to avoid the city like the plague when I lived in Passage but now, I’m a working woman, I’ve to face it whether I like it or not.”
“That’s the thing about being a heart surgeon. Anything to do with that symbol attracts charities like flies to a carcass. Already I have the National Heart Foundation asking me to do a charity speech at Rockett’s Valentine’s Ball. I’ll try to squirm my way out of it but Fintan adores the idea. Anyway, are you going to tell me when your lunch is, or should I just steal you from the store?”
“Midday,” Judith said. “Does that work?”
“Absolutely dear, are you given an hour here?”
“Forty-five, actually”
“That’s cutting it a little tight, see, I was going to ask you to meet me at Coy’s, but there’s no way we’d be done in that short amount of time.”
“How about we get a sandwich and go to the park, I could meet you at the entrance?”
"Good idea, but I'll skip the sandwich. I'll go to Coy's when you go back to work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I better continue shopping. It's rare these days to find me out and about." She air-kissed Judith and disappeared, leaving a cloud of Chanel No.5 in her absence.
***
Judith ran to the park. A few months ago, such an endeavour would have left her exhausted. Now, it didn’t faze her. The walks in the woods had turned into jogs, bringing her fitness level slowly up from couch potato to a jumping bean, albeit one that slumped after each bounce. When she arrived, Lara was standing at the park’s entrance.
“I thought you’d have a heap of shopping bags,” Judith said, staring at Lara’s empty hands.
“Well dear, if you must know, the bags were just too heavy for me to carry around, so I dropped them to the car. And let me tell you a little secret. There was quite a lot to dispose of, more shoes than I’ve feet to wear.”
"Well, you can pass them my way if you don't get the time to wear them," Judith smiled.
"That goes without saying, dear heart. But now I suppose we better get moving, or your lunch break will have disappeared as fast as my past love for sequins."
They walked under a black archway, crossed into the park, and strolled along the potholed path to a coffee and sandwich stall. The exterior of which was decorated to resemble a bandstand; players had been painted on it in by an expert hand, all of them wearing red blazers with gold tassels on the soldiers and carrying an assortment of instruments in their hands.
An Asian man took Judith’s order and handed her a paper bag with a picture of a trumpet and the motto Food so good it will blow your horn printed underneath.
The park was practically empty, much like the side of the city where Trepidation was situated. The summer festival only took place on the other side of the city.
“It’s a shame they don’t put some performers up here. Look at all the space going to waste,” Lara said, indicating the vast park and the ghostly playground next to it, where a lone child swung rhythmically on a chain swing. “Then again, the park is on the old side of the city walls, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know much about my local history, but I’ve got a feeling it is, same as Trepidation and a lot of the surrounding boutiques. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Nothing, other than the mayor has the deciding rule on what goes where in the festivities and it’s rumoured that he knows a lot of people that have businesses on the new side of the city. People that helped put him where he is now. Apparently, they want to keep the extra business that the festival brings in for themselves.”
“Seriously?” Judith said. “That’s hardly fair on everyone else.”
“I don’t think anyone is losing too much, like you said yourself, your little book shop will be crowded later. Shall we sit here?” Lara pointed to a wooden bench underneath an oak tree. Judith settled into the chair and unwrapped her sandwich from its plastic wrapping.
"It's so good to see you, Judy, you know, you're one of the only ones in the estate that I'm fond of. You're like a breath of fresh air while suffocating in a fire."
"Ah thank you, Lara," Judith said, then bit down on to her egg and cress. “That’s actually one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said to me.”
“How is everything going with... Thomas?” Lara said the name as if she expected she got it wrong.
“Sometimes it feels like it’s too good to be true. Like any moment, I’ll wake up and this will have just been a dream. I know it hasn’t been long, but it’s been the second longest steady thing I’ve ever had.” Judith bit her thumbnail. “I haven’t had a boyfriend in five years, I mean there have been flings and one night things, but none of them meant anything to me.”
“Well I have to say, you look radiant. Absolutely glowing.”
“Thanks,” Judith beamed. “You do too, but then again, you always look excellent. I don’t know how you do it, even when you’ve just finished a shift, you’re as fresh as cream.”
“Coffee and cucumber, coffee down the throat and cucumber on the eyes.”
“I’ll remember that,” Judith said, taking her second sandwich from the wrap and biting down.
A woman with long brown hair, wearing patterned leggings and a brown shirt, lumbered down the path. Just as Judith took the second bite of sandwich number two, the woman looked up and met Judith’s glare, before her attention glided to Lara.
“Lara?” the woman said in a voice just above a whisper. She stopped in her tracks and her large sad eyes momentary lit up before the brightness dimmed from them again.
“Delia?” Lara stood up and walked into the pool of sunshine where the woman stood. “Delia?” Lara repeated.
The woman nodded and cupped her hands over her mouth. They embraced, swaying from side to side. When the hug ended, they stayed connected by their clutching hands.
Lara was the first to speak. “What the hell are you doing in this part of the world? This part of the country even. Aren’t you from Wexford?” She spluttered the last sentence out in disbelief, and Judith thought it was the only time she saw Lara excited enough to lose control.
“I am, I am,” the woman squealed, and then is a calmer voice said, “but my mam is living here and, well, I’m staying with her for some time,”
“Oh, I can’t get over this,” Lara said, and grabbed Delia’s hand, bringing her over to Judith. “Judith, you must meet my old college friend, we used to be glued at the hip, didn’t we D?”
“We were,” Delia agreed solemnly, “a long time ago.”
"Nice to meet you, Delia," Judith said, uncomfortable at her presence at such an intimate moment.
“I just cannot get over this, I thought you were off living it up across the water?”
“I was,” Delia smiled sadly, “but things changed, and I had to come back. I’m not too over the moon to be back in the old country, if you don’t mind me saying. Not that it’s not great seeing you, it’s just—”
“You don’t have to explain,” Lara said, squeezing Delia’s hand. “Oh, darling, we have so much catching up to do.” She unhooked her hand from Delia’s and held it to the woman’s face. “Still as pretty as a picture, but my darling, you’re as pale as death. Do you think that you need to sit down?”
“I’m okay,” Delia said, “just a little run down from the stress of the move and all that comes with it. It’s not easy being back under your parent’s roof at my age.”
“I can’t imagine living with my mother, I honestly don’t think she’d allow me back in. Oh no, she can brag about me to her friends, but that’s about as far as it can go. Don’t think she ever forgave me for my earlier indiscretions. I was something awful back then, wasn’t I?”
Delia nodded. “You were a bit of a wild one all right.”
"And you were too," Lara cackled. "Always out breaking hearts, that was, until you met Mr Right, got engaged and moved across the sea to start an adventure without your old partner in crime, isn't that right my darling? Where is he, anyway? Still, lugging mud around on his boots from the farm? Or is he wiping it on the grass as we speak?"
Delia’s chin wobbled for a moment.
Lara turned her head towards Judith. “Grew up on a farm, her fella, I used to joke she’d have cows coming out of her uterus.” Judith did what she always did when she hadn’t the slightest idea what to do; she laughed. By that time, Lara had turned away and was saying to Delia. “Now, darling, where are all these babies that you always wanted? Is he minding them?” Delia’s eyes widened for a moment, glossed over and let loose, her pale face turned red and the thin layer of mascara dripped down from her lashes to her cheeks.
“He left me,” Delia said, once the tears had stopped. “As luck would have it, or unluck, it turns out that not even a cow could grow in my shrivelled-up uterus. It took almost a decade to get a diagnosis, and by then I had begun my premature change of life. Happened to my mother too. I wanted to adopt, but he wanted his own, and he left me for a woman that could provide him with what he wanted.”
“Oh Delia, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“It’s not your fault,” Delia cried, “I lost contact with everyone when I went over there, and do you know why I went, Lara? For him. And now I’m here and I’m miserable. I want to go back, but he was my one link to the visa. And since he doesn’t want me, then neither does the country.”
Judith stood up, trying to attract Lara’s attention with a discrete wave of her hand. When that didn’t work, she cleared her throat and said, “I better get back to work, don’t want to be late.”
“Sorry,” Delia said, rubbing her eyes on the hem of her shirt. “I hope you’re not leaving on my account, this isn’t something I usually do. Crying like this in front of people I don’t know. I’ve just been hiding it in so long, I guess it had to come out at some point.”
“It’s perfectly understandable,” Judith said. She stared longingly at an empty beer can blowing down the main road outside the park’s wall, wishing she could trade places with it. “Hopefully I’ll see you again in different circumstances. I really better get back to work now, before Margot has my head on a stick.”
“Goodbye, Judith dear,” Lara said, as she slid her arm around Delia’s shoulder. “I’ll call you later, hopefully the phones sort themselves out. Either that, or I’ll have to have a word with the company.”
Judith walked away, hearing Delia not crying now but wailing, the backed-up sorrow she kept plugged up had been pushed aside with a tidal wave of anguish. Judith drowned out the sound of crying with thoughts of love, and in that moment, she felt her life could not be any more perfect.
***
Trepidation did get busier in the afternoon. And even though Judith had anticipated that the quietness would end, she had not realised just how buzzing it would become, with the majority of people heading straight upstairs to the café. Here, Judith spent the rest of her shift serving coffee and snacks to a never-ending line of customers. By the clocking-out time, Judith was thoroughly exhausted. So much so, that she did not bother going for a stroll on the glorious evening. Instead, Judith retired with a book and a steaming mug of coffee to the sitting room, which her aunt had once called her own.
Although it was absolutely golden outside, Judith’s north-facing sitting room was rather chilly. Wanting nothing more than to snuggle up with her book and bask in the warmness that was her life, Judith decided she would light the stove. The stove had already been prepared for such a situation, meaning all Judith had to do was light the fire. So, she took the box of matches down from the top of the mantle and struck the match against the box. It sizzled and the flame momentarily lit up the hollows under Judith’s eyes. With the burning match in her hand, Judith bent down and lit the firelighter hidden near the top of the kindling. The kindling sucked on the flame.
Once the flames had caught, Judith sat down and took a sip of her quickly cooling coffee. She settled into the armchair and was two pages into her book when the fire erupted behind the glass. Judith dropped the book she had been reading, spilling her coffee in the process. Although it wasn’t unusual for the flames to gallop towards a pyromaniac fanfare, they were never so violent. Nor did they ever make such a hissing noise.
Judith jumped to her feet and leapt across the room. She stared with bulging eyes as the flames screamed behind the glass. When the fire parted, leaving an o-shaped gap in the middle of the flames, Judith opened her mouth and was just about to scream Ann’s name but the words caught in her throat. They vibrated as they attempted to escape. What use would it be having Ann in the room anyway? What could she possibly do? Scold the fire to death. Then, as if the flames could read Judith's mind and baulked at the mention of death, the flames ceased. As fast as they had arrived, they departed. The only hint that a fire had even been lit was the abundance of cinder on the grate.
