My Friend/His Sister Ch. 03

"Right?"

"That make your arse look good, and smart enough for a restaurant, but not silly-posh. Some ordinary thin tights. Those nice black shoes with the low heel; you can dance in those if necessary."

"Thank you Laura!" she burst out, "And the top?"

"The sparkly silver and black one, and that nice shaping bra you have to give you juuuuuust enough cleavage."

"Thanks Laura!" she said taking a deep breath, then it went quiet again. "What about..." there was a long pause, "after."

"After what?"

"After the date?" she paused again, "should I..."

"Should you what?" I said, knowing exactly what she wanted to say really.

"You know... have... like..."

"Sleep with him?" I said breaking in to save her embarrassment, "only if you want to."

There was another pause.

"How will I know?"

"Oh Sweetie, trust me," I said, trying to sound caring, "if he's the right man you'll know."

"Only, I haven't... like..." there was a choking noise, "I've never been... never done it before... with anyone."

"Oh Claire!?!" I said, "that's so lovely! It's whatever you want honey, second date, or the third, unless you absolutely have to after your first."

"You and Kev... how long..."

"Second date Babes," I said, "we couldn't keep our hands off each other," I took a breath, "You'll know when Claire, honestly hon, and if... what was his name again?"

"Adam..."

"If Adam is the right bloke, he won't pressure you."

And he didn't.

He called at Nanna's place and picked up the gorgeous looking Claire and took her to dinner in the nearby city, then to a rather nice club where they sat, and chatted, and danced, and at a shade after midnight he drove her home.

Nanna was waiting up for her, and welcomed them in, providing hot coffee for them both and disappearing so they could enjoy it, and he left her after a few cups and quite a few kisses.

Adam called around the next night, then the next, then the next - even after seeing her all day at the Vet's practice. The following Saturday she breathlessly told me how he'd invited her to his place, had cooked her a lovely meal, and they'd settled down on his sofa to watch some Star Wars movies.

They made it to halfway through the second when their joint passion got the better of them, and Claire finally knew what it was to make love and be in love. Adam was sweet, kind and considerate and had only made love a couple of times himself.

"Oh Laura," she breathed, "it was lovely!"

"Told you," I said, really pleased that she'd discovered that most wonderful part of the human condition.

I was to meet him a few weeks later and found out what a thoroughly nice guy he was.

The change in Claire was almost total. Gone was the opinionated princess perfection, replaced by a pretty, smiley girl that Nanna had worked her magic on, simply by being there, being non-judgemental and above all, setting a great example of what normal, ordinary people were like and how nice it was.

We arrived for a long-planned weekend in the Welsh hills, and the very special reason we had for going there. On entering that wonderful warm kitchen, there was Claire with a cry and her usual screeched 'Laura!'

"Adam!" she said turning to the lad sat at Nanna's kitchen table, and standing as we entered, "This is my big brother Kev, and his wonderful wife and my oldest friend Laura!"

Adam was nice, shorter than my Kev, but I think looked a bit like him! We all sat down and Nanna was soon there, the tea poured and her usual 'have you eaten?' question, which was generally followed by sandwiches, cake or a huge plateful of hot food, whatever your response had been.

We were at the farm but spent lots of time in the hills that visit, to the rainbow waterfall to be exact. We'd been married for some time now and with every menstrual cycle, I felt myself getting broodier by the day, particularly my contact with nephew Peter then Ellie that Had been through my foundation class that year.

I wanted to get pregnant and I knew that I wanted to get pregnant at that waterfall, seeing as Nanna had confessed to me that Katie had been conceived there, and she was pretty sure that my Kevan had been too.

Three years later with our tiny two year old daughter Louisa as a bridesmaid and a few months after Claire's graduation and after our twin boys James (after Grampa) and Michael (after my Dad) were born, we went to Claire and Adam's wedding in that same small Welsh church, then to the Maerbont Hotel for the reception. Yes, she borrowed my wedding dress and looked fantastic.

To this day I still struggle to see my grow-up, sweet and sexy, confident, kind and curvy, veterinary nurse sister-in-law as that appalling, screechy, opinionated bitch I'd gone to school and college with.

Linda was there looking like a fine example of the embalmers art.

I hadn't seen her in years, and her very recent plastic surgery was making it hard to work out if she was smiling at all, with her straight-out-of-Hollywood look, albeit an actors' retirement home.

Immobile, too-plump lips under too-plump cheeks that seemed to squint her eyes that were devoid of laughter lines that made her face look mask-like, even after the repeated request of the photographer's assistant, getting all of the family shots in.

"Mother and father of the bride please? Smile please Mum," he said loudly, "Smi... Oh you probably are..."

I thought on how bitchy Linda would have been to her one-time-wannabe fashion model daughter in her second-hand wedding dress, that had cost less than Linda's last pair of shoes, the make-up and hair done by the ladies from the town's last hairdresser, making her look naturally gorgeous rather than magazine cover perfect.

Fortunately, Claire was still at the farm and under the watchful eye of Nanna, still a thousand times more maternal than Linda had ever been, with a clutch of her best mates from Uni' in their bridesmaid dresses fussing over her.

As she was walked down the aisle by a beaming Phil, even Kev said that his Dad looked happier than he had at our wedding, I kissed his cheek,

"He didn't have a child he was worried about at this one!"

As I watched Linda walk into the hotel after the service, she was still doing the fashion model 'figure of eight' walk that she always had, on too-high heels, her veined and chubby thighs not looking that good under the too-short dress that also exposed waaaay too much of her smoothed and stretched boobs, that were still lined and wrinkled at the edges.

"OH-MY-GOD!" hissed the since married Cousin Kerry as her Aunt Linda made her solitary entrance, "she looks like a fricking porn-star!"

Kerry had married her long-term partner Mark after the bouquet thing at my wedding and was pregnant with her second child, now that their daughter Ellie had successfully transitioned through infant school and was now a very grown-up year three, having only forgotten to call me Mrs Goodall once, falling back on 'Auntie Laura'.

"Oh my God!" said Kelly's Dad closing his eyes while still holding his granddaughter's hand, the really nice guy I got to know again and who Kev still referred to as Uncle Matt, "what the f... hell has she had done now?"

Kelly told us that Linda had announced that her 'life partner' Habib was at an important business meeting and couldn't make it to his partner's daughter's wedding.

"Business meeting," scoffed Uncle Matt to me, "he's a market trader, sells mobile phone cases and stuff like that. Still," he picked up his glass, "he's paid for Linda's surgery and that's what's really important after all."

We eventually go to meet Habs, and he was an absolute star. He wasn't exactly a 'market trader'; yes, he did have lads that worked markets for him, but he also had about thirty shops across the Greater London area and was millionaire, which was obviously why Linda had been attracted to him.

He has the most amazing sense of humour, loves to entertain, loves to party and he loves everyone, especially children who he would sing to and dance with. His popularity would annoy Linda, but you could only tell through her body language as her face is so tightly drawn, she seemed to be in a permanent grimace.

To my knowledge she never slept around or chased husband number 4 or partner number 7. Thanks to the surgeon's knife she still looked slightly less than her fifty-eight years, but definitely plastic. If she wanted everyone at the wedding to notice her, she'd been successful.

Seeing my cute collection of tiny children and the fuss Phil was making of them, she let her daughter know that she wasn't going to be 'Grandma', 'Nanny', not even 'Nan' to whatever children she might produce.

I was stunned at what that obnoxious woman had said to her own daughter on her wedding day.

But this was new Claire, and her training stood her well.

"Nah, you're right Mum. They'll call you Linda, don't worry," she said, sipping from her champagne glass, and raising it to a smiling figure watching from across the room, with a critical eye on the trays that were brought out, "there'll only ever be one Nanna..."

I hid the grin on my face, but really wanted to applaud the most accurate but also quite unexpected response.

I'm not sure what Linda felt about the whole thing, unless she'd actually meant to grimace of course.

After her daughter's wedding I saw less and less of Linda while still staying in close touch with her daughter, grandchildren, brother, niece and her family.

Wales was such a long way after all, even though the bitch has a Mercedes.

The years have moved on and one heart-breaking day, Kev had a phone call from Mr Davis the vicar that Nanna had passed, peacefully and in her sleep.

No one was actually quite sure how old she was, she was just Nanna, and always had been - to everyone.

She'd got to meet, play with and more importantly feed up and love all three of her great-grandchildren, Louisa first, then our twin boys Jim and Mike, commenting quietly to me, "Gotta love that waterfall, Laura!"

There was also the added bonus of her other two great-grandchildren - the cute Megan and Andrew courtesy of Claire and Adam who lived in the next village over and visited regularly, checking her animals when they did.

We all knew we would miss Nanna, her wonderful warm home, her farm and all the animals that she had still been out to and cared for the night she died.

Leaving our sad children with their Hardy grandparents, we drove out to that wonderful town we knew and loved; past the Maerbont Hotel, past our church and pulling into the quiet farmyard, conscious that that wonderful lady wouldn't shuffle out and busy us into her warm kitchen, for doorstepper sandwiches and hot tea, massive breakfasts or a Sunday lunch that could feed a small country.

I pushed open the kitchen door, and there were Adam and Claire, the latter with red eyes and running straight to me for a hug. Letting go of me when her brother came in for another hug.

"She's gone Kevie," she wept into his shoulder, "Nanna's gone!"

"It's OK Claire," he said, hugging her back, "She taught us both everything we needed to know, we just have to carry on, like she did."

The funeral was arranged and of course Nanna went to that grave in the small churchyard with her husband and her daughter, the headstone now reading 'Grace Elizabeth Edris -- home at last' with 'Nanna' in big letters beneath.

It was heart-breaking, but Kev was right. Nanna had taught everything to everyone and anyone, first to Katie, then Kev, many local kids, to a lesser extent me and finally a poor, sad, lost girl that was lucky enough to be taken in and taken on by her.

After the funeral that everyone came to, there was a envelope at home waiting for us from Nanna's solicitor. The first thing was an introductory letter telling Kev that we now owned all of Nanna's property, including the farm and the surrounding hills that her sheep still grazed on, all the stock, the extremely healthy bank accounts and the complete shock, the fact that she had owned half of the Maerbont Hotel, for which she received small monthly payments. So would we it seemed.

There was a final letter from her,

"My dearest Kevan,

If you're reading this, I must have finally gone on to meet your Mum and Gramps who I've missed more than I could ever let on. It's been a long old journey right enough and I never thought I'd be doing the last few miles on my own.

But you were always there and all the time I had you, I still had them. Thank you for always being there and knowing just when I needed to see you. Deep down I think it was when you knew you needed to see me too.

I was starting to worry that you were never going to find the right girl and that when you eventually did, I'd lose you too, but our lovely Laura was another blessing and you couldn't have picked a better wife and mother to your wonderful children. She's perfect and never let her forget that.

In our tiny, wonderful Louisa I can see so much of your Mum when she was little, and those two hooligan boys of yours are just like you were at their age; I'm sure I can see Gramps in our Jimmy, or perhaps I just wanted to. He certainly has his mischief and that cheeky look.

Look after that wonderful family of yours now, Boyo'.

To make it easier for you to do that, I've left it all to you. The farm, all the land you used to tramp across as a kid with Gramps and his dogs and all those idiot sheep. Then there's my share of the hotel and an explanation of why your and your little sister's weddings were cheaper than you might have thought for.

It's all yours now my wonderful boy, yours to enjoy and do with what you will, even if it's to sell it on to someone else so they can enjoy the magic of the place. Please don't forget Gramp's bench mind you. That is special thing in at a very special place, I don't have to tell you and Laura that do I.

Do what I did and live life to the full my lovely boy, enjoy!

Love you always

Nanna."

I could see him choked up for the first time since Nanna's passing. I hugged him and he let the tears go until he'd had enough and straightened up.

I could see some confusion in his face, something he clearly wanted to say but couldn't.

So I did.

"Yes," I said kissing him gently on the cheek, and wiping his last tears.

"Yes?" he looked confused.

"Yes," I smiled at him, "Yes, we can sell up and move to Wales and live at Nanna's farm." He looked initially surprised but happy.

"Are you sure? Your job, the house..."

"I'm a teacher, you're a paramedic, I'm pretty sure we'll find jobs up there in the countryside, besides we won't have a mortgage. Nanna's farmhouse has how many bedrooms?"

"Five with an upstairs sitting room for guests, six if you want to keep it simple."

"SIX Bedrooms!" I grinned slipping my arms around his neck.

"But... It's a farm Baby," he said, "cows, pigs, sheep. chicken, ducks..."

"We'll manage," I chuckled, and after years of staying with Nanna and helping out I knew we could, "and let's face it, at least we know a good vet and a good vet nurse that can help with our animals?" I rested my forehead against his, "you pretty much grew up there Kev, on a scale of one to ten, how completely fucking brilliant was it for a five-year-old?"

"It was at least a thirteen or fourteen," he said squeezing me tight and I felt all gooey inside, "I'm not sure I can quite pull of the constant air of fun and adventure that Grampa used to," he kissed me, our tongues clashing together, "but if you're there, I'll give it a bloody good go."

And that's what we did.

We moved us, our children and our huge cat to the Welsh countryside and settled in. I got a job a few miles up the road at the local primary and was a bit of a talking point with my English accent, a few years later I made deputy head.

Highly trained emergency paramedic Kev was snapped up by the ambulance service, even getting a golden handshake by way of a sweetener and to cover expenses we didn't actually have.

The children soon settled in the school I taught in. They were welcomed by their cousins Meg and Andy and introduced to all as Mrs Goodall's children.

Their Mum Claire is the sister I never had and a regular visitor, and Adam does advise on our animals, even Greebo who seems to have a special affection just for him.

And there we are to this day, that huge warm kitchen is now my huge warm kitchen. Nanna's recipe books, many of them handwritten are still there and regularly used.

We potter around the farm sorting out the animals as we go, planting veggies in the poly-tunnel, with regular visits from Nanny and Grampy Hardy, Uncle Stevie and Auntie Holly and their two children, and Uncle John and Auntie Karen and theirs, Sophie and her husband James and some of my old Fossett Park Primary mates.

The magic of that warm farmhouse never failed and we entertain often and well, as Nanna would have wanted us to.

Grampa Phil sold his place in The New Forest and bought a bungalow roughly between us and Claire, regularly looking after his beloved grandchildren and literally being surrounded by his family, he's in hogs' heaven.

After a post Sunday lunch walk to the waterfall, he expressed the wish that come the day, his ashes are interred in that self-same grave with his first and truest love. I haven't told him yet, but Nanna said that she'd left room under Katie's part of the headstone just for him, just in case.

Katie's bench looks as good as it ever did, a tribute to Grampa Edris and his initial construction over our care of it. We walk our children to the rainbow waterfall often and they still marvel at the place and the ever-changing colours and patterns, walking their friends and relations to show it off. It's still magical but I'm not convinced that I'll ever tell them that they were conceived there.

Kev and I walk there on our own sometimes too, just for that 'special magic' you understand.