Coincidences (20 page)

Alice’s eyes widened and she
forced a smile. ‘Yes, we do,’ she said, hoping there would be no further
discussion on that particular subject.

A waitress approached them and
Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

They were shown to their table.
Alice chose the seat closest to Jenny, and furthest from Susie. She wasn’t sure
if she was imagining it, but Susie seemed to be looking at her awkwardly.
Flashbacks to the conversation with Jane kept flaring up in Alice’s mind every
time she looked at her.

After they had chosen where to
sit, Jenny turned towards Alice: ‘I need to go to the toilet. You?’ She seemed
to be hinting that she wanted to speak to her.’

‘Er... yes, I’ll come with you.’

When they entered the ladies’
toilets, Jenny said: ‘On the way to your flat, I was trying to convince Susie
to give you Jane’s address, but she seemed reluctant. I thought maybe you
should try asking her.’

‘I’m not sure... If she doesn’t
want to—’

‘I think it will be better
coming from you,’ interjected Jenny. ‘You can explain better why you want the
address.’

‘I’m embarrassed, Jen. I’m sure
Susie thinks I’m weird. She heard everything I said to Jane, and God knows what
Jane has said to her since.’

‘I don’t think she thinks you’re
weird. Maybe she finds it all a bit strange. But even she admitted that you and
Jane look so alike. At the end of the day, this is your only chance—while we’re
out with her.’

‘I know you’re right. Let’s just
see how it goes.’

The two girls returned to the
table. The food had already arrived.

‘We ordered for you. Hope you
don’t mind,’ said Frank. ‘You always order the same pizza, anyway,’ he said
grinning.

‘That’s okay,’ said Alice.

Jenny made a face at Frank,
sticking her tongue out.

All five began to eat and there
was silence for a few moments.

‘Everyone’s hungry then,’ said
Tony, smiling.

They all giggled.

After a brief discussion about
how good the food was, Jenny turned towards Susie. ‘Susie? Alice wants to ask
you a favour.’

Alice’s face blanched.

‘I know,’ said Susie. ‘It’s
about Jane, isn’t it?’ She looked at Alice, not seeming to notice the strange
colour Alice was sure she had turned.

‘Um, yes.’

‘You want her address,’ said
Susie, whilst using her fork to remove the olives from the top of her pizza
slice.

Alice was pleased she was no
longer looking directly at her. She could now feel the blood rush to her face,
and her mind went blank.

‘I’ve thought about it,’
continued Susie, taking a bite from her pizza slice. ‘I really think I should
ask her first,’ she said, whilst chewing. ‘Does anyone want the olives from my
pizza? I don’t want them.’

‘Yeah, I’ll have ’em,’ said
Frank.

‘Wait,’ said Alice. ‘We haven’t
finished discussing this.’ She surprised herself by saying that, but something
inside her could not let it lie. She could feel all the eyes at the table were
on her. Taking a deep breath, she continued: ‘Listen, I know Jane is your
friend, and you don’t have to help me if you don’t want to; but I think it
would do more harm than good if you told her that I want her address. You see,
I’ve had a chat with my mum, and I’m almost sure that Jane is my half-sister.
She doesn’t know, though, judging by her reaction at the party. Her dad... Our
dad, obviously hasn’t told her. The reason I want her address is so that I can
get in touch with my dad. He should be the one to tell Jane.’

‘Come on, Sue, what difference
would it make if you give her Jane’s address? Don’t be so stubborn,’ said Tony
picking up his glass of beer.

‘I’m not being stubborn.’ Susie
pouted. ‘It’s like I’m going behind her back.’ She picked at the salad bowl
with her fork, frowning.

‘I’m sure she’ll thank you when
she finds out why you did it,’ said Tony.

‘Yeah,’ said Frank.

‘I’m not so sure.’ Susie sighed.

‘Look,’ said Alice, twisting
around in her chair so that she could face Susie. ‘I could look for my dad by
myself, but it would take ages. I wouldn’t be asking you if I wasn’t
desperate.’

‘Sue, it’s obvious she’s related
to Jane; I mean, look at her! It’s not as if you’d be giving her address to a
stranger,’ said Tony. He smiled at Alice and took another swig of his beer.

‘I have to think about it,’ said
Susie, frowning. ‘I need the toilet.’ She left the table.

Tony and Frank began to talk about
football. Jenny tried to reassure Alice that Susie would come round to the
idea. They began to talk about university and other things. When Susie returned
to the table, she still looked glum. Alice felt too nervous to try asking her
again.

Alice was the first to be dropped off home. She waved
good-bye to the others in the car.

As she was watching the evening
news, the telephone rang. It was Jenny.

‘Allie, I’ve got some great
news!’ she said brightly.

‘Really? What?’ Alice was still
looking at the TV screen even though she had turned down the volume.

‘I’ve got the address you
wanted!’

Alice quickly lost interest in
the TV. ‘How? I mean, how did you persuade her?’

‘When we dropped you off in the
car, Tony kept going on at her about it. He pretended he knew you really well
through Frank, and told her that you’re really nice and honest—which you are.
Anyway, he said he would take the blame if anything went wrong. So she caved
in.’

‘Wow! That’s amazing,’ said
Alice.

‘Yeah, the only condition is
that you can’t tell Jane where you got the address; you mustn’t mention
anything about Susie or Tony.’

‘That’s fine, I’ll think of
something.’

Jenny read out the address and a
telephone number, and Alice wrote them down. Her mouth fell open as the
realisation hit her that she had her father’s address and telephone number and
he lived in London, so close to where she was living.

‘This is so weird,’ she said to
Jenny. ‘Finchley. That’s only a few miles away. Imagine—all this time I might
have passed my dad on the street and not even known it was him.’

‘That’s true,’ said Jenny. ‘So,
what are you gonna do now?’ she asked excitedly.

‘Well, I suppose I should visit
him. I’m not sure. If I’m honest, this has come as a surprise; I wasn’t
expecting to get the address so quickly. I want to meet him, don’t get me
wrong, but I thought it would be sometime in the future... but now... well, I
could literally go and see him tomorrow, couldn’t I?’

‘I’m a bit confused, though. At
the party, you said something about your dad having a different name, or
something.’

‘I spoke to my mum last night
and she explained some things. I always thought his name was Roger, but
apparently Roger is his middle name. He’d been using it as his first name. Now,
it seems that he’s gone back to using “Ken”; his proper first name.’

‘Oh, right,’ said Jenny.

‘Well, put it this way: I’m
ninety-nine per cent sure it’s him.’

‘That’s pretty sure.’

‘Do you think I should just turn
up at his house? What should I say? “Hi, Dad, I’m your long lost daughter”?’
She laughed and Jenny joined in.

‘I’m sure you’ll think of
something to say to him... But aren’t you going to phone him first?’

‘I don’t know. Do you think I
should?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Oh, Jen, I’m getting really
nervous about this, already.’

‘You’ll be fine,’ said Jenny.
‘Oh, and before you hang up, I have some really exciting news for you!’

Alice’s mind was so preoccupied
with thinking about the impending meeting with her father that she didn’t
really pay attention, and was hoping she could just get Jenny off the phone so
she could think about what to do. ‘What?’ she said, sounding disinterested.

‘Andrew wants your phone
number!’

Alice now forgot about her other
troubles. ‘Andrew?’ she gushed. ‘How? I mean... why?’

‘He likes you, you idiot!’ Jenny
giggled.

Alice’s mind went back to their
brief conversation at the party and she smiled to herself, hardly aware that
she was smiling, so caught up in the moment. Then, she frowned. She began to
feel jittery: what if Andrew phoned her, and they went out somewhere and she
behaved the same way she had done at the party?
That would definitely put
him off.
She didn’t feel ready to see him again. ‘I can’t see him... Well,
not yet.’

‘What are you on about?’ Jenny’s
voiced was laced with incomprehension. ‘You’ve been waiting for this chance.’

‘I know. I do like him, but I
have got so much going on, I don’t think I would make very good company.’

‘Oh, you mean finding your dad?
Well, you can just arrange to see Andrew after you’ve seen your dad,’ suggested
Jenny.

‘It’s not just that,’ said
Alice, speaking her thoughts: ‘I was really gloomy at the party; I don’t want
to be like that again when I see Andrew. It’s just... I’m not myself at the
moment. I can’t think straight. When he was talking to me at the party, I was
practically ignoring him. I couldn’t help thinking about Jane, my dad, and my
mum. It really threw me when she told me she’s not my real mum.’

‘What?’ Jenny sounded alarmed.

Alice suddenly remembered that
she hadn’t told her about that. She always told Jenny everything, but this was
different; she hadn’t wanted to tell anyone.

‘Allie?’ Jenny’s voice rang in
her ear.

‘Sorry, I wasn’t going to tell
you that... See? I can’t even control my own mouth. I was going to keep it a
secret until I had time to come to terms with it... Not that I ever will,’ she
said, sullen.

‘You mean to say that your mum
is not your real mum?’ Jenny sounded as if she was having trouble keeping up
with all the revelations.

‘I only found out on Monday
evening. That’s part of the reason I was so moody at the party.’

‘You should have told me.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Do you want to talk about it?
Maybe it’ll make you feel better?’

‘No,’ said Alice. ‘I’m not
ready.’ Her voice broke.

‘Okay, sorry.’

‘So, Andrew asked for my
number?’

‘Yeah. Well, Tony asked me for
it so he could give it to Andrew. Hey, maybe Andrew has a thing about moody
girls who ignore him.’ Jenny laughed trying to ease the tension.

Alice giggled.

‘Tony actually said that Andrew
has fancied you for a while.’

Alice’s eyes widened in
disbelief. ‘What should I do, Jen?’

‘Maybe meeting Andrew again will
cheer you up.’

‘Maybe, but I think you’re
right: I will go and see my dad first and then when I’m feeling more up to it,
I’ll arrange to meet Andrew.’

‘Are you going to try to find
your real mum too?’ asked Jenny, curious.

‘Not yet... I don’t really want
to think about that.’

‘Sorry,’ said Jenny.

‘Listen, Jen, don’t give Tony my
number.’

‘But—’

‘I can’t speak to Andrew when
I’m feeling like this.’

‘Hmm... okay. Well, why don’t I
ask Tony to give me Andrew’s number? Then you can call him when you’re ready,’
suggested Jenny.

Alice blushed, wondering whether
she would have the nerve to call Andrew. ‘Um... yes. Okay. Maybe.’

‘I’ll do that,’ said Jenny.

When Alice put down the phone she felt cold. She had told
Jenny about Stephanie not being her real mum; and somehow, saying it out loud
to someone had made it seem all the more real. She had been trying to forget
about it, but now here it was again, uppermost in her mind. Standing up, she
walked to the window and stared outside without really looking at anything. Her
thoughts went back to her childhood; there was such security and love in the
home Stephanie had built for them after Roger left. She had never doubted even
for one moment that Stephanie’s world revolved around her.

She walked over to the sofa and
sat down, thoughts of the telephone conversation spinning through her mind. She
grabbed onto the one positive thing that had come out of it: Andrew liked her.
Andrew! She smiled; the memory of Jenny telling her that, was like the sun
coming out from behind the clouds. Suddenly, she felt special and she felt
loved. Someone loved her. She knew she would have to hold onto that feeling
while she was navigating her way through the other matters that she had to
somehow accept: Stephanie was not her mother, and her father may not want to
know her.

As that thought found its way to
her conscious mind, she noticed she was still holding the pen in her hand—the
pen she had used to write down her father’s address and telephone number.

Insecurity reared its head, and
as she looked at the words and numbers she had written on the paper, she began
to wonder whether it was in fact her father’s address. Had she, as Stephanie
had suggested, just been carried away by a dream? She remembered how Jane had
looked at her at the party; she’d had no knowledge of her father being married
before. So maybe it was true; maybe this was a different Ken Forester. It could
all have been a long line of strange coincidences. Had she been fooled into
thinking that she had found her father?

She stared at the piece of
paper. On the one hand, she wanted to throw it in the bin and carry on her old
life as best she could; but on the other hand, she desperately needed to know.

Without thinking, she picked up
the phone. The handset shook against her ear as she dialled. The phone began to
ring, once, twice, three times, four times. She was beginning to feel relieved
that no one answered; she wouldn’t have to speak to him yet. But, just as she
was about to put down the phone, a voice said: ‘Hello’. It was a man’s voice.
Deep and loud. Could it be her father?

‘Hello,’ repeated the voice, a
little agitated now.

‘Hello,’ said Alice quickly. But
she had no idea how to continue.