Coincidences (31 page)

‘It’s for tonight,’ said
Charlotte, a wide grin on her face, ‘Dave is taking me to this really glamorous
restaurant in the city. Apparently, all the celebrities go there. I want to
look my best.’ Charlotte put the lipsticks back into her pink make-up bag.
‘Yeah, I think you’re right; I’ll wear the dark red one. It’s more
sophisticated, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ said Alice, not really
having an opinion one way or the other.

‘Oh, yeah, have you called
Andrew yet?’

‘Um, yes,’ she smiled.

The two girls were standing
behind the counter in the bookstore. There was only one customer in the shop,
browsing around the fiction section.

‘So, what did he say?’ Charlotte
asked.

‘Well, we’re going out.’ Alice
blushed.

‘Wow, that’s great. When? Maybe
we could double-date. I can’t wait to meet him, and I’m dying to introduce you
to Dave. He’s so gorgeous.’

‘Um... I don’t think we could
afford to dine in an expensive restaurant.’

‘Hmm... Oh yeah, I forgot
Andrew’s a student as well. Alice, you really should aim higher, you’re a
pretty girl. Do you know how nice it is to be wined and dined by a rich man?
Andrew will hardly be able to whisk you away for a romantic weekend on a student
grant, will he?’

‘Yes, but I really like Andrew.’

‘I know, honey, he’s your first
love and you’re starry eyed, but you’ll learn. My Nan once said to me, it’s
always best to find a rich man. She said: “They all leave you in the end, but
at least with a rich man you’ll be left with the expensive gifts”. All I’m
saying is, keep your options open.’

Alice forced a smile. ‘It’s only
our first date. I don’t know anything about him really.’

‘Well the first thing you need
to find out is whether he has any aspirations for the future. Even if he’s not
rich now, he could be. Find out what kind of job he wants to do. Face it—you
don’t want to end up supporting him, do you? You’re studying to be a lawyer,
right? The last thing you want is to be married to a guy who’s earning less
than you.’ Charlotte raised her eyebrows.

‘Money isn’t everything,
Charlotte.’ Alice frowned.

‘No... you’re right. But my mum
always says, when you ask most people what they want out of life, nine times
out of ten, people want more money. Us girls are in a position to grab
ourselves a man who can make sure that we never want for anything.’

‘But love is just as important,’
retorted Alice.

Charlotte smiled at her.
‘Believe me, Alice, I have watched all of those romantic movies too; I’ve even
been an extra in some of them,’ she giggled. ‘Love is important, yes. But let
me ask you this: would you want to be living on the streets with the man you
love, or in a mansion with a man you don’t really care that much about but who
buys you lots of things?’

‘Well, I wouldn’t want to be
living on the streets, no one would—’

‘My point exactly,’ said
Charlotte. ‘I rest my case.’

Alice rolled her eyes, and was
glad when the one customer in the store approached her with a question.

***

Alice got home at 6.30 p.m. and switched on the
television. She watched the news, and ate her takeaway meal. When she went into
the kitchen to throw away the remains of her meal, she noticed the letter that
she had received from the local hospital the week before. The letter was still
lying on the kitchen table, where she had left it. She had generally ignored
it, each day, as she sat at the table, but she knew that she would now have to
make a decision as to whether she would keep the appointment or not. The
appointment date was Tuesday the 26th of August. Tomorrow. 10.30 a.m.

  Alice had not felt any pain in
her arm for nearly two weeks, and didn’t really feel that she needed to go for
any tests, but she remembered how painful her arm had been, and wondered
whether she should just go to the hospital for her own peace of mind. She
shrugged her shoulders and resolved to make the decision in the morning.

After watching
EastEnders
, Alice decided to phone
Stephanie, and invite her over for a meal. It had been such a long time since
Stephanie had been to her flat, and Alice wanted to do something to thank her
for standing by her. It had been a terrible time. Alice was sure she wouldn’t
have survived the past couple of weeks without her. Stephanie had been on her side
even when she had gone against her wishes and insisted on looking for her
father. Alice dialled the number.

‘Hello.’

‘Hi, Mum, how are you?’

‘Um... I’m fine, darling,’ said
Stephanie, feeling slightly concerned that Alice may have found out about her visit
to see Roger.

‘Good. Listen,’ continued Alice,
‘I wanted to invite you to my flat, for a change. I’m always coming to yours.
Why don’t you come for a meal tomorrow evening?’

‘Oh, I’d love to, darling,’ said
Stephanie, catching her breath, glad that Alice had not mentioned anything
about Roger, ‘but I’ve invited Rita and her son over to dinner tomorrow. What
about Wednesday?’

‘I’m going out on Wednesday.’
She smiled as she thought of Andrew. ‘How about Thursday?’

‘Yes, I think I’m free on
Thursday.’

‘About seven-thirty?’

‘Okay,’

‘Great, I’ll see you then.’

‘Wait, Alice; have you heard
anything more from your father or Miranda?’ Although she knew she was hoping
against hope, she felt curious to discover whether her visit had had any affect
on them.

‘No, I haven’t. Why do you ask?’
Alice frowned, unwelcome thoughts flooding her mind. She had been trying to
forget about them.

‘Oh, no reason. Just wondered.’

‘Well, I really don’t think I
would be hearing from them after Saturday, do you? They made it perfectly clear
they don’t want anything to do with me. Anyway, I don’t care about them
anymore. I don’t need them.’ Her mood was now dampened as she fought with her
conscience once again. On the one hand, she felt guilty harbouring ill will;
but on the other hand, she hated them for rejecting her so coldly.

‘That’s true.’ Stephanie’s voice
pulled her out of her deep thoughts. ‘You’ve managed quite well without them
for long enough.’

‘Yeah,’ said Alice, glumly.

‘Anyway, darling, I’ll see you
on Thursday. I’m looking forward to it. Bye.’

‘Bye, Mum.’

Alice felt glad that nothing
seemed to have really changed between her and Stephanie, despite everything.

Chapter Sixteen

Tuesday 26th August 1997

Alice arrived at the hospital early. She was there at 10
a.m. As she sat in the waiting room, she began to feel nervous, worrying about
what would show up in the tests. She was tempted to leave; after all, she had
not felt any pain in her arm for a while—but she remembered back to the pain
she had felt and how unbearable it had been. It would be best to find out what
had caused it.

The hospital was busy, and even
with her appointment set for 10.30, she had to wait until 11.15 before her name
was called. Her blood pressure was checked and a nurse took some blood from her
arm. Then, the nurse took her to an x-ray room where Alice was told to stand
behind a screen. She was left alone in the room as the strange machine took an
x-ray picture. Afterwards, she was told to wait upstairs, to see the
consultant. Looking at her watch, she saw it was 12.15. She couldn’t help
thinking back to the night of her dream. So much had happened since then.

She felt hungry as she had
missed breakfast. There was a vending machine in the corridor, selling hot
drinks and snacks. Walking over to the machine, she looked at the prices and
found she had just enough change to buy a coffee and a packet of crisps.

She felt glad she had purchased
the snack, because long after she had finished eating, she was still waiting to
see the consultant. She almost finished reading the novel she’d brought with
her. Finally, at almost half past two, she was called in to see the consultant.
He was a friendly looking man, with a bald head, and a thick, white beard. He
told her that there was nothing irregular in her blood test results, and the
x-ray showed a perfectly healthy arm. He was pointing out parts of the x-ray
picture, as if Alice were as experienced in these things as he was. He
explained that there were no signs of any fractures or anything that could have
caused her pain.

The consultant seemed confused
that she had been complaining of pain. He began to ask her a list of questions
about her general health, and whether she’d had any past injuries or illnesses.
He generally nodded at her answers. After completing his notes, he sighed.

‘Well, Miss Turnbull, I am still
none the wiser as to why you were in such pain. Perhaps you strained a muscle
and it has now healed. If you suffer any more pain, we’ll run some further
tests. I really can’t think of anything else.’ He looked up towards the ceiling
as if for inspiration and then said, ‘Do you have any sisters or brothers?’

Alice thought it an odd
question, but guessed that perhaps he was trying to go down the line of finding
out if there was some genetically inherited condition in the family. ‘Um...
well, yes, I do have a sister.’

‘This is a long shot, but has
she had an arm injury lately?’

Alice’s mouth fell open. ‘Um...
ye... yes, she has... but what’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Well, it’s rare, but it has
been known that siblings can sometimes feel each other’s pain. This sort of
thing has never been proven scientifically, of course, but I’ve come across a
few cases in my time. For example, husbands have claimed to feel labour pains.’
He laughed.

Alice laughed nervously, too,
while her brain was trying to make sense of the new information. Was it really
possible that she had felt Jane’s pain?

The doctor continued, ‘It
certainly can’t be ruled out that you may have been feeling a sympathetic pain,
for your sister. However, you shouldn’t rely too heavily on that theory. I’d
advise you to contact your GP again if you have any further problems with your
arm.’

As Alice left the doctor’s room
she couldn’t get the picture out of her head, of Jane with her arm in plaster.

***

In the evening, Alice was preparing her dinner when the
telephone rang. She picked it up, a little annoyed at the interruption, with
the intention of telling whoever it was to call back later.

‘Hello, Alice. It’s Jane.’

Jane?
Alice sat down on
the sofa, completely forgetting about her pasta that was simmering on the hob.

‘Jane! Hello, it’s nice to hear
from you,’ she said, a smile on her lips.

‘We have to meet up,’ said Jane.
She didn’t sound happy. It was more of an urgent plea. ‘Are you free tomorrow?
We have to talk.’

Alice felt nervous. What had
happened? What did she want to talk about?

‘Um... Yes. I mean, tomorrow
evening, after work; about six-ish?’ said Alice, remembering that she was
supposed to be going out with Andrew. He would be picking her up at eight. ‘Has
something happened?’

‘I’ll explain everything,
tomorrow,’ said Jane, flatly. ‘Do you live with your... er... with your mum?’

‘No.’

‘Good, because we’ll need
somewhere private to talk. I’ll come to your house tomorrow. What’s the address?’

Alice gave Jane her address,
still bemused by her tone of voice.

‘I’ll be at your flat at about
six-thirty tomorrow.’

‘Okay.’

‘Bye.’ Jane hung up the phone
before Alice could reply.

Alice concluded from the way
Jane had spoken on the phone, that Ken and Miranda must have told her
everything about the surrogacy. They must have told her that she and Alice were
really sisters, and not just half-sisters. That would explain why she seemed to
have been almost in shock. It had obviously come as a great blow to her to
realise that her parents had lied to her for so long. Alice recalled the way
she herself had reacted when Stephanie had told her that she wasn’t her real
mother, and when she’d first heard about the surrogacy agreement.

Ken and Miranda had obviously
been worried that Jane would find out everything from her, and decided that it
would be better coming from them. Alice remembered that she had let Jane
believe she was her half-sister when they had last spoken, so, Jane obviously
thought that she didn’t know the whole truth.

Alice concluded that Jane was
coming over tomorrow to tell her about the surrogacy agreement, and to tell her
that Miranda was her real mother.

Poor Jane.
Alice wondered
whether she should phone her, to tell her that she already knew. At least,
then, Jane wouldn’t have to spend the whole night worrying about how she would
break the news to her. But she couldn’t bear to dial the number. What if her
father, or Miranda, answered the phone? They wouldn’t want her to speak to
Jane, anyway.
Maybe if I disguise my voice, and pretend I’m one of Jane’s
friends.

Alice looked for her handbag.
Jane’s address and telephone number were in there. She fished around in her bag
and the first thing she saw was the old photograph of her father, smiling, as
he held her in his arms. She could not help staring at the photograph again. As
she looked at it now, instead of seeing her father as a happy, young man, with
smiling eyes, all she could see was treachery and deceit in his eyes. Alice
imagined that when this picture was taken, he had probably been having an
affair with Miranda, and planning how he would leave Stephanie and Alice to be
with her. She tore the photograph in half and threw it on the floor.

She continued looking in her
bag, found the piece of paper she’d been searching for, and walked over to the
telephone.

‘Hello,’ a woman answered the
phone, but she could not be sure if it was Miranda or Jane. Unsure whether she
should just hang up the phone, she decided she would wait until the person
spoke again. Whoever had answered the phone, did not speak again. The phone
line went dead. Alice redialled the number. ‘Hello,’ said the voice again; and
again Alice could not distinguish it. She remembered though, that she had not
dialled 141 before phoning, so her number could be traced. She would have to
answer.