What Alice Forgot (51 page)

“You're not one of our Mega Meringue Mums, are you, Kate?” said Nora. “You might want to take a seat.”

As Alice looked back over her shoulder, she saw Kate talking furiously into her husband's ear, her hand like a claw on his arm.

“I don't know what I'm meant to be doing,” she admitted to Nora and Maggie. “I'm just nodding when people ask me questions.” This wasn't like the netball umpiring, when her mind had somehow switched to autopilot.

“It's all right,” said Maggie. “Everything is running like clockwork thanks to you.”

She waved a sheet of paper in Alice's face with a running sheet for the day and notations in her own handwriting that she didn't remember writing. She could see she'd written, “STICK TO SCHEDULE!!” in full capitals and underlined it twice.

A disgusted expression crossed Maggie's face. “Oh dear, your
ex
is here. What's he doing here? Trying to look like an involved father, I suppose.”

Ex. At the word “ex” Alice immediately visualized her most recent exboyfriend before Nick. Peter Bourke. The patronizing one who broke her heart. But when she turned around, it was Nick coming through the marquee entrance, looking gorgeous in a blue shirt. She'd told him once he should always wear blue.

“I invited him,” she said to Maggie.

Maggie studied her. “Oh. Well, all right.”

“By the way, we're assuming one of us should take over as MC?” said Nora. “We could say you haven't been well. Of course, our resident troll, Mrs. H., would love to get her hands on the microphone and take credit for the whole event if we don't stop her.”

“Microphone?” said Alice, confused.

Nora gestured toward a microphone on a stand in the center of the marquee.

Good lord. The idea had been for
Alice
to get up in front of all those people.

“Oh, no, absolutely not, I mean absolutely
yes
, one of you can do it,” she said.

“No problem,” said Nora. Her face became neutral as Nick reached them. “Hi, Nick.”

“Hi, Nora, Maggie. How are you both?” Nick nodded uncomfortably at the two women. It made Alice feel protective of him to see poor Nick in the unpopular ex-husband role. Just like she'd been the “cow” of an ex-wife with his sister at the Family Talent Night.

“Happy Mother's Day,” said Nick, as Nora and Maggie disappeared into the crowd. “Did you get breakfast in bed?”

Alice nodded. “Pancakes. I think they started cooking them at five a.m. There were bangs and crashes and yells. You should see the kitchen now. But I have to say, the pancakes were outstanding. I think Madison is going to be a chef one day. A really messy, bossy, noisy one.”

“Sorry I wasn't there to supervise,” said Nick. “Your first Mother's Day without me.”

“Hopefully my last,” said Alice.

“Definitely,” said Nick. His eyes held hers. “I think definitely.”

“Well, well, well, what have we here, Barb? Methinks it's our fine young salsa students!” Nick's father and Alice's mother were upon them. Roger clapped them on the shoulders car-salesman style, the familiar scent of his aftershave drifting across their faces like a filmy scarf, while Barb stood to the side, shiny with pride, as if Roger were once again performing a rather tricky feat.

“How are you, darling?” said Barb to Alice. “You look lovely, of course, but you're so pale. And shadows under your eyes. There must be something going around at the moment, because Elisabeth is pea
green
.”

“Is Libby here?” said Alice with surprise.

“She's there with Frannie,” said Barb, pointing up to one of the bench seats, where Elisabeth was sitting with Ben. She did look quite ill. Nausea. That must be a good sign. At least she wasn't watching television.

Sitting next to Ben was Frannie, and next to her the white-haired man from the Family Talent Night who had organized the wheelchair races. Frannie was sitting very upright, glancing around self-consciously, but as Alice looked at her, the man said something in her ear and she clapped her hands together and burst out laughing.

“That's Frannie's
gentleman friend
,” said Barb. “Xavier. Isn't it lovely! After all these years of holding a candle for her silly dead fiancé!”

“Her what?” said Alice. She pressed a fingertip to her forehead. She didn't think her head could handle any fresh new surprises today.

“Her fiancé died just two weeks before their wedding. It wasn't all that long before your father died,” said Barb calmly, as if this weren't a huge revelation. “He went away with some mates on a camping trip and he broke his neck diving into a river. That's why I was always telling you girls to never, ever dive
anywhere
without checking the depth.”

“Are you saying you knew about this all these years?” said Alice. She looked up at Frannie smiling at Xavier and tried to incorporate this sad new information about her grandmother. “And
you
kept it a secret?”

“No need to look so surprised,” said Barb crisply. “I can keep secrets. Frannie didn't like to talk about it. She's so private! She admitted to me once that she had kept on writing to him all these years, as if he was still away on holiday. She said she felt silly about it, because she knew perfectly well that he'd died, but that it was nice to keep writing to him. She'd seal the letters up and put them in a drawer. She told me she'd address them but she didn't go so far as to waste her money putting stamps on them. So we agreed that proved she wasn't completely deluded! It was just a funny little quirk of hers.”

“And you never said a word,” marveled Alice. The fact that her mother had kept a secret was more surprising than the secret itself.

“Although she has let the cat out of the bag now,” chortled Roger.

“Only because Frannie told me she intended to tell the girls now!” retorted Barb. “Apparently she started to tell you and Elisabeth the whole story just a few weeks ago, but then you had to go pick up the children.”

“I don't remember,” said Alice. Her catchcry.

“Anyway, she's finally found love again!” Barb sighed and shook her head regretfully. “If only it hadn't taken so
long
!”

“She's probably just fussy,” said Roger. “Needed to find the right fellow. Like you.”

“Oh, you!” said Barb flirtatiously, and she gleamed with happiness. “I was lucky to find you!”

“Dad was lucky to find you,” said Nick, suddenly serious. Alice's mother looked up at him with surprise, her cheeks pink with pleasure. “Well, that's a lovely thing to say, Nick.”

Maggie appeared again wearing a long apron that said
Mega Meringue Day
on the front, with a picture of a huge lemon meringue pie. Underneath it said,
Mother's Day, Sydney, 2008.
She was holding another one for Alice.

“The aprons turned out beautifully, Alice!” she said as she slid the apron over Alice's neck and tied it at her waist.

Alice looked around and saw rows of pink-aproned women lining up around the big table with the mixing bowls.

“It looks like we're about ready to start,” said Maggie. “Is that okay with you?”

“Sure thing,” said Alice recklessly.

“You're over here,” said Maggie. “Next to me.”

“Good luck, darling,” said Barb. “I do hope they're careful with that oven. It's very easy to burn the meringue on a lemon meringue pie. I remember once I was making one when your father's boss was coming for dinner. I was terribly upset, I remember looking in the oven and thinking—”

“Come on, Barbie,” said Roger, pulling on her arm. “You can tell me the rest of the story while we're sitting down.”

He winked at Alice as he guided her still-chattering mother into the audience, and Alice was filled with affection for him. He loved Barb—in his own self-satisfied way, he loved her.

“I'll get the kids to come and sit down,” said Nick, and he headed off to the children's area.

Alice went to stand beside Maggie behind the tables.

“What an event,” said the woman standing next to Alice. She had a birthmark like a burn across the bottom half of her face. “You're a bloody marvel, Alice.”

I'm a bloody marvel,
thought Alice. Her head was feeling fuzzy.

Nora stood at the microphone. “Can everybody take their seats, please? The baking is about to commence!”

Alice found Nick in the audience. He had Olivia on his lap. The fairy wings she'd insisted on wearing that day were brushing against his face. Tom was on Nick's left, taking photos with a digital camera, and Madison was on his right, seemingly intensely interested in the proceedings. Nick said something and pointed at Alice, and all three children beamed and waved in her direction.

Alice waved back, and as she did, Dominick and Jasper caught her eye. They were sitting just two rows behind Nick and the children, and waving enthusiastically, as if they'd thought Alice had been waving at them.

Oh dear. Now she could see Libby and Ben waving at her, along with Frannie, Xavier, Barb, and Roger.

Alice tried to make her smile and wave seem all encompassing and personal to each of them.

Nora was speaking again.

“I'm stepping in on behalf of Alice Love to be your host today. As many of you know, Alice had an accident at the gym last week and still isn't feeling a hundred percent. You know, I can still remember the day Alice said to me that she wanted to get one hundred mums together to bake the world's largest lemon meringue pie. I thought she was nuts!”

The audience chuckled.

“But you all know Alice. She's like a bull terrier when she gets an idea in her head.” There was appreciative laughter.
A bull terrier?
How had she changed so much in just ten years? She was more like a Labrador. Anxious to please and overexcited.

“But just a few months later, no surprise, here we are! Let's put our hands together for
Alice
!”

There was a burst of enthusiastic applause. Alice nodded and smiled fraudulently.

“We're dedicating this day to a very dear friend and member of the school community who we tragically lost last year,” said Nora. “We're using her lemon meringue pie recipe and we're sure she's with us in spirit today. I'm referring, of course, to Gina Boyle. We miss you, Gina. A minute's silence, please, for Gina.”

Alice watched as people reverently bowed their heads and remembered the woman who had apparently been such a significant part of Alice's life. Her own mind was blank. This morning's pancakes sat uncomfortably in her stomach. After what seemed much longer than a minute, Nora lifted her head.

“Ladies,” she said. “Pick up your whisks.”

T
he women picked up their whisks solemnly as if they were musicians in an orchestra.

“Whisk the eggs, cream, sugar, lemon rind, and juice until combined,” read out Nora.

There was a pause and then everyone put their whisks back down and began to select ingredients.

Alice cracked her eggs one after the other into her bowl. All around her, women were doing the same thing. There were nervous giggles and whispers.

“Don't get any eggshell in there!” called out someone from the audience, to much hilarity.

After a few minutes, the sound of brisk whisking filled the marquee.

Under Nora's instructions, once they were all finished, they stood in line to pour their mixture into a huge yellow industrial vat.

This is going to be an absolute disaster,
thought Alice.

“Place the flour, almond meal, icing sugar, and butter into a food processor and process until it resembles fine bread crumbs,” read out Nora. “Instead of using a food processor, we're going to use a concrete mixer. Don't worry, it's clean! So could each mum please place her combined ingredients into the mixer.”

“I can't believe we're doing this,” whispered Alice to Maggie, as the mothers lined up with their bowls of ingredients. “It's madness.”

Maggie laughed. “It's all your doing, Alice!”

One of the bemused workmen operated the concrete mixer while the mothers separated yolks from whites.

“Add the egg yolk and process,” ordered Nora.

Once again the woman lined up to add their egg yolks. A few minutes later a massive glob of yellow dough was upended from the concrete mixer and onto the floury surface of the center table.

“Knead until smooth.”

The women gathered around the table, kneading and pulling at the dough.
This pastry is going to be inedible,
thought Alice, watching inexpert hands pushing and pulling. Cameras flashed.