‘You know it’s true,’ says Dave, though Lynn hasn’t mentioned Niecey for half an hour, ‘we still don’t know anything about her.’
‘Like what?’
‘Where she grew up, what happened to her parents, where she lived before she came to Sheffield. What jobs she did. What friends did she have? Why did she even come here?’
‘Haven’t we said all this before?’
‘I know,’ says Dave. ‘I know we used to sit and wonder about her, but it might be worth going over it again, in case something has come out in recent times. You know, Jamie might have said something to us that we haven’t properly taken notice of.’
‘Do you think Jamie knows more than we do? I don’t.’
‘All right, you might know more. You’ve worked with her for six months or more.’
‘Seems unlikely,’ she says. ‘But go on. Where shall we start?’
‘At the beginning. Where was she born? I seem to remember somewhere on the south coast.’
‘I think so. Portsmouth was it? Or Plymouth?’‘And her parents. Has she ever said anything about them?’
‘I have the impression that they died.’
‘How do you get that impression though? What did she say?’
‘Remember when we were sorting out the wedding? I’m sure I said her parents would want to be there and she said something – maybe something like, They won’t be able to, or, They can’t come.’
‘Not, They’re both dead?’
‘No, nothing as clear as that. But I didn’t want to ask her. I didn’t want to upset her. Because if they were alive surely she would want them there?’
‘Lynnie,’ he says fondly, ‘you know better than most that families are awful things. Not everyone’s as lucky as us. OK. What else do we know? What was she like when we first met her? Can you remember?’
‘She was nervous,’ says Lynn. ‘I remember that. Mainly I remember thinking that she wasn’t like us. Do you know what I mean?’
‘Not really.’
‘Some minutes I thought she was posher than us, and then I’d find myself thinking she was a bit rough. Does that make sense? She were wearing a lot of make up but her clothes looked as if they’d come out of a junk shop. Nothing fitted her properly. And her face were made up lovely but her hands were rougher than mine and her nails were all bitten right down. But she had manners didn’t she. Do you remember, we had a Sunday dinner and she was all please and thank you and very appreciative.’
‘As who wouldn’t be,’ says Dave. ‘But did she say anything about herself?’
‘I think we talked more about the future,’ says Lynn. ‘You know, when the baby was expected and how Jamie wanted to get married straight away –‘
‘Did she not want to then?’
‘She said it was all right with her. But I got the impression she didn’t want to force him. Or else she didn’t really love him – I don’t know which it was. And we talked about where they could live and she was very evasive about where she was living, I remember that, and to this day I don’t know where she was living when she got together with our Jamie. But she did say she couldn’t stay there once the baby was born.’
‘Then they moved into that little house. What a state that was in, do you remember? But they worked on it.’
‘It was just the job for a starter home wasn’t it. And Jamie had saved the money for a deposit – remember what a shock that was?’
‘He was a dark horse too,’ says Dave. ‘Maybe they suit each other.’
‘I know she said – maybe not on that occasion, but around that time – she said she wouldn’t be able to put anything towards buying the house.’
‘Women are amazing,’ says Dave. ‘How can you recall things that someone has said – how many years ago? So she’d no money saved, she didn’t have a job? Did she even have a trade? A profession?’
‘She went to University,’ says Lynn. ‘I distinctly remember her saying that quite recently, when our Tash was talking about what she wanted to do when she leaves school. Niecey said something like, One step at a time. Get your GCSE’s she said, then work hard for your A levels, that’s the hard part, then you can start thinking about what you want to study at Uni.’
‘That doesn’t mean she went does it? Anyone could say that.’
‘No, she did. Tash asked her and she said she went but she dropped out because she was ill and she failed her exams.’ ‘Did she say what university it was? Sheffield?’
‘No. I think what she said was Liverpool, I wasn’t listening that much, Gemma was talking to me at the same time. But she never got her degree.’
‘So she must have gone to work then, after that.’
‘She must have. But I’ve never heard her talk about it.’
‘So maybe it was something she’s ashamed of?’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know,’ says Dave, exasperated. ‘It’s like we’re making up a story for a fictional character here. It’s as if she’s just dropped from the sky without any childhood, or any history, just landed like she’s from Mars.’
‘Men are from Mars,’ says Lynn, and he looks at her crossly for a second before he allows himself to laugh.
‘I mean, that wedding,’ says Dave. ‘It were a good thing we only booked the small room at he Town Hall weren’t it. She didn’t even have any friends to ask. Why was that? What was wrong with her, that she’d no friends?’
‘We had to spread out didn’t we,’ says Lynn. ‘Do you remember, we asked everyone we could think of – your mum and my dad, your Steve, Janet and her bloke –‘
‘Who never turned up and we still had to pay for his meal –‘
‘– all the kids – and we still didn’t make an impression on that room.’
‘It was a good do though weren’t it,’ says Dave. ‘I could see everyone thinking he’d done well for himself, our Jamie. I know it were a rush job, but folk don’t mind that these days, even my mum never said a word about it.’
‘It was a good day, I know. But I thought, even then, I thought, We don’t know anything about her. I believed it wouldn’t matter. I thought she’d open up as time went on, to Jamie if not to us. But it seems as if she hasn’t.’
‘At least,’ says Dave, ‘she hasn’t told him about those twins, if they really are hers. And if they are, where are they now?’
Oliver and Lila are not far away, as the crow flies. They live in a nice house, enclosed by a garden; they have bedrooms with windows that look out on water meadows and rocky edges. They go to school – they are approaching the end of Year Nine; they have chosen their options. They have friends, and nice clothes, they have a smartphone and an iPad each – though they are not allowed any screen time after nine o’clock in the evening. They have each other. They have books and hobbies and aspirations. They are loved. They are lucky.
