(3) Blue Train
After Hetty had moved herself bedward the previous evening, Andrew had lulled himself into that narcotic cruise into dreamland, Coltrane’s Blue Train. If you played it low enough over the phones it worked well as a lullabye. The French term was better, berceuse. He had, quite delightedly, nodded off on the couch. Waking later he recalled, out of another blue, trying to tell Benazir some time back when she’d arrived at Bean and Gone to see him clamped into headphones, how transcendent it was. Having somehow missed classic jazz on her way to adulthood, she waved it off and started on her new Android phone. Well, not hers exactly, her best friend’s, who’d lent it out when her battery died. As he administered the final rites before bed he wondered why he was so clued out on new stuff and simultaneously wired into ancient artifacts. Quality transcended epoch, that was it. Well if it wasn’t it, it certainly made him feel better as he cruised into the warm dark of sleep.
Mastering her jet lag in record time Hetty arose first, bathed, decided on an outfit and was preparing a morning snack when Andrew appeared scratching his scalp and apologising for this unforgivable lapse in hosting. Hetty chuckled as she buttered toast and poured coffee. Let me mother you for at least ten minutes will you? They chatted cheerily, getting themselves in the mood for a long day in the city. The morning’s steady drizzle was not in the least encouraging. Fortunately it would taper off into a chill cloudiness as they stood around the grave listening to some fine words of Christian commiseration. The ritual had unrolled with a minimum of fuss. Eyes were dabbed and sniffles heard, but thankfully no histrionics were unleashed. Eleanor, being steadied by a flu-free Alex, managed to hold her own, keeping her chatter under wraps until the reception’s snacks and sugary pop finally unleashed her. Andrew found himself listening as she unwound one of the tape loops with Anna’s in the ground now and she’ll never come out but she’ll go to heaven and be with the angels right, couldn’t she stay longer and do the garden and help me with puzzles and put the cheese on the pizza? Andrew said Katerina would help with the puzzles and Vee would read to her and if he was around he’d put the cheese on the pizza. And yes, she could visit his house and play in the water. Soon really soon.
Vee plastered a nice smile over her irritation, giving him possibly the most perfunctory hug in living memory. Dennis managed to be almost the perfect gentleman, imbuing his eyes with a hefty leaven of sincerity which seemed to sympathize itself deep into Andrew’s psyche. Andrew felt his pain alright, right down to his socks. Okay, so gay men had a burden to bear. He got it, he really got it. But how often was he going to be required to get it again? He felt like a shit for being such a sourpuss, so later, over finger foods, he acceded to another Dennis request. Or at least a heads up about a future request.
The full monty came the next afternoon, over lattes, while Vee took Hetty shopping through some of Rowanton’s finest. After some, well, not quite perfunctory but certainly preliminary empathetic overtures, which Dennis cordially received and Andrew had only partially rehearsed, Dennis looked like he was working up to asking a favour. Surely the current arrangement precluded any further entanglements? Hadn’t Andrew already gone the distance? There was something about the way Dennis held his latte three inches from the table top, paused ever so slightly, licked his lower lip, and then took his sip, that he’d come to see as a prelude. The gesture, if you could call it that, was customarily performed three times, but so ephemerally he often missed it. In the midst of what was usually an intriguing exchange of views this was understandable, but Andrew was keen to escape his greenhorn status and shift into the uncharted territory beyond, so when he took note and Dennis spilled the beans seconds later, he awarded himself the invisible, and hopefully untraceable, pat on the back.
