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Gabi’s head twisted with the same thoughts, and the only thing stopping her agreeing with him, apart from the fact that it would stick in her throat, was that Nana must have good reason to want to go back to Spain after fifty-six years. She looked to the floor, bit her lip, and swallowed past the lump in her throat. A holiday was one thing, but the idea that Nana would stay in Spain made her stomach tighten. Fuck.
“And what if it does? The health care system is as good as here, maybe better. And I’m not planning to die yet.” She crossed her chest. “God willing.” She crossed her chest again and looked up. She picked up her drink and took a sip. “I want to visit my parents’ graves and remember the fond memories I have of the life I left behind.”
“What life? You don’t know anyone there.” Hugo cleared his plate and slammed it on the table. He paced around the room and rubbed his belly. “Jesus Christ, Mother.”
“I made a New Year’s resolution, and nothing you say is going to change my mind.”
“You made a resolution four months ago and didn’t think to tell me.”
How dare he have a go at Nana? She didn’t have to justify herself to him. “You’re never here. What do you care?” Gabi said.
Hugo huffed, and his jaw tensed beneath his heavy jowls.
Nana turned to Gabi and smiled. “And Gabriela is coming with me.”
Gabi stared at Nana, open mouthed. “I—”
“I need a chaperone, and I’d rather pay you than a stranger,” Nana said.
The movie of Gabi’s life rolled out in her mind’s eye. It wasn’t even close to award winning; it wouldn’t even make a Z listing if there was such a thing. Working at the bar, the women she didn’t know, and the hangovers that left her feeling shitty, there was nothing she’d particularly miss. Perhaps a break from it all would be good, and what harm would come from being paid to look after Nana for a few weeks or however long she wanted to stay? It would be an adventure, and she’d be doing Nana a service. A change of scene in her sex life would be good too.
“Mother, you need someone with you who can actually be of help to you,” Dad said.
Arsehole.
“Gabriela is perfectly capable. She can work on her Spanish and explore her creative side.”
Hugo shook his head and huffed through his nose. “You’re losing your marbles.”
“No, Hugo. I’ve never felt better.”
Gabi looked from one to the other. He might be right, but Nana did look as if this decision had given her a new lease of life. She held up her glass in a toast. “Cheers, Nana.”
Hugo plucked food from a dish on the table and ate it as if his life depended on it and mumbled something unintelligible.
“Will you come with me?” Nana asked.
Gabi had never visited Spain, and while she’d spoken Spanish with Nana as a kid, she’d had no reason to keep it up while working in a bar in a sleepy village in Devon. If she’d worked in London, things might have been different, but the idea of commuting had never appealed because she hated public transport. Spain conjured images of World Cup football, bullfighting, and the golfer, Seve Ballesteros. She wasn’t a fan of any of them particularly, but she’d easily enjoy the sun, the hot Spanish women, and a chilled beer or wine at one of the many tavernas. “Yes,” she said and took great pleasure in watching her dad look like he was about to explode. One nil to Spain.
2.
THE END OF MAY came around quickly. Gabi wished she hadn’t bought a suitcase from the local charity shop when it suddenly developed a dodgy wheel halfway home. Dragging it up the hill to Nana’s with a rucksack on her back was like a full-on workout, and it was too early in the morning to put her body through that kind of torture. Maybe she should have travelled lighter, but Nana had made it clear as they’d planned for the trip that she had no desire to think about their return. She was going to play it by ear, she’d said. The open-endedness felt a little daunting until Gabi started telling those around her that she was leaving. Her manager didn’t beg for her to stay, and he found someone to take her job within two days. The new tenant taking over her flat was moving in later in the day. If it wasn’t for her best mate, Issa, who cried when Gabi told her about the trip, it was as though she’d never meant anything to anyone. Issa tended to be overdramatic, but she’d promised to take good care of Gabi’s stereo and espresso machine while she was away.
“We’re going on a voyage of discovery. The future is our destiny,” Nana had said.
Gabi had found the lack of certainty disconcerting at first, not knowing what lay ahead or what she might do when they returned. On reflection, she’d realised the sorry state of her life. She’d become comfortable with a lack of drive, though admittedly unhappy and unenthused by anything. She’d talked herself around the fear of leaving what she knew behind, because she had to be strong for Nana and settled with the idea that she could always move back into the farmhouse when they returned until she decided what to do next.
She stopped for a moment and leaned against the post box to take a few deep breaths. The farmhouse was shrouded in darkness, and she squinted to confirm what she was seeing. Nana stood outside her front door with two suitcases at her feet.
“You’re late,” Nana said as Gabi approached.
Nana leaned on her walking stick, looking typically Nana in her fuchsia pink rain mac with matching hat and handbag. It might be four-thirty in the morning, but with an untypical heat wave for late May, it was eighteen degrees. Gabi would have perspired just looking at her if she hadn’t already sweated her backside off dragging her bloody case with its dodgy wheel. The two suitcases at Nana’s side screamed out that they would need to pass through oversized baggage, which would mean another queue to contend with at the airport, but Gabi’s first concern was how the hell they were going to get them that far when they had three train stations and the London Underground to navigate before they reached the airport.
“The taxi isn’t due for another fifteen minutes, Nana.”
“It might have been early, and then what?”
“The driver would have waited.” It wasn’t a long walk to Nana’s, but it would have been easier for the driver to pass by Gabi’s place, but Nana had insisted that they meet at the farmhouse and save the driver the bother of stopping twice.
