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“Thanks. You’ll meet the builder tonight. But first, Mum has made us dinner.”
They sat down to a simple meal of chicken, scalloped potatoes, and glazed carrots.
“You spoil me, Mrs. Blake,” said Aiden appreciatively. “I have to rely on my own cooking, and I can promise you I don’t eat this well.”
Derek’s mother blushed. “Have another piece of pie,” she suggested, to which Aiden was happy to agree.
Ivy was shy with their visitor, not willing to make eye contact with him, but Leo asked Aiden questions about his shiny red sports car—he was car obsessed these days—which Aiden answered patiently until it was time for them to leave.
They met Danny, who was waiting at the local bar. Danny put his hand out immediately.
“Aiden. I remember you from the wedding.” Danny winced and glanced at Derek. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
“Good to see you again. I remember you too. Your wife, and another woman—shorter, brunette.” He searched his memory. “They were always with Linney.”
Danny nodded. Kirsten. She and Anna have been tight with Linney since grade school. I was a few years ahead of them. And Derek too. Beer?” He pointed to the bottles on the table. He’d ordered for all of them.
“Thanks.” Aiden took a drink from the bottle. “Great job on the house, by the way. It’s perfect for him.” He nodded his head toward Derek.
Aiden and Danny had a second beer, as they traded stories about Derek, all in good fun.
“I’m sure he’ll show you his office tomorrow,” Danny said to Aiden, when Derek went to the bar to pay for their beers. “Being a former big shot Toronto lawyer and all that! But honestly, he’s really well respected in Silver Lake and people have nothing but good things to say about him. It’s a good fit—for him and his kids. I hope you’re not here to convince him to go back.”
Aiden took a last swig of beer. “I won’t lie. I miss having him around. But I can tell this is way better for him. He wasn’t coping in the city. But here? It seems to really suit him and he’s got a whole community looking out for him.”
Derek returned to the table. “All ready to go?” he asked his friends, and they headed out. The house was dark when they returned, and when Derek opened the door, he found his mother standing in the kitchen in her nightgown.
“Mum? Everything alright?” he asked with concern.
She looked at him blankly and then shook her head as if returning from a dream. “Derek. This house is just so big now that sometimes I forget where I am.”
“That was a little odd, don’t you think?” Aiden said, after Derek walked his mother back to her suite.
“You’re overreacting. Mum is over seventy now, and I completely changed her house around. She’s bound to be a little confused from time to time.”
“If you’re sure. Now show me where I’m sleeping. I can’t wait to see your laid-back office tomorrow!”
21
As Derek’s life slowed down, Linney’s took off. She’d been busy before, but it was a whirlwind now, and TCN had her travelling from city to city and country to country covering regional events and providing a window into everyday life for people in the UK and back home in Canada. Mac sent accolades, ratings soared, and the Silver Lake community was happy to see Linney on TV again.
She now had a wardrobe of loose-fitting linen skirts and blouses that covered tank tops and worked in almost every environment. Her khaki trousers replaced skirts when she was in the field. MJ would not approve of any of it as being fashionable but it suited its purpose. Linney kept a pashmina in her purse in case she needed it to go into a mosque or a conservative neighbourhood or village. Her Arabic was improving, but she relied on Hassan for anything complicated.
The pace of work made it impossible to find enough time to get back to Silver Lake. Suddenly she’d been in Damascus for almost two years and the only holidays she’d had were a few stolen days here and there to see the pyramids in Egypt, the lost city of Petra, and the modern marvels of Dubai.
A lot had happened since she’d been home last and Linney hadn’t been there to see any of it. Things were changing at Silver Lake and not all of it was good. What started as Derek’s mother’s forgetfulness and confusion quickly became more than that. Linney heard how Derek had found her book in the freezer one day and her keys in the medicine cabinet another. When his mother had trouble finding the right words, he took her to the doctor, but didn’t want to believe the diagnosis. When he couldn’t trust her to look after the kids anymore, Ivy joined Leo in daycare. Eventually, he hired someone to come in to make lunch for his mother and stay for the afternoons.
One evening, when he was talking on the phone with Linney in his home office beside the kitchen, he smelled smoke. His mother had turned on the stove and started a fire when she wandered away leaving the pan unattended. Derek brought in more help. She was his mother, after all, and it was his job to look after her, early-onset Alzheimer’s or not. But the aggressive disease progressed rapidly and when Kirsten appeared at the law office one cold winter day with his mother, who was wearing her nightgown under her winter coat and slippers on her feet, despite the snowy streets, he knew he had no choice. Kirsten had found Mrs. Blake in the supermarket, confused about where she was, and anxious about getting home. It was agonizing, but his mother needed full-time care, and for their family, the Silver Lake Graceful Care facility was the right choice.
Derek visited her at lunch every day and he took the children to see her twice a week after dinner. Linney cried with him when he told her that he could see his mother slipping further away with each visit. Still, even if she didn’t remember who they were, she lit up whenever Ivy and Leo ran into her room. She knew they were important to her.
Anna and Danny had bought another cottage recently, adding to those they already managed. The cottages were full from spring to fall, and sometimes in the winter. Anna had hired a couple of local ladies to clean them between guests.
Master’s degree in hand, Kirsten was now a nurse manager and blended caring for patients with managing a team of nurses. She still went to KnitWorks when she could, sang in the church choir and now she was volunteering for Silver Lake’s Fall Festival organizing committee. Unfortunately, Page Turners was not doing well. It had been six years since the new owners had taken over and they had just never found their groove.
All of this Linney learned about at a distance, and as time went on, she felt further and further away from her friends. So she was firm with TCN back in the UK. She needed to take some time off and go home. They agreed, if reluctantly, to a full six weeks. But first, there was Kabul.
Linney and Ernst met up in the Afghan city after another bombing attack. She and Grant were there to do interviews and Ernst was on a freelance photography job. The fighting between the government and the Taliban was intensifying. Linney wasn’t sure the TCN brass would agree to let her and Grant go to Afghanistan again, so they worked extra hard to get as much on tape as they could. After the work was complete, Linney and Ernst found themselves in bed again. It wasn’t really a surprise and had happened often since Beirut. They lay together now, breathing heavily, their khakis strewn about the hotel room. She sighed as he began the same speech he always did about how their sleeping together was a bad idea. It was as if he needed to hear her confirm it every time.
