Widows

‘What ya think of me dress? It come off the back of a lorry — only a fiver!’ Audrey paraded in front of Shirley in a sequined Crimplene evening dress.

Shirley tried to hide her horror at the color, the shape and, well, everything really. Audrey was so busy swirling, she missed the way her daughter’s eyes almost popped out of her head and, by the time she’d stopped swirling, Shirley had composed herself again.

‘It’s lovely,’ Shirley lied. ‘Where’s Greg? I need him to fix me car, the knob on the gearstick keeps fallin’ off.’

‘Don’t talk to me about him — not after what I caught him doin’...’

‘Not shaggin’ again, Mum?’

Audrey opened the kitchen utility cupboard and out fell the ironing board, a pile of dirty washing, shoes and a bin bag full of rubbish. Far from tidying, Audrey had, in fact, just hidden all the junk. Eventually, she found what she was looking for.

‘Your bruvver was sniffin’ glue with this thing on his head,’ she said, putting an old gas mask over her face. ‘I found him stoned out of his head — didn’t know what to do with him!’

Shirley stared at her mother. Audrey’s voice through the mask sounded low and deep, with a strange muffled echo. She grabbed at the mask and pulled it off Audrey’s head. ‘That’s awful,’ Shirley said, not remotely interested. ‘Truly awful.’ She kept a tight hold of the mask. ‘I’ll get rid of this for you, Mum. Don’t worry, Greg won’t find it.’

‘Good!’ Audrey said. She caught a glimpse of herself in the kitchen window. The gas mask had made a right mess of her hair. ‘Oh, bleedin’ ’ell! I’ll have to do me hair again! You know that bloke from the market?’ she asked Shirley with a huge smile. ‘Well, his brother-in-law’s mate spotted me the other day and said he fancied a go. He sounds lovely, Shirl. And he’s got money.’

‘He doesn’t sound lovely at all, Mum. And money’s not everything. I look after you, don’t I?’

‘You ain’t gonna stick around forever. I have to fend for meself. He’s taking me to the Golden Nugget.’

‘Do you even know him?’

‘It’s a blind date. Well — it’s a half-blind date. He’s seen me but I ain’t seen him. The man from the market says he’s a looker though. I got to fix me hair, Shirl’. What you up to tonight?’

Shirley was still examining the gas mask. It would be perfect for Dolly. She couldn’t wait to get it to her. ‘I’m sorting meself out for that holiday I told you about, Mum.’

‘Oh, I remember. Couple of weeks in Spain’ll do you good. Put a bit of color back in your cheeks. We can all do with color in our cheeks, Shirley, my girl. Grab every opportunity that comes your way.’

Audrey was referring to hooking up with some rich bloke in Spain; Shirley was thinking about the robbery. That was the only opportunity she’d be grabbing in the next few weeks. She kissed her mum on the cheek. ‘Good luck with your mystery man, Mum.’ And with that, she left.

Linda had her head buried in the engine of the laundry van when she felt something race by, brushing her leg. She jumped, banging her head on the open bonnet, and there was Wolf, looking up at her with his stupid tail wagging.

‘It ain’t ready yet,’ Linda said as Dolly came into view round the side of the van.

‘Looks all right, Linda,’ Dolly commented. ‘Well done.’ Even this compliment annoyed Linda. Dolly sounded slightly surprised, as if she assumed Linda would have nicked a dud.

‘I’ll give you a hand,’ Dolly said, removing her coat and placing it on a crate of apples in the corner of the car park.

Before Linda could say anything, Dolly had picked up the spray paint, checked no one was watching and pulled the tarp back to reveal the logos in the side of the van. ‘We’ll meet the others at the lock-up in two hours,’ Dolly continued. ‘You finish what you’re doing. I’ll spray and change the plates.’

‘I got time to do all that, you know. You can get on with — whatever it is you need to do,’ Linda said curtly. The laundry van was her territory.

‘I’m the one who’s gonna be driving this, Linda, so I’m the one who needs to check everything’s as it should be,’ Dolly snapped. Then she paused. ‘Listen...’

A market trader entered the car park. Dolly yanked the tarp back over the van’s logo and hid the spray gun. The trader nodded, collected a box of veg and left. Linda waited for Dolly to finish her sentence.

‘I’m not here to check anything, Linda. I want... I just want us to finish this final piece of the puzzle together. Everything’s in place now and I want to know that we’re all right. Me and you.’

Linda stared at Dolly. She didn’t like her and probably never would, but that wasn’t what Dolly was after. She just wanted to know that they were all on the same team; that’s all. Never very good with words, Linda picked up the false number plates. ‘You spray. I’ll secure these.’ It was all Dolly needed.

It took three coats of paint to hide the black logo. And although Linda had managed to get her black Puffa jacket covered in white paint while bending to fix the number plates at the back of the van, everything was looking good.