Walking with Ghosts

tries to shake it out. ‘I love you,’ he says. ‘You’re not going to die, Dora. I love you.’
    ‘Yes.’ It is true, Dora, what he says. He does love you. But you are going to die. That iron bar is never going to dissolve. It is time for the reckoning, time to face everything that never needed to be faced before.
    Sam has been a gift to you, a blessing. He came to sweeten the last months, to fulfil the girlhood dream of a man, a real man. You are a medium, Dora, a witch. You conjured him into existence. You let the dream go, and allowed it to be born.
    No more fears, now. He was a gift to you, a blessing. And it is only through you that he can find his way back to life. You can show him the way. You have shown him theway.
     

29
     
    Going to work on the morning of his honeymoon was not exactly what Geordie had envisioned. That kind of thing probably didn’t happen to too many people. But then again probably not too many people had their honeymoon at home, and if they did have their honeymoon at home they probably didn’t have their mother-in-law with them in the same house. And, and this was the final probability, if they did have their mother-in-law in the house, it was probably a mother-in-law who liked them. Not a mother-in-law who hated them and spent every moment of her life looking for mean things to say and do.
    ‘I don’t want to go to work on the first morning of my fuckin’ honeymoon,’ he’d said to Janet. ‘And that’s swearing.’
    Janet had gritted her teeth. Looked as though she might cry. She wasn’t going to give in to it, dissolve into wimpishness, but the desire to do it was shining in her eyes. She’d pulled her jeans on and fastened the zip, but she was barefooted and bare-breasted. Her wedding dress of the day before was hanging over the back of a chair. ‘Geordie, if you stay at home that stupid old woman will make our life a misery. Just give me today, and I’ll get rid of her.’
    The prospect of life without Janet’s mother was almost too sweet to contemplate. During the three days of her visit Geordie had been transformed from an optimistic extrovert to a cowering, almost speechless recluse in his own house.
    ‘If I’m here I can help,’ he’d protested. ‘You’ll have to get her to the station, carry all her suitcases.’
    Janet had reached over and put two fingers against his lips. ‘She’s my mother, Geordie. I know her of old. I can manage her. If you’re here she’ll divide us, and then it’ll be twice as hard. On my own I can manage her.’
    Geordie thought about it. ‘But it’s my fuckin’ honeymoon, Janet.’
    She shook her head. ‘And it’s my fuckin’ honeymoon as well, Geordie. I want you to go to work. And when you come home tonight she’ll be gone. I’ll get some beer in, and we can slob out in front of the television. Not answer the phone. Pretend we’re the only ones left in the universe.’
    ‘OK. I’m giving in. You can do it your way. But if that silly old bag is still here when I come home tonight I’ll set the dog on her. I don’t like her, Janet, and I’m glad I don’t, because if I liked her I’d have to let her stay, and I’d just hate it.’
    Sam was at the office by himself. ‘Didn’t expect to see you today,’ he said to Geordie. Barney put two front paws on Sam’s leg, and waited there until Sam had finished fondling him. Then he walked slowly over to his basket. Looked worn out, like his mother-in-law had come to visit.
    ‘I wish you hadn’t, Sam. I wanted to stay in bed all day with Janet, but we’ve got a crisis on with her mother.’
    ‘Celia rang in. She’s staying at home, thinks she might’ve eaten something bad at the reception.’
    ‘It was the dope,’ said Geordie. ‘When you’re using it you think you’re sorted, but then it carries on sorting you when you get in bed and try to sleep. In the morning you’re so sorted you sort of wish you hadn’t started in the first place.’
    ‘The boy’s a poet. I’m going down to Betty’s. Get some decent coffee. If you wanna talk mothers-in-law I’ve got about an hour.’
    They got a window seat in Betty’s, and the waitress brought them a pot of coffee. There was a small tray with milk and cream and sugar, and Sam pushed it away. Geordie retrieved it and added all three to his coffee. ‘Dunno how you can do that,’ Sam told him.
    ‘Dunno how you can do that ,’ Geordie replied, indicating Sam’s cup.
    ‘Looks like an