Veronica made mugs of tea for herself and Audrey. ‘I feel like a different person.’
‘You’ve always been the same person underneath.’ Audrey blew across the top of her tea. ‘You were hiding away, that’s all, and now you look amazing, Gran.’
‘I do, don’t I?’ she grinned. ‘My neck feels bare with this hair-do though.’
‘I know that feeling from when I chopped off my hair, but it suits you. So does the make-up. You have cheekbones, Gran.’
‘I thought they were long gone!’ She noticed her reflection in the wall oven when she passed by to sit at the table with Audrey.
‘Not gone, always there, just needed a little encouragement to show themselves, that’s all.’
They spent the next half hour chatting away. Audrey had a new friend called Vicky and not only that, she was interested in a boy. His name was Alex and according to Audrey, he was popular, handsome and he’d even smiled at her a few times.
‘You’re really settling in here, aren’t you?’ Veronica only dared to hope this was a sign of things to come. If only she and Sam had been able to have such frank conversations.
Audrey smiled. ‘I feel like I am.’
‘Hopefully one day you’ll get to put make-up on models or TV stars rather than a little old lady like me,’ Gran concluded, collecting the mugs and leaving them in the sink.
‘I don’t mind who it is, as long as I get to do it.’
‘I feel bad you worked so hard, and Tanya did.’
‘We didn’t mind and you paid Tanya; she was only too happy to do it and build her business. No need to feel guilty.’
But she did. ‘You worked hard and nobody will get to see the results, not apart from those who come here, and that list is hardly long.
Audrey ignored the remark and instead looked again at the calendar. ‘There’s so much on here that you can do, Gran. This one, for example.’
‘“Get to know the local community”? That’s not a good one for me, Audrey.’ Her heart sank. She’d never be able to tick off many items from the calendar at this rate and she’d already heard Layla going on about having all three coloured lines on all of the allotted squares if she possibly could. But how could Veronica make that happen?
‘Nonsense,’ Audrey batted back. ‘Come with me.’ She beckoned Veronica to follow her upstairs.
Veronica sneaked another glance in the mirror at this woman whose life was changing with every passing day. In Audrey’s bedroom she sat on the bed and waited for Audrey to clear more of a space at her desk that more often than not resembled more of a make-up station. She ran downstairs and brought up another chair, positioned her laptop and flipped it open.
‘What are we doing?’
‘When I was walking past the newsagents a few days ago, I saw a sign in the window advertising the Mapleberry Village Residents Group on Facebook.’
‘I don’t use things like Facebook. I can do emails, that’s about it.’
Audrey pointed to one of the chairs. ‘Sit, you’re about to get a crash course.’
Veronica found her granddaughter most persuasive and within minutes she had a Facebook profile – no photograph as yet – and Audrey had given her a rundown of how to navigate the social media site. It was complicated, Veronica knew she wouldn’t remember half of it, but Audrey said any time she had questions, fire away, and she even left a bit of a cheat sheet with simple tips such as her password – kind of essential – and what the symbols at the top of the screen were for, for her to look at if Audrey wasn’t around.
‘So I can find anybody on here, anyone I like?’ Veronica wanted to know.
‘Sure. I mean a lot of people have privacy settings that won’t allow you to view much about them, but you can find out enough. Here, let’s search on Mum.’
‘Your mum is on this?’
‘Of course. Go on, type in mum’s name and surname.’
Veronica did as she suggested and she grinned when not only did a few unknown faces appear, but also her daughter’s. ‘Now what do I do?’
‘You can ask her to be friends with you, if you like.’ When Veronica hesitated at doing anything, Audrey went on. ‘Gran, you don’t have to be one of those people who shares photos and details all the time like some of the people I’ve shown you. Why don’t you lurk for a while as you get used to it?’
‘Lurk? You make me sound like a criminal. And I don’t understand how this will help me to fulfil the “Get to know your local community” item on the calendar.’
With a few more taps on the keyboard, Audrey had navigated her way to the Mapleberry Village Residents Group and clicked on Join.
‘Did you just…’
‘I joined you up, yes. You live here. I joined too and so far I haven’t posted anything. This will let you explore a bit, find out who your neighbours are, discover a bit about Mapleberry and things that go on. Here, let’s sign you out and me in.’ She changed over to her own account and went into the group under her own name. ‘You can scroll through and have a look for yourself.’
Audrey left her to have a tinker around, and scrolling down the group didn’t seem all that bad. It had over a thousand members who belonged, and so many names had posted that Veronica thought she’d never remember them all. Some people were selling old toys, one was advertising his plumbing business, another asked for recommendations for a painter and decorator and it had got more than sixty responses!
She kept on scrolling, it went on for ever and
