Chapter Thirty-Seven
Saturday 9th March
Call Me Maybe
3:15pm GMT Text Message.
Hi H, Can't Skype 2mro, yr Mum wants me 2 go shopping with her 2 get ready 4 trip. I'll text when we're back. Enjoy your lie in.
Sunday 10th March
5:21pm GMT Text Message.
Hope u enjoying lunch, I'm exhausted 2 tired even to call u. Yr Mum says she's been having dizzy spells. Seemed ok to me tho.
1:23pm EST Text message.
No worries, finished lunch clocks changed already. I'll call mum. Thanks Hx
1:40pm EST Phone call
"Hello Mum,"
"Hello Harry."
"How are you Mum? Nikki said you'd been having dizzy spells?"
"Oh, that girl does make a fuss, she's told you already! She can only have just got home. I had a funny turn earlier in the week and I didn't fancy facing Oxford Street all on my own, so I asked if she wanted to come with me. It wasn't as if I was asking for a chaperone because I was scared I would fall over."
"Oh," Harry replied. It was hard to infer much meaning from a text but Nikki was obviously more worried than Anne appeared to be. "Did you get too hot?" he asked.
"Too hot? It's March still darling, it's freezing, my daffodils had half opened and then another frost and a day of strong easterly winds and they're a disaster."
"I thought that's why you might have been dizzy."
"No Harry, I don't think that was it. It's really nothing to worry about. I'm so looking forward to seeing you next weekend. I'm a little apprehensive about the journey of course but that's just because it's been a while since I've flown that far."
"It'll be fine Mum and I'll be there to meet you at LaGuardia, you may even enjoy it."
"Nikki offered to house sit for me while I'm away, wasn't that kind of her? I was only mentioning the list of seeds I'd started off in the greenhouse and what a pain it was that my neighbours are away too, so that no one could put the dustbin away for me and she offered to drive me to the airport and then come back and house sit for me. She really is a lovely girl. I can't understand why you didn't pay her more attention when you worked together?"
"Alright Mum, I'm sure we've been over this before and next weekend you'll have days to cross question me about everything so let's not use up all our conversation before you arrive!"
"Don't worry darling, I'm sure if you get really fed up with me I could go and play cards with the OAP's in the lobby or go and chat to that nice neighbour of yours. I'd like to meet that dog that I can hear yipping from time to time."
"It will be good to see you Mum. I'll meet you at the airport at 6:30pm on Friday.
"I'm looking forward to it, Harry. Bye now."
"Bye Mum." Nikki had banned goodbyes and six months on and their conversations never ended with goodbye. It felt good to say it to his mother as if the conversation was actually finished not just going on and on like a recurring decimal.
"Bye Mum. See you on Friday."
Call me maybe: Carly Rae Jepsen