Preservation Read Free Page A

‘She liked you, you know.’
    ‘Did she?’
    ‘Yep, she wished I was like you.’
    In the end, Sabrina says that, yes, it’s true they weren’t angels and they can do this thing she’s asking. ‘We could actually pay for the dress,’ she says, ‘so then Leonie can go up the chimney in it. Couldn’t we, Elsa?’
    But no, Jan tells them, that’s not the plan, and haven’t they listened to a word she’s said? She wouldn’t ask them to part out with big bucks like this — that’s not her style, not with friends. It’s just a simple favour. ‘For God’s sake, Elsa,’ she says, looking at her stricken face, ‘you never used to return those lipsticks you flogged at the chemist’s.’
    Elsa says, with a sudden spurt of resolution, ‘All right then. Okay, we’ll do it.’
    ‘They said I could see her. A couple of the guards will take me down tomorrow evening. They’ve promised me that, at least.’
    Visiting hour is over, time for them to leave.
    ‘Over to you now,’ Jan says, standing up ‘Remember, get it in the paper. If I don’t make it to the funeral, say one for me. No hymns. She liked Julie Felix — choose something of hers. The one about going to the zoo tomorrow, she’d get a laugh out of that. Eddie might do the eulogy. He was her favourite boyfriend.’
    Sabrina reaches over and gives her another quick embrace. ‘Take care, Jan,’ she whispers.
    ‘I’m okay,’ Jan says. ‘If you keep your head down, it’s not so bad. The food could be worse.’ She turns and leans her cheek into Elsa’s. ‘You’ll be pleased to know I’ve got a friend who works in the laundry. She makes sure I always get my own knickers back from the wash.’ She walks to the far side of the visiting room, a guard moves towards her, she waves and disappears.
    The rain has cleared, and they stand in a patch of weak late morning sunlight, although the whipping wind is like pain slicingthrough them. Elsa begins to cry. ‘We must be crazy.’
    ‘She drives a hard bargain. I guess you learn that if you’re inside.’
    ‘Sabrina, I want us to do it in cash. No credit cards, all right?’
    ‘Ross?’
    ‘He pays my card.’
    ‘Well, I pay my own.’
    ‘All the same, it would be better if we did it all in cash. It’s like leaving a calling card otherwise.’
    Sabrina pulls her coat around her more closely. ‘I’ll bring it this afternoon when we go to the funeral director’s. You can get the money all right?’
    ‘Of course.’ Elsa is impatient. ‘I’ve got money of my own. But you do see my point about the card?’
    ‘Double click,’ Sabrina says. She does see. Elsa is showing common sense. Already Sabrina has decided that this is something Daniel might be better not knowing either, although they pride themselves on the honesty of their relationship. Sabrina was a practised liar in the dying days of her first marriage, and she has sworn never to lie again. Truth is so easy when you have nothing to hide.
    As she drives home she wonders if there is some crime involved. On the face of it, she can’t see that there is. It’s a lot of money to blow on a dress. Besides, they’ve made a promise. Not that Jan need know if they broke it and just paid. Like saying
Le-Oh-nie
in that mean schoolgirl way. Only she probably did know. And then, she thinks, why not? It’s not such a big deal, a simple enough transaction. People return things to shops all the time. As Jan pointed out, it’s the things she and Elsa haven’t returned in the past that she ought to feel bad about. She had stored away that part of her life: small wickednesses and betrayals of her friend who stayed at home and watched out for them like an anxious young mother, the kind Jan would have liked to have had for herself.
    ‘All right,’ she says to herself again. ‘Okay, Jan.’

     
    The funeral director is a natty young man. He wears a brown suit with a brown button-down collared shirt and a black tie decorated with orange poppies. He knows