Excerpt:
Everyone’s looking at me. I’ve got the yellow telephone in my hands and I’m not sure
what to do with it. I take a seat at the end of the table and lay the phone down in front of me.
Beth is to my left, Ben is to my right. Daniel is opposite me. I look from one to the other and feel
color flood my cheeks. My gaze finishes on Daniel and stays there for a beat. He nods, his eyes
encouraging me. I return the nod, take a deep breath and count down from three to one in my
head.
“I’ve got to tell you all something.” My voice comes out as a thin squeak, but actually
I’m surprised I manage to articulate at all. I’m hot, so hot. I lift the hair off the back of my neck,
flapping it around to try to cool my sticky, clammy skin. I can’t breathe, I need air. I unlock the
patio doors, flinging them wide open. The inside of my mouth feels rough as sandpaper. I’m
desperate for a tall glass of water packed with ice-cubes but, when I turn to see six eyes staring at
me, I dare not leave to fetch one. I feel like an exhibit in a museum and in some ways I wish I
were. I could hide behind a Perspex box next to the yellow telephone with panel blurb doing the
explaining for me. I could be part of a new exhibition entitled ‘Incredible Discoveries’. I would
share the same hall as the dinosaurs and anything else which took aeons for people to believe
existed. I draw a deep breath and continue.
“You’re probably going to think I’m mad, but I’m going to tell you anyway.”
A breeze blows through the open patio doors.
“What I wanted to tell you is this.” My voice is soft as a whisper. I sense all their bodies
leaning closer towards mine, straining to hear. “I’ve recently started talking to my mother.”
There, I’ve said it.
I feel a great sense of relief, both that I’ve said it and that I no longer have to keep this to
myself. Beth relaxes in her chair with a sigh, leans across and takes my hand, patting it. She’s got
wavy brown hair and a kind, open face. She tilts her head sympathetically.
“Oh honey, you must have tried out that clairvoyant you mentioned. Please tell us all
about it.”
I should have seen that one coming.
“No, you don’t get it.” I lift up the yellow phone, as if to demonstrate how to use such a
contraption. In one hand I take the receiver, in the other the plug. “I don’t speak to her through a
medium. I speak to her on this telephone. I plug it into a socket in my bathroom and I’m allowed
to call heaven.”
There, I’ve said it now.
Nobody moves.
Not a muscle.
Their mouths all open, Daniel’s is the widest. I don’t think any of them even realize
they’re doing it. As feared, they are looking at me like I’m certifiably insane.
“I can see you all think I’m mad.” I actually manage to pull a small smile. Now that I’ve
started, I feel much calmer. “And, if I were in your position, I would think I’m crazy too. But one
night my mother came to me in a dream and told me I could use this phone to call her in heaven
and, bizarre though it must sound, it turns out she was right. That’s why I stopped coming to
Grief Support Group every week. I wasn’t grieving so much because my mother had come back
into my life.”
The three pairs of eyes grow wider and wider, as if I’m slowly sprouting four serpent
heads. I replace the receiver back into its cradle and drop the plug, holding out my hands in
submission.
“You can believe me or not. It doesn’t matter. But the reason I’ve gathered you all here is
because I’ve been asked to choose three other people to call to heaven.”
I sound like a fairy godmother or the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. I do not sound
normal. I pause. The effect is dramatic although it’s not intended to be.
“And I’ve picked you guys.”
I look at them one by one.
“Beth, I know how much it might mean to you to be able to speak to your daughter and
know that she is safe.”
Beth nods. Her gaze turns glassy.
“Ben, I’d do anything to be able to give you a chance to speak to your brother again.”
Ben nods, his mouth still formed in a perfect ‘O’.
Daniel is the hardest one for me to look at. He’s not nodding anymore and his eyes are no
longer urging me to continue. Instead he’s shaking his head, a slow, subtle movement, but I catch
it all the same. His full lips have now formed a thin line. He’s the only one who looks like he still
thinks I’m certifiably insane. Hell, he’s a doctor; perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Part
of me wonders whether I should abort this whole escapade and pretend it was all a joke. I’d do
anything to not have Daniel stare at me in this way. He looks ready to call the local sanatorium
and send them round with a straitjacket. But I can’t abort and I must continue. What happens
next is up to him.
“And Daniel, I thought that maybe you might like to speak to Katie.”
He opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something, but clamps it shut again without
speaking. Nobody else says anything either. They all shift in their seats, pretending to take sips
of coffee and look around the room. Perhaps they’re checking out the photos on the mantelpiece
above the fireplace, trying to work out if I look like a madwoman in any of them. I pick up the
knife. Now I probably do look mad or, at the very least, dangerous.
“Right, who’s for some more pie?”
