Chapter Thirty-Nine - The Spare Room

Saturday 9th December

Lyn decided to see how things were going upstairs.  Terry had been tasked with getting the last of the junk out of the back bedroom, so that Shane could hoist it up into the loft and run the hoover over the carpet.  Since Darren's stay a few years before, during his split with Paula, the room had been unused; as a bedroom, that is.  Instead, it became a convenient place to put things for now.  There were boxes which held the Christmas decorations for eleven months of the year, clothes that no longer fitted which Lyn meant to drop of at the charity shop and various other odds and ends, including an analogue television and video recorder Terry hung on to, so he could watch a couple of favourite old films on VHS.

'You could stream them, Granddad,' Shane suggested.  ‘Then you could take this up the tip.’

Terry replied that he was buggered if he was paying another bloody subscription just to watch a load of old crap.  He trundled the old television into the front bedroom.  Lyn spotted it from the landing, sitting in the middle of the room, as soon as she stepped off the stairlift.

'We haven't got room for that horrible thing in our room, Luvvie, and it's too heavy to go in the loft.  Shane's right - it belongs in a skip up at the dump.'

'There's nothing wrong with it,' Terry replied.

'You haven't used it for years.'

'I might want to one day.  Leave it there, for now.'

Lyn scowled at the ugly great box for a moment, before coming in to inspect progress on the lodger's room.  With the rubbish cleared, it looked bright and spacious, if completely uncoordinated.

'Not that duvet cover, Terry.  And definitely not those pillows.  Honestly!'

'What's wrong with it?'

'It's Darren's old bedlinen.'  

From his teens or his more recent mid-life crisis years, Lyn couldn't recall.  The pillows were black with red trim, splashed with silhouettes of sports cars and naked women.  The duvet was Southampton FC red and white stripes. 

'I gave you those nice sets Hilary said we could have, when she heard Ashley was coming to stay.  Get that awful stuff off and use one of those, but don't get it all mixed up.'

'What makes you think she'll want pansies any more than tarts and Ferraris?' Terry asked, sulkily helping Shane to strip the bed again.

'They're primroses,' Lyn said, stooping careful to lift a pillowcase from a carrier bag beside her.  It didn't quite go with the red and white striped curtains but Hilary's posh cast-offs were still more likely to make their lodger feel at home than Darren's Top Gear and testosterone taste.  'I bet Hilary loved choosing these lovely designs for her B&B,' she sighed.

Terry was unmoved, bundling the pillows roughly into their new covers while Shane, wrestling with the single duvet, almost seemed embarrassed to be there, with the room looking so feminine.

'Nearly done, boys,' Lyn said, after directing a couple of further little changes.  'She might have all her own things, of course, but I want it to look nice when she arrives, so she feels welcome.'

Ashley was expected later that afternoon; between four and six, she had said, depending on when Gavin finished work.  He was being difficult about her moving out.

'We're not together,' Ashley told Lyn.  'He's still sort of possessive, though.'

‘It must be difficult when you have to live with someone like that.’

‘It’s been a nightmare.’

Lyn didn’t like to ask any more.  Either Ashley would talk to her about her troubles, once she moved in, or she wouldn’t.  Lyn hoped she would feel able to chat and confide.  She even imagined it might be a little bit like having a daughter living with them.  Realistically, that wasn’t what she should expect.  Ash would be out a lot, working, studying or going out with friends and, very likely, would stay in her room watching her choice of films and serials, listening to her taste in music, when she wasn’t.  She was going to see her parents for Christmas and hoped to have found a longer-term place of her own by the end of January, if not sooner.  She was confident of having saved up a deposit by then.  Terry had been happy with that as a deadline.  Lyn was a little sad.

Lyn was mobile enough today to get a cup of tea brewing for the boys.  Soon after the hoover fell silent, Shane shambled into the living room and Lyn heard the stairlift’s whine as it went up to collect Terry, then ferried him downstairs.

‘Jennifer told you to walk up and down,’ Lyn reminded him.  Jennifer was the practice nurse who kept an eye on Terry’s general state of health.  His weight was creeping up again.

‘I’ve been on my feet all morning, getting that room sorted out,’ Terry answered.  ‘I don’t know what made you suggest she came to stay here.’

‘I think it was really nice of you, Nana,’ said Shane.

‘You would,’ moaned Terry.  ‘It’s not you who’ve having to throw a load of handy stuff out to make room for her.’

‘She’s paying her way, Luvvie.’

‘She’d better be.’  Terry stomped through to the kitchen and out to the lobby.  ‘I suppose I’ll have to use this bathroom all the time now?’  

‘You do anyway, most of the time.  You only use the upstairs one for a pee at night and she won’t mind you doing that.’

‘She won’t mind!  It’s none of her business where I go!’

Lyn heard the door to her wet room slam.

‘He was alright about it earlier on,’ said Shane.  ‘He said the extra cash would come in handy.’

‘He’s a funny old bugger,’ Lyn replied.  ‘You wait.  He’ll be all smiles when she gets here, carrying her bags up, making her a brew.  He just has to make sure I know he’s putting himself out.’

‘Weird,’ said Shane.  ‘I wondered if he’d found out it messed up your benefits or something?’

‘It could do, if we got different ones,’ Lyn said.  ‘Because we both get contribution-based ESA, not the means-tested type, it doesn’t matter and, as we own the house and don’t get Housing Benefit, that’s alright too.  We might have to pay extra Council Tax but we should still be better off over all.’

‘Unless she has the heating on all day and doesn’t turn the bloody lights off,’ Terry said, coming from the kitchen with the teas.  

‘We have the heating on all day anyway, at this time of year.’

‘You know what I mean.’

Lyn and Shane exchanged glances and said nothing.

‘And don’t you start hanging about here, hoping to see her either,’ Terry said to his grandson.  ‘I know you’ve taken a fancy to her, but she’s too old for you.’

‘Granddad, I’ve got a girlfriend at college.  She’s called…’

‘She’s not going to be interested in a spotty-faced nipper like you.’

‘He isn’t spotty-faced, you old misery.’  Lyn reached across and stroked the stubble on her grandson’s acne-scared cheek.  ‘And he’s not a nipper.  He’s a lovely, handsome young man.  I’m sure his girlfriend agrees.  What did you say her name is, luvvie?’

‘Olivia,’ said Shane.

‘Olivia?’ Terry said.  ‘Posh, is she?’

The letterbox rattled.  Shane got to his feet quickly and went to collect the post from the doormat.

‘That’ll be your reminder from the opticians!’ Terry laughed.  ‘Handsome young man my arse!  He’s a scrawny nipper with greasy hair and a big nose.  Christ knows what this Olivia sees in him, if she exists.’

‘He doesn’t really fancy Ashley, does he?’ Lyn asked her husband quietly.

‘I don’t think so.  I’m just winding him up.’

‘Well don’t.  Boys are more sensitive than you think at his age.’

‘Bollocks!’

‘It’s true.  Don’t be nasty to him.  He takes everything very seriously.’

Lyn stopped talking as Shane came back in. 

‘There’s a brown envelope, Nana,’ he said.  He handed it to her. 

Having volunteered at the Project, Shane knew enough about brown envelopes to know what the arrival of one might mean to his grandmother.  Lyn opened it, looking at Shane as she did so.  At best, it was a call in for a medical assessment for her ESA.  At worse, it might be a snap decision putting her out of the Support Group, which would end her claim since she had already received benefit for more than twelve months.

‘If I have to appeal, I’ll make sure you see how we go about it and what we have to do.  It’s even more of a palaver now than it was years ago, when Granddad and I first started having trouble with all this but…  oh!’

‘What’s wrong, Nana?’

‘Yeah, what have the buggers done now?’ Terry asked.

‘I think this is good news.’  Lyn smiled at them both.  ‘It says I don’t have to go for any more medical assessments.’

‘Really?’ cried Shane.  ‘That’s brilliant.’

‘It is and it isn’t, Luvvie,’ Lyn explained.  ‘I only don’t have to go because, they say, the medical evidence says I’m not going to get any better.’

‘But at least the Social won’t make you any worse by messing you about,’ Terry said.

‘Does this apply to your PIP as well, Nana?’

Lyn remembered her colleagues discussing a change to the regulations, but she had assumed it was only for people with terrible illnesses like cancer or motor-neurone disease.  Dear Dr Kat must have done another of her really good reports.

‘I don’t think so, luvvie,’ she said to Shane.  The letter is just about ESA.  I can always ask Hilary next time I see her.’  Lyn eased herself back in her chair.  ‘I don’t know, you two.  I feel like a hundred-ton weight has just been lifted off me!’

‘We ought to have a celebration,’ Terry said.  ‘Have we got any cake to go with this tea?’

‘Not at the moment, luvvie.’

‘I’ll go round the shops for one.  My treat!’

Shane leapt up and dashed out of the front door.

‘He didn’t ask what sort we wanted,’ said Terry.

‘He’ll get a salted caramel one.  That’s his favourite.’

Terry shook his head.

‘Salted bloody caramel!  Whoever thought of putting salt in caramel?’

Lyn didn’t know why Terry was complaining.  It was one of his favourite treats too.

‘Make a fresh brew, luvvie.’

Lyn watched her husband shuffle out to the kitchen.  She didn’t think he would be treated as sick enough to get his ESA for life; in fact, his next assessment would almost certainly drop him into the work-related group.  They had a plan for if that happened, involving Terry claiming Carer’s Allowance instead, although that relied on Lyn retaining her PIP.  One lost form, one bad decision, and they would be in financial trouble again.  For now, however, they had weathered another reassessment and were secure.

Lyn picked up her phone and rang Shane.

‘While you’re at the Co-op, pick up a nice big bunch of flowers, luvvie.  I’ll give you the money for them.’

Lyn fancied some to brighten up the living room and, if Shane bought a decent sized bunch, there would be enough left to put a few in a little vase in their guest’s room too.