Darling Isabel, it began.
Only two people in her life had ever called her Isabel. Her beloved Grampa Joe, and …
Well, here I am! Just to tell you I won’t be celebrating Christmas this year as I have met my soulmate. I now live with a collective of Orthodox Jews so we’ll be passing it just as any other normal day. However Hanukkah is upon us as I’m sure you know …
Issy internally rolled her eyes. She did know it was Hanukkah actually: Louis had shown her the menorah he’d made at school, and everyone had finally understood after a week of trying to work out what he meant by ‘men over’ with Caroline talking pointedly about speech therapy to Pearl and Issy having to stand between them at all times.
so I will be lighting a candle for you in the window here in Queens …
‘Caroline?’ said Issy in a strangled voice. ‘Where’s Queens?’
‘Oh, no one ever goes to Queens, darling,’ came the voice from downstairs. ‘Does that new girl know how to make royal icing?’
‘Yes,’ said Maya. Pearl shot her a look. ‘I learn fast,’ qualified Maya quickly.
Issy held up her hand to quieten everyone.
‘Caroline,’ she said, more slowly. ‘Is Queens near New York?’
Caroline climbed up the narrow steps with a supercilious look on her face. She loved being in the know.
‘Actually, it’s part of New York,’ she said. ‘There’s five boroughs … Manhattan, Brooklyn—’
‘Yeah, OK, all right,’ said Issy. ‘So it’s close by?’
‘It’s part of it. You go through Queens on the way to the airport.’
Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Issy, who threw up her hands.
‘OK!’ she said. ‘OK, I give up. The universe is conspiring against me. Maya, get down there and learn to make royal icing. I’m … I guess I’m going to New York!’
‘Yay!’ cheered some of the customers.
Doti smiled. ‘This is all going to work out great.’
‘Thank you! Thank you!’ said Maya.
Pearl didn’t say anything as she handed over a box of a dozen red velvet and mint icing cakes for an office party.
‘Don’t smoosh them in the photocopier when you’re taking pictures of each other’s bums,’ she warned the giggly girls with reindeer antlers waiting to pick them up.
‘No fear,’ said one. ‘We’re going to hand-feed them to the best-looking men in the office.’
‘Well, there’s no way that can possibly backfire,’ said Pearl as they disappeared, giggling their heads off.
Issy’s mind meanwhile was in a whirl; half-excited, half-terrified, and trying to work out the practicalities. Pack … tell Darny’s teachers … get organized …
‘I’ll pick up Darny en route, he’s at his friend’s,’ she mused. ‘He’ll be delighted … No,’ she corrected herself. ‘He’ll be the exact opposite to whatever emotion I expect him to have. Pearl, you’re in charge.’
‘It’s a Christmas miracle!’ said Caroline. ‘This is wonderful.’
‘Hmm,’ said Issy, nervous and excited all at once.
‘Hang on!’ said Caroline and disappeared back down the stairs. ‘I have something for you.’
Pearl looked up. Spontaneous acts of generosity weren’t exactly Caroline’s thing. Two seconds later she reappeared.
‘It will be freezing in New York,’ she said. ‘Proper real American freezing, not a bit blowy and damp like it is here.’
She held out, at arm’s length, her white fox-fur coat. It was cut very short, like a biker jacket, with great screeds of fur down the front and metal stud detail at the top, and a leather collar and cuffs, and was, beyond a shadow of doubt, the most hideous coat Issy had ever seen in her entire life.
‘That’s sooo kind of you,’ said Issy in agony. ‘But I couldn’t possibly. How will you get home?’
Caroline shrugged. ‘Can’t I do something nice?’
‘Yes, but you know, I don’t really believe in fur …’
‘It’s fake,’ said Caroline. ‘I know, it doesn’t look it, it looks like the real thing. And it was practically as expensive as the real thing. But as I said to the Bastard, can’t you share a little kindness in the world? I mean, he can’t, obviously, he’s a total bastard. So that’s me rebalancing our chakras. My therapist says it’s good karma.’
‘Your therapist believes in karma?’ said Pearl wonderingly, but Issy was just standing there, floored by the generous gesture.
‘Send me lots of pictures of you wearing it,’ said Caroline. ‘I love New York so much and never get to go there any more. You can take the coat instead. It’ll be almost as good as going myself.’ Her eyes had gone a little misty.
‘Uhm. Thank you,’ said Issy. ‘Thank you. That’s very kind.’
‘Try it on!’
‘Yes!’ said Pearl. ‘Try it on!’
Caroline’s narrow shoulders and thin frame meant that at least the ludicrous cut of the jacket made it look like it was done on purpose. On Issy’s soft white shoulders and large, gentle bosom, it didn’t have a hope in hell. Her arms stuck out at the sides like Buzz Lightyear’s wings.
‘I don’t think it fits,’ said Issy.
‘Nonsense,’ said Caroline, pulling and fussing with the creaking leather till it came to an approximation round her middle. The fur tickled Issy’s nose and she could feel the studs through the shoulders. ‘It’s perfect.’
Issy risked a look at Pearl. Her face was utterly blank and she couldn’t meet Issy’s eyes, which told Issy all she needed to know. Even more when two seconds later she turned round to greet Louis coming in early from school.
‘Issy!’ he said, looking concerned. ‘Is your coat sore, Issy?’