Safe in Taxis by Lucy Deedes
She thought she’d planned for every eventuality.
Even the weather was on her side: long golden May days and warm evenings. Fiona had thought if she could only get Maria and Joe together, not at a fleeting dinner party but down here in the country for a peaceful long weekend, then they might just hit it off.
All went smoothly: Joe had time off from the hospital; Maria was free. The swimming pool was warm, the delphiniums and roses were out; there would be lunch and supper in the garden. In Fiona’s view, warm balmy weather kickstarted a romance, not bitter cold, red noses and hat-flattened hair. They had tickets for Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers on Saturday evening: intimacy, Fiona knew, could be built by the necessity of leaning close to your neighbour to talk.
Then Edward decided to ask his cousin Paddy.
‘Paddy?’ she said. ‘With Maria and Joe?`
‘I know you want to get your sister together with Joe but it’s too obvious if it’s just them. Paddy will mix things up.’
She sloshed wine into a glass.
‘Theatre tickets? We’d need another.’
‘Done it.’
Then Paddy offered to drive Maria down from London. They arrived with the car roof down, windswept and laughing. And before she could tell him it was for Joe, Paddy dumped his case on the bed of the blue room, next to Maria’s bedroom. Fiona beat the sauce for the souffle as though it might bite her. Joe arrived, looking tired and inconveniently seedy, and Edward, after broad hints, suggested a game of tennis to Paddy.
Joe at least managed to take a bottle of champagne and some glasses out to Maria, who lay in the hammock with her book. Fiona craned her neck through the window, struggling to hear their conversation above the manly shouts from the tennis court. At supper Joe was quietly wry and charming but Paddy made them all laugh with his stories.
At breakfast on Saturday, Maria instantly agreed to a ride on the downs and Joe tiresomely said he must do some work, so it was Paddy and Maria, chattering away, who rattled away on the polo ponies.
There were drinks in the theatre bar and the non-drinkers scowled at them as they bumped and filed their way to their seats. Paddy somehow got himself next to Maria and talked to her in loud whispers throughout. Joe’s head drooped occasionally onto his chest.
The next morning Edward and Paddy raced up and down the swimming pool.
The others breakfasted on the terrace. ‘I hardly dare say it,’ Joe said, ‘But there’s a problem with a patient and I need to go straight to the hospital.’ He looked handsome and distracted, back in work mode.
Maria put a hand over his. ‘I’d love to hitch a lift with you.’ Her eyes hovered on the men in the pool.
‘Lovely,’ Joe said. ‘Then we shall have a proper talk.’
Which was what she had hoped would happen in the first place.
From Jackie: Interesting that three of the exercises have relationships/proposals as their subject. This nicely evoked middle class machinations. But I couldn’t see anything that indicated that Joe might be interested. I had the feeling that he would talk about his patients’ bunions or some such and Maria would be sorely disappointed. My main comment is that this kind of plotting and the need for Maria to hang off a man seems old fashioned in these days of Tinder. In my experience, Maria would be ‘swiping right’ on a variety of guys within a 20 mile radius. Not that I’m on Tinder (!) , but the kids are.
From Simon: There’s a pleasing economy in the set-up here – ‘long golden May days and warm evenings’, ‘the delphiniums and roses were out’ – examples of how a few details can summon up a larger picture. The characters are also well-drawn – no need for elaborate description, their actions tell us all we need to know about them. I particularly liked the line: ‘Fiona beat the sauce for the souffle as though it might bite her.’ There was a good tautness to the story too. It has echoes of the Hare and the Tortoise, Paddy’s obvious, ebullient charm contrasted with Joe’s tiredness and reticence. But we do get the feeling that, whatever it is Joe does at the hospital, it is probably something admirable and stressful, which is why he is so tired. Even in the short span of this narrative, the reader’s emotions are engaged. And we are rewarded by the pay-off. Maria goes for the right man.
Such fun. Loved red noses and hat-flattened hair. Great rhythm