Chapter 5: A Strange But Lovely Feeling

Travina went and walked with Ian and Christine. Nicola moved over to Aaron. Hugh walked with Alvin. ‘How are you settling in?’ Nicola asked. ‘Fine thank you,’ Aaron told her, ‘Ian is looking after me, he’s so kind.’ ‘He is nice isn’t he,’ she said, ‘I’m so glad that he and Christine got together.’

‘I hope you don’t mind mum and dad making a fuss of you,’ she said, ‘They like you a lot and want to try to make up to you for a bit of what you’ve missed out on.’ ‘Not at all,’ Aaron told her, ‘I think they’re lovely. I don’t remember a lot about my mum and dad, but since meeting your parents, I like to think they were as lovely as they are.’

Nicola couldn’t trust herself to speak for a while, so she just took Aaron’s arm instead. Then a bit further on, she asked, ‘Do you mind if I ask what happened to them?’ ‘They drove to the business park out of town near where we lived.’ Aaron told her.

‘I can’t remember what they had gone to get, but it was something large, so I stayed at home to make room in the car. They were going down the main road approaching the park when a lorry coming the other way came over the wrong side of the road and hit them head on.’

‘The lorry driver had been on his phone at the time. I’ve no idea what happened to him, but mum and dad were killed outright. The policeman who came to tell me said that it was instantaneous and they wouldn’t have suffered at all. He also told me that if I’d been in the car with them, I’d be dead too.’

‘That’s a terrible thing for anyone to deal with at any age,’ Nicola told him. ‘At your age it must have been devastating.’ ‘When I first went into care,’ Aaron admitted, ‘For quite a while, I wished I’d been in the car with them. It wasn’t that the people running the care home weren’t nice.’ he added hastily.

‘It just wasn’t the same as having a mum and dad and a proper home, but it really wasn’t that bad once I got used to it.’ ‘Your parents must have been really lovely people for you to have turned out as you have, after all that suffering.’ Nicola told him.

As Hugh and Alvin walked along Hugh thanked him for the wedding invite and asked how all the preparation was going. ‘We’ll always remember it as the first wedding we went to after our own.’ he said smiling.

‘You and Travina will have to come round for dinner once we’re settled in our new house,’ Hugh told him, ‘We move in properly next weekend.’ Alvin’s phone buzzed so he called change. Nicola returned to Hugh and Christine walked with Travina. Ian brought up the rear alone. Alvin walked with Aaron. ‘Thanks again for the tv.’ Aaron told him.

‘My pleasure,’ Alvin told him, ‘Moving into your first place is always so expensive. If you want to, you can always get new stuff later when you’re properly settled.’ ‘Actually, I haven’t been there much yet,’ Aaron told him, ‘I spent all yesterday afternoon and evening with Kurt and Sandra.’

‘Good,’ Alvine said, ‘I’m glad to see you’re making new friends and Kurt and Sandra are a lovely couple. Did you know that Kurt was my flat share before Ian?’ ‘No, I didn’t,’ Aaron admitted. ‘There are a lot of really nice people with connections to you, aren’t there.’ he said smiling at him.

‘Yes,’ Alvin said, ‘I’m very happy to say that is true. But think about it, if anyone looked at you now and saw all the lovely people who are your friends, they could say the same about you.’ Aaron thought about that and liked it, but he felt sure that Alvin had had a much more active part to play.

Alvin’s phone buzzed, so he called change once more. He returned to Travina and Ian joined Aaron. They didn’t have long together as they were approaching Southport pier. They all got the little train that ran along the pier and found somewhere to sit at the end.

They ate all their carry out and then the organiser came up and sat with Aaron. He explained that he didn’t have to join just because he had come today, but if he’d like to come regularly there was a membership of ten pounds a month.

‘That covers just about everything,’ he was told, ‘But if you come on a two-day hike, there would be accommodation costs to pay extra.’ Aaron signed up right away and was given bank details for his standing order. The organiser announced that they had a new member, and everyone clapped and called out, ‘Welcome.’