The Party's Over – Jenny 38

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and this one.]

[For other back story click in-links]

All the important meals were over. Most of the leftovers had seen the last of the dining room table. Paper hats littered the floor, empty and half empty glasses stood to attention and across the sideboard. An array of special crockery awaited some careful washing up – too valuable to be shoved in the washing up machine.

“Why did you do it?” asked Jenny quietly, sat opposite Izzy, distanced by at least two empty wine bottles.

The kids had dispersed to their rooms, tired but fairly happy from the days of food and drink and little else. They’d unwrapped everything, made notes of things that still actually needed wrapping and sending – the complications of a bizarre school term, a pregnant girlfriend and a global pandemic which was now accelerating its influence, powering through the population, somewhat scuppering the usual precision of preparing for the festive days. The queue for the post office, for example, proved too daunting for Peter to brave, even armed with thermal underclothes, thick bobble hat and gloves that combined warmth with the ability to still use his phone’s touch-screen.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Izzy. “Honestly. You know how complicated things get at this time of year. The pandemic made it ten times worse. It’s not surprising they got the wrong end of the stick and needed me to straighten it out.”

Jenny and Izzy had promised not to discuss it over ‘proper' Christmas, so this was the first time the subject had been breached. But Jenny wasn't sure this was the best way forward in the end as she’d spent most nights awake staring at the ceiling trying to work out what Izzy had done and why. She also realised finding out exactly what had gone on might be tricky – given that she probably couldn’t ask anyone apart from Izzy and she doubted whether Izzy was going to be entirely straight about events.

“What do we do about Peter’s engagement?” asked Izzy, injecting excitement into her voice. “I mean they clearly want to go ahead with this but have they thought it through? When are weddings even going to be legal?”

Jenny didn’t know the answer to that and to a great extent she really didn’t care about it. There would be time enough to get it sorted however they wanted to arrange it. The wedding was a moveable object in the increasingly disturbed sea of normality. In the current circumstances Jenny was tempted to grab hold of anything that made sense and the proposed wedding was pretty much it. She could relate to a wedding even if it might not have any guests and come at a time when Jenny was least expecting to have a married child. Strange how the pandemic had not just blown things apart but had also created events that ordinarily would be too strange to take seriously.

“We’re not talking about Peter right now,” said Jenny insistently. “I want to talk about what Linus and his friend wanted. And what they think you’ve done.”

“OK, but it’s nothing,” said Izzy, “and to prove it. I want to talk about Peter and Jude first.”

“No,” said Jenny forcefully.

“Well,” said Izzy, “I’m very pleased they got the Brexit thing sorted. At least that’s a load off my mind. Can you imagine what would have happened if...”

“No,” said Jenny again. “The subject is the finances at work and what you’ve done.”

Izzy paused and looked at Jenny, seemingly judging if she really did now have to discuss it. How far could she push this situation. Could she take one more diversion?

“Stop changing the subject and tell me what’s happening.”

“I put some money into a different back account for safe keeping,” said Izzy. “It wasn’t going to stay there, it just went there because I wasn’t sure if the company would need it post Brexit. Extra expenses you know? I mean, you and me had talked about that often enough, right? So I’d put it to one side to hold on to it and...”

“Do we need to sell the bike?” 

Slight pause.

“I mean we can’t take the food back or anything so I imagine you could well be paying for that stuff for some time to come if...”

“It’s your bike. Of course you don’t need to sell it.”

Slight pause.

“Do you still have a job, Izzy?”

“Yes,” she said straight away. “At the moment. And I’ll still have it once they see what I’ve done and why.”

Jenny looked carefully at Izzy, trying to judge what she should do or ask next. She wanted to ask whose name the ‘bank account of safe keeping’ was in, but there again it might be too much information for her right now.