Fraser's Line by Monica Carly

it.’
    ‘I tell you what,’ said Angela. ‘I can never resist desserts – I ought to, I know, but there you are. Let’s choose one, and then we’ll go outside and take a walk – and perhaps talking will be a bit easier.’
    ‘I really don’t know.’ Fraser sat there shaking his head. ‘You are very kind, but perhaps we’ll finish our very nice meal and call it a day.’
    He called for the menu and they both studied it. Then he became aware that Angela was stifling a noise. He looked up in surprise and saw her shoulders shaking – was she crying? No, there was a smile on her face and she seemed to be giggling.
    ‘What is it?’ he asked, beginning to smile a little himself, not knowing why, but simply because her laughter was infectious.
    ‘Have you read the bottom of the menu?’ she asked.
    ‘Baked jam sponge and custard.’
    ‘No – underneath that – right at the bottom, in small print.’
    He looked closer and read out: ‘‘Please be aware that we are working with nuts in our kitchen.’ Oh my goodness,’ he said, ‘what are they going to serve up, do you think? Upside Down Pudding?’
    ‘Perhaps some kind of Fruit Fool. Rhubarb?
    ‘Rhubarb.’
    ‘No doubt topped with cracked wheat.’
    By now they were both laughing, and suddenly Fraser felt a weight lifting from him.
    ‘Look,’ he said. ‘I’m the nut, here. I’ve been handed a rather special opportunity to talk through some of my worries, and I’m such a coward I was on the point of throwing it away. I don’t know why I feel it would be a relief to talk to you, but I do. Let’s have our pudding and a cup of coffee, and then we’ll go and walk it all off, and I’ll try and bear my soul, if you can stand it – or at least that part which is concerning me at present.’
    ‘That sounds a great plan,’ she said. ‘Well done.’
    As they walked along by the river bank Fraser started to tell Angela what was troubling him.
    ‘I’ve been so miserable at the loss of my beautiful Edie, but I thought that at least I could look back and be thankful for my marriage and two children who were privileged to have the best mother in the world. I believed they had their feet planted firmly on solid ground – but now it seems I’ve been deluding myself all these years. I was astonished at the way Joanna lashed out, and the things she said. I couldn’t believe her bitterness and resentment.’
    He went on to relate the events of that evening, when Joanna had asked for a car, and when he demurred, had claimed that Edie had been giving her money for some time, and had actually promised to buy her one.
    ‘How did you respond?’ Angela asked.
    ‘Well, of course, I got a bit angry and must have raised my voice, because Joanna told me to be quiet. Then out came the accusations – that Edie had had ‘hang-ups’ and a ‘guilt complex’ and had put such pressures on the two of them with the result that they are now – what’s the word? Dysfunctional.’
    He outlined a picture of Sarah putting her family under pressure with her strategies of military precision, and he passed on the analogy Joanna had used of the express train. Then there were Joanna’s problems, the way she was riddled with indecision, and getting nowhere. But what had hurt him most were the statements about Edie – he could hardly bear to repeat them – but did manage to get out the bit about ‘used him abominably’ and ‘behaved outrageously’.
    Angela was quiet for a while. Then she said, ‘I’m very glad you telephoned. You have had an awful lot thrown at you in a very short space of time. It does help if you can share some of it.’
    ‘I shouldn’t have involved you,’ said Fraser. ‘I suppose I should really have contacted Margaret, but I didn’t think I could face some of her astringent comments. She never was Edie’s number one fan – although they seemed to get on pretty well on the whole. And I couldn’t possibly burden my poor darling mother –