Now Is Our Time by Jo Kessel Page A

a yellowy tinge. He didn’t look right and from what he had told her it wasn’t immediately evident what nutritional changes she could suggest to help. Georgia had jokingly called her a witch the day before. Claire preferred to call it a ‘sixth sense’. And right now her sixth sense was telling her that something was untoward.  
     
    “I’m not a Doctor and the symptoms you’re describing make me think it might be helpful to see someone who’s properly medically qualified.”
     
    She didn’t want to scare him, just in case her sixth sense was having an off-day. But nonetheless she wanted to make sure that he listened to her.
     
    “I’m sure it’s nothing, but please,” she pleaded, “if you won’t see a doctor for you, then do it for me.”  
     
    Orlando held up his hands in surrender.
     
    “Ok, I’ll do it,” he promised.
     
    “Good,” said Claire, “and I’ll call you in a couple of days to check you’ve kept your word.”
     
    One of the perks of a home visit was that Claire performed a recipe demonstration at the end of each consultation. Something was definitely needed to temper the heaviness that now hung in the air. Claire reached for her bag and started unloading an array of ingredients onto the table: a tin of mackerel, a small pot of soy yoghurt and half a lemon.
     
    “Oily fish is a great source of omega 3,” Claire smiled, lifting up the mackerel tin, “and it makes a cheap and easy pate. So let’s get cooking.” 
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    Meeting with Orlando had served as a good distraction but, once Claire got back in her car, it didn’t take long for her malaise to return. She slowed and stopped at a red traffic light, tears spilling from her eyes onto her cheeks. She knew she ought to be thinking about Orlando - she was genuinely concerned about him - but the only thing now in her head was Jonah. Damn him! If he hadn’t come back into her life she wouldn’t be having any of these thoughts. That box would have remained firmly sealed. For Ever . This had been precisely what she’d feared from the beginning. That Jonah re-entering her life would open her up to a pool of pain which she just didn’t want to dive into.
     
    The car behind her honked its horn. She wiped her eyes. The traffic-light had turned green and she’d not noticed. Slowly accelerating, she wondered whether this date, June 13 th , held any significance for Jonah whatsoever. Did he even remember? Well, sure he would remember, but would this particular date trigger an emotional response? Had he battled and struggled with this date every year like she had since they’d parted, trying to lock all that torturous emotion away for eternity? She seriously doubted it. Then what did that say about him ?  
     
    Claire’s brain felt as if its wiring had been temporarily tampered with and signals were firing off in wrong directions. Think about something nice .  Claire tried. She thought about Georgia’s exciting pregnancy news. No, that didn’t help! Claire burst out crying as she parked her car outside her house, leaning her head on the steering wheel until she recovered her composure.
     
    Lily Allen’s spine-tingling rendition of Somewhere Only We Know was playing on the radio as her tears abated. The pure clarity of Lily Allen’s voice as she sang Oh simple thing, where have you gone was haunting. Perhaps it was Lily Allen who was the witch and not her.  Outside, a large black rain cloud drifted underneath the sun and settled there, like a heavy grey weight defying gravity.
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    A stiff, alcoholic drink, that’s what Claire really felt like after she shut her front door behind her. But it was only 11.30 am. Instead, she boiled the kettle and decided to soothe herself with the strongest cup of tea she could brew. She made it in the mega-size