Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [104]
She told the story right up to the present, when she had left Liscuan and come back because the sight of her father and brother having made something of the shambles of their lives was too much to bear.
Lisa listened and wished that someone—anyone—had ever said to Moira that there was a way of dealing with all this, that she should be glad for other people instead of appearing to triumph over their downfall. She might have to pretend at first, but soon it would become natural. Lisa had managed to make herself glad that Katie had a happy marriage and a successful career. She was pleased that Kevin’s agency was doing well. Of course, when people were enemies like her father was, and April was, then it would be superhuman to wish them well.…
As Lisa’s mind began to drift, she realized that the woman at the next table was beginning to choke seriously. A piece of amaretto had become lodged in her throat; the young waiter stared, goggle-eyed, as she changed from scarlet to white.
“What is it, Marco?” asked the young blond waitress—was that Maud Mitchell? What was she doing working here? Lisa wondered—who then, taking in the situation at a glance, called over her shoulder, “Simon, we need you here now!”
Immediately her brother arrived, and he too was dressed in a waiter’s uniform.
“She’s getting no air in …,” Maud said.
“It’s a Heimlich …,” Simon agreed.
“Can you get her to cough once more?” asked Maud, in total control.
“She’s trying to cough—something’s stuck there.…” The woman’s daughter was nearly hysterical at this point.
“Madam, I’m going to ask you to stand up now and then my brother is going to squeeze you very hard. Please stay calm, it’s a perfectly normal maneuver,” said Maud in a voice both firm and reassuring.
“We’ve been trained to do this,” Simon confirmed. Standing behind the woman and putting his arms around the diner’s diaphragm, he pushed hard inwards and upwards. The first time there was no response but the second time he squeezed her abdomen, a small piece of biscuit shot out of her mouth.
Instantly she was breathing again. Tears of gratitude followed, then sips of water and a demand to know the names of the young people who had saved her life.
Lisa had been mesmerized by the entire scene and suddenly realized she hadn’t been listening to a word Moira had been saying for the last few minutes. The entire episode had happened so quickly it looked as though few other people had noticed anything amiss. Really, those twins were something else. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the waiter they’d called Marco shake Simon enthusiastically by the hand and then give Maud a hug that looked more than just grateful.…
Lisa and Moira divided the bill and got up to leave, well pleased with their evening.
Ennio, in his carefully maintained broken English, wished them good-bye.
“Eet is always so good to meet the good friends who ’ave a happy dinner together,” he said cheerfully, as he escorted them to the door. They were not good friends but he didn’t know this. If they had been real friends, they would not have gone home with such unfinished business between them. Instead they just touched the levels of each other’s loneliness but had made no effort each to find an escape route for the other or a bridge between them for the future. It was one night made less bleak by a series of circumstances and the warmth of Ennio’s welcome, but it was no more than that.
It would have saddened him to know this as he locked the doors after them—they had been the last to leave. Ennio was a cheerful man. He would have much preferred to think he had been serving a pair of very good friends.
Chapter Ten
Emily had a wonderful weekend in the west with Paddy and Molly Carroll. Dingo Duggan had been an enthusiastic, if somewhat adventurous, driver. He seemed