Page 17 of Dancing Fools and All That Jazz

‘They have definitely been drinking. Sheila stank of booze.’ Asha looks most annoyed.

‘Let’s hope they don’t let them on the flight,’ Hazel murmurs as she pats Clarissa’s free arm.

‘What was it they were singing?’ Bonnie asks.

‘Sure you know it. Tina Turner, “Simply the Best”. Bold as Brass is as apt a name as any for that brassy pack. And Sheila’s dancers are no way better than us…’

‘Only in their dreams.’ A loud voice joins in.

I turn and see Ruby glare at Sheila’s group. Fay is behind her.

‘Stuff those tarty flamingos. We can beat them hands down.’ Ruby smiles at Clarissa and Monica looks away.

‘Ruby, Fay, thank goodness you’ve arrived.’ Clarissa quickly switches her attention away from the shrieking pink women. ‘Now everyone is here we need to get checked in. Get your cases and we will demonstrate what it is to have decorum.’

I suddenly feel a little sad. I am only a reserve and now everyone is here I will not be required to dance in the competition. I think maybe in secret I did want to perform on a big Paris stage? It is no good thinking this way, Ingrida. It will be wonderful just to be back in Paris.

I follow the others to the end of the check-in queue. I will concentrate on buying gifts for the children. I look at my watch and see we will not have long once we are through security.

‘Wait a minute.’ Fay has been counting us. ‘Where’s Janine?’

We all look around, but there is no sign of her.

‘Has anyone seen her?’ Ruby asks.

‘Hasn’t she got the flight thingies?’

‘Boarding passes, Bonnie,’ Fay corrects. ‘Yes, I believe she has. And she is leaving it very last minute. The latest time we can check-in is only an hour away. Punctuality is sadly lacking here.’

We all look around again and a security person asks us to move out of the way of the check-in queue as we are blocking it.

We move to the wall nearby and I begin to get very bad feeling about this.

Monica, Ruby, Clarissa, and Asha all try to call Janine from their phones, but none of them gets an answer.

‘I spoke to her last night,’ Monica says. ‘She said she would see us at the airport…’

‘I tried to call her last night, too. To see how she was getting here, but it just rang out. I called about 9 p.m. What time did you call?’ Ruby looks directly at Monica, but she looks away as she mumbles it was around 8 p.m.

‘Has anyone else spoken to her since then?’ Hazel asks.

We all shake our heads.

‘What if something has happened to her mother?’ Asha opens her hands. ‘I mean, I understand she has been ill for some time. I know people with dementia can sometimes go missing…’

‘That is pure speculation, Asha. The facts as we have them are that Janine is not here, and she is not answering her phone.’ Fay looks very angry.

‘Something must surely have happened,’ Cath adds. ‘I mean, if she knew she was going to be delayed, the wee girl would have got in contact with one of us, would she not?’

For the next fifteen minutes Monica and Clarissa try Janine’s house phone and her mobile phone non-stop. The rest of us split up to look around the terminal just in case Janine has been waiting in the wrong place.

We are all now with much worry and there is not so much time left to get on the flight. My phone pings with a notification and I click on the chat group.

‘ Ne . Ruby, look…’ I show the screen to Ruby as her phone pings with the same notification.

Janine Young left.

Ruby’s brows furrow as she shakes her head and clenches her fist.

‘We need to check-in without her,’ Ruby announces to us all. She marches across to a free desk, ahead of the queue where many people look annoyed as she jumps in front.

I watch with the others from a distance, and we see Ruby as she gesticulate and throw her hands in the air. A supervisor crosses to join the clerk at the desk and they look intently at a screen. Ruby motions for Clarissa to go and join her.

My stomach now has got what I think are called butterflies and I feel a little sick.

‘This is not looking good,’ Asha says aloud.

We wait for another five minutes and then Ruby and Clarissa walk back to us. Clarissa’s face is as white as a sheet and Ruby has her lips pressed tightly together.

‘What is going on?’ Monica asks Clarissa but when Clarissa says nothing, Monica looks directly at Ruby for the first time.

‘We’re not even booked onto the frigging flight,’ Ruby replies. ‘There’s no record of any group booking other than Sheila Bold’s group.’

‘Oh my God.’ Bonnie looks aghast. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means we’re fuc—’

‘What it means, Bonnie…’ Fay steps forward and interrupts Ruby. ‘Is that despite all our payments over all these months, we do not have flight tickets. It means… we are not going to Paris.’

‘You are joking,’ Asha mumbles, but I can see from her face she does not think this is joke.

‘Not going to Paris…’ Clarissa does not seem able to take it in. She leans into Hazel who puts a comfort arm around her.

I cannot speak.

‘No. We are not going to Paris unless…’

We all look with expectant eyes at Fay.