Page 4 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)
Ibrahim is dancing with Joanna. He feels a fluidity, a grace, that is missing from his everyday life. He aches when he walks up stairs; he aches even more when he walks down. And yet here, on the wooden floor, the music loud and the lights sparkling, he feels no pain.
There are others dancing, Chris and Patrice, Chris dancing as awkwardly as you’d imagine. Donna is attempting to manhandle Bogdan around the floor but with little success. Bogdan is many things – a lover, a fighter, a painter and decorator – but he is not a dancer.
Ibrahim is aware, however, that a circle has opened up around Joanna and him. That people are watching them dance – a rhythmic clap starts to accompany their moves.
‘Do you think it’s too soon?’ Joanna asks in his ear.
‘Too soon?’
‘I only met Paul six months ago,’ says Joanna.
Ah, this is why they are dancing. Joanna needs advice. That’s fine by Ibrahim: he loves to dance, and he loves to give advice.
‘Well, when did you fall in love?’ Ibrahim asks.
‘Six months ago,’ says Joanna. ‘It was immediate. Did that ever happen to you?’
‘It did,’ says Ibrahim.
Madonna keeps singing, Ibrahim feels the beat coursing through him. Joanna says something, and Ibrahim indicates that he doesn’t quite catch it.
‘Are you lonely?’ Joanna repeats. This takes Ibrahim by surprise.
‘People mean different things by lonely,’ he says. Which is true.
‘That’s true,’ says Joanna. ‘But it doesn’t answer the question.’
‘I have Ron,’ says Ibrahim. ‘I have your mother. Even Elizabeth at times.’
Joanna nods. The circle around them has grown wider, the clapping louder. Of course he’s lonely.
‘So,’ says Joanna, ‘am I making a mistake?’
Ibrahim smiles. This is an easy one.
‘Have you asked Joyce if you’re marrying too soon?’
Joanna shakes her head.
‘Then there’s your answer,’ says Ibrahim.
‘But I haven’t asked her?’
‘Exactly,’ says Ibrahim. ‘The answer to every dilemma is in whom you ask for advice.’
Joanna twirls, lights spinning around her as she goes. She returns to face him.
‘Go on, Professor.’
‘You have a dilemma,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Is it too soon? Has love really struck like lightning? Woe is me, I must know the answer. I demand truth! Who can I ask? Who can aid me in this troubled hour?’
Joanna looks over Ibrahim’s shoulder. ‘Your policeman friend Chris has just tripped over a wheelchair.’
Ibrahim turns to look. Chris, who, it turns out, is currently on firearms training, is apologizing profusely. Ibrahim turns back to Joanna. ‘So you need sage advice. Your mother would be a good start, and yet you didn’t ask her? Why would that be?’
‘Well, you know Mum,’ says Joanna.
‘I do,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Joyce’s only motivation in life is your happiness. That’s a lot of pressure. Heaven knows what she might advise, terrified of saying the wrong thing, giving the wrong advice. So you don’t go to your mother. And, of course, you can’t go to your father.’
‘No,’ agrees Joanna.
‘Because he’s dead,’ adds Ibrahim. ‘He died.’
Joanna gives a genuine laugh. ‘I can’t believe you do this for a living.’
‘But your father would have given you the best advice,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Your father would have seen the truth?’
Joanna nods, her head on Ibrahim’s shoulder.
‘And I’m the next best thing,’ says Ibrahim. ‘Older, universally recognized as wise – ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same.’
Joanna starts laughing again. People often laugh at the most unlikely times, Ibrahim has noticed over the years.
‘So you have the question. Goodness, is it all too soon, is Paul the man for me? Do I ask my mother, who will panic, or do I ask my father, who will look into my eyes and see the truth? I ask my father, because I already know the truth, and I just need someone to say it out loud for me. Of course it is not too soon. You found love, and you knew it as surely as finding a diamond. Or finding a KitKat where one of the fingers is made entirely of chocolate, which actually happened to me once –’
‘Focus, Ibrahim,’ says Joanna.
‘When we have a dilemma’ – his KitKat story is true, by the way, but is maybe for another time – ‘we ask the person who will give us the answer we already know. And that’s why you asked me. Paul is wonderful, you are wonderful, today is wonderful.’
Their dance is coming to an end, as all dances must.
‘Who did you fall in love with?’ Joanna asks.
‘A boy called Marius,’ says Ibrahim. ‘He is dead too, like your dad.’
Joanna holds him tighter. ‘So that’s why you seem lonely. You’re waiting to see him again.’
‘I see him right now,’ says Ibrahim, and ‘Like a Prayer’ begins to fade out. ‘He sat with me at the wedding. I should go and see if Chris is badly injured.’
Joanna nods towards the circle of onlookers. ‘I think you’re going to be busy.’
Ibrahim looks too. A lot of women seem to be heading his way.
Joanna kisses Ibrahim on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’
Her place is immediately taken by Patrice. She extends her hands towards Ibrahim’s.
‘You really mustn’t feel obliged,’ says Ibrahim.
‘Obliged?’ says Patrice. ‘I had to elbow a bridesmaid out of the way.’