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Back The Black Dress Save as PDF
Chapters (29)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Prologue
  4. Part One
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Part Two
  10. One
  11. Two
  12. Three
  13. Four
  14. Five
  15. Six
  16. Seven
  17. Part Three
  18. One
  19. Two
  20. Part Four
  21. One
  22. Two
  23. Three
  24. Four
  25. Five
  26. Six
  27. Seven
  28. Epilogue
  29. About the Author

She smiled, her spectacles glinting in the electric light. Then she put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze.

‘They say it’s an ill wind … but to be perfectly frank, my love, and I know I shouldn’t say this—naughty me!—if it’s taken Covid to bring us together, then it’s been a blessing in disguise.’

In the kitchen the kettle boiled but Pam didn’t move. She squeezed my shoulder tighter.

Pritt-Stick Pam and me, stuck together for the duration. However long the duration might be.

Epilogue

Epilogue

The next time I wore the dress was at Azra’s funeral. The next, and the very last time. It had been hanging in her wardrobe; I found it when I went back to her flat for the rest of my belongings.

Our little black dress.

Two months had passed. It was July and lockdown had been lifted. The country had emerged from its long hibernation, blinking in the light. My God, wasn’t that summer beautiful? The sun beat down on our little group as we stood around the grave. We watched Azra being lowered into the earth, taking her secrets with her.

I was dripping with sweat. The lining of the dress stuck to my skin. Janey, Azra’s sister—Linda’s sister—passed me a tissue to mop my face. She dropped a bunch of peonies onto the coffin. As they hit it, the petals scattered; a peony’s life is over almost as soon as it’s begun.

It was Janey who had emailed me with the news. ‘It happened so fast,’ she wrote. ‘The cancer had spread to her spine. It was all over in a matter of weeks.’

The funeral was held in Sunderland. The next day I returned to London and took the train to Deal. The dress was packed in my overnight bag. I’d presumed that at some point I’d take it out and dump it in a rubbish bin but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do something so insignificant. So dingy.

The beach was crowded with families released from their imprisonment. En masse they’d rushed to the seaside. There was a carnival atmosphere as they frolicked by the waves; who knew how long this would last?

I found a space, took out the dress and spread it on the shingle. I lay down on it, closed my eyes and surrendered myself to the sun. The voices echoed far away. I heard Azra’s husky laughter. I heard the scrunch of the pebbles as she ran towards the sea, lithe and lovely in her lime-green swimsuit.