“Leonard, I can’t believe...the photos, the locations and phone numbers and...all of it. How... I wouldn’t even have known where to start. I mean, I know I probably should have kept up with all that sort of stuff for...for Norman’s sake, but I just...and then, well...” I trailed off, losing interest in my own excuses, but Leonard was too excited or tactful to care.

“Oh, well, certainly Trace Your Family History Tuesdays from back in October last year helped, but it’s all out there online these days, Sadie. Extraordinary, really. LinkedIn, Facebook, forums, BT Yellow Pages—all of it. You did the hard part by remembering the names.” Not wrong there. “But after that it was just a matter of patience and persistence. I didn’t even have to leave the comfort of my desk, and now look what we’ve done! Extraordinary!” Indeed.

Leonard and I sat there staring at the Google Map with its four little perky red flags as the dregs in our teacups went cold. I’ve absolutely no doubt we were thinking about very different things; in fact, for a few minutes there Leonard looked like he’d drifted off to somewhere altogether else. But there it was. Barnstaple, Swansea, Bournemouth, Edinburgh. As a pilgrimage, it was hardly exotic, but as a holiday itinerary it sounded positively dismal.

I heard a rustle of movement at the back door, and there was Norman, hair all over the place, jacket tied around his waist and forehead red raw and blazing from his nemesis and the wind. His eyes went straight to the laptop, taking in the spreadsheet, the photos and the Google Map with its little red flags, which, for all I knew, made perfect sense to him.

“Did we...did we find someone? One of the guys? My...the dads, Mum? Did we, Leonard?”

See what I mean? I looked over at Leonard, who all of a sudden had to tie a shoelace, then at the computer screen and back to Norman. Sunday morning ground to a halt and I knew the answer I gave here and now was going to rock both our worlds. I’ve got you, Sadie.

“We found them all, son. We fucking found them all.”

Norman sat down hard on the floor of the kitchen with a stunned look on his face. Leonard let out an embarrassed cough and his head bounced up and hit the table. I just sat there and wondered if there was any chance of me going back to bed for the rest of my life.

19

Norman

FIRST RULE OF COMEDY:
Easy is for pussies.

LEONARD SAID IT didn’t matter that he hadn’t heard back from any of the venues at the Fringe before we left, because it was just a matter of time before someone gave me a spot to do my show. Leave it to the universe, Norman, and the universe will oblige is what he also said.

As soon as I met Leonard I knew that if anyone could get me and Mum to the Fringe it’d most likely be him. He reckons if you believe nothing is set in stone, then you can believe change is always possible. And that just really means that one never knows.