K - Fortune will call at the Smiling Gate

As the undo seatbelt sign lit up Clare felt her muscles unwinding
gratefully. Back
in the UK again. She had missed it more than she could imagine in the
past four and a
half years. She felt emotional, relieved and excited. She couldn't wait
to see
her family. She knew Mum would put on a great welcome home dinner for
her and
everybody would be there. James would be teasing her about her short
hair and boyish
style and Jackie would be hanging on her every word wanting to borrow
everything.
Jackie was the one who had written such lovely long letters to her
religiously every
week. She'd enclosed sweets and photos and all the funny stories of
what was happening
back home while she was away. Clare reached for her neatly packed small
holdall in the overhead locker, queued stiffly for the exit door and
eventually exited the plane. At last. Homecoming.

James and his wife Linda had driven to the airport to pick her up,
Jackie coming along for the ride. As they passed through the grey
streets of Heathrow suburbia, a faint drizzle in the air, Clare spotted
a red double decker. Then she really felt home. James, Linda and Jackie
were all talking excitedly non-stop. Clare smiled to herself, jaded
from the long flight, snippets of Japanese English running through her
mind. Everything seemed so very "English" to her now, even her own
brother and sister. She was physically home but mentally adjusting, her
mind struggling to catch up and revert to UK time and ways.

As the others insisted on collecting all her luggage from the boot,
Clare walked on ahead up the drive and placed her key in the door of
her parental home for the first time in years. Mum was eagerly already
opening the door on the other side, Dad close behind. They both fussed
over her as much as the others had done. She sat down on the sofa in
the living room and was relieved to find that absolutely nothing had
changed. The same smells, the same sights. She caught sight of some of
her postcards and aerogrammes behind the mantelpiece clock. Her eyes
came to rest on the family photo next to them.

"Cup of tea Clare love?" asked her Dad.

"Oh Dad. Yes please. A proper English cup of tea."

Now, where was she, she glanced back to the photo and saw the familiar
childhood faces.
James with the lovely curls he used to have, little Jackie, Mum,
Dad,&;#8230;.. Lynn! She felt a
pang of guilt. She had forgotten all about her elder sister. Lynn's
face smiled back at her
from the photo. She wore a faded blue dress that Gran had given her.
She had later
passed it down to Clare.

"Has anyone heard from Lynn recently?" ventured Clare later over
dinner.

"Not for ages love" said her Dad. "I'm not even sure where she is at
the moment. You know how she is."

"Oh, I was thinking, I'd like to see her."

"You can try love. We've got the last number she was at. I don't know
if she's still there though. She was talking of moving down to
Newquay."

Clare settled back into life in the UK. She went shopping transferring
her well earned Yen into lovely designer outfits. She was young, slim,
beautiful,talented. She was a happy person, never quite understanding
how she had made it to be so successful. Her thoughts often flickered
to Lynn; the smile in the photo so familiar but yet so distant.

After a couple of weeks she plucked up the courage to call her
estranged elder sister. It was a Sunday afternoon. The phone rang
expectantly.

"Yeah?"

"Hello? Lynn? Is that you? It's me. Clare."

"Oh. Hi Clare. You home? How's it going? Kylie, put that down.
Now!"

"Good. Really good. I was thinking. Would you like to meet up for a
coffee or something?" She tried to make it sound casual but she felt a
little awkward as she remembered they hadn't seen each other in at
least five years. Probably more.

"Yeah. OK. If you like. I'll have to sort out leaving the kids with Kim
though, if she'll have them. She's got three of her own now you know.
You know I've got three? Three different fathers. We're so broke you
wouldn't believe it. You'll be buying the coffee then? Make mine a
double." She laughed. Clare liked to hear her laugh.

They met two days later at the coffee shop next to the station. As
Clare approached she was staggered to see after all this time how
similar her elder sister looked to herself. Clare was slightly taller
and slimmer, she oozed success in material terms but their faces were
almost identical. The same sculpted cheek bones, the same thick
blond hair.

"Alright?" said Lynn.

"Yes, thanks," said Clare breathing in. It was sometimes hard to place
Lynn within her family circle. Lynn had chosen to put herself outside
of it so long ago. Clare found it hard to take her mirror image in.
Lynn didn't seem bothered.

"I'll get this" asserted Clare and moved to the coffee counter. She
returned with a tray and noticed Lynn was wearing a cheap jumper washed
far too many times stretched uncomfortably across her chest. Clare
watched as her sister leant forward to sip
her coffee and dribbled a bit down her chin, staining her top. Her
attempts at dabbing
only made it worse. Clare wanted to look after her. Take her shopping.
Help her with
the difficult hair they both had. But she knew Lynn would never accept.
Lynn had
always seemed most happy being miserable, if you know what I
mean.

"So I hear you made a lot of money in Japan then?"

"Yes. I've done well. I'm not complaining."

"I bet you're not. It's all right for some. If I just found one decent
man to stick with me I might be alright. Still, might go to Lanzarote
with Kim in the summer for a laugh. Do a bit of clubbing. Prove I'm not
past it!"

Clare couldn't think of a worse kind of holiday. She herself was
planning a
horse-riding trip with a girlfriend to Mexico. She couldn't get her
head around the fact they were from the same family.

Lynn meanwhile had glanced at the price list on the board above
them.

"?1.85 for a coffee? I ask you. These people must be rolling in it.
Setting up all these trendy coffee bars. You know we got a taxi over to
the Malthill last night. Fifteen quid. Can you believe it? No wonder
that cabby's always smiling. It's alright for some. Don't know when my
ship's coming in though."

Clare put down the spoon she'd been fiddling with and looked out into
the street where hassled shoppers bustled past each other and wondered
why the whole world was better off than her sister. She remembered an
expression from a Japanese monk she had met in the mountains: "Fortune
will call at the smiling gate." Involuntarily she had muttered this
aloud.

"You what?" said Lynn. "You've been drinking too much of that what's it
called, that sake stuff. God my head aches from last night. You got any
aspirin girl?"