Cecelia Ahern Short Stories by Cecelia Ahern Read Free Book Online Page B

Mags allowed to dress, act and speak for herself just as she pleased. They were all married now. Only Joyce lived in Dublin, the rest were living overseas with their families. They tried to get home as much as they could. Their eldest was now fifty-three years old. Not a baby any more.
    ‘On its own, number eight.’
    The number of her grandchildren.
    She couldn’t wait to finish up here and talk to Connie. She still loved him with all of her heart and every time she thought of him butterflies fluttered around her tummy. He used to work at the bingo hall until a few years ago, when the arthritis in his hands became too bad. He had missed playing the piano so much and Mags missed listening to him as she played her bingo. It was nice to hear his familiar sounds in the background and she liked being able to look up and watch him when he didn’t know she was looking. His face furrowed in concentration as he played the tunes he had been playing for over fifty years. They had never been able to find a replacement piano player. But there was no one near as good as Connie anyway …
    Her thoughts diminished as she stared down at her card.
    ‘Oh,’ she said quietly with surprise.
    ‘Wha’?’ Aggie yelled.
    Mags smiled at her lifelong friend. ‘I got bingo, Aggie.’ She clapped her hands together with glee.
    ‘You got wha’?’
    ‘Bingo, Aggie.’ She rolled her eyes. Here she goes again.
    ‘Ha?’
    ‘For the fiftieth time, I said I got Bingo! she yelled, the veins in her forehead throbbing from the volume of her voice.
    The room stopped what they were doing and stared at her. ‘I’m so, so sorry, Ms Divine,’ the bingo caller said, startled. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t hear you the first time. Would you like to come up and collect your prize? You’ve won ten euro. Everybody give Mags a round of applause.’
    Mags’s cheeks blushed as she slowly stood up from her chair and made her way shakily up to the stage. Her hip was at her again. Wait till Connie heard all her good news today, she thought happily, accepting the crisp ten-euro note.
    Mags said her goodbyes to Aggie, eventually settling on just a wave after Aggie had questioned Mags’s ‘goodbye’ over and over again. Glowing from her win, she stopped at her local newsagent and bought a small bouquet of flowers, €1.99 for a bunch. She opened the gate and walked up the path to her husband. Seeing him in the distance, she started to explain. ‘Oh, Connie, you’ll never believe the day I’ve had. I won ten euro in the bingo and poor old Aggie accused me of farting in front of everyone.’ Mags laughed at the memory. ‘Well these are for you,’ she said, thrusting the pretty flowers towards him. She placed them on the grass of her husband’s grave. ‘I miss you, love,’ she said, her eyes filling with tears. ‘I miss you so much. This life’s not designed for old single women at all.’

5 The End
    Let me tell you what this story is about before I get into the finer details. That way you can decide whether you want to read it or not. Let this first page be like my synopsis. First of all, let me tell you what this story is
not:
this is not an ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ story; it’s not about lifelong friendships, the importance of female relationships; there are no scenes of ladies whispering and sharing stories over cups of coffee and plates of cream cakes they swore to themselves and their weekly Weight Watchers class they wouldn’t eat. Drunken giggles over cocktails do nothing to dry the tears or save the day in this story.
    What if I told you that this story won’t warm the cockles of your heart, it won’t give you hope or cause you to blame escaping tears on the sun cream as you lie by the pool reading this? What if I told you that the girl doesn’t get the guy in the end?
    Knowing exactly how it ends, do you still want to read on? Well it’s not as if we don’t venture into things without knowing the end, is it? We watch