Laura: Difficult lunch

If the weather was bad we would eat our weekly lunch together at a diner where we knew we could get a good salad. We grabbed our favourite table and had excellent service from one of Charlie’s students who worked there at the time. Angie updated me on Carolynne’s latest tricks and we decided to change the subject and enjoy our lunch together. 20.07.07

Suddenly Angie turned really pale, we’d chosen the same salad, so I knew it wasn’t food poisoning. She motioned to me to listen to what the people behind her were saying. They couldn’t see us and we couldn’t see them because of the plants arranged between the tables.

I hadn’t met Carolynne but I worked out that it was she who was speaking. She was saying the most dreadful things about Angie and Charlie. It was awful. Then the waitress (Charlie’s student) came over to see if we wanted dessert, she could see that something was very wrong and stood by us listening with horror. I decided that the best course of action was to remove Angie as quickly as possible. The waitress showed us out of the back of the diner. Angie asked her not to talk about what she’d heard but I’m afraid it fell on deaf ears. When Angie had calmed down we put our heads together and decided that she should write down what she had heard which was later to prove a big mistake.

Before we parted company she made me promise not to speak to Dan about what had happened; I agreed and I kept my promise! But it was not easy…

Laura: The Wicked Witch of the West

All fairy stories need a witch and it wasn’t too long before one turned up. I think it was just after we’d all spent the weekend at Charlie’s family cabin that the letter arrived. The Wicked Witch of the West was coming to town!

I didn’t believe how horrible she could be at first. I thought that Angie was having a touch of the green eyed monster. Carolynne (WWW) had decided that Angie was the worst kind of dumb blonde. The situation wasn’t helped as Angie was helping me with a project at the library for the kids during the summer holidays (later abandoned), so was studying a pile of children’s books at the time. Carolynne wanted Charlie to move so that he could join the project she was working on; later we discovered that she intended to take the credit for his ideas. Angie also discovered Carolynne downloading some of Charlie’s work. Then came the fateful lunch….