Enid

Enid Dewton was an exceptionally nosy neighbour. At the age of seventy-four, getting out of her house was not her main priority. Instead, she was more than happy to peek out from behind her lace curtains and keep a close eye on the coming and goings of Newdale Drive.

Not much had taken place on this particularly bleak Wednesday. The sky was an ominous shade of grey and it managed to cast a grim shadow over the entire street. Cats were the only life form that Enid had seen, hiding under cars, chasing each other and aimlessly stalking the pavements. One black and white feline had been perched halfway up the roof of the house opposite for a good twenty minutes, now.

Enid was watching the cat debate whether to jump from the roof on to a car bonnet when she heard the distant rumble of an engine. Despite her age, Enid's eyesight and hearing were still in surprisingly good condition. She was thankful for this; keeping watch on the rest of the cul-de-sac was her favourite hobby.

A few seconds later, a blue Vauxhall Astra turned left round the corner and pulled up outside Number One, Enid's house. Enid recognised the car immediately; it failed to hold her attention. She continued to watch the cat teeter on the edge of the guttering as the driver got out of the car.

Knocks on the front door reached Enid's ears. Huffing, she lifted herself out of her armchair by the window and shuffled from the living room in to the hallway. Unlocking the door, she pulled it open and poked her head through the gap. It was her daughter.

"Hello, Mum!" Fran said, smiling brightly and laden with shopping bags.

Enid nodded and mumbled a greeting, moving aside to allow Fran into the house. Leaving her daughter to close the door, she made her way back into the living room, back to her window-side perch. The cat had made it onto the car bonnet.

"Do you want a cup of tea, Mum?" Fran called from the kitchen. Enid could hear her pottering about, putting away the bits and bobs that she had brought along with her.

"Yes, please," Enid replied. "Don't forget the Hobnobs," she added. Enid always enjoyed a Hobnob or two with a cup of tea, but Fran had a habit of accidentally-on-purpose forgetting to put them on the saucer. Over time, it had become one of the things that irked Enid the most.

Fran eventually made her way into the living room, carrying two teacups on saucers. "There you go," she said, gently handing her mother the saucer with the Hobnobs on it. "You eat too many of those things, you know," she added as she sat on the sofa, inclining her head towards her mother's biscuits.

"Everyone has their vices," Enid sighed, sipping the tea.

Fran rolled her eyes; this was the answer she received every time she brought up her mother's weakness for Hobnobs. Instead, she asked the question she knew Enid was waiting for her to ask: "So, what have you heard this week, Mum?"

"Well!" Enid became animated all of a sudden, shifting in her chair and turning away from the window. "Janie came to see me on Saturday. She said that she bumped into Mable the other day and Mable told her that she's moving!" Her eyes were glinting as she told Fran the gossip.

Fran couldn't really see why this was such exciting information, but she humoured Enid all the same. "Ooh, I see. How come she's moving?" Feigning interest was usually the safest option when talking to Enid.

"This is what we're so confused about," Enid continued, dunking a Hobnob in her tea. "No one's really sure why she's decided to leave." She paused, the biscuit half way to her mouth. "So, I was wondering..."

"Oh, Mum, no!" Fran protested. This was not the first time that Enid had asked her daughter to go snooping for her. "It's none of my business why Mable's moving. It's none of your business, for that matter!"

Enid looked truly insulted. "But Fran, what if she's moving for a really serious reason? She might have discovered a terrible secret about the street that no one else knows about!" Her expression had changed to one of uncontrolled worry.

It was hard to not burst out laughing. Fran was used to her mother's far-fetched conspiracy theories, but they never failed to amuse her. "Mum, I highly doubt that there's anything wrong with the street, okay?"

"You don't know that, though!" Enid whined, not unlike a child. "Which is why I need you to make sure for me." Her voice was pleading and her eyes were desperate.

With a resigned sigh, Fran rolled her eyes and said, "All right, Mum. I'll see what I can do."

Enid's face lit up immediately. "Wonderful!" Picking up her second Hobnob, she asked, "Anything new with you, dear?"

"Not much, really." She sipped her tea. "Oh! Flip's settled in at uni okay." Flip, short for Philipa, was Fran's daughter and Enid's eldest granddaughter. A week ago, she had moved from her home in Burntwood into her university Halls of Residence in Manchester.

"Ooh, that reminds me!" Enid squeaked excitedly, before dropping her voice to a whisper. "A new couple have moved in next door."

For the second time, Fran was baffled as to why this was such important news, but not surprised that Enid seemed completely uninterested in her granddaughter's recent developments. "Are they nice people?" she asked absent-mindedly.

"They're too nice," Enid said distastefully, wrinkling her nose.

Fran snorted into her tea. Surfacing, she asked, "What do you mean, 'They're too nice'?"

"I mean what I mean!" Enid snapped, as though this should have been perfectly obvious. "I don't trust them. You just watch, they'll come crawling to me for something or other."

Enid's logic was far from logical, but Fran knew that she would only be wasting her breath if she tried to convince her mother otherwise. Instead, she made an understanding noise and said, "Well, you never know..."

Mother and daughter sat in a comfortable silence for a while, Fran sipping her tea and Enid finishing off her second Hobnob. Looking out the window again, Enid was disappointed to see that the cat had disappeared. The street was deserted. Her favourite form of entertainment was running on the quiet side, today.

Standing up, Fran leaned over and held out her hand, motioning for Enid's cup and saucer. "Do you want another one?" she asked, making her way into the kitchen.

"Oh, go on. I might as well," Enid answered, bored. "Remember: Hobnobs!"

"How many?" called Fran over the boiling kettle.

Outside, it had begun to rain. For the next couple of hours, all Enid would be able to see would be puddles forming and droplets of water racing down the window pane. Sighing frustratedly, she called back, "Just bring the packet in!"