You were supposed to pick her up at one o'clock

"What? You were supposed to pick her up at one o'clock!"
"I know, but Bernie had the car and I couldn't get away."
"And you still haven't left?" Toni looked at her watch. It was half past live. She pictured Mother at the home, sitting in the lobby in her coat and hat, with her suitcase beside the chair, hour after hour, and she felt cross. "What are you thinking of?"
"The thing is, the weather's turned bad."
"It's snowing all over Scotland, but not heavily,fake uggs online store."
"Well, Bernie doesn't want me to drive sixty miles in the dark."
"You wouldn't have had to drive in the dark if you'd picked her up when you promised!"
"Oh, dear,moncler jackets women, you're getting angry, I knew this would happen."
"I'm not angry—" Toni paused. Her sister had caught her before with this trick. In a moment they would be talking about Toni managing her anger, instead of Bella breaking a promise. "Never mind how I feel," Toni said. "What about Mother? Don't you think she must be disappointed?"
"Of course, but I can't help the weather."
"What are you going to do?"
"There isn't anything I can do."
"So you're going to leave her in the home over Christmas?"
"Unless you have her. You're only ten miles away."
"Bella, I'm booked into a spa! Seven friends are expecting me to join them for five days. I've paid four hundred pounds deposit and I'm looking forward to a rest."
"That sounds a bit selfish."
"Just a minute. I've had Mother the last three Christmases, but I'm selfish?"
"You don't know how hard it is with three children and a husband too ill to work. You've got plenty of money and only yourself to worry about."
And I'm not stupid enough to marry a layabout and have three children by him, Toni thought, but she did not say it. There was no point in arguing with Bella. Her way of life was its own punishment. "So you're asking me to cancel my holiday, drive to the home, pick up Mother, and look after her over Christmas,homepage."
"It's up to you,replica mont blanc pens," Bella said in a tone of elevated piety. "You must do what your conscience tells you."
"Thanks for that helpful advice." Toni's conscience said she should be with their mother, and Bella knew that. Toni could not let Mother spend Christmas in an institution, alone in her room, or eating tasteless turkey and lukewarm sprouts in the canteen, or receiving a cheap present in gaudy wrapping from the home's caretaker dressed as Santa Claus. Toni did not even need to think about it. "All right, I'll go and fetch her now."
"I'm just sorry you couldn't do it more graciously," said her sister.
"Oh, fuck off, Bella," said Toni, and she hung up the phone.
Feeling depressed, she called the spa and canceled her reservation. Then she asked to speak to one of her party. After a delay, it was Charlie who came to the phone. He had a Lancashire accent. "Where are you?" he said. "We're all in the Jacuzzi—you're missing the fun!"
"I can't come," she said miserably, and she explained.
Charlie was outraged. "It's not fair on you," he said. "You need a break."
"I know, but I can't bear to think of her on her own in that place when others are with their families."