Alison, like Ruth, has never been married. At school, Ruth, Alison and Fatima were 憈he clever ones? collecting prizes every year and studying in the library when their contemporaries were experimenting with drugs behind the gym. The Three Amigas, they called themselves. At a plate-glass comprehensive in the eighties, it wasn抰 assumed that most people would go on to university. By the time they took their A levels, the three girls were part of an elite group who had special lessons on completing UCCA forms and applying for grants. Full grants still existed in the eighties; Ruth couldn抰 have gone to university without one. Ruth and Alison had been at primary school together, Fatima joined them in the third year of secondary, noticeable for her elegance （which transcended her inevitable nickname, 慒atty? and for being one of the only black students. Eltham was a multiracial area but this wasn抰 yet evident in Ruth抯 school. Eltham was later to become infamous for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, a young black man killed by white thugs as he waited for a bus, but, even in the early eighties, there was a racist undertone to daily life that Ruth might not have noticed if it hadn抰 been for Fatima. 慣hey mean eloquent for a black person,?Fatima explained when collecting a debating prize. 慣hey抮e surprised I抦 not speaking patois.?In fact, Fatima抯 father, Reginald, had the poshest voice Ruth had ever heard. He was a doctor, something that even impressed Ruth抯 mother.
Ruth went to UCL to study archaeology, Alison to Bristol to study English and Fatima to Edinburgh to study medicine. Ruth and Alison both won prizes at the final assembly but it was Fatima who was Student of the Year in 1986. Fatima is now a GP in north London, married with two children. Alison did a post-graduate degree at Columbia and lived in New York for over twenty years, teaching and working as a freelance journalist. She is now back in London, but Ruth hasn抰 seen her since a hasty drink after Jean抯 funeral. Ruth had been very touched when Alison turned up at the church.
Ruth finds a parking space near the pub. Alison says she抣l meet her outside. 慖t抯 awful going into a bar on your own.?Ruth had thanked her but she thought that, if Alison really feels self-conscious about going into a south London pub, then she must have changed. This was the woman who had lived on her own in Manhattan, after all.
When Ruth first sees Alison, standing huddled in a red, fake-fur jacket under the twinkly fairy lights of the Black Lion, she thinks that her friend hasn抰 changed at all. Same short hair, same glasses, although these have trendy black frames, unlike the battered specs of childhood. They hug and go into the pub. The Eltham Park reunion is in a private room upstairs and Alison says she needs a drink first. It抯 only when Ali takes off her coat that Ruth realises that she has changed. She looks diminished somehow and, close up, her face is gaunt and lined. Was Ali always this small? Ruth is only five foot five, yet she seems to dwarf the figure beside her.
Ruth buys red wine for Alison and lime and soda for herself.
慣o us.?They clink glasses.
慪ou look well, Ruth.?Ruth feels underdressed. She didn抰 bring any smart clothes with her so is wearing jeans and a blue jumper that抯 slightly too big for her. She did wash her hair though; it抯 still damp at the back.
慡o do you,?she says.
慣hank you,?says Alison. Then, 慖抳e lost quite a lot of weight.?
So that抯 it. Alison isn抰 shorter, she抯 thinner. Without the coat, she is twig-like, her head with its oversized glasses almost too big for her body.
慖 went to Lean Zone,?says Alison. 慖 lost three stone.?
慓reat!?says Ruth. She knows this is what you are meant to say when someone has lost weight. After all, 慔ave you lost weight??is universally considered to be a great compliment. Ruth never feels that it is, though. Partly it抯 the word 憌eight? so solid and uncompromising. Also it抯 the implication that the speaker feels that this diminution is devoutly to be wished, if not long overdue.
慖 just wanted to feel healthier,?says Alison, almost defensively.
慣hat抯 great,?says Ruth again. 慖 really must lose some weight.?
慖抣l send you a link to the website,?says Alison. Which wasn抰 the answer Ruth wanted.