The Toast Maker – Episode 14: You'll Do

The Toast Maker — Episode 14
By Eliza Hartley

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Tom changes his shirt twice before they leave — settling on the blue one, hole near the cuff, sleeves rolled to hide it. Because it's Sunday lunch at Margaret's, and there are cloth napkins. And Tom, for all his flannel shirts and muddy boots, still wants his mother to think he's doing all right.

We left last week quietly — Emily's fossil poster still on Iris's wall, Mr Pritchard gently sorting through things. Tonight carries that tenderness forward.

In Episode 14, Iris steps into Margaret's kitchen on Millfield Road — into pencil marks on a doorframe, stories about John, a December calendar with their names written in capitals. When Tom is sent off briefly to check on his own house, Margaret speaks plainly to Iris about her son: what he carries alone, and what Iris's presence has meant to him.

And then, in the way of a woman who doesn't waste words: "You'll do."

From Margaret, that's everything. Settle in, get comfortable, and let this one carry you.

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