7. Jasper
7
JASPER
J asper sat with his children in the café and listened to their conversation about the book they’d selected from the shelf. It was an encyclopaedia of strange and unusual creatures, and one they had looked at on previous visits, but that never failed to amuse them. It featured a variety of different creatures that would probably not have come to the children’s attention without the book they were currently reading. Or, of course, without one of those persistent videos that flashed up on Facebook reels or Instagram. Not that Jasper allowed his two young children to spend much time on social media, but now and then they would ask to borrow his phone or they would switch the television to the YouTube channel. By searching for weird creatures, the algorithms would show them a variety of videos that they found fascinating. It wasn’t just strange and unusual creatures that fascinated his children, though, they could spend hours laughing about funny dog antics. The bulldog videos, especially those with dogs dressed as superheroes or in seasonal outfits, particularly delighted them. In one bulldog video they’d watched repeatedly, the bulldog was capable of drying his own mouth on a towel after having a drink. They also liked watching videos about people encountering wild animals when they were walking or hiking along mountain paths. Jasper thought these types of videos should have been scary to his children, but it seemed not, and it did make him wonder about what they saw when they weren’t with him. He knew some of their friends had mobile phones and he knew that they took them into school or out with them when they played at the weekends. It was impossible to protect Mabel and Alfie all the time from everything, but he did what he could and to the best of his ability. He was aware that as the children got older and went off to high school, open dialogue with him about the things they watched and the things they spoke about with their friends would be important. At least that way, he could explain anything confusing or unclear to them.
But right now, as they discussed exactly how a jellyfish could eat, he found his gaze drawn to the woman who had entered the café as he had been carrying their cakes to the table. Jasper wasn’t in the habit of noticing anyone, let alone women, but there was something about this woman that had made him stop in his tracks. He didn’t know her, or at least he didn’t think he did, and yet there was something about her that was familiar. He was trying to work out where he might have seen her before, but it seemed to be just outside of his grasp. While he was thinking about this, he saw Pearl hug the younger woman in a way that suggested affection and familiarity, and then it hit him. He had seen the woman before, but not in the flesh. He’d seen her in the photographs on the pin board in the café. She was in quite a lot of photographs with Pearl, therefore she might well be a relative, or at least a very close friend.
He glanced at his children for a moment to check they weren’t getting sticky fingers all over the book, and then he looked across the café at Pearl and the woman again. Pearl said something to her before going behind the counter and making a phone call. Meanwhile, the woman sank onto a chair in a way that suggested extreme weariness. Knowing exactly how that kind of exhaustion felt, Jasper wondered what had happened to this woman to make her so tired. Had she lost someone too? Had she been to hell and back? He knew how caring Pearl could be; he knew because Pearl had tried on many occasions to take care of him. Being Jasper, he had pulled back and been unable to talk to Pearl about his feelings, and unable to accept more than the refreshments Pearl could offer him at the café, but her kindness had not gone unnoticed. Her kindness had, on occasion, been as good as a hug from a dear friend, because sometimes, just knowing that people cared was an enormous comfort. Pearl also had a way about her that meant she wasn’t afraid of talking about difficult things like loss. Many people who had known him and Kimberley tended to avoid saying her name as if it would remind him she was gone. But he was well aware, every single minute of every single day, that his wife was no longer around. Therefore, to have someone actually say her name and acknowledge her existence was a relief. He would always be grateful to Pearl for saying his wife’s name, for admitting that she was a great loss, and for caring enough to try to help him and the children.
He turned back to the table and ate his tea cake, enjoying the salty butter contrasting with the fruit baked into the sweet bread, then drank his coffee. He’d been coming to the café for years and in that time he had never eaten or drunk anything there that was anything less than delicious. Pearl ran the perfect café, and it was, within its beautiful gardens and so close to the sea, the perfect place to go whatever the weather was like.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Pearl hand the young woman a paper bag containing what he assumed was a sandwich, and a recyclable cup, then they made their way to the door, each pulling one of the large suitcases behind them. They hugged again, then the woman opened the door, and they left the café and trundled the suitcases along the winding path out to the road.
A flicker of disappointment pierced his protective veneer as he wondered where the young woman was going. Was she leaving the village now and heading off on a holiday somewhere? Was she going home — wherever that was? He really wasn’t in the habit of caring what people did these days, but he found himself wanting to know more about her. He told himself it was because of what he had seen in her eyes and on her face, as well as the weary way she had sunk onto the chair. What kind of monster would he be if he didn’t think about what had happened to someone who was clearly in some kind of pain?
It couldn’t possibly be anything else rousing his curiosity.
Jasper was married.
Jasper loved his wife.
Jasper was a devoted father with a full-time job.
Jasper was nursing a broken heart, and it was a heart he could not imagine ever being healed. Therefore, his interest in the woman was nothing more than curiosity and compassion. Jasper had no room in his life or his heart for anything else at all, and he was 100% convinced that he never would.